Indianapolis 500: Hornish edges Kid Andretti at the line

The Indianapolis 500 didn't disappoint when it came time to a close finish. Even though he left the pits early with the fuel nozzle and was black flagged, Sam Hornish Jr. came from behind to win the race at the famed Brickyard on the final straightaway, edging 19-year old rookie Marco Andretti, who took the lead with only a three laps to go.

Dan Wheldon dominated most of the race, leading 148 laps (nearly 3/4 of the race). At his best, he was at many as 15 seconds ahead of second place Hornish and had lapped all but 9 cars. Fortunately 7 of the lead lap cars, Tomas Scheckter crashed on lap 66, bring the field together again. While Wheldon would still control most of the race, it would never be by such a large margin.

It looked like a four car race between Wheldon, Hornish, Scott Dixon, and Tony Kanaan until Hornish's fuel nozzle incident brought him off the pace. Soon Dixon's chances at winning would be finished by a blocking penalty on the much faster Tony Kanaan, who led for the first time on lap 183.

When Felipe Giaffone crashed on lap 191, Wheldon and Kanaan lost their best opportunity to win. Hornish and Michael Andretti benefitted from the accident, stretching out their fuel mileage enough to take them to the finish. Marco had been in the pits at the time of the crash, so he lucked out at his position at the time of the caution being frozen. When the green flag was flown on lap 196, Michael Andretti, who came out of retirement for this 500 to race with his son was improbably in the lead. Son passed Father on the with three laps to go, with Hornish on his tail.

It looked sealed up for the young driver when Hornish's failed passed on lap 199 forced the two-time IRL series champ to pull up. However, Sam's persistence gave him the chance for one last run on the straightaway. The margin of victory, .0635 seconds, was the second smallest in 500 history, following Al Unser Jr.'s razor thin victory over Scott Goodyear in 1992.

Top 10

1. Sam Hornish Jr.
2. Marco Andretti
3. Michael Andretti
4. Dan Wheldon
5. Tony Kanaan
6. Scott Dixon
7. Dario Franchitti
8. Danica Patrick
9. Scott Sharp
10. Vitor Meira

Source

• http://www.indycar.com/stats/boxscores/2006/indy_05282006.pdf

Date

Sun 05/28/06, 4:07 pm EST

PopjonesWaterboy

1309 days ago

Score 2

That was a heck of a finish and a great story about the Andrettis. It's a shame that the CART/IRL squabbles in recent years have diluted interest in this race, making the series behind even the NASCAR Trucks in fan interest. I know ABC was pulling hard for Danica Patrick, but it would have been ALFULLY suspicious if she had won.

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PopjonesWaterboy

1309 days ago

Score 0

Wish there was a way to edit my AWFUL spelling!

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Angels FanJV Squad

1309 days ago

Score 2

I was really pulling for the kid - the finish was great!

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ThecrookedcapAll-Star

1309 days ago

Score 1

I give a lot of credit to Danica for this race; With a much lesser car than last year she was fighting for the top 5 for most of the race. She just got unlucky with the yellows at the end coming right after her stops, which were earlier than everybody else's because the car couldn't keep fuel as well. Few things prove to me that someone has driving talent than when they have a weak car but remain competitive.

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ChristofMVP

1306 days ago

Score 0

Marco is what? 19 years old? Let him taste defeat. Winning the Indy 500 this year would have done more harm than good to Marco's overall career.

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