Sam Hornish
Jr. Jumps for the Lead and Win, in the Last Lap
© Oak Park Journal photo
by Ed Vincent
The ending to this 90th Indy 500 was a
nail biter, the Andretti's
looked like that had it all but wrapped up and the only thing
to decide is who would take the award --- father or son. Many
were hoping for the kid, a 19 year old with manners and focus.
Dad would be a good choice too, and at the last minute comes
this guy with fastest car. Sam Hornish Jr. is not a quitter, in
fact
he is a winner and a winner of this top motor sport event in the
world.
I will look forward to seeing Marco and Michael taking the win
in the years to come, one for each would be my choice. The
rest of the year will be quite interesting too though since the
drivers have a lot of road to cover and points to aim for.
HORNISH EDGES
MARCO ANDRETTI FOR
INDIANAPOLIS 500 WIN
INDIANAPOLIS, Sunday, May 28, 2006 – Sam Hornish Jr. passed rookie
Marco Andretti low on the frontstretch – about 300 yards from the yard
of bricks – to win the 90th Indianapolis 500-Mile race by .0635 of a
second. It was the second-closest margin (.043 in 1992) in Indy 500
history and the closest in the Indy Racing League era.
Michael Andretti, who last competed at Indianapolis in 2003 and came
out of retirement to race against his 19-year-old son, finished third.
Dan Wheldon, the 2005 race winner and IndyCar Series champion, was
fourth. Tony Kanaan was fifth, followed by Scott Dixon, Dario
Franchitti and Danica Patrick.
“It’s been a long month, and not everything went our way as we saw
today,” Hornish said. “But we stuck together as a team. We had a good
plan, and we were fast when we needed. I thank God for giving me a lot
of talent, not so much the fact for what I can do driving, but the fact
that I didn’t want to give up. And then He also put me with such a
great team and gave me great parents and a great wife to support me
very much.”
Hornish sat atop the speed chart after all but one practice session
during the three weeks of preparation. Of course, the race presented
its own set of challenges.
The pole sitter didn’t lead the first lap, and had to overcome a Lap
150 drive-thru penalty for leaving his pit stall with the refueling
buckeye still attached to the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske
Dallara/Honda/Firestone. After a Lap 196 restart, Hornish had worked
his way to fourth.
Michael Andretti, making his 15th start in search of his first victory
at the Brickyard, had the point with Marco and Scott Dixon trailing.
Marco passed his father in Turn 1 for the lead on Lap 197 and Hornish
also got past Michael.
Marco led Hornish by 0.5644 of a second on Lap 198 and by 0.9454 of a
second one lap later as the white flag waved. It appeared there would
be the youngest winner of the race. But Hornish put it all on the line.
“I thought that it was over when I didn’t get him going down into
(Turn) 3,” Hornish said. “But we dug down, put her back in there and
took off.
“It’s a great feeling. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I’ve had
a lot of friends and family pass away over the last couple of years,
and they rooted us on today, so I’m real happy with that. I want to
thank Marlboro Team Penske. They did a heck of a job. It may not always
go the way you want it to, but it makes it a lot sweeter this way.”
INDIANAPOLIS 500 POST-RACE NOTES:
On this date in 2000, Juan Pablo Montoya won the Indianapolis 500 for
Chip Ganassi’s second win as a team owner. Ganassi was co-owner of
Patrick Racing’s entry in 1989 when Emerson Fittipaldi won the race.
Incidentally, that race also took place May 28.
***
Did you know?: The winner’s wreath debuted at Indy in 1960 when Jim
Rathmann showcased an exotic-looking, dark yellow and brown flower
wreath after winning the 44th Indianapolis 500, while in 1936 Louis
Meyer began the tradition of drinking milk in Victory Lane after he
requested a glass of buttermilk. A dairy industry executive happened to
see a photograph of Meyer drinking the buttermilk in Victory
Lane. Thinking it was regular milk, he vowed to make sure that this
tradition would be carried on in the coming years.
***
PRE-RACE CELEBRITY RED CARPET QUOTES:
ANGIE EVERHART (Model): “I'm here for the beer. Go Danica!”
SUGAR RAY LEONARD
©
Oak Park Journal photo
SUGAR RAY LEONARD (Former champion boxer): “This has been an incredible
experience for me. It's been just remarkable and exhilarating. Words
cannot describe the energy here. This is my first time here, and it
won't be my last. I went around the track with Al Unser in the Pace
Car. Scary! But wonderful." (Have you watched the race before?): "I
will now." (Do you have any drivers you're cheering for today?):
"Cheering for Eddie Cheever and Danica Patrick.”
