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Kanaan dominates caution-filled race in Richmond

Sat 28th, June 2008

Richmond, VA (Sports Network) - Tony Kanaan dominated the last 94 laps and captured Saturday night's SunTrust Indy Challenge at the Richmond International Raceway. The No.11 Andretti Green Racing driver crossed the finish line 4.7691 seconds ahead of Helio Castroneves.

The victory was Kanaan's first of the season and 13th of his IndyCar career.

Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Oriol Servia completed the top-five.

Marco Andretti was leading Kanaan, Castroneves, Jaime Camara and Servia with 100 laps left in the race. But Andretti had to make a green flag pit stop with 94 laps to go, giving Kanaan the lead.

A good day turned into a bad day quickly for Camara with 82 laps to go. Camara crashed his car out and ended his day on the ninth caution flag of the night. Kanaan led the top-five down pit road for a crucial final pit stop during the caution period.

Kanaan just edged out Castroneves to win the race off pit road. Wheldon, Servia and Scott Dixon followed behind. Castroneves' pit stop was about two seconds faster than Kanaan's, but it wasn't enough.

The remainder of the race was dominated by Kanaan. The Brazilian Kanaan impressively continued to increase his gap over Castroneves. His margin reached just over six seconds with 20 laps to go.

The only excitement took place on the final lap, but it obviously wasn't for the lead. It was Dixon passing teammate Wheldon for third. This was the only change that took place in top-five after the pit stops.

Kanaan led the 26-car field to the green flag for 300 laps of short-track racing, but a number crashes brought out the caution flags early and often. This was a sign of things to come. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power and A.J. Foyt IV all had their own accidents early on.

Some of the drivers in the back of the field came down pit road after the Foyt IV's crash to get on different pit strategies than the leaders.

When the race went back to green flag racing, Kanaan built a one-second lead over Andretti, Graham Rahal, Dixon and Wheldon. Kanaan's margin was erased on lap 68 when the caution flag flew for debris. During the caution period the leaders took their first pit stops of the night.

Castroneves was the big winner on pit road, gaining six spots, and Dixon was the loser, dropping five positions. Camara and Danica Patrick inherited the top-two spots by not stopping. Kanaan, Castroneves and Andretti completed the top-five.

The crash party continued on the restart on lap 80, when Buddy Rice spun out and collected a few other drivers to create a multi-car crash. Another caution followed on lap 92 and this time Patrick came down pit road during the caution period.

Camara led Kanaan, Andretti, Castroneves and Wheldon to the restart on lap 106.

Marco Andretti made his move on the restart. He got around Kanaan and then passed Camara on lap 116 to take over first.

The field was slowed for the seventh time due to a Rahal crash on lap 133. Most of the leaders came down pit road during the caution. Andretti, EJ Viso, Townsend Bell and Patrick inherited the top-four spots by not stopping again. Kanaan, the winner off pit road, followed in fifth. A slow stop by Camara dropped him to eighth.

Andretti led the field to the restart on lap 142, but a few laps later the next caution flag flew due to a Hunter-Reay and Mario Moraes crash. Dixon, Hideki Mutoh and Patrick came down pit road for service with reports of rain in the near future, but the rain never came though.

The No.26 AGR driver led Viso, Kanaan, Castroneves and Camara to the restart. Viso quickly fell back through the field, as Marco Andretti built just over a half-a-second lead on Kanaan. Castroneves, Camara and Servia followed behind. Andretti lost his lead with 94 laps to go when he came down pit road and that's when Kanaan took over the race.

Dixon's third-place finish gives him a 43-point lead over Castroneves heading to the next race which is set for Sunday, July 6th at Watkins Glen International.

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