IndyCar will not be going to Richmond this year, but we are reviewing the nine IndyCar races held at the track from 2001 to 2009. Yesterday, we looked at the first three visits, from the early, rugged IRL years to the swing year when Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Green Racing and Rahal Letterman Racing joined the series, leaving CART behind.
This second part will focus on the next three years from 2004 to 2006. We are in the thick of The Split. The Big Three dominance has started. Panther Racing had begun shrinking into an alley cat. Race control was way too prominent and there were curious broadcasting decisions over these three years. We start in 2004 with some fresh asphalt.
2004
This race came after Richmond repaved the track and it saw speeds skyrocket with Hélio Castroneves taking pole position at a record speed of 171.202 MPH. Next to him on the front row was Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice with Panther Racing's Mark Taylor in third next to former Panther driver Sam Hornish Jr. on row two.
More cars were able to run the outside and it benefitted Tony Kanaan at the start. Kanaan went from tenth to fifth in the first four laps. Adrian Fernández and Dan Wheldon each moved up four spots in the opening laps from 16th and 20th respectively on the grid. Tomas Scheckter made use of the upper line as well. Kanaan went to the inside of Taylor into turn one to take fourth position on lap nine. The following lap saw the first caution of the night when Alex Barron got into the barrier exiting turn two.
There were few takers to pit lane under this first caution, one was Wheldon.
On the restart, Hornish and Scheckter both used the high line to gain positions. Hornish took second from Rice exiting turn two and Scheckter needed a few laps to get by Kanaan but he would get the spot off of turn four.
Hornish used the high line to pressure Castroneves for the lead and he was able to stay close for a handful of laps before having to make a big lift exiting turn four on one lap. He would gather himself and within ten laps he would use the momentum off the high side of turn two to take the lead into turn three.
The Penske cars pulled away and were pressuring Wheldon, the final car on the lead lap. Scheckter had moved up to third but was 2.5 seconds back and battling traffic. Wheldon kept making passes with the leaders remained on his back and the battle from fourth to tenth remained close, thanks in part to traffic.
Debris caused the caution on lap 67 and this brought the field to pit road with Hornish edging out his teammate for the top spot on exit.
This race saw more moves to the inside and outside than the prior three races. There was a greater second line developing, and cars could run side-by-side for an entire pair of corners and straightaway. There was a breaking point. The car on the outside would eventually have to make the pass or lift and lose all the ground. It wasn't something that could be maintained for ten or 15 laps.
Moisture brought out the third caution 31 laps later but not everyone stopped under this caution. Dario Franchitti and Ed Carpenter stayed out. After a 21-lap caution, Franchitti restarted in the lead while the Penske cars had to battle traffic and a slight moment dropped Hornish behind Castroneves and Scheckter. The caution was soon out again when Darren Manning had a bobble and hit the turn four wall on exit.
Once back to racing, Hornish took third from Scheckter on the inside of turns one and two. Castroneves closed in on Franchitti for the lead and with 100 laps to go he was about two car lengths back with Hornish, Scheckter, Kanaan, Fernández, Herta and Wheldon in the top eight. Herta would soon be up to sixth after sliding under Fernández into turn one.
Hornish dropped behind Scheckter and Kanaan after running high in turns one and two but he would get one spot back from Kanaan a few laps later. About eight laps later, Hornish retook third from Scheckter on the inside of turn three. These two would go back and forth over the next five laps. Hornish ran high in four and allowed Scheckter to take the spot on the straightaway. Hornish would come back and take the spot low into turn three. It all went pear-shaped with 63 laps to go when Scheckter looked low into turns one and two and clipped Hornish's left rear, spinning the Penske driver on exit. Both were able to continue but Hornish lost a few laps getting re-fired.
The rest of the leaders came to pit lane to make their final stops but Wheldon stayed out and inherited the lead ahead of Meira and Rice. Castroneves came off pit lane first ahead of Franchitti, Scheckter and Kanann.
The broadcast doesn't mention the strategy of the top three. We are not sure if they are good to go but Wheldon led the field to the green with 50 laps to go. He did not experience much of a challenge from either Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver behind him. Castroneves moved up to third on the outside of turn three. Rice and Franchitti battled for position for a few laps. While in traffic, Taylor pinched Franchitti in the middle of turns one and two, Taylor spun into the barrier while Franchitti was fortunate to avoid the walls. Scheckter made contact with Fernández trying to avoid the accident, making it a doubly bad accident for Panther Racing.
Meira's team felt confident this caution would allow them to make it on fuel but Wheldon's team believed it would still be close. Wheldon had gone 101 laps, last stopping under the caution for moisture while Meira had gone 95 laps, having stopped later under that yellow.
