As the checkered flag dropped at Chicago three weeks ago, the battle for the 2008 IndyCar title is over. After seventeen races, New Zealand's Scott Dixon crowned himself champion for the second time in his career with Target Chip Ganassi. With all said and done, this is a good time to look back at the 13th IndyCar World Series championship.
The Pre-season
The preparation for the 2008 season was as chaotic as it was historic. After a winter of rumours and rumblings, IRL and Champ Car agreed to merge into one entity again, following 12 years of separation and several years of degradation in both series - especially Champ Car. The deal was officially agreed upon as late as February 22, just one single month before the season opener at Homestead-Miami.
As Gerry Forsythe's team bailed out, most other Champ Car outfits made the jump to IRL and brought their races at Long Beach, Edmonton and Surfers' Paradise to the table. The merger saw car counts rise to 26 again and public expectation was higher than it has been for a long time. The biggest losers in the deal were the Canadian open wheel fanatics, as only Edmonton remained as a top-tier AOWR race and fan favourite Paul Tracy found himself out of a drive.
Discrepancy
At Homestead however, the buzz around the unification was overshadowed by the lack of competitiveness of the so-called transitional teams. Those who made it to the finish, did so by finishing several laps down. The brightest student of the class, Oriol Servia, counted on his oval experience from the CART days to finish 12th, five laps down to winner Scott Dixon. It was apparent it would be a long, hard year for the new boys and one wondered how well they would fare on the non-ovals.
The answer would be known soon enough. At the second race in St. Petersburg, the Champ Car guys were more than toying around with the big guns, and Graham Rahal drove the wheels off his brand new Dallara-Honda to collect his first IndyCar victory in his very first race, catapulting him to the top of the list of future stars in AOWR.
Good things don't come alone, as Rahal's early success was immediately followed by Danica Patrick's maiden win in Motegi, Japan, and a first major open wheel victory for a woman all-round. These two remarkable events provided a much-needed boost for the series and didn't do TV ratings and public interest any harm either.
Back in the homeland, an other historic event took place as the turbo-charged Champ Cars roared for the final time around the streets of Long Beach. Officially sanctioned as an IndyCar race, the race was held on the same day as the Motegi race due to contractual clauses that couldn't be resolved because of the late merger deal. Will Power officially took his first IndyCar win, be it in a Panoz DP01. For the occasion, veterans Paul Tracy, Jimmy Vasser and Roberto Moreno got back behind the wheel to give the series its due tribute.
I am Indy
With a Wheldon win at Kansas, the hunt for the Indy 500 seemed wide open. Yet soon it became clear that Scott Dixon was the man to beat in the race of the year. The New Zealander dominated the proceedings in the month of May and finally got the taste of Indiana milk.
The 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 wasn't the most exciting edition, but there was drama enough as Tony Kanaan got into the wall after a bold move by team-mate Marco Andretti. One could hear several hearts breaking in the stands as Sarah Fisher got collected by the Brazilian. Down on pit road, Danica Patrick got taken out by Ryan Briscoe. Her infamous march down the pitlane gave the media plenty to talk about.
In the meantime, Scott Dixon quietly dominated the race, starting from pole and leading for more than half the distance before taking the checkered flag. Vitor Meira finished in a tremendous second place, while Marco Andretti took third.
June bug
The month of June will be remembered by Ryan Briscoe finally winning his first in Milwaukee. The Ganassi boys then wrapped up the wins on the other ovals (Dixon in Texas, Wheldon in Iowa) and Tony Kanaan won his first of the season in Richmond.
The former Champ Car teams were still playing catch up and did a respectable job at the smaller ovals. The 1.5 mile ovals however still made them look rather exposed. KV Racing
, with the experience of Servia and the adaptability of Power, now looked like the next new team to win.
The race at the legendary Watkins Glen road course saw an other Ryan taking his maiden victory. Rahal-Letterman's Ryan Hunter-Reay took the victory for Darren Manning in a race with plenty of incidents. Tony Kanaan cashed in on the misfortunes of Ganassi and Penske to get back in the title hunt.
Duel
Dixon still comfortably led the tables at mid-season. Helio Castroneves' solid top-5 (and more often than not top-2) results, made him look like Dixon's main challenger for the crown. A thought that was backed up by the four following races, with three Dixon wins (Nashville, Edmonton, Kentucky) and another three runner-up spots for Helio, one of which behind Ryan Briscoe at Mid-Ohio.
Canadian fans were happy to see good old PT back in the car at Edmonton, and the 39-year-old veteran did not disappoint with a remarkable fourth place. The first Edmonton event as an IRL race proved to be a big success and will be joined on the schedule by the Toronto street track for 2009.
Castroneves' win at Infineon Raceway re-ignited the fire in the title battle (with Dixon only finishing 12th). The Brazilian had a very strong finish of the season and was looking good to win the Detroit race as well. Yet, while leading the race, Castroneves illegally blocked the much faster Justin Wilson and as a result got penalised by race control. Wilson was let through and went on to win his first race and the second one for Newman/Haas/Lanigan.
Finale
As Castroneves lost ten very costly points at Detroit ( being the margin between first and second), the Brazilian had a mountain to climb in the season finale at the Chicagoland Speedway if he was to catch up Dixon. And he did. After being penalised again in qualifying – Helio dropped below the white line, which was explicitly prohibited during the drivers' meeting – Castroneves had to start from the back of the field.
This penalty hardly proved to be a handicap as the Penske driver looked unstoppable as soon as the green flag dropped. He made up positions at a staggering pace. When he got into the lead before half-way, it looked like the impossible was within reach after all. With Dixon struggling on an uncomfortable set of tyres and dropping down to ninth and lower, some thought the title was passing under his nose again for the second year in a row.
The New Zealander however settled in a good rhythm on the next stint and got back up front again. In a staggering finish, he was only beaten by Helio with 0.0033 seconds, the second-closest victory ever, the icing on the cake after a tremendous race with breath-taking three-wide battles. Especially the transitional teams looked nothing like the bottom feeders they were at Homestead, and several rookies – including E.J. Viso and Mario Moraes - were genuinely contending for a top-five finish.
Round-up
And thus the IndyCar World Series got its finale it could only have dreamt of and Scott Dixon was crowned the 2008 champion. Dixon claimed no less than six victories and erased the bad memories from 2007 when he lost the title to Dario Franchitti on the last lap of the season. Helio Castroneves' two victories and a record eight second places made him a formidable foe for the Ganassi driver.
Tony Kanaan is third in the standings after a rather disappointing season for Andretti-Green Racing. On the positive side their youngster Hideki Mutoh wins the Rookie of the Year title. Quite surprisingly, KV Racing and not Newman/Haas/Lanigan was the best transitional team. Though clouds over their future cast a shadow over the on-track performances.
After a successful start of the new era of American open wheel racing, anticipation is high for 2009. The new season will start on April 5 at St. Petersburg, Florida.
Filip Cleeren
Written by Filip Cleeren on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:36:13
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