Sam Hornish Jr. won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, edging teenage rookie Marco Andretti in the second-closest finish in the race's 95-year history.
Hornish made a late charge on Michael Andretti and his 19-year-old son Marco, who were a heartbeat from erasing years of family frustration before the the polesitter overtook the rookie in the final, thrilling stretch.
Hornish lost a lap late in the race when he was penalized for leaving his pit with the fuel hose still connected. Somehow, with pit strategies playing a role, he found himself back on the lead lap and in fourth place under yellow in the last 10 laps.
PHOTO: AFP
When the green flag flew with four laps to go, Hornish trailed only the Andrettis and New Zealander Scott Dixon. That's when Hornish, who has been the fastest driver here for virtually the entire month, began his charge.
As Marco Andretti brought the huge crowd to its feet by passing his father for the lead on lap 198, Hornish followed, passing the elder Andretti -- who made a comeback after retiring from the cockpit in 2003 to run with his son -- for second.
Hornish caught Marco and tried to dive below him in the third turn on lap 199 and the two almost collided before Hornish fell several car-lengths back.
PHOTO: AP
On the final lap, Hornish, who had failed to finish the 500 in his first six tries, set sail again, moving up to the rear of Andretti's Dallara. Marco, running in only his fourth IRL IndyCar Series event, did his best to block the two-time series champion, but it wasn't enough.
Hornish swung low on the final straightaway, pulled alongside and nosed ahead at the finish, a half car-length ahead at the checkered flag.
Only 0.0635 seconds separated Hornish from Andretti. The closest finish was in 1992, when Al Unser Jr. beat Scott Goodyear by 0.043 seconds.
"Thank goodness it's 500 instead of 497 and a half," Hornish said, referring to his failure to pass Marco on his first try.
Defending champion Dan Wheldon wound up fourth, followed by Brazil's Tony Kanaan, Dixon, Scotland's Dario Franchitti and last year's rookie sensation Danica Patrick, the only woman in the 33-car field.
Despite the thrilling finish which introduced Marco Andretti as perhaps the sport's newest young star, the third-generation driver wasn't satisfied with second place.
"Man, I don't want to wait for next year," he said. "It's a bummer. Woulda, coulda, shoulda, I mean -- second place is nothing."
Michael Andretti was obviously proud of his son.
"I just knew he was going to surprise a lot of people," Michael said. "He didn't surprise me. I was just a little surprised by how fast he got here."
It was one of the hottest days in the 90-year history of the 500 and the action on the track was just as heated throughout the race.
Hornish, who had crashed out of the race three times and never finished more than 196 of the race's 200 laps, watched England's Wheldon dominate most of Sunday, leading 148 laps. Hornish led just 19, including the final one.
He said his first goal in this race was to get to the finish. After giving team owner Roger Penske a record 14th Indy victory, Hornish choked up and kissed the yard of bricks at the finish line.
"I didn't know whether I could get there," Hornish said. "Marco tried to block me and he did a pretty good job, but he couldn't keep me from getting under him. Once I got there, I just hoped I could get in front in time.''
Michael Andretti, about a third of the straightaway behind the leaders, thought for a moment that his son had won.
"It's a heartbreak, another one," Michael said. "But, in a couple of days, I'll probably sit back and think, `Oh Wow!' I thought he had won. It was a fairytale, a dream."
Inheriting the lead when Andretti Green teammates Kanaan and Franchitti pitted on lap 193, Michael, who has led more laps (430) here than any other non-winner, was pretty sure he wouldn't win this time, either.
"I knew I didn't have the speed and I saw Marco making a run at me," he said. "I started to move over to do a little block, but he was really moving and I decided to let him go. I thought I could held him out by blocking Hornish a little, but he got by me a little too quick."
Kasey Kahne snapped Jimmie Johnson's streak of dominance at Lowe's Motor Speedway by taking the lead with 29 laps to go and pulling away to win NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600.
Johnson, the winner of the past three Coca-Cola 600s and seven of the last 10 races at Lowe's, finished second. He was well over two seconds behind Kahne, who stopped his car at the finish line to grab the checkered flag and celebrate with his team.
"It's a weird race, a long race, and I'm very proud of the stats that I've had -- and slightly disappointed that it's come to an end," Johnson said.
It was Kahne's third victory of the season, and the first win for a Dodge at the track since Richard Petty in 1977.
"That's all I ever wanted here, was a car that could race with Jimmie at the end," Kahne said. "You know every time you get to the end of a race at Charlotte, Jimmie Johnson is the guy to beat.
"We finally made it to that point and had a car that could race him and we were able to win."
Carl Edwards, Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth finished third through fifth for Roush Racing, followed by Jeff Burton, then Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray in the other two Roush Fords. Denny Hamlin and Reed Sorenson rounded out the top 10, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 11th.
Defending series champion Tony Stewart wrecked on the 32nd lap when he lost air in his right