Will Power dominated last Sunday’s inaugural IndyCar race on the streets of Baltimore. The Australian took his seventh pole of the year and led most of the way to win easily from Oriol Servia and Tony Kanaan. Championship leader Dario Franchitti qualified fourth and ran third for most of the race, but finished fourth after the field was scrambled by a late, full-course yellow. Power’s win – his sixth of the year – pulled him to within five points of Franchitti with three rounds to go in this year’s IZOD IndyCar championship.

“Oh man, that was the toughest race I’ve done all year,” declared Power. “Honestly, I’ve never driven so hard in my life. Before the last stop they said I had 10 laps to get enough of a gap if you want to win this thing, and I just gave it everything. I’m exhausted. I was thinking in my head, I want to win this championship. We’re coming.

Franchitti was no match for Power in Baltimore and now has a serious battle on his hands if he’s to win his third title in a row and his fourth since 2007. “Getting stressed about it doesn’t make you go any faster,” he said. “You just go out each week and do your best. That’s what we’ve done when we won the last three championships and that’s what we’ll do this time.”

Graham Rahal enjoyed his best race of the season in Baltimore. He qualified second and led Power for a few corners on the opening lap before settling into second place hard on his tail. But Rahal was caught out by the late yellow, which meant he had to pit under the green flag for his final splash of fuel. The stop dropped him into the midfield and he was able to finish no better than 10th.

“The strategy killed us but it wasn’t our fault,” said Rahal. “The officiating was terrible, if you ask me. Why did we stay yellow for so long? There were no cars on the track. We didn’t need to stay yellow for 10 laps. [President of competition and racing operations Brian] Barnhart said in the drivers meeting that he wasn’t going to wait to figure any scoring problems out. We needed about 10 or 12 laps of hard running to pull that gap and unfortunately we didn’t get it.

“If they had said there was a lot of oil on the track and we were going to be down for another five or six laps then I would understand. I’m really disappointed. Between Will and I we were the class of the field. We had everybody covered by half a second.”

Kanaan’s third place was particularly impressive after the Brazilian crashed heavily in morning warm-up when his brakes failed. Kanaan had to start the race from the back of the field in a hastily prepared spare car.

Three races remain in this year’s championship – the Motegi road course in Japan in two weeks’ time followed in October by two high-banked oval races in Kentucky and Las Vegas.

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IndyCar has upheld Ryan Hunter-Reay’s controversial win at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on August 14 by denying the protests made by Newman/Haas and Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. The top three finishing positions in the race remain the same and are now official, with Hunter-Reay having won from Oriol Servia and Scott Dixon.

The protests were issued after the rain-affected race ended in acrimony. Following a late restart called by IndyCar senior official Brian Barnhart, a multi-car crash in slippery conditions eliminated title contender Will Power among others. The race was red-flagged and the results were reset prior to the restart, handing Hunter-Reay the win. But following the restart he had been passed by Newman/Haas driver Servia and Ganassi’s Dixon, hence their challenge.

Servia, Hunter-Reay and Dixon at New Hampshire

The hearing was held on Tuesday before a three-man panel comprising New Hampshire Motor Speedway general manager Jerry Gappens and experienced USAC officials Rollie Helmling and Jeff Stoops. They issued a statement which said: “After hearing the presentations by each participant, the Protest Panel was unanimous in its decision. It is this panel’s conclusion that IndyCar senior official Brian Barnhart had the authority under the governing 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series rulebook to render the decision that was made. We also agree that his decision to abort the restart and set the finishing positions that existed before the attempted restart to be an exercise of reasonable discretion. The protests as to Chip Ganassi Racing Teams Inc car number nine and Newman/Haas Racing car number two are hereby denied.”

“We are very pleased with the decision given by the committee on the New Hampshire race,” said Andretti Autosport team owner Michael Andretti. “Ryan drove a tremendous race at Loudon and his crew was outstanding that day. We believed all along that Ryan was the winner and this decision verifies his victory. We have two big road racing events coming up in the next two weeks at Sonoma and Baltimore, and we can now focus on getting back to victory lane at those races.”

Hunter-Reay added: “I have always felt that we won the race in New Hampshire. The conditions were not ideal that day, and a proper decision needed to be made. I know that the entire Andretti Autosport team is pleased with the outcome of the hearing. It is a relief to now concentrate on the next race at Sonoma. We have scored more points in the last four races than any other driver, and I would love to continue that pattern at Infineon Raceway.”

