Dan Wheldon took an incredible second Indianapolis 500 victory in Bryan Herta Autosport's second-ever IndyCar race as JR Hildebrand crashed at the final corner while on course for a shock rookie win.
Panther Racing driver Hildebrand had looked set to pull off a breathtaking win after making his last tank of fuel last a surprising 36 laps, which allowed him to sweep to the front as others pitted. But with the win in sight, Hildebrand unbelievably drifted wide at the final corner of the race and slammed into the wall, crossing the line second in his wrecked car as Wheldon swept past to take the win (clearly under green, as the photo below shows)
"It's a fantastic achievement everybody at Bryan Herta Autosport," said Wheldon, his voice choking with emotion. "I love everything about Indianapolis - the tradition, the fans, the history."
A Panther Racing car has been the Indy 500 runner-up the past four years (including 2009 and '10 driven by Wheldon).
Wheldon, who started sixth, said his surprise of seeing Hildebrand car make heavy right-side contact with the SAFER Barrier turned to "relief." Wheldon was running fifth with 10 laps remaining, but jumped into contention when race leader Bertrand Baguette pitted for a splash on lap 197 and he overtook Scott Dixon a lap later.
"I was just trying to go as hard as I could," continued Wheldon, who was competing in his first race of the season. "I knew it was the last lap and I knew some of those guys were struggling with fuel (he pitted on lap 177). I've been runner-up two years before this, but I never gave up. It's an incredible feeling."
Hildebrand, who inherited the lead when Baguette pitted, said he was trying to conserve fuel (he last pitted on lap 164) on the white flag lap.
"I knew we were really tight on fuel coming to the end, and the spotters were in my ear saying, 'The guys are coming and they're coming hard,' '' said Hildebrand, who qualified 12th (the fastest rookie). "We had to conserve a little fuel and the tires were coming to the end of their stint. I was hanging a little on to get the thing around.
"I made a judgment call catching up on the 83 (the lapped car driven by fellow rookie Charlie Kimball) and I thought I don't really want to slow down behind him and pull out on the straightaway, and I've been able to make this move on the outside before and so I went to the high side and because it was at the end of the stint I got up in the marbles and that was it.
"I'm OK, but this is not really about me at this point. You always show up to try to win. My disappointment is for the team and for National Guard as a sponsor. It's one of the those things, as a driver, you never really know what you're going to expect. We knew we had a fast racecar. We knew if the race came to us, we may be in a position to sort of finish top three, top five."
Graham Rahal took third for Ganassi ahead of KV's Tony Kanaan and Oriol Servia (Newman/Haas).
On pure pace, the Ganassi cars of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti had the edge all day, but both fell down the order at the end and they finished only sixth and 12th. Dixon exchanged the lead several times with polesitter Alex Tagliani (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) in the opening stints, while Franchitti worked his way forward from ninth on the grid.
Franchitti hit the front for the first time in the second stops, and though Dixon repassed him at the next restart, a slow third stop for the New Zealander left Franchitti firmly in control of the next stint, leading by as much as 8sec at one stage.
As the final stops neared, Ganassi opted to take Franchitti out of the lead for a final pit visit under yellow with 36 laps to go, a strategy Panther also employed for Hildebrand, who had run in the lower half of the top 10 for most of the race. The pair edged toward the front as others pitted, but while Franchitti had to admit defeat and pit with one lap to go, Hildebrand looked like he had made the strategy work until his final corner error.
Wheldon had been a top five factor all day in what he had expected to be his sole IndyCar start of 2011, and as the Ganassi cars faded, he moved into position to benefit from the last lap drama.
Rahal became ever more competitive in the second half of the race to come through for third, leading for a while before the last stops. Kanaan had to charge through the field twice, reaching the top six from his 23rd place start before losing 20 places again when he overshot his pit while dodging around Pippa Mann. He still fought back to fourth ahead of race-long lead factor Servia.
"When you've been leading the race like that, fifth doesn't feel enough," admitted the disappointed Servia. "And fifth is the lowest we've been in the whole race, so it doesn't feel enough. But, great effort. We were up there. We showed we may have something for these guys. And we'll take the fifth.
"You know, this is the Indy 500. It's the centennial, and when you smell it, you really, really want it. Nothing else satisfies you. But everyone involved is really happy, and that's what we need: happy sponsors and keep moving forward. I'm not disappointed but definitely frustrated. Honestly, I thought there was going to be a last restart. I knew with the downforce I had, I had something for those guys. I kept thinking, 'There's going to be a yellow, there's going to be a yellow.' No yellow. But anyway, we'll take the fifth."
Dixon, too, faded to sixth in the closing laps, followed by Bertrand Baguette, who led several laps for Rahal Letterman Lanigan as he tried to pull off a fuel mileage miracle in the last stint before finally pitting on lap 197 of 200.
"My car was really great. I was hoping for better, but that's racing," declared Baguette. "We tried. We failed. I would love to be back with this team. They did a fantastic job. It's incredible – leading the 100th Anniversary of the race. It is something unbelievable. We had a good chance to win the race. We were hoping for a yellow, but unfortunately we were two laps too short. We had to pit for some more fuel in the car and go again. I enjoyed my time out there, and it was a great day for me."