LUDACRIS (Musician, actor): “I wanted to come because Michael Andretti
coming out of retirement means a lot. I think it's a beautiful thing. I
have my heart set on him to win. I've been to the Daytona (500) before
– this is my first time at Indy – and seeing that this is bigger than
Daytona, I just wanted to be here. I know this is a competitive sport
just like rap is, so I can relate.”
MICHAEL MADSEN and
Kids.
©
Oak Park Journal photo
MICHAEL MADSEN (Actor): “I brought my sons to see the race. My youngest
one here, I'd like him to be a driver some day. I think he has some
natural abilities, and I'd like to see him race some day. What better
thing to do than take him to the Indy 500? It's the biggest sporting
spectacle in the world. There's nothing like the Indy 500. This is
huge.”
PAT
O'BRIEN
©
Oak Park Journal photo
PAT O'BRIEN (Television host): “This is spectacular. It is a place that
I have always wanted to come to. The energy is amazing. I can't wait to
hear the engines start.”
***
MAX PAPIS (No. 52 Cheever Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “Displaying
the Operation Gratitude logo to bring attention to Checkers/Rally's
initiative in support of troops for the biggest race in the world is a
great honor. It is a great program and I'm happy
to be a part of it. I'm from Italy, but America has welcomed me into
their country and my wife and I make our home here. I'm
very proud of our troops and what they are sacrificing to give us the
opportunity to go race tomorrow."
***
Max Papis is carrying a Pineapple decal in honor of former open-wheel
racing standout Alex Zanardi, who helmet carried a pineapple decal on
his own helmet.
MAX PAPIS (No. 52 Cheever Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I spoke
with Alex a couple of days ago and one of the promises I made to him
was to carry the pineapple both on my helmet and on my car. You know,
pineapple, Alex is a hard-headed guy. I'm going to be carrying the
pineapple with me on the car and on my helmet, and he's going to be
here in soul with me." (About his relationship with Zanardi): "He's
like my brother. We've known each other since we were twelve years old.
We got to know each other on the go-kart track and we developed a great
relationship after being teammates both in Formula 1 and Formula 3 and
other different things. And he is one of the closest guys to me."
***
Golf legend Jack Nicklaus is at the Speedway today.
JACK NICKLAUS: “It’s a little busier than the last
time I was here. We just took a spin around the track, and you start to
look at the people who come to this, and man, there are a lot of people
who come here.” (About this experience): “It’s something you have to do
once in your life.”
***
INDYCAR SERIES POST-RACE NOTES:
© Oak Park Journal photos
• This is Sam Hornish Jr.’s 15th career IndyCar
Series victory and his first victory of the season. His last win came
at the Milwaukee Mile in July 2004.
• This is the Marlboro Team Penske’s third
consecutive win in the IndyCar Series and its 18th win in the IndyCar
Series.
• Marco Andretti finished second, his career-best
finish in the IndyCar Series. Andretti’s previous-best finish this
season was
12th at Twin Ring Motegi in April.
90th
INDIANAPOLIS 500 POST-RACE NOTES:
•Sam Hornish Jr., a native of Defiance, Ohio, is the 65th driver to win
the Indianapolis 500. He is the fifth native of Ohio to win the
Indianapolis 500 and the first since Bobby Rahal of Medina, Ohio, won
in 1986.
•Hornish is 26 years old, 10 months and 26 days. He is the second
consecutive 26-year-old to win the “500.” Other drivers who were 26
when they won the Indianapolis 500 are George Souders (1927), A.J. Foyt
(1961), Helio Castroneves (2001) and Dan Wheldon (2005).
•The margin of victory was .0635 of a second, the second-closest finish
in Indianapolis 500. The closest was the .043 of a second in 1992 when
Al Unser Jr. edged Scott Goodyear.
•This is the fifth victory for car No. 6 in Indianapolis 500 history.
The last time the number won was with Gil de Ferran in 2003.
•Hornish is the 18th driver to win the Indianapolis 500 from pole
position. The last time was in 2004 when Buddy Rice won from the pole.
•This is Marlboro Team Penske’s 14th Indianapolis 500 victory, the most
of any entrant.
•Marco Andretti became the third-youngest driver to start the
Indianapolis 500 at 19 years, two months and 15 days. He is the
youngest since A.J. Foyt IV, who turned 19 when he made his first start
in 2003.
•The maximum air temperature during today’s race was 89 degrees
Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service in Indianapolis,
tying the fourth-hottest Indianapolis 500 on record. The hottest was in
1937, when the temperature reached 92. In 1919 and 1953, the high was
91. In 1977 and 1978, the high was 90. The high also was 89 in 1929.
•When #6 Sam Hornish Jr., passed #26 Marco Andretti on the final lap,
it marked the first time in the history of the Indianapolis 500 that
the winner took the lead on the final lap. Three times a driver lost
the race on Lap 199. In 1912, Ralph DePalma dropped out with engine
trouble on Lap 199 and lost to Joe Dawson. In 1989, Al Unser Jr.
crashed on Lap 199 after colliding with eventual race winner Emerson
Fittipaldi. In 1999, Robby Gordon had to pit on Lap 199 for gas and
lost the lead to race winner, Kenny Brack.