On the restart with 17 laps to go, Wheldon and Meira put some distance between them and Castroneves, who had to contend with the lapped cars. Wheldon put some distance to Meira but Castroneves closed in on second. With six laps to go, Ed Carpenter and Greg Ray got together after going three-wide with Scott Dixon. Later that lap, Carpenter was at a near standstill in turn three when the leaders passed. He creeped around the high side and it took a lap before the caution came out.
This set up an odd finish where a one-lap dash was to decide the race, but the yellow lights were still on in turns one and two. Wheldon took the victory with Castroneves second on the road ahead of Meira. Meira said when he saw the lights he slowed, allowing Castroneves through. IndyCar would revert afterward, giving Meira second position but Wheldon was still the winner, going over 120 laps on his final stint and winning from 20th on the grid.
How was the crowd?
According to Dr. Jerry Punch, it was the largest IndyCar crowd at Richmond to date. Fans had spread from closer to the middle of turns three and four to the middle of turns one and two. It was reported on the broadcast the track sold 40,000 tickets in advanced sales and every year had seen a ten-percent bump.
Did they mention a USAC Silver Crown race happening before the IndyCar race and needing some number of laps to pick up that rubber and lay down Firestone rubber?
Yes. The broadcast said it was going to take some number of laps to get Firestone rubber down. So, in three years we went from 20 laps to 50 laps to the vague some number of laps.
Signs of the Time:
There was a pre-race interview with Brian Barnhart, and this is what we were sick of. Barnhart inserted into the races and more than any crew steward should be. Worst of all, ESPN enabled it. It was the same stuff over and over again. Any time Scott Goodyear saw an incident, Goodyear would mention how Barnhart would tell drivers they got to be patient, so some of the blame falls at the feet of Goodyear and it was like this for the next four years. We know race control is there, but we don't hear from Arie Luyendyk and Max Papis on a weekly basis. It is a three-man panel and I am not even sure who the third person is! I had to look it up, it is Dan Davis and I forgot Kyle Novak is race director.
The current race control setup is an observer, a lifeguard if you will, watching over the race but only intervening if needed. Barnhart was a play director, always interjecting and wanting the race to go his way. It was irritating.
Kenny Bräck tested at Richmond in his recovery effort after his Texas accident at the previous season finale. The reason Bräck tested Richmond was because it was the most physical track. He determined he was not ready to return to racing and had sore ankles.
There have been four Richmond races and I cannot recall a green flag pit cycle in any of these races.
Broadcasting Gems:
With 40 laps to go, Hornish is four laps down in 16th, two laps behind the car ahead of him and the camera is on him running with Bryan Herta in seventh. Meanwhile, Paul Page announces, "Rice and Franchitti going at it back and forth." Rice and Franchitti were battling for fourth place and yet the cameras were on a car that was out of contention! What were they thinking?
2005
Sam Hornish, Jr. shattered the track record, taking pole position at 176.244 MPH with Team Penske teammate Hélio Castroneves next to him on row one. It was a Toyota sweep of the top four with Ryan Briscoe and Patrick Carpentier in third and fourth.
Castroneves had an accident during the testing at the track in the weeks leading up to the race and still had sore ribs from the incident.
It took five laps for the first caution, when A.J. Foyt IV spun exiting turn two. He kept it out of the wall and would continue. In the first 17 laps, Tony Kanaan would go from 22nd to 14th. Kanaan had to start last after he spun exiting turn two on his qualifying lap.
Scott Dixon had a rough day. He went off sequence from the start but was a lap down at lap 30 and contact with Dario Franchitti on lap 38 took him out of the race. It led to a sharp critique from Mike Hull when interviewed after the accident, "Champions don't win races by being impatient."
The leaders stopped under this caution but Vitor Meira and Buddy Rice did not. On the restart, Castroneves took third from Hornish going high into turn three. Dario Franchitti moved into sixth after passing Dan Wheldon into turn one. Meira kept the lead but Rice struggled later into the run and dropped from second to ninth in a handful a lap. Rice would be down to 13th by lap 81.
On lap 83, Castroneves took the lead on the low side of Meira into turn one and Hornish would take second on the bottom of turn three.
Briscoe would make it two Ganassi cars out of the race after a spin in turn four after getting into the marbles. The leaders made pit stops but Franchitti, Scott Sharp and Bryan Herta stayed out.
Franchitti would lead for the entirety of the 44-lap green flag. Castroneves would work his way up to second while Sharp stayed in third. Kanaan was 11th when he spun in turn four after close racing with Bryan Herta. Kanaan dropped his left side tires on to the apron and lost the car, spinning into the path of Meira and Meira's night was done.
