Australia’s Will Power shrugged off a torrential rainstorm, the best efforts of Ryan Hunter-Reay and any lingering effects of the broken back that ended his 2009 season to take victory in a chaotically entertaining IndyCar season opener in Brazil.
Dan Wheldon has signed to drive with Panther Racing again in 2010, despite a string of disappointing results this season that reportedly prompted driver and team to each look for other options.
Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe did their best to liven up a deathly dull IndyCar season finale with a tooth-and-nail battle for the lead – but it was Dario Franchitti, jogging along behind them for most of the 200 laps, who came through to win both the race and the championship.
Dario Franchitti will start the three-way battle for the 2009 IndyCar title from pole position after outpacing his closest rivals Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe in qualifying on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami oval.
One of the closest title chases in IndyCar series history will go to a showdown at the final race after Ryan Briscoe threw away the chance to build a decisive advantage at the Indy Japan 300.
Ryan Briscoe took a big step towards the IndyCar championship by winning pole position, the race and the bonus for leading the most laps at the Chicagoland Speedway – but the result was anything but the one-sided affair those statistics suggest.
IndyCar drivers Dan Wilson and Justin Wilson, both fathers of very young children, will be racing at Chicagoland this weekend with reminders of youngsters in need on their cars and helmets.
Ryan Briscoe grabbed pole position for the PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway – and with it a bonus championship point that might prove crucial in this tightest of tight IndyCar title battles.
Dario Franchitti led from start to finish to win an unexpectedly interesting Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma ahead of Ryan Briscoe, with under-fire Brit Mike Conway breathing down their necks in a potentially career-saving third place.
Dario Franchitti qualified on pole for the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, but his performance was overshadowed by the crash in practice that left Will Power and Nelson Philippe in hospital, one with two fractured vertebrae and the other with a broken bone in his foot that needed immediate surgery.