Hunter-Reay and Servia jostle for position on a restart

On the losing side, a philosophic Carl Haas said: “We feel we gave the panel proof that Oriol was the winner when the chequered flag ended the race. Naturally we are disappointed in the panel’s ruling that five laps of the race be struck from the results, but we appreciated the opportunity to state our position.”

And Servia added: “I am proud of Newman/Haas Racing and how they proved that the restart procedure was correct and that we were leading when the yellow came out. The panel doesn’t deny that. Their resolution states that Brian Barnhart has the power by the rulebook to make certain decisions at his discretion, and that is what happened.”

On Wednesday Chip Ganassi said he had not decided if his team would appeal the decision in the limited time available. “Everything the chief steward did might well be within his power, but is that the right thing for the sport? There’s a fine line between what constitutes the legality of a chief steward’s decisions and the integrity of the sport.”

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Maybe it was the full moon. Maybe it was the fact that 13 years had passed since Indycars last raced at the one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway. But the Izod IndyCar Series put on an action-packed race at the track with fierce competition and passing galore as well as a wild, much-disputed finish.

Ryan Hunter-Reay scored his first win of the year in Sunday’s race. He beat Oriol Servia and Scott Dixon, while championship rivals Dario Franchitti and Will Power were eliminated in separate accidents on restarts. Franchitti qualified on pole and dominated the first half of the race, running away on his own before he was hit by Takuma Sato on a restart, spinning into the wall. Sato later apologised to Franchitti, admitting he got too close to Dario (below) because he had some debris and tears in one eye.

Power was eliminated after Danica Patrick spun in front of him on a late-race restart in slippery conditions and registered his disgust with IndyCar officials by waving his arms and a pair of raised fingers at them. A gaggle of cars were involved in the collision, leading to a red flag. After a delay the stewards set the results to before the final restart, handing Hunter Reay the win. Power’s gesture was just a small part of a gale of disgruntled drivers and team owners seething in the pitlane at the end of the race. Servia and the Newman/Haas team disputed Hunter-Reay’s win, while everyone questioned the wisdom of the final, disastrous restart.

Third-placed Dixon said: “Obviously everybody’s a little confused with what went on during the day, but the racing was good. There was lots of passing. For me, at about lap 200 it felt like we were 500 miles in already. I thought it was a hell of a race.”

Hunter-Reay agreed: “Man, the racing was so difficult with the traffic. You had to time it just perfect. This track is a lot of fun. If I had it my way we’d be coming back here for many years to come. All the drivers really respect this place. They’ll tell you this is one of the toughest ovals they’ve been on in their life.”

IndyCar’s president of competition and racing operations Brian Barnhart (below) admitted he had erred in calling for the final restart. You have to tip your cap to Barnhart for his uncommon candour, remarkably unlike anything one might hear from the FIA.

“It was a challenging day for us from the get-go with the late start we had for television and knowing we had bad weather coming in,” said Barnhart. “Then we had to make some difficult calls from a race control point of view, when you have indecisiveness about what the weather is doing and whether you have safe conditions to continue racing. When it rains hard your decision is a pretty easy one to make, but when you have light moisture like we had today it’s tough to make that call.

“Obviously, towards the end of the race with the attempted restart we made the wrong one. It just makes you feel sick to your stomach because you know after the fact that you chose poorly. It was clearly my fault.”

A messy day then, but without doubt an old-fashioned motor race of the first order.

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At the historic Milwaukee Mile on Sunday, Dario Franchitti scored his third win of the year and the 29th of his career, moving him into a tie with Rick Mears for ninth place on Indycar’s all-time winners’ list. The Scot is now also tied with Will Power for the points lead in this year’s IZOD IndyCar Series after qualifying on pole and leading most of the Milwaukee race. Franchitti was challenged only by Tony Kanaan and Hélio Castroneves, but the former crashed with 30 laps to go and Castroneves was forced to pit from the lead when his left rear tyre started losing air.

Franchitti won the title in 2009-10 with Chip Ganassi’s team, having first claimed the crown in 2007 with Michael Andretti’s outfit. So he’s chasing his third consecutive and fourth championship in the last five years. At 38, Dario is in his 14th season of racing Indycars, and following an unhappy experiment with NASCAR in ’08 he’s resoundingly established himself as IndyCar’s man to beat.

