Kanaan Snatches First Season Win
IRL champion Tony Kanaan ended a 12-month drought to claim today his first win of the year at the Kansas Speedway
Kanaan, whose last win was at Nashville Superspeedway one year ago, beat Andretti Green teammate Dan Wheldon to the finish line by just 0.012 - the sixth closest finish in IRL history.
Rahal-Letterman driver Victor Meira made it a three-way photo finish across the line, finishing third only one hundredth of a second behind Wheldon.
"The biggest nose won," a happy Kanaan joked after the race.
Wheldon seemed set to take a fifth season victory, leading 111 of the 200-lap race. Starting from 13th, the series points leader gambled on an early pitstop strategy, but with just two laps before the end of the race lost his lead to a charging Kanaan.
"I love Tony to bits. I'm glad he beat me instead of somebody else, but losing like this is difficult to take," Wheldon said after the race.
Pole sitter Danica Patrick is still chasing the elusive first career win, the Rahal-Letterman rookie battled mechanical failures through the race to finish ninth.
Pos Driver Make-Engine Laps 1. Tony Kanaan Dallara-Honda 200 2. Dan Wheldon Dallara-Honda 200 3. Vitor Meira Panoz-Honda 200 4. Dario Franchitti Dallara-Honda 200 5. Tomas Scheckter Dallara-Chevy 200 6. Scott Sharp Panoz-Honda 200 7. Darren Manning Panoz-Toyota 200 8. Helio Castroneves Dallara-Toyota 200 9. Danica Patrick Panoz-Honda 200 10. Buddy Rice Panoz-Honda 200 11. Tomas Enge Dallara-Chevy 200 12. Sam Hornish Jr. Dallara-Toyota 200 13. Alex Barron Dallara-Toyota 200 14. Patrick Carpentier Dallara-Toyota 200 15. Bryan Herta Dallara-Honda 200 16. A.J. Foyt IV Dallara-Toyota 200 17. Ed Carpenter Dallara-Toyota 200 18. Scott Dixon Panoz-Toyota 200 19. Jimmy Kite Dallara-Toyota 195 20. Kosuke Matsuura Panoz-Honda 134 21. Ryan Briscoe Panoz-Toyota 113 22. Roger Yasukawa Dallara-Honda 53
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