IndyCar: 2010 Kentucky Indy 300 comes down to fuelish decisions [SPOILERS]

2010 Kentucky Indy 300 from Kentucky Speedway – Click above for high-res image gallery

For the IRL IndyCar Series, the 2010 Kentucky Indy 300 was all about the number “200.” It was the 200th race in IRL history. The drivers would be running 200 laps around the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway. And the speeds would be well above 200 mph as the field of 27 cars ran inches away from each other under the lights of Kentucky. Among those 27 drivers was last year’s runner-up, Ed Carpenter, who still hasn’t scored a full-time ride, and Paul Tracy, the fan favorite who seems to never get rusty. Maybe we’ll have to start calling him Platinum Paul.

Last week’s winner Dario Franchitti was making things interesting in the race for the championship by closing the gap to points leader Will Power who hasn’t done as well as some of the others – including Franchitti – on ovals. Kentucky is an oval, of course, and so are Motegi and Miami, the final two races of the season. Would Power be able to get that monkey off his back? Would Franchitti take the win and close the gap even further? Would the talented and hard luck Ed Carpenter finally head to Victory Lane? Follow the jump to see how the 2010 Kentucky Indy 300 went down.

[Images: Chris Graythen, Streeter Lecka/Getty Images | Ed Reinke, James Crisp/AP]

Qualifying was a series of two-lap runs – the series switching from four-lap averages to two last week in Chicago – with Hideki Mutoh showing the best time until Will Power hit the track. The Team Penske driver has been just about perfect all year and his qualifying run was more of the same. The very next driver, however, didn’t have as much luck. Ryan Hunter-Reay looked to be going pretty quick when his car got loose between 1 and 2 and was up into the wall in a split second. That finished his qualifying run and caused a delay before the rest of the field was able to complete their runs.

When they did come back on track, the next driver up was Dan Wheldon, who is frequently at the front on ovals. He was again very quick, but not quick enough to catch Power. With just five drivers left to qualify, it was finally Ed Carpenter who nipped Power for the Peak Performance Pole. It was Carpenter’s best qualifying run ever as he became the 34th different pole winner in IRL history.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was cleared to race on Saturday night and lined up at the back of the field. After a two-seater demonstration run by Arie Luyendyk and football star, Terrell Owens, Grand Marshal Rick Mears waved the flag for the start of the race. They didn’t even make it around to complete the first lap before the hard-charging Tony Kanaan took the air off of Takuma Sato’s rear, sending the hard-luck rookie into the wall and bringing out a full-course yellow. Ryan Hunter-Reay also spun in that incident, his car losing downforce when he had to get out of the throttle. Ryan didn’t make any contact and was able to continue on after pitting to replace his flat-spotted tires.

When they finally got back to racing, Dan Wheldon slipped past Carpenter for the lead. Wheldon held the lead until the first round of stops between Laps 55-60, when Will Power took command. He led until Lap 80, when a multi-car crash once again brought out the yellow. It looked like Simona de Silvestro tried to edge down to let faster traffic through, but failed to notice Vitor Meira below her on the track. They also collected Ryan Briscoe before Simona’s car slid back down the track and slammed into the inner wall as well. She was okay, but it was another scary moment for this so-far impressive rookie.

The top five at that moment were Power, Wheldon, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon and Franchitti. Power had a bit of a scare a few laps later as a momentary lapse caused a wiggle that had Will slapping the wall and falling back about five spots in a split second. That gave Wheldon the lead once again. The running order stayed pretty consistent up front for another long block of laps until the second round of stops started around Lap 140. Although there weren’t a lot of dramatic changes in the running order, that didn’t mean the race was boring by any means. The in-car cameras showed some incredibly close action, just like last race in Chicago.

It’s hard to explain how the regular camera shots make the cars look like they are circling in a uniform pack, the incredible speed being completely lost in the process – but those in-car shots show how hectic the racing actually is. The bumpy track and the changing airflow as the cars pass each other make those Dallaras dart and dance so much that the cars are sometimes three feet apart and then instantly touching wheels. It’s the same effect you get watching the Blue Angels flying in formation.

With ten laps to go, it was Wheldon, Franchitti, Kanaan, Carpenter, Andretti, Dixon, Danica Patrick, Powrr, Castroneves and Tracy in the top ten…but it was looking increasingly likely that they would all have to stop one more time for a splash-and-go. The timing of the yellows and the scheduled stops had meant most of the field would fall about 4 laps short on fuel. Sure enough, with four to go, all of the leaders stopped – except Helio Castroneves. Helio had been slightly out of phase with the rest of the field and the driver who lost a tough decision earlier in the season was now having one handed to him. Helio took the win followed by Ed Carpenter, who was once again the bridesmaid in Kentucky.

Dario finished fourth, but more importantly a few spots ahead of Will Power, so the championship lead is now down to just 17 points as the IRL heads to Japan in two weeks for the Indy Japan 300 from Twin Ring Motegi. Join us then, and don’t forget to check out the full results and standings below.