“The championship will take care of itself if we can keep winning races,” he said. “The car was fast all day but that was a tough race. Kanaan was really strong and it was a typical race with Tony. You can race with him inches apart. He gave me room and I gave him room. There’s a lot of respect.

“But then you race with Hélio and you’d think after last year’s penalty the guy would quit the blocking stuff. But he pushes you one way down against the wall and if you try the outside he pushes you up into the marbles. I don’t know what it takes for this guy to understand that blocking is not allowed.”

Graham Rahal enjoyed his best race of the year to finish second at Milwaukee while Oriol Servia kept himself in the title hunt with a strong run to third. Will Power recovered from a poor qualifying run to come through the field to finish fourth, good enough to keep Franchitti from passing him in the points.

After seven of 17 races, this year’s IndyCar championship is shaping up as a reprise of last year’s battle between Franchitti and Power. They’re both on 271 points, followed by Servia in third with 198 points and Scott Dixon in fourth with 195. In recent years Franchitti has quietly emerged as one of the most accomplished drivers in the 100-year history of Indycar racing. If he can win a third title in a row his place among Indycar’s greatest drivers will be assured.

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This year’s 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500 turned into one of the most exciting races anyone has seen at the historic track. The outcome was impossible to predict through the closing laps as the field shuffled itself while fuel strategies played out. For a while it looked like Dario Franchitti and Chip Ganassi’s team had played their cards perfectly, with the Scot stopping for fuel under a late yellow and then moving towards the front as the leaders peeled in for their stops.

But then Franchitti started running low on fuel, and instead of assuming the lead had to make another visit to the pits. That left rookie JR Hildebrand to lead the chase and he looked set to score a surprising win before it all went wrong as he lapped Charlie Kimball’s car into Turn 4 on the final lap.

“Knowing that the cars in second and third were coming [on] pretty strong I decided that rather than downshifting to risk slowing the car down coming onto the front straight,” said Hildebrand. “It was a move I had used earlier in the race to get around some slower cars but I guess with the tyres worn there were a bunch of marbles on the outside. Once I got up there, there wasn’t a lot I could do.”

In a flash Hildebrand was in the wall (below), and as his car skated toward the start/finish line Dan Wheldon shot past to lead the race’s final few hundred yards. It was the first time Wheldon had led all day but it was the right time to be in front as he scored his second Indy 500 victory, crossing the line two seconds ahead of Hildebrand’s churning wreck.

Wheldon first won at Indianapolis in 2005 when he was driving for Michael Andretti’s team. This year the Briton found himself without a ride but was hired a few months ago by Bryan Herta to drive his car on a one-off basis at Indy. Wheldon may not be the world’s greatest road racer but he’s an ace on ovals, finishing second at the track the past two years. He qualified on the outside of row two for this year’s 500 and was in the hunt all the way, running third or fourth for most of the distance in company with poleman Alex Tagliani, Chip Ganassi team-mates Franchitti and Scott Dixon, and Oriol Servia in Newman/Haas’s lead entry.

In the closing stages Wheldon and Herta’s team, led by veteran engineer Steve Newey, played their fuel strategy perfectly. As the 200 laps ran out Wheldon was in second place, closing fast on Hildebrand, and when he crashed Wheldon was perfectly placed to score a popular victory for a small team with only one race in its schedule this year.

“With 20 laps to go they said on the radio, ‘You’re one of the guys that can make it to the end, but you’ve got to make sure you get everything out of the car that you possibly can’,” explained Wheldon. “So I said to myself I’m going to move the weight jacker every lap to optimise every corner and adjust the rollbars to maximise everything. I was able to catch traffic without having to lift and I started pressing the overtake button. On the last lap I was trying to deal with some lapped cars in turns three and four and in the corner of my eye I saw JR hit the fence. I just carried on by and at that point I knew it was mine.”

Dan Wheldon cools down with the traditional quart of milk after his Indy win

A great win for Wheldon then, and a jump-start surely for his stalled career. Former driver Herta says his plan is to concentrate on putting together a full season for Wheldon in 2012 rather than trying to add some races this year.

As Wheldon took the flag Hildebrand scraped home in second followed by Graham Rahal, Tony Kanaan and Dixon, while a deeply disappointed Franchitti was 12th, the last driver to complete the full race distance. Team Penske’s three cars were surprisingly uncompetitive with Will Power and Hélio Castroneves finishing a lap down in 14th and 17th and Ryan Briscoe eliminated in a collision with Townsend Bell.

