Carpenter Holds on to Win Indy Car Race at Texas
By STEPHEN HAWKINS, AP Sports Writer, 8 June 7, 2014
Ed Carpenter celebrates his victory in the IndyCar auto race at
Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, June 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Tim Sharp)
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — IndyCar owner Ed Carpenter now drives his car only on ovals. He does it well.
Carpenter stayed in front of Will Power during a two-lap shootout to win at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night after a late caution night wiped out his huge lead. The victory came two weeks after a late accident took away any chance to win the Indianapolis 500.
"It's just good to bounce back," Carpenter said. "Nothing really totally makes up for missed opportunity at the Speedway. But at the same time, it always feels good to win, especially a place like this. ... This is a big win for us."
On the final green-flag stop with 35 laps left, Carpenter beat polesitter and season points leader Power off pit road. Team Penske driver Power made things worse when he was penalized for speeding out of the pits.
"I'm just going too hard," said Power, who had his fourth drive-thru penalty in five races but kept the points lead. "I just go for race wins. I'm not looking at points."
Power was sixth, and Carpenter had a lead of about 18 seconds over Juan Pablo Montoya, when Takuma Sato's engine blew and his car caught fire with seven laps left.
While the top four cars stayed out during that caution, Power went in for fresh tires. That gave him the chance to make up some ground, and he made a big charge after the final restart to finish second, only a half-second back.
With another lap, the outcome might have been different.
"I don't know. Ed was awfully strong," Power said. "He's an awesome driver and it would have been a good battle at the end. ... It was a lot of fun."
Carpenter's third career victory, all on ovals, came after leading 90 of 248 laps.
After winning at Kentucky for Sarah Fisher Racing in 2011, he started his own team the next year and won the season finale at California. Carpenter was on the pole at Indy the last two seasons, and this year is leaving the road and street courses to Mike Conway.
Conway won at Long Beach the second race this season and was in the ****pit for both races at Detroit last weekend.
So this was the first race for Carpenter since the late crash at Indy with James Hinchcliffe.
"It feels good. There's no denying the fact that I was really mad after Indy," Carpenter said. "It's not that I'm still mad at Hinch, but I'm still mad at the situation and we lost an opportunity. ... We're just going to keep the intensity up and try to keep fighting for wins."
Carpenter went to the high side to get around Power on lap 182, and within a lap had already pushed ahead by nearly a second. Power led 145 laps.
Montoya finished third, ahead of Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan — the only drivers to finish on the lead lap. Helio Castroneves, the defending race winner and a four-time winner at Texas, was 10th.
The race was 20 laps longer than last year when Castroneves won. At the end of 228 laps, the length of the 2013 race, Carpenter had a 13 1/2-second lead over Montoya.
Indianapolis 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, the Dallas-born driver who has said he "definitely, desperately" wants to win at Texas, had another tough weekend and only finished 135 laps before losing power and oil pressure.
Since winning at Indy, Andretti Motorsport driver Hunter-Reay finished 16th and 19th at the dual races in Detroit and 19th at Texas.
Marco Andretti, his teammate, finished last in the 22-car field after his own mechanical issues.
Andretti started 17th and quickly moved into the top 10 after three laps before his engine blew and the car caught fire while he was trying to get back into the pits. He had to stop on the apron out of Turn 4, then hopped out of the car and walked back to his pit box.
"This one's frustrating and this one really hurts for the championship too," said Andretti, who entered the weekend fifth in season points, two spots below Hunter-Reay.
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Fort Worth, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Ed Carpenter held off Team Penske drivers Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya after a restart with just two laps remaining to win Saturday night's Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Power, the pole sitter, dominated most of this race by leading 145 of 248 laps, but Carpenter, who started fifth, grabbed the top position from Power on lap 182.
During a late-race round of pit stops under green, Carpenter and Power pitted from 1-2 on the same lap, but Power received a pit lane speeding penalty, which put him nearly one lap behind in sixth after serving his drive-through.
"That's four drive-throughs in five races," Power said of the number of pit lane speeding penalties that he has received this season. "It's not good. I'm getting them every race."
Carpenter held a 15-second lead over second-place runner Montoya with seven laps left when Takuma Sato blew his engine and dropped fluid on the track, forcing the third caution. During the caution, Power pitted for four tires and returned to the field in sixth.
Power then charged to the front following the restart and took second away from Montoya during the final lap. But Power came up 0.5247 seconds short of the victory.
"What an awesome call by my team to get tires," Power said. "Ed was awful strong, and he's an awesome driver. It would have been a good battle there at the end. I was just really happy to get second."
Carpenter, who is competing at the oval tracks and not the road/street courses this season, claimed his third career IndyCar win. His maiden victory in the series came in 2011 at Kentucky and second win the following year in Fontana, California.
"I knew we had a good car, though we left some on the table in qualifying," said Carpenter, who led a total of 90 laps. "Awesome night. I've loved this racetrack for a long time, but I've had a lot of bad luck here. Really always wanted to win here. So super excited."
Two weeks ago, Carpenter started on the pole for the Indianapolis 500 but was involved in an accident with James Hinchcliffe following a restart with 25 laps remaining. He had led 26 laps and was in contention to win prior to his incident.
"We had the car to win Indy," Carpenter said. "I'm not saying we would have beat Ryan [Hunter-Reay], but I think we were the best shot to have a shot at Ryan. So it's nice to come back here and get a win."
Mike Conway drives Carpenter's No. 20 car on the road/street course races this year. Conway won on the streets of Long Beach, California in April. He will resume his driving duties in that car later this month in Houston.
Power increased his lead in the championship point standings to 39 over teammate Helio Castroneves, who finished eighth. Castroneves won last year's race at Texas. He also scored the victory in race 2 in the weekend doubleheader at Detroit's Belle Isle Park this past Sunday.
Montoya ended up finishing a season-best third, while Simon Pagenaud took the fourth spot. Scott Dixon, the defending IndyCar champion, was fifth. Tony Kanaan, the last driver on the lead lap, placed sixth.
Hunter-Reay and his Andretti Autosport teammate, Marco Andretti, both suffered engine failure, which put them out of the race early.
Andretti started 17th but quickly moved into the top-10 before his motor blew on lap 4, causing the back end of his No. 25 car to catch on fire. The flames were quickly extinguished when he had stopped on pit lane and hopped out of the car. He finished last in the 22-car field.
"This one is frustrating," Andretti said. "This one really hurts for the championship too."
Hunter-Reay's engine expired on lap 137.
"It just lost power of all of the sudden," Hunter-Reay said. "It's really frustrating. We made a change on that last stop, which I thought would bring us in the game there. We were running in seventh and still had a shot at it. It was a long night. We needed the points tonight most of all."
Hunter-Reay is now 60 points behind Power.
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