•This was the best finish by a member of the Andretti family in their
rookie year at Indianapolis, as Marco Andretti finished second. Mario
Andretti finished third in 1965, Michael Andretti fifth in 1984, Jeff
Andretti 15th in 1991 and John Andretti 21st in 1988.
•Race winner Sam Hornish Jr., led 19 laps. This is the fewest laps led
by a race winner since 1995, when Jacques Villeneuve led 15 laps.
•The top lap leader of the 2006 Indianapolis 500 was fourth-place
finisher #10 Dan Wheldon with 148 laps led. Last year, Wheldon led 30
laps on his way to victory.
•During the last eight laps of the 2006 Indianapolis 500, there were
four different lap leaders: #11 Tony Kanaan (Laps 183-193), #1 Michael
Andretti (194-197), #26 Marco Andretti (198-199) and #6 Sam Hornish Jr.
(200). Also, there were three lead changes among the four drivers in
the last seven laps of the race. This is the greatest number of
different drivers and most number of lead changes in the last 10 laps
of an Indianapolis 500-Mile Race that went the full distance.
•This is the sixth time that car owner, Roger Penske, had a car win
from the pole position (1979, 1981, 1988, 1991, 1994 and 2006).
•When #26 Marco Andretti passed his father, #1 Michael Andretti, for
the lead on Lap 198, it marked the first time that a father-son
combination had traded the lead since 1992, when Mario Andretti passed
his son, Michael, on Lap 7 and Michael re-passed his father
subsequently on Lap 8.
•This is the seventh Indianapolis 500 start for Sam Hornish Jr., and it
was the first time he has completed all 200 laps.
•Marco Andretti became the 55th driver to lead the Indianapolis 500 in
his first start.
•Three former winners crashed out of the 2006 Indianapolis 500, Helio
Castroneves, Buddy Rice and Al Unser Jr. This is the most former
winners to be eliminated due to accidents since 1992, when five former
winners (Arie Luyendyk, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Rick Mears
and Tom Sneva) were eliminated in accidents.
•Michael Andretti led four laps of the 2006 event. This raised his
career lap leader total to 430 laps, which moved him past Rick Mears
(429 laps) for ninth place on the all-time lap leader list. Michael
Andretti's 430 laps led represent the most laps led by a driver who has
never won the Indianapolis 500.
•Today’s race was the eighth Indy 500 that Michael Andretti has led,
tying him with Arie Luyendyk, Tom Sneva, and Al Unser Jr. for seventh
on the all-time list for most races led. A.J. Foyt has the record with
laps led in 13 races.
•Helio Castroneves led at the end of Lap 1. Castroneves also led the
opening lap in 2003, which was the year his teammate Gil de Ferran won
the race. Castroneves’ teammate for this year's race is WorldPoints
Visa Pole sitter, Sam Hornish Jr.
•Tony Kanaan led the race for the first time today on Lap 38. This is
the fifth consecutive year that Kanaan has led the race, starting with
his rookie year in 2002. He is the only driver in Indianapolis 500
history to lead five consecutive races starting with his rookie year.
Rick Mears, from 1979-84, is the only driver to have led six
consecutive races. Mears started his string with his second
Indianapolis 500 start.
•Tomas Scheckter crashed in today's race, it marked the third time in
his five-year Indianapolis 500 career that his race ended with an
accident (2002, 2005, 2006). In 2003, he finished fourth and completed
the full 500-mile distance. In 2004, he finished 18th and was one lap
down when the race was cut short at the 180-lap mark due to rain.
•Two former Indianapolis 500 winners, #3 Helio Castroneves (2001-2002)
and #15 Buddy Rice (2004) crashed together on Lap 110. This was the
first time Castroneves did not complete the full race distance in six
Indianapolis 500 career starts. Castroneves’ string of consecutive laps
completed ended at 1,089. The record for most consecutive laps
completed is 1,351 by Wilbur Shaw, whose streak ended with an accident
after completing 151 laps in the 1941 Indianapolis 500. Wilbur Shaw’s
consecutive lap streak began with the 1935 race.
•The last time two former Indianapolis 500 winners were involved in the
same accident before today’s incident between Helio Castroneves and
Buddy Rice was in 1992, when Rick Mears and Emerson Fittipaldi were
involved in a four-car accident in Turn 2 on Lap 76.
***
INDIANAPOLIS 500 POST-RACE QUOTES:
JEFF BUCKNUM: “I’m not really sure. I spun, and I’m not sure why. It
snapped around the back end, and I’m not sure how it happened.”