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After the usual two weekends of qualifying the 93rd Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday. This year’s race looks like being another Penske versus Ganassi battle, but with everyone aboard roughly similar Dallara-Hondas there’s sure to be a long line of cars in the hunt. And, of course, almost anything can happen in a 500-mile oval race with an inevitable multiplicity of full-course yellows.

Team Penske has three cars in this year’s 500, with Hélio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe starting first and second and Will Power on the outside of row three. Penske’s cars are very strong and the team is chasing its 15th win at Indy to compliment its 15th pole earned by Castroneves.

The Brazilian is in his 10th year with Penske and is looking for his third 500 victory. He scored back-to-back wins in 2001-02, and Hélio is highly motivated following his acquittal on federal tax charges. Team-mate Briscoe is in his second year with Penske’s Indycar team and this will be his fourth 500. The 27-year-old Australian has won on ovals and has the experience and equipment to chase victory.

Countryman Power makes his second start at Indy and his first with Penske. At this stage, having been hired to fill Castroneves’s seat while the latter was occupied with his tax case, Power will not race again in this year’s IRL after the 500. So the taciturn but talented Power will be eager to do well on Sunday.

Chip Ganassi’s team is as strong as ever with the 2007 and ’08 Indy winners, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, starting from third and fifth on the grid, while 2007 Indy Lights champion Alex Lloyd starts from row four in a third Ganassi satellite car run by Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Franchitti and Dixon were slightly off the pace in qualifying but are sure to be in the thick of it on race day. Both have the experience, speed and are race-savvy, while team manager Mike Hull and team owner Ganassi are equally as good as Roger Penske and his racing chief Tim Cindric at playing the strategic games required as the race and yellow flags unfold. So Castroneves, Briscoe, Franchitti and Dixon are equal favourites to win this year’s 500, with Power on slightly longer odds.

The IRL’s third big team is Andretti-Green Racing, winner of the 500 with Franchitti in 2007 and Dan Wheldon in ’05. But the four-car AGR team has looked second best at Indy this year, with team leader Tony Kanaan struggling for speed in his car and resorting to a back-up in qualifying. Still, Kanaan starts from the outside of row two and is a racer who’s entirely capable of stealing his first Indy win.

The odds are longer on AGR’s three other drivers – Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and Hideki Mutoh, who will start the race respectively from eighth, 10th and 16th. Young Andretti came close to winning in 2006 but has been less impressive over the past 18 months, struggling in the midfield on most road circuits and in street races. Marco is at his best on ovals, Indianapolis in particular, and needs a solid result. Patrick is also at her best on the big speedway and will be trying hard for a good result in what many believe will be her last 500 before switching to NASCAR next year.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan’s Graham Rahal is most likely to cause the biggest upset of the day. The mature Rahal, 19, has done an excellent job in his second year at Indy to qualify fourth, splitting Franchitti and Dixon. I’ve known Graham since he was a kid, so I’m prejudiced, but I believe he’s the most talented, disciplined and most complete of today’s young American open-wheel racers. With any luck he’ll show all those strengths on Sunday.

New NHL team-mate Robert Doornbos had a rough initiation, crashing twice after looking good through the opening days of practice. He recovered well to record the fastest qualifying run on the second weekend and starts 23rd.

Who else might figure in the 93rd 500? Paul Tracy is an obvious choice. He will make his second Indy start in 14 years from 13th, in the middle of the field. Paul finished an unhappy second to Castroneves in 2002 and is trying to salvage his career with Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser’s KV Racing team.

Other dark horses include Brits Justin Wilson and Dan Wheldon, who will start 15th and 18th, and Brazilian Mario Moraes, who makes his second Indy start aboard a KV Racing entry from the inside of row three. Neither Wilson nor Wheldon are with first-class teams, but the unheralded Moraes looked good in practice and qualifying and may surprise on race day.

Also worth watching are fastest rookie qualifier Raphael Matos, who starts from the outside of row four, and Champ Car veteran Oriol Servia, who qualified Bobby Rahal’s car after minimal practice. He starts from row nine.

The only practice session this week is Friday’s ‘Carburetion Day’ followed by an Indy Lights race and pitstop competition. The 200-lap, 500-mile race takes the green flag on Sunday at 1pm EST.

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