Wheldon steals victory on the line
Dan Wheldon took an unlikely last gasp victory in his first race with Chip Ganassi Racing
The reigning champion did not appear to be a potential winner until the final 20 laps, when he rapidly surged from fourth to first after the final restart.
Helio Castroneves fought back and reclaimed the lead from Wheldon on lap 190 of 200, but Wheldon was not defeated, and pounced at the final corner of the race, drawing ahead by a few inches as they took the chequered flag.
"There was not even a hair between his tyres and my tyres," said Castroneves. "Dan was really smart."
Polesitter Sam Hornish Jr took an unrepresentative third place after dominating most of the race.
His lead stretched to six seconds in the middle stages, but he lost crucial ground by making his last stop just before Tony Kanaan's crash in the pit entrance caused a full course yellow.
Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon completed the top five, with everyone else at least two laps down after an attritional and rather subdued race.
The event was overshadowed by Paul Dana's fatal crash in the morning warm-up.
"It's obviously a very sad day and our thoughts and prayers are with the Dana family and everyone at Rahal-Letterman," said Wheldon in victory lane.
Homestead results:
Pos Driver Team Chassis Time 1. Dan Wheldon Ganassi Dallara 200 laps 2. Helio Castroneves Penske Dallara + 0.0147s 3. Sam Hornish Jr Penske Dallara + 0.4744s 4. Dario Franchitti Andretti-Green Dallara + 0.9401s 5. Scott Dixon Ganassi Dallara + 1.1989s 6. Kosuke Matsuura Fernandez Dallara + 2 laps 7. Felipe Giaffone Foyt Dallara + 2 laps 8. Scott Sharp Fernandez Dallara + 2 laps 9. Tomas Scheckter Vision Dallara + 3 laps 10. Eddie Cheever Jr. Cheever Dallara + 4 laps 11. Tony Kanaan Andretti-Green Dallara + 41 laps 12. P.J. Chesson Hemelgarn Dallara + 48 laps 13. Bryan Herta Andretti-Green Dallara + 60 laps 14. Buddy Lazier Dreyer & Reinbold Dallara + 188 laps 15. Marco Andretti Andretti-Green Dallara + 188 laps 16. Vitor Meira Panther Dallara + 190 laps 17. Danica Patrick Rahal-Letterman Panoz DNS 18. Buddy Rice Rahal-Letterman Panoz DNS 19. Paul Dana Rahal-Letterman Panoz DNS 20. Ed Carpenter Vision Dallara DNS
Share Or Save This Story
Are F1's technical changes for Miami enough to ease 2026 concerns?
FIA confirms changes to 2026 F1 rules ahead of Miami GP
Wolff warns against ADUO “gamesmanship”: Only one F1 manufacturer has a problem
Why 2026 F1 rule changes involve "a scalpel, not a baseball bat"
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments