A combination of consistent lap times, wise fuel management and a forceful late-race pass gave Danica Patrick her first Indy Car victory of her three-year Indy Car career.
After running sixth or seventh for most of the race, Danica wound up in second as the race leaders had to come in for a final splash of fuel. With no one but Helio Castroneves between her and victory, Danica decided to risk running dry and drove around Helio on the outside, taking first place with three laps to go.
Everyone wondered if she had the fuel to finish after her aggressive pass, but neither Danica nor her car ever hesitated, sailing around comfortably to take the checkered flag in a record-setting win.
Since her strong debut season, when she led many races, including the Indianapolis 500, but never earned a podium finish, Danica was haunted by the question, "Can she win?" The doubters are silenced; the only question now, is, "When will she win again?"
"Next week at Kansas, I hope," is how Danica answered.
Pit Strategy the Key
Indy Car racing is about more than driving fast—though that is necessary, of course. But to win an Indy Car race, a driver needs a team, and the team needs a strategy.
With most races requiring several pit stops for tires and fuel, winning a race is more about running fast laps consistently while gambling on when to pit, how much fuel to start with, and when to run hard or lay back.
Starting with a bit less fuel can give a driver an early lead, as his or her car will weigh less and might be faster than the pack. Some drivers (Ed Carpenter in this race,) will come in earlier than the rest, hoping that a mid-race yellow flag will let them stretch their fuel just far enough to avoid a final pit stop. (Sadly for Ed Carpenter, his car was not running efficiently, and he had to pit with five laps to go, losing a chance at a podium finish.)
Pit strategy is decided by the team manager, who often has to consider more than one vehicle; should both use the same pit strategy? Should one run conservatively and one run hard? On top of that, everything is changed by the unpredictable yellow flags, which slow the whole pack when an accident occurs. Fuel mileage doubles from three to six miles per gallon (of 100% ethanol) under a yellow flag, and cars can come into the pits at a more leisurely pace, as no one is allowed to pass under a yellow.
Depending on how many yellow flags there are, and when they come, the team manager can juggle fuel consumption, laps left, car and driver performance, and gamble on whether to risk running longer and catching a fortuitous caution flag, or come in early and figure that of a caution flag comes, his cars will run longer than the rest.
The importance of fuel strategy is shown by Ryan Hunter-Reay's performance in St. Petersburg. Ryan was near the front for most of the race, and in fourth place on the final lap. However, his fuel ran out before he could make it all the way around to the finish line. He was finally credited with seventeenth place.
Adjustments Can Make or Break a Race
Car set-up also plays a large role: a car with more downforce will stick better through the corners and carry speed better onto the straights, but will be a bit slower down the straights and will burn more fuel. Drivers can adjust weight-jacking (essentially changing spring rates on individual wheels) while driving to improve handling, and can also adjust the fuel mixture to save fuel or make power.
Besides using different fuel strategies, the pit crew can play with tire pressures and minute wing adjustments to adapt the car to changing conditions.
At Motegi, many drivers started out with a lot of wing because the week of rain had washed all the rubber off the track, leaving it slick and slippery. The added downforce form increased wing angles meant drivers could keep the power on deeper into the tight end of the track, Turns Three and Four, and exit with more power.
However, as the race wore on and more rubber was deposited, the track got stickier, and cars that used less wing could now handle well, as well as get better gas mileage. The Chip Ganasi Racing/Target cars of Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon (who were in the top few cars throughout the race, with Dixon leading the later laps) used less wing than Penske driver Helio Castroneves, who led for the first half of the race.
However, Castroneves won the pit strategy gamble. He (and Danica Patrick) topped off their tanks under yellow after an accident in lap 142. This splash of fuel truned out to be the decider.
Danica's Crew Found the Sweet Spot
Danica Patrick was fighting understeer for the first part of the race—when she turned into a corner, the car wanted to keep going straight, or slide up the track into the wall. However, she was verging on oversteer exiting the corners—that is, her car wanted to spin around, to turn further than she wanted it to.
Understeer and oversteer both create extra friction and require constant driver correction, which both slows lap times, and uses up fuel.
Danica's crew adjusted tire pressure, then finally made a tiny adjustment of to her left front wing, changing its pitch fractions of a degree. This proved to be the perfect setup, as the track got stickier, and Danica could run fast with minimal friction.
Five Laps to Go and Nothing Certain
Throughout the race, yellow flags had come out just before most teams had planned to pit. Some drivers (like Scott Dixon on the first yellow) got caught coming in under green and had to make another lap. Some teams filled up ahead of schedule and hoped for another yellow later to stretch their fuel.
As the final laps approached, everyone was calculating how long each car had run since refueling, and trying to guess how much longer each could go. By lap 186, everyone realized that most drivers would need a quick pit stop to finish the race. The strategies had not paid off—for most.
Ed Carpenter was the first of the top six to come in; he was followed by Dixon (at the time, the race leader) and Penske driver Ryan Briscoe, along with Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon. This left Helio Castroneves in the lead, with Danica Patrick right on his tail.
Seeing the possibility to earn her first checkered flag, Danica wasted no time powering around Castroneves, and once in the lead, she kept pulling away, as Helio decided fuel conservation was the better part of valor, and accepted second place rather than run out of gas chasing Patrick's perfectly performing Andretti-Green Racing machine.
At Motegi, Danica's skill was matched by her team's talent and just a dash of racing luck, and she earned the win that had been eluding her.
Scott Dixon finished third, Dan Wheldon took fourth, and Tony Kanaan finished fifth.
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