Racetrack Insider - News and Views of the Motorsports Industry from Insiders Drew Patey and Buddy Judy

Indy Car Teams in Wine Country

Dario Franchitti started on the pole and never looked back, taking the Indy Car Series event in the wine country at Infineon Raceway on Sunday afternoon. Franchitti, driving for the Safety-Kleen supported Chip Ganassi Racing, held off a constant assault from another Safety-Kleen driver, Penske's Ryan Briscoe to clinch victory at Sonoma. The big surprise of the weekend was Mike Conway, who recovered from a first lap spin to take third ahead of Mario Moraes and Safety-Kleen's Hideki Mutoh. Scott Dixon was one of the eight drivers involved in the opening lap wreck at Turn 2. The accident ended EJ Viso's race and forced Marco Andretti, Conway, Tony Kanaan, Dixon, Franck Montagny, Danica Patrick and Graham Rahal to pit for repairs. After a long yellow flag period to clean up the debris from this incident, Franchitti and Penske driver Briscoe made an early break from the field, running nose to tail for the balance of the race. With the Indy Car regulars out of contention, Conway, Moraes and Mutoh made the best of the situation and scored the best finishes of the year. Helio Castroneves, however, didn't have a good day as he suffered a suspension failure on lap 66 and wrecked his car in Turn One, going well off the track bouncing off in a cloud of dust. His day was over. Scott Dixon battled back and looked like he could get 10th, but on the last corner of the race, he was spun by Marco Andretti. Dixon is now 20 points behind Briscoe in the standings as the teams head east to Chicagoland next weekend. The Rohnert Park branch team saw an exciting race this weekend and did a great job at the track. Rick, Brandon, Rick and Bryan were all on hand flying the Safety-Kleen flag and servicing the teams.