RICHMOND, Va. — One week removed from a crash while leading, Tony Kanaan didn’t let himself believe he would win a race he dominated until he took the checkered flag Saturday night.
“I just said with about 10 laps to go, ‘What’s going to happen now?’ ” the snake-bitten Andretti Green Racing star said after his 13th career victory. “I’m just like, ‘OK, something’s going to blow up. It’s going to rain.’ That’s how funny racing is. Sometimes it comes when you least expect it.”
Kanaan made it happen by taking advantage of an out-of-sequence pit stop by front-running teammate Marco Andretti and ran away with the SunTrust Indy Challenge.
On a night when half of the 26 cars in the largest IndyCar Series field at Richmond International Raceway went home damaged, Kanaan got the good fortune he said he deserved for his first victory of the season. He got it by avoiding the near-constant mayhem caused by an event record-tying nine caution flags and beating Helio Castroneves by nearly five seconds.
The victory came a week after Kanaan led for 71 laps at Iowa before crashing, absorbing what he said was one of the hardest hits of his life and his latest experience with bad luck.
He made up for it by beating the field out of the pits the only time he had to and paid homage to his crew.
“They kept putting me in the lead and I kept letting them down,” he said.
Castroneves, who started 18th, used a blistering early pit stop to get into contention and finished second, followed by Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon.
Andretti, who was almost as dominant as his Andretti Green teammate until he gave up the lead by pitting under Green with 95 laps to go, never recovered and wound up ninth.
“I feel bad about Marco,” Kanaan said. “I think he has as strong a car as I had.”
Kanaan led twice for 166 laps, and Andretti led another 90.
The race looked like a more familiar NASCAR event on the 0.75-mile oval, the smallest on the series. Before a lap was completed, Ryan Hunter-Reay spun out in the front stretch.
Only one year after Dario Franchitti led 242 of 250 laps in a race that featured just four cautions, Hunter-Reay’s spin was a sign of things to come.
Stewart prevails in Nationwide race
LOUDON, N.H. — Tony Stewart isn’t running many races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this season, so he’s making the ones he does drive in count.
The two-time Sprint Cup champion, who hasn’t been having much luck and has no wins in the top stock car series this season, drove away with his fifth victory in seven Nationwide starts in 2008.
Stewart got track position, restarting third after taking just two tires during his final pit stop on lap 129 of the 200-lap event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He took the lead on lap 136 from fellow Cup star Carl Edwards and led the rest of the way.
Hornaday captures O’Reilly 200
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Ron Hornaday won the O’Reilly 200 to take the Craftsman Truck Series points lead, leading the final 129 laps in Memphis, Tenn.
Hornaday was leading on the 199th lap when a crash started between Ted Musgrave and Willie Allen brought out the ninth caution and eventually a red flag as the track was cleared of debris.
On the green-white-checker finish, Hornaday hit his marks and beat Erik Darnell for his second win in Memphis.
Johnson tops in pro stock challenge
NORWALK, Ohio — Allen Johnson won the K&N Horsepower Challenge at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, his first victory in the special bonus event for the eight quickest pro stock teams from the last year.
In qualifying for today’s Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals: Rod Fuller earned his first top effort of the season in top fuel, Robert Hight led the funny car category and Jason Line topped the pro stock division.
The Associated Press