P.J. CHESSON: “I don’t know. I’d usually like to say that’d be a rookie
mistake, but I don’t know. He looked like he was down below the white
line and just lost it on the second lap, driving without his head.
Unfortunately, he took out his teammate.”
AL UNSER JR after
crash.
© Oak Park Journal photo
AL UNSER
JR.: “I hit something coming off of Turn 2. Ran over something. Really
hit it on the right side hard. Went into (Turn) 3, and she just swapped
ends on me. I think I punctured a tire.
I don’t know.”
JEFF SIMMONS: “I don’t really know. The officials out there said it
looked like there were parts coming off the car. I don’t know if that’s
the case or not. I just went down there, and the car wouldn’t turn. We
weren’t going that quick. It’s just a real shame. I was doing just
about everything I could with the car. I was just trying
to survive.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES has
his crash removed.
©
Oak Park Journal photo
HELIO CASTRONEVES: “I need to know what happened. It is frustrating.
There is interesting driving out there. Just want to say, I guess my
average (Indy finish) is going to go high now. Let’s continue to focus;
hopefully win the championship and cheer for Sam.”
BUDDY RICE: “We were struggling. We were trying to get a handle on the
thing with the right rear tire. Once we got that sorted, we were trying
to survive. By the time Michael went by me and those guys were a couple
wide, checked up, went down into (Turn) 4, and I had no idea Helio was
there. At the last second I heard, ‘Inside,’ but it was already too
late. We bumped once and we still had it, and the way we got collected
it was one and done.”
THIAGO MEDEIROS
© Oak Park Journal photo
THIAGO MEDEIROS: “I got a good start and was just watching everybody
from behind and waiting for the guys to settle down.
We had an incident on the first few laps. I passed two guys on the
restart. I was getting more confident with the car and working my way
up the field, and the car was handling quite well. On the last part of
the run, the car was getting loose so we decided to bring it in a
little earlier and make some changes to make it better for the next
stint. As soon as we changed tires, I turned off the pit speed limiter.
I was shifting from third to fourth, and the engine would cut out. I
hit the reset button, the fuel map button and the Honda rest button. I
reset everything that I could. The engine kept doing that. As a rookie,
I was definitely disappointed not to finish the race. It was our goal
to finish, and if we finished, we would
end up very well. We’ll be back next year.”
TOMAS SCHECKTER: “The race and who crosses who is just
up to who got caught behind the back marker … when they’re so much off
pace, and I think I was pushing harder even though I was behind Kanaan.
I was trying a little hard, and I just got loose.”
ARIE LUYENDYK JR.: “It was pretty good at first. Once the fuel went
down, the car was so loose it wasn’t even funny how hard it was to
drive. It was the first time that thing ever has been like that. Maybe
it was the hot conditions. It was just better for me not to be out
there. We didn’t have a gear to run in between third and fourth to get
up to speed. I was just a bystander out there. I was going to crash the
thing if I would have been out there the whole day. It was just a
moment waiting to happen every corner.”
LARRY FOYT: “We weren’t handling very well out there. We were in the
way, and there was no sense in us doing that. We missed on the setup,
and we couldn’t get it back.”
RON HEMELGARN (Co-owner, #91 Chesson, #92 Bucknum): “It’s very
disappointing when you have two cars, teammates, take each other out on
the first lap. Ten years ago we were in Victory Circle; today we’re
dead last. That’s just part of racing.”
STEPHAN GREGOIRE: “The handling was horrible. It was too dangerous for
all the other guys. I think it was wiser to stop so we don’t cause any
problems.”
BRIAN BARNHART (President and chief operating officer, Indy Racing
League): (About the month): “Well, obviously, we were challenged this
month by some weather. Today had completely different conditions than
the rest of the month. I think all of the teams did a great job
responding to track conditions that they had no experience with. The
Honda engines were great with putting 34 cars on track, and they were
flawless all month long. The Firestone tires in the cold conditions and
the heat of the day today were flawless, as well. We have two
outstanding partners in Honda and Firestone, the teams did a great job
today, and we had a hell of a finish."
***
The 2006 IRL IndyCar Series continues with the Watkins Glen Indy Grand
Prix presented by Tissot at 3:30 p.m. on June 4 at Watkins Glen
International. The race will be carried live by ABC Sports and the IMS
Radio Network. A Spanish-language telecast
of the race will be carried by ESPN Deportes. The IMS Radio Network
broadcast also is carried on XM Satellite Radio channel 145 “IndyCar
Racing” and www.indycar.com. The fifth season of Indy Pro Series
competition continues with the Corning 100 at 12:30 p.m. on June 4 at
Watkins Glen International. The race will be telecast at 2 p.m. on June
8.
Past Sports News
Local
Sports and
Teams
|