This brought everyone to pit lane and Castroneves jumped Franchitti with Hornish moving up to third.
Castroneves pulled away on the lap 160 restart and Hornish moved up to second passing Franchitti. Five laps later, Hornish lost the car in turn four and he would describe it as pushing too hard while battling Castroneves for the lead.
With 75 laps to go, Castroneves opened a comfortable lead again over Franchitti and Franchitti gapped Sharp. Sharp's promising night would end with 50 laps to go after contact with the lapped car of Roger Yasukawa in the middle of turn two.
With 42 laps to go, Castroneves led Franchitti, Carpentier, Wheldon, Scheckter and Enge to the restart and Enge, after not being mentioned once up to this point, would get ahead of his teammate Scheckter and Wheldon into turn one, moving up to fourth.
Traffic closed the gap between Castroneves and Franchitti while Enge moved up to third ahead of Carpentier. Enge's strong charge would be washed out after Enge was black-flagged for blocking Carpentier into turn one. Car owner, and now Indianapolis Motor Speedway president, Doug Boles was furious with the call, as Enge was negotiating the lapped car of Jimmy Kite while also battling Carpentier.
With eight laps to go, Darren Manning and Yasukawa made contact after Yasukawa clipped Manning while Manning was passing him in turn two. The accident occurred just ahead of Castroneves, who skated through and would have to make one more defense on a one-lap dash to the checkered flag.
Castroneves got the jump and held on for victory ahead of Franchitti, Carpentier, Scheckter and Wheldon.
How was the crowd?
Pretty much on point with 2004, so that is good.
Did they mention a USAC Silver Crown race happening before the IndyCar race and needing some number of laps to pick up that rubber and lay down Firestone rubber?
Is the pope Catholic?
Signs of the Time:
Cheever Racing had Red Bull and Izod sponsorship. We saw what happened when Izod got to bigger and better teams. Imagine if Red Bull had done the same. It might not have changed much but IndyCar had two Red Bull cars before having two Red Bull cars was cool.
Broadcasting Gems:
This is the Todd Harris memorial because this was his one year as IndyCar lead commentator and it was bad.
Oh man, how did Harris become the guy? This was a first-round draft bust. ESPN/ABC got rid of Bob Jenkins and Paul Page and this was the best it could do? Don't get me wrong, this is an era of poor broadcasters. Mike King was the lead commentator on radio.
The diamond in the rough was Leigh Diffey. Diffey had the experience, calling the CART races for Eurosport's coverage. He had just become the lead commentator for Speed's sports car coverage. He was there.
Harris tried too much and he tried to fit in, but it was a case of saying too much. This was a guy who was not an IndyCar regular and he talked about how Vitor Meira is going to win a race this season. He compared Castroneves' drive with sore ribs to Michael Jordan's flu game. He said Jordan scored 60-plus points in that game. One is an exaggeration of Castroneves' injury and the other was just wrong. You can look up how many points Jordan scored in that game; it was 38 points.
He said he felt good about Briscoe at Richmond because he was fast at the Watkins Glen test. Those are two entirely different circuits. He kept talking about a rookie jinx at Richmond. That wasn't a thing. He called it a "race of survivors" when only six out of 22 cars had retired from the race. That wasn't even the worst of it. After Castroneves won, Harris said, "This man has done to fences what Hugh Hefner has done to pajamas." What?
It was bad and Scott Goodyear didn't help. After Manning's accident, Goodyear nonchalantly brought up that Manning loves golf. What does that have to do with the accident and why bring that up after an accident with nine laps to go? This set up a one-lap dash to the checkered flag. There is no reason to bring up any of Manning's hobbies.
I am sure Todd Harris is a good guy and he has done plenty of work in recent years across many networks and he has been on the last few Olympic Games. His time IndyCar is not his best. I would put it at the bottom of his achievements and at the bottom of IndyCar's broadcast hierarchy.
It was one year but one rough year. It made Marty Reid a more bearable option in 2006.
2006
With threatening weather, the race started a tad early and this was the first Richmond race in a spec field of all Dallara chassis and all Honda engines. The expectation was this would be a race to halfway.
Hélio Castroneves and Scott Sharp started on the front row and there was some movement at the back of the field. Dario Franchitti went from tenth to sixth in the first three laps, including a pass on the high side of Dan Wheldon in turn two. Tomas Scheckter went from 12th to eighth as well. Sharp did not get a good start and dropped to fifth.
