Kanaan puts AGR back on top

Kanaan held off furious charges by Sam Hornish Jr. and Tomas Scheckter to win, as AGR drivers took four of the top seven places after holding the top four positions for a stint late in the race.

However, a late yellow allowed several drivers the opportunity to pit for fresh tires, and Scheckter and Danica Patrick raced past three of the AGR cars in the final few laps.

For Kanaan, the victory was validation for the team's effort in the face of adversity. AGR dominated the previous two IRL seasons, with Kanaan winning the championship in 2004 and Dan Wheldon winning in 2005. However, Penske and Ganassi had combined to win the first nine races of '06, leaving AGR to try to figure out what happened and why.

"They've done a better job at winning races this year, but we're starting to catch up," Kanaan said. ""his year is a comeback. We dominated the last two years, and they're dominating now. We're getting closer. I'm just happy that we broke the streak."

Hornish may have been the biggest winner of the day, though, as he gained precious ground in the points battle.

Ganassi driver Scott Dixon, who was within five points of Hornish before the race, dropped to 25 points behind Hornish with a 10th-place finish. Hornish's Penske teammate, Helio Castroneves, collided with Ed Carpenter and finished 14th, dropping him 30 points behind Hornish, while Ganassi's Dan Wheldon, who finished eighth, fell 32 points back.

"I was a little bit upset for quite a while when we were a lap down because at the time Scott was only two positions behind me and Dan was one position ahead of me," Hornish said. "I thought, 'This is the wrong thing we want to do this weekend.'

"We wanted them to definitely not have a good weekend while we had a good one. We decided to just keep our heads down, work on the car and make it better. It was good enough to get us there in the end."

Also good enough at the end were Scheckter, who blasted from seventh to third in the final 16 laps, and Patrick, who started 14th and finished fourth.

"These guys have been working so hard," said Patrick, who matched her season-best with her second consecutive fourth-place finish for Rahal-Letterman Racing. "It's OK to work really hard and get results. At least it's paid off, right? They have something to smile about at the end of the day for working so hard."

Kanaan, who led 127 laps of the 225-lap race, regained the lead for the final time from Andretti with a close pass on the 180th lap.

"I knew my car was better," Kanaan said. "At that point we were both saving fuel, and he had a little bit of understeer coming out of four, so I got a run on him.

"I wasn't expecting to pass him, but I did. I don't think we'll ever have a problem. If we hit each other, it's going to be completely by mistake. We talked about it before the race, and we were going to help whoever had the strongest car. At that point, I was a little stronger than he was."

As the four AGR drivers - Kanaan, Andretti, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta - fell into line at the front, it appeared as if the team might have a shot at a 1-2-3-4 sweep. But this didn't last. "I saw Hornish coming up pretty fast," team co-owner Michael Andretti said. "It was fun while it lasted."

With 26 laps remaining, Jeff Bucknum's car came to a stop on the frontstretch wall, bringing out a yellow flag. The leaders, who had enough fuel to make it to the end of the race, stayed on the track, but several cars farther back in the field - including Scheckter and Patrick - pitted for fresh tires.

On the ensuing restart on the 209th lap, Hornish bolted past Franchitti for third place. Three laps later, he passed Andretti for second place. Scheckter, who also was lapped by Kanaan earlier in the race, passed Franchitti for third on the 217th lap and began to challenge Hornish for second, but never got around him.

"We had no radio about 30 laps into it, so I was guessing," Scheckter said. "I would just look over at my pit to see if my guys were ready. If they were, then I'd pit. The main things were getting my lap back and getting the new set of tires at the end."

While Andretti faded to fifth and Franchitti settled for sixth, they - and Bryan Herta in seventh - were part of the best team effort of the season for AGR. "We haven't had much of that all year," Michael Andretti said. "I just wish it would have been a 200-mile race instead of 225."

The victory wasn't without its moments of doubt, though. As he carried a relatively safe lead of more than a second during the final laps, Kanaan suddenly felt his engine miss and his heart sink. "I felt a little bit of hesitation in the car," Kanaan said. "I was like, 'No way.' I swear to God, I was panicking."

But the car recovered, and Hornish never threatened, finishing 1.8276 seconds behind.

"I don't know if I would have been able to get around him if I would have caught up to him," Hornish said.

The most significant of three accidents during the race left Castroneves too angry for words. As he travelled through turns 3 and 4 on the outside of Ed Carpenter's car, the two collided, ending Carpenter's race and sending Castroneves to the paddock for lengthy repairs to the Penske Dallara's left front suspention.

"I was trying to let him pass and he just ran right into me," Castroneves said. "It was just ridiculous - he was a lap down, too. It's a disappointing day because the car was handling well out there. To end up in 14th is just a shame."

Carpenter blamed Castroneves for the incident, which cost the Brazilian 24 points in the standings.

"I had a run on him going down the backstretch," Carpenter said. "We went into three, and he lifted in the corner. The next thing I know, he ran into me. I thought he knew I was there because he lifted. His left front hit my right rear, so it's obvious who had the position. I don't know what he was thinking."

Meanwhile, Kanaan was left wondering what the doubters were thinking. True, Penske and Ganassi dominated the season so far, but that didn't mean AGR had fallen apart. Instead, the difficulties of the season may have played a major role in one timely victory.

"Everybody was expecting us to fall apart, but we didn't," Kanaan said. "We're even more together now than we ever have been."

Results

Pos  Driver             Team                     Time
 1.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green       225 laps
 2.  Sam Hornish Jr     Penske               + 1.8276
 3.  Tomas Scheckter    Vision               + 2.0114
 4.  Danica Patrick     Rahal-Letterman      + 8.4708
 5.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green      + 10.2611
 6.  Dario Franchitti   Andretti-Green      + 11.2773
 7.  Bryan Herta        Andretti-Green      + 14.1195
 8.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi               + 1 lap
 9.  Jeff Simmons       Rahal-Letterman      + 2 laps
10.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              + 2 laps
11.  Buddy Rice         Rahal-Letterman      + 4 laps
12.  Scott Sharp        Fernandez            + 6 laps
13.  Jeff Bucknum       Foyt                + 31 laps
14.  Helio Castroneves  Penske              + 55 laps
15.  Vitor Meira        Panther             + 89 laps
16.  Ed Carpenter       Vision             + 116 laps
17.  Kosuke Matsuura    Aguri Fernandez    + 140 laps
18.  Ryan Briscoe       Dreyer & Reinbold  + 212 laps