Dan Wheldon won at Chicagoland by leading the most laps, while Sam Hornish Jr. took the IRL championship on a tie-break of wins after a tense final round.
Dan Wheldon won the 2006 Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, leading 166 laps in total. Sam Hornish Jr. finished third and clinched the IRL championship on a tie-break of wins, after the season finished tied on 475 points.
The 2006 Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 was the final round of the 2006 IRL IndyCar Series, held on September 10, 2006, at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. Dan Wheldon of Chip Ganassi Racing won the 200-lap race, while Scott Dixon and Sam Hornish Jr. finished second and third in a tense battle for the title.
What was at stake in the 2006 Chicagoland finale?
The race was the 14th and final round of the season, and the sixth edition of the event since it began in 2001. Its 200 laps covered 300 miles (480 km) on Chicagoland's four-turn 1.5 mi (2.4 km) asphalt tri-oval.
Four drivers still had a mathematical chance of winning the Drivers' Championship: Castroneves, Hornish Jr., Wheldon and Dixon. Castroneves led the standings with 441 points, one ahead of Hornish Jr., while Wheldon was third on 422 and Dixon fourth on 420.
The fifth-placed driver, Vitor Meira of Panther Racing, had 383 points, so the top four were the only drivers who could win the title. Every point mattered in the final round.
A tied championship settled on wins, and a late duel that a front wing and a tenth of a second decided.
How did the rivals approach the race?
Hornish Jr. had endured a lackluster run at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, which had cost him the championship lead to Castroneves. He was relieved to still be in contention after a season of problems, and he aimed to win the race.
Castroneves praised Hornish Jr.'s skill on oval tracks and promised a hard battle with him. He said his team's main goal was to stop Chip Ganassi Racing from taking the title.
Wheldon said he would race aggressively at Chicagoland, because he had nothing to lose. Dixon predicted the title would be settled by a few inches, and he recalled his first championship, in 2003.
The pressure was not limited to the Penske pair. Wheldon and Dixon both drove for Chip Ganassi Racing, so the team had two drivers in the fight, and the final round would show how far that position could carry them.
Who was in the field and what changed for the final round?
Two test sessions were held at Chicagoland before the race. The first took place on August 31 and was for rookie drivers, Marco Andretti, Jeff Simmons and Marty Roth, together with Sarah Fisher, who had last raced at the track in 2003.
The second test, on September 7, was attended only by A. J. Foyt IV, who was reacquainting himself with the IndyCar Series. He had last raced in IndyCar in the 2005 Toyota Indy 400.
Franchitti's concussion, sustained in qualifying for the Goodwood Revival, opened a seat, and Andretti Green Racing picked Foyt IV as the replacement on September 1. Team manager John Anderson said he was confident Foyt IV would perform well.
How did practice set up the grid?
Two 90-minute practice sessions were held on Saturday, when the weather was warm and sunny. Each session was divided into two groups, which received equal track time.
Dixon led the first session at 25.2454 seconds, ahead of Wheldon, Castroneves, Hornish Jr. and Scott Sharp. Debris on the front straight forced a brief pause after Dixon and Roth touched.
Wheldon topped the second session at 25.2750 seconds. Hornish Jr., Dixon, Castroneves and Meira completed the top five.
Who won the pole and how did the grid look?
Hornish Jr. took his tenth career pole with a time of 25.4996 seconds. Each driver completed two timed laps on Saturday afternoon, and the quicker lap set the start position.
Dixon joined him on the front row, eight-hundredths of a second slower. Hornish Jr. later said he was somewhat surprised by the result, because the track had cooled and the conditions had changed.
Wheldon and Castroneves took third and fourth, and Sharp qualified fifth. Meira, Tomas Scheckter, Kosuke Matsuura, Buddy Rice and Simmons filled the rest of the top ten.
Those completing the grid were Foyt IV, Carpenter, Kanaan, Andretti, Patrick, Fisher, Bucknum, Herta and Roth. Kanaan and Herta managed only one lap each because of engine problems.
How did the race begin?
Live ABC coverage started at 12:30 p.m. local time, with Marty Reid, Rusty Wallace and Scott Goodyear in the commentary booth. Overnight rain had forced IRL officials to cancel the morning warm-up, but the track was dry for the start.
Conditions remained cloudy, with the air at 64 degrees F (18 degrees C) and the track at 72 degrees F (22 degrees C). AutoZone's Jim Shea gave the signal for the engines, while Johnny Rutherford, a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, drove the pace car.
Dixon passed Hornish Jr. at the first turn and led the opening lap. A lap later Wheldon took the lead from him. The first caution came on lap 12, after Scheckter and Meira touched and littered turn one with debris.
Under that yellow, most of the leaders took on fuel and made adjustments. Foyt IV did not stop, and he took the lead for the first time in his IndyCar career. He led at the lap 17 restart, but Wheldon soon passed him on the back straight, and Dixon went by as well.