The leaders caught traffic by lap 13 and it was slower to work through the field than previous years. Castroneves led teammate Sam Hornish, Jr. with Marco Andretti in third and Vitor Meira in fourth. Hornish kept making looks on Castroneves for the lead. It took a few attempts, but Hornish would get the lead on lap 39 and quickly opened up a one-second lead.
Andretti got caught behind the lapped car of Buddy Rice and dropped from third to fifth and into a battle with teammates Franchitti and Tony Kanaan. Andretti was experiencing grip issue with his front tires and turning into the corner was particularly difficult.
A caution was thrown for debris on lap 52. There was no debris shown but, according to the booth, Brian Barnhart expressed concerns about the marbles and said if the marbles got too bad, he would send out the sweepers. This caution led to pit stops and Hornish maintained the lead.
Ironically, two laps after going green from the debris caution, Jeff Simmons was in the wall after getting in the marbles exiting turn two.
Both Castroneves and Sharp remained within a second of Hornish on the next green flag run. Neither was a threat for the top spot. The lead yo-yoed with Hornish getting out to a three-second lead on lap 120 only for it to be down to six-tenths over Castroneves and nine-tenths over Sharp 15 laps later, as Hornish negotiated traffic.
Andretti had one of the better cars in traffic and on lap 139, he was up to second. Unfortunately, the broadcast did not catch his pass on Sharp for third on lap 137, nor his pass on Castroneves for second, because we were riding onboard with Danica Patrick in 13th, one lap down and with no other cars around her. We did see Meira pass Sharp for fourth into turn one and he would make a similar move on Castroneves for third about four laps later.
Hornish opened up a five-second lead over Andretti before the lap 151 cautions for debris. This caution allowed everyone to make their final stops. Hornish went unchallenged for the top spot on exit but Franchitti jumped from sixth to second, Castroneves from fourth to third and Dan Wheldon also moved up to fifth.
Franchitti stayed close to Hornish in the opening part of the run. Franchitti's best shot for the lead came in traffic and he made a look on lap 188 to the outside into turn three but backed out of it. Hornish would extend his lead from there, having a 2.5-second lead on lap 205.
Andretti had to make a big save exiting turn two with 23 laps to go, allowing Meira to take fourth. With 18 to go, Meira was up to third after a move inside of Castroneves into turn one. Two laps later, Castroneves and Andretti were side-by-side in turns three and fourth. Andretti would come out with the position, but Castroneves lifted mightily, nursing a tire puncture.
Hornish held a 7.4-second lead with 13 laps to go, but with traffic coming into play, Franchitti closed it to two seconds with five laps to go. Unfortunately for Franchitti, he would catch the crawling Castroneves into turn one and this allowed Meira to take second with an audacious pass into turn one. Immediately after this, Castroneves lost his right rear tire but kept it out of the wall with four laps to go.
This caution effectively ends the race. Hornish took a well-earned victory after leading the final 212 laps. Meira got a deserved second with Franchitti having to swallow third. Andretti spent nearly the entire race in the top five and finished fourth. Sharp rounded out the top five. Despite losing his tire, Castroneves limped around with three wheels under those final laps and was credited with a tenth-place finish.
All this came after Hornish suffered an accident in practice and forced him to his backup car, which was his Watkins Glen car. Franchitti was a bit upset with blue flag inconsistency and felt Hornish got more help than he did. Meira praised Franchitti for not cutting him off when he attempted his pass.
How was the crowd?
Holding strong. It looks just like it had the previous two years and if that is at least 40,000 people then IndyCar would take that in 2021.
Did they mention a USAC Silver Crown race happening before the IndyCar race and needing some number of laps to pick up that rubber and lay down Firestone rubber?
Surprisingly, no! If they did, I missed it.
Signs of the Time:
Dan Wheldon said he was not shaving until he won another race. I don't recall this or recall if he stuck to this. I don't recall ever seeing a single whisker on his face. He doesn't win again until the Chicago season finale.
Sam Hornish, Jr. tested an IROC car at Daytona during the week before the Richmond race. We don't see that now.
This was Honda's 100th victory in IndyCar.
Broadcasting Gems:
This was Rusty Wallace's gap year, as he waited for ESPN to take over NASCAR coverage in 2007. It was rough. He loved the NASCAR comparisons and loved talking about downforce.
Roger Penske had the quote of the night in his victory lane interview: "If they throw me off the pit box I might get out of this sport."
Let's be thankful no one ever threw Penske off the pit box.
Tomorrow, we will look at the final three IndyCar races at Richmond. It includes reunification, a surprise competitive drive from a forgotten name and a summation on what to expect whenever IndyCar makes its return to the 3/4-mile oval.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
