Race rewind
By Times Staff
Published March 31, 2006
A look back at the 2005 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg:
THE WINNER
St. Petersburg resident Dan Wheldon took the lead with eight laps to go and led a parade of Andretti Green Racing cars to the first sweep of the top four spots in IndyCar history. Wheldon was running third when teammate Tony Kanaan, who was running second, had contact with race leader Ryan Briscoe in Turn 10. Briscoe went into the tires and Wheldon scooted past Kanaan for the lead.
"I had to be close enough to take up that opportunity if it arose, which it did," Wheldon said.
CHARGING FORWARDThe contact in Turn 10 wasn't the first between Kanaan, the 2004 IndyCar champion, and a member of Chip Ganassi Racing. Kanaan pushed past Darren Manning a few laps before the contact with Briscoe.
"I don't know what he's doing," said Briscoe, a rookie in 2005. "He's won the championship, but I think he's got to settle down a bit. It's unfortunate because it was looking like an awesome result."
"In my point of view, when you are ahead of the car that you are passing, you're ahead," Kanaan said. "I was ahead of him and he turned. Three corners before that he put me in the wall. ... When you're young and stupid you do things like that. I guess he's going to get old and wise."
EARLY EXITTeam Penske's Helio Castroneves, one of the favorites as the starter on the outside of the first row, collided with A.J. Foyt IV on the 13th lap, ending the day for both.
"It was so early in the race," Castroneves said. "We had such a great car and such high hopes."
SISTER ACTActor Ashley Judd rooted for her husband, Dario Franchitti, from the pits and was joined by her sister Wynonna, who sang the national anthem.
LEGACYIt was a big weekend for the Andretti family. Andretti Green Promotions staged the event, the first street course race in Indy Racing League history, Andretti Green Racing swept the top four spots in the featured race and Marco Andretti, son of Michael and grandson of Mario, won his debut on the Infinity Pro Series, a support race to the IndyCar event.
THE AUDIENCEWith perfect weather for the weekend, the crowd was strong, an estimated 60,000-70,000 for the three-day weekend with more than 40,000 on Sunday. Local television ratings were 2.3, but the national audience rated only 0.4.
THE RESULTS(Start position in parentheses)
1. (9) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 100, $108,000.
2. (3) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 100, $86,500.
3. (4) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 100, $72,500.
4. (1) Bryan Herta, Dallara-Honda, 100, $78,600.
5. (12) Vitor Meira, Panoz-Honda, 100, $53,400.
6. (11) Scott Dixon, Panoz-Toyota, 100, $47,100.
7. (17) Buddy Rice, Panoz-Honda, 100, $45,800.
8. (14) Patrick Carpentier, Dallara-Toyota, 100, $46,600.
9. (16) Darren Manning, Panoz-Toyota, 99, $44,600.
10. (13) Alex Barron, Dallara-Toyota, 99, $43,300.
11. (18) Roger Yasukawa, Dallara-Honda, 98, $41,900.
12. (15) Danica Patrick, Panoz-Honda, 95, $40,700.
13. (7) Kosuke Matsuura, Panoz-Honda, 94, mechanical, $39,600.
14. (10) Ryan Briscoe, Panoz-Toyota, 91, accident, $38,100.
15. (6) Sam Hornish Jr., Dallara-Toyota, 85, accident, $36,900.
16. (5) Tomas Enge, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, accident, $35,700.
17. (8) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 77, accident, $34,400.
18. (20) Scott Sharp, Panoz-Honda, 43, accident, $34,400.
19. (19) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Toyota, 32, accident, $33,100.
20. (2) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Toyota, 12, accident, $31,900.
21. (21) A.J. Foyt IV, Panoz-Toyota, 11, accident, $31,900.