Castroneves was ordered to the back of the field for speeding on pit road. He recovered to eighth by lap 30, and he was up to sixth by the fortieth lap.
How did the pit stops and lead changes play out?
On the sixtieth lap Andretti's right-rear tyre went flat and he pitted, which started the first round of green-flag stops. Wheldon pitted five laps after Andretti, and the lead passed to Dixon, who stayed on track for four further laps.
The stops ended on lap 69. Wheldon then retook the lead, and Hornish Jr. moved into second ahead of Dixon. Hornish Jr. drafted behind Wheldon, and by lap 85 Wheldon held only a 0.2-second advantage.
Wheldon's gap shrank as he worked past lapped cars. On the one hundred and ninth lap Hornish Jr. drove to the left of him and took the lead, but Wheldon passed him back a lap later and held the position until his stop on lap 115, in the second round of green-flag stops.
Hornish Jr. led for three laps before pitting. Dixon then moved into first until his stop on the one hundred and twenty-second lap, which let Wheldon regain the lead as the stops ended.
The second and final caution came on lap 149, after debris was spotted in turn four. Every leader, including Wheldon, pitted during it. Hornish Jr. had a quicker stop than Wheldon and led the field back up to speed at the lap 156 restart.
How did the final laps decide the title?
Wheldon drove left to pass Hornish Jr. for the lead on lap 157, and Dixon moved into second a lap later. Dixon then passed Wheldon for first on the one hundred and sixty-seventh lap. Hornish Jr. overtook Wheldon for second by lap 170, but Wheldon regained the place on lap 175.
Wheldon and Dixon swapped the first two positions three times in the next five laps. Wheldon finally edged ahead by less than a tenth of a second on the one hundred and eighty-first lap. Castroneves briefly challenged Hornish Jr. for third, and Carpenter and Kanaan were involved in a battle behind them, both a lap off the pace.
Dixon stayed in pursuit. On lap 196 he closed in on Wheldon, but his front wing made contact with Wheldon's right-rear tyre, and Dixon had to back off and give second place to Hornish Jr. Dixon retook second from Hornish Jr. two laps later, but he could not get past Wheldon.
Wheldon held the lead over the final two laps to win, his 11th career IndyCar victory and his second of the season. Hornish Jr. finished third, which was enough to clinch his third career championship and his first since 2002.
| Finish | Driver | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan Wheldon, Chip Ganassi Racing | Led a total of 166 laps; 11th IndyCar win |
| 2 | Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing | Front wing contact with Wheldon on lap 196 |
| 3 | Sam Hornish Jr., Team Penske | Clinched the championship on wins |
| 4 | Helio Castroneves, Team Penske | Last driver on the lead lap |
| 5 | Ed Carpenter | Best finish of his career to that point |
Castroneves spent much of the closing stint fighting for third with Hornish Jr., and he finished fourth as the last driver on the lead lap. Foyt IV, who had started outside the top ten, was among the finishers at the back of the field after his first IndyCar lead.
Meira finished sixth, Kanaan seventh, Simmons eighth, Sharp ninth and Scheckter tenth. There were two cautions and 20 lead changes among four drivers during the race.
The average speed of 194.828 mph (313.545 km/h) made the race the third-fastest in IndyCar history up to that point.
What did the result mean for the championship?
Wheldon and Hornish Jr. finished the season tied on 475 points. Hornish Jr. was given the title because he had won four races in the season, two more than Wheldon. The tie-break was therefore decided by victories rather than by the points, and Hornish Jr.'s third place in Chicago was enough to lock it in.
Castroneves fell to third with 473 points. Dixon finished fourth with 460 points, and Meira closed out the top five on 411.
The win earned Wheldon $125,800, and Hornish Jr. was awarded $1,000,000 for the championship. Three bonus points went to the driver who led the most laps, which made Wheldon's total of 166 laps decisive in the standings.
How did the drivers react after the race?
In the press conference Wheldon said his goal had been to lead the most laps, and he went on to congratulate Hornish Jr. He gave credit to Roger Penske's organisation and said that Team Penske had given away fewer points than his own team.
Hornish Jr. thanked his pit crew for quick stops and said he had wanted to keep up with the leaders and avoid mistakes. He said he had not wanted to be part of an accident in the battle between Wheldon and Dixon.
Penske praised Hornish Jr.'s patience and said he had shown he was a smart racing driver. Dixon was frustrated by Wheldon's block on lap 196, but he later said he might have done the same thing with five laps left.
Castroneves congratulated Hornish Jr. on the title and called him one of the best oval drivers he knew. He was irritated with Kanaan's racing line, which he said had kept him from passing and slowed him down.
Carpenter credited the final caution for his career-best finish, because it let him pass several competitors who had bunched together at the restart. He said the team should be proud of its season.