Qualifying:

QP	Car	Driver	Sponsor	Team	Time	Speed
1	20	Ed Carpenter	Panther Racing	Panther Racing	48.8958	217.933
2	12	Will Power	Verizon Team Penske	Verizon Team Penske	48.9192	217.829
3	4	Dan Wheldon	National Guard Panther Racing	Panther Racing	48.9480	217.700
4	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	48.9857	217.533
5	06	Hideki Mutoh	Formula Dream/Panasonic	Newman/Haas Racing	49.0214	217.374
6	34	Bertrand Baguette (R)	Conquest Racing RACB	Conquest Racing	49.1087	216.988
7	32	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	KV Racing Technology	49.1335	216.879
8	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Team Penske	49.1383	216.857
9	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	Team Penske	49.1967	216.600
10	36	Tomas Scheckter	Conquest Racing	Conquest Racing	49.1991	216.589
11	10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	49.2120	216.533
12	14	Vitor Meira	ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	49.2343	216.434
13	77	Alex Tagliani	FAZZT Race Team	FAZZT Race Team	49.2443	216.391
14	5	Takuma Sato (R)	Lotus-KV Racing Technology	KV Racing Technology	49.2728	216.265
15	26	Marco Andretti	Team Venom Energy	Andretti Autosport	49.2939	216.173
16	22	Justin Wilson	Team Z-Line Designs/DRR	Luczo Dragon/de Ferran Mtrsprts	49.3462	215.944
17	7	Danica Patrick	Team GoDaddy.com	Andretti Autosport	49.3744	215.820
18	19	Alex Lloyd (R)	Boy Scouts of America	Dale Coyne Racing	49.5001	215.272
19	78	Simona de Silvestro (R)	Team Stargate Worlds/HVM	HVM Racing	49.5621	215.003
20	2	Raphael Matos	HP de Ferran Dragon	de Ferran Dragon Racing	49.5747	214.948
21	67	Sarah Fisher	Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing	Sarah Fisher Racing	49.6059	214.813
22	8	E.J. Viso	PDVSA KVRT	KV Racing Technology	49.6564	214.595
23	24	Paul Tracy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	49.7317	214.270
24	18	Milka Duno	CITGO	Dale Coyne Racing	49.9478	213.343
25	66	Graham Rahal	Sarah Fisher Racing	Sarah Fisher Racing	50.1781	212.364
26	11	Tony Kanaan	Team 7-Eleven/Planters	Andretti Autosport	50.5428	210.831
27	37	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Ethanol USA Team IZOD	Andretti Autosport	No Time	No Speed

Finishing Order:

FP	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Status	Points
1	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	200	01:41:50.0059	Running	50
2	20	Ed Carpenter	Panther Racing	200	01:42:03.1656	Running	41
3	4	Dan Wheldon	Panther Racing	200	01:42:03.9273	Running	37
4	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Autosport	200	01:42:03.9990	Running	32
5	10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	200	01:42:04.2027	Running	30
6	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	200	01:42:04.5728	Running	28
7	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	200	01:42:05.1084	Running	26
8	12	Will Power	Team Penske	200	01:42:05.6201	Running	24
9	7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Autosport	200	01:42:05.8553	Running	22
10	34	Bertrand Baguette	Conquest Racing	199	01:41:50.7041	Running	20
11	22	Justin Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	199	01:41:50.8787	Running	19
12	24	Paul Tracy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	199	01:41:51.3788	Running	18
13	19	Alex Lloyd	Dale Coyne Racing	199	01:41:51.5190	Running	17
14	36	Tomas Scheckter	Conquest Racing	199	01:41:57.7329	Running	16
15	77	Alex Tagliani	FAZZT Race Team	199	01:42:05.5071	Running	15
16	2	Raphael Matos	de Ferran Dragon Racing	199	01:42:12.4922	Running	14
17	06	Hideki Mutoh	Newman/Haas Racing	199	01:42:13.1882	Running	13
18	32	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	198	01:41:54.9770	Running	12
19	18	Milka Duno	Dale Coyne Racing	195	01:42:05.5517	Running	12
20	02	Graham Rahal	Newman/Haas Racing	195	01:42:10.9050	Running	12
21	37	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	174	01:31:09.2912	Mechanical	12
22	67	Sarah Fisher	Sarah Fisher Racing	134	01:18:57.3883	Mechanical	12
23	14	Vitor Meira	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	79	00:39:01.9765	Contact	12
24	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	79	00:39:02.0028	Contact	12
25	78	Simona De Silvestro	Team Stargate Worlds/HVM	78	00:39:01.5320	Contact	10
26	8	E.J. Viso	KV Racing Technology	45	00:24:37.1918	Mechanical	10
27	5	Takuma Sato	KV Racing Technology	0	00:00:01.6515	Contact	10

Driver’s Standings:

CP	Driver	Champ Lead	Oval Lead	Road Lead	Points	Gap
1	Will Power	X		X	552	0
2	Dario Franchitti				535	-17
3	Scott Dixon		X		469	-83
4	Helio Castroneves				448	-104
5	Ryan Briscoe				418	-134
6	Ryan Hunter-Reay				404	-148
7	Tony Kanaan				392	-160
8	Marco Andretti				347	-205
9	Dan Wheldon				346	-206
10	Justin Wilson				335	-217

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