Danica Patrick was another to lead late before being forced to make a late splash-and-dash, but emerged confident she had gotten all the speed out of her Andretti Autosport car that she could have, even though the late stop dropped her to 10th.
"That's what you have to do here at Indy – you have to take that chance because it's win or bust here, for the most part. While it's great to have top-five finishes every weekend, Indy is about winning.
"Every time I come here and see someone else win, I hate it more every time. So the more times I come here the more I love it, the more I want it. I have to say thanks to the fans for coming out. It was a packed house today. Everybody was great. The sun was shining. It was a good Memorial Day weekend."
Patrick said she never got her hopes up too much during her late-race stint in the lead.
"I was thinking, 'OK, I kind of know that I'm doing this on strategy right now.' But I did know that there were lots of yellows coming out around pit stops. So I thought, 'Just keep your head down, keep running.' And I picked up a vibration. We tend to pick up a vibration at the end of every tire life, so it was kind of throwing me off a little bit. But you're just hoping for that break. Whenever you're trying something, to make that jump up to the front, there's always a downside."
Tomas Scheckter took eighth for KV/SH after a quietly competitive afternoon, ahead of Andretti Autosport's top runners Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick, Ed Carpenter (Sarah Fisher Racing) and late-stopper Franchitti. Patrick led for a while as she too tried an alternative fuel strategy in the late laps, while Andretti managed to get as high as third despite his team's struggles in qualifying.
After his brilliant pole and strong challenge for the lead in the early laps, Tagliani faded as the race progressed. His car fell completely off the pace after the third stops and he tumbled as low as 19th before brushing the wall and breaking his suspension.
The sister Sam Schmidt car of Townsend Bell was a top six contender for much of the race before a late collision with Penske's Ryan Briscoe. The Australian had been Penske's strongest runner on a very tough day for the multiple Indy winning team. Will Power lost a wheel at his first pit stop and could only recover to 14th, while three-time winner Helio Castroneves was never on the lead pace and finished 17th.
Other drivers to hit trouble included KV's Takuma Sato and EJ Viso, who both crashed - the former solo and the latter in a restart tangle with James Hinchcliffe. The Newman/Haas driver escaped that incident unscathed but crashed on his own later.
Simona de Silvestro (HVM) and Paul Tracy (Dreyer & Reinbold) both damaged their cars in brushes with the wall, though the later rejoined to finish 25th after lengthy repairs. Jay Howard also crashed when his Rahal/Schmidt car shed a wheel as he rejoined after a pit stop.
| Pos |
Driver |
Car/Engine |
Laps |
Time/Delay |
| 1 |
Dan Wheldon |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
2h 56:11.7267 |
| 2 |
J.R. Hildebrand |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
2.1086 |
| 3 |
Graham Rahal |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
5.5949 |
| 4 |
Tony Kanaan |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
7.4870 |
| 5 |
Scott Dixon |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
9.5434 |
| 6 |
Oriol Servià |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
9.5435 |
| 7 |
Bertrand Baguette |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
23.9631 |
| 8 |
Tomas Scheckter |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
24.3299 |
| 9 |
Marco Andretti |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
25.4711 |
| 10 |
Danica Patrick |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
26.4483 |
| 11 |
Ed Carpenter |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
27.0375 |
| 12 |
Dario Franchitti |
Dallara/Honda |
200 |
56.4167 |
| 13 |
Charlie Kimball |
Dallara/Honda |
199 |
1 Lap |
| 14 |
Will Power |
Dallara/Honda |
199 |
1 Lap |
| 15 |
Vitor Meira |
Dallara/Honda |
199 |
1 Lap |
| 16 |
Justin Wilson |
Dallara/Honda |
199 |
1 Lap |
| 17 |
Hélio Castroneves |
Dallara/Honda |
199 |
1 Lap |
| 18 |
Buddy Rice |
Dallara/Honda |
198 |
2 Laps |
| 19 |
Alex Lloyd |
Dallara/Honda |
198 |
2 Laps |
| 20 |
Pippa Mann |
Dallara/Honda |
198 |
2 Laps |
| 21 |
Ana Beatriz |
Dallara/Honda |
197 |
3 Laps |
| 22 |
John Andretti |
Dallara/Honda |
197 |
3 Laps |
| 23 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay |
Dallara/Honda |
197 |
3 Laps |
| 24 |
Davey Hamilton |
Dallara/Honda |
193 |
7 Laps |
| 25 |
Paul Tracy |
Dallara/Honda |
175 |
25 Laps |
| 26 |
Townsend Bell |
Dallara/Honda |
157 |
Contact |
| 27 |
Ryan Briscoe |
Dallara/Honda |
157 |
Contact |
| 28 |
Alex Tagliani |
Dallara/Honda |
147 |
Contact |
| 29 |
James Hinchcliffe |
Dallara/Honda |
99 |
Contact |
| 30 |
Jay Howard |
Dallara/Honda |
60 |
Contact |
| 31 |
Simona de Silvestro |
Dallara/Honda |
44 |
Handling |
| 32 |
EJ Viso |
Dallara/Honda |
27 |
Contact |
| 33 |
Takuma Sato |
Dallara/Honda |
20 |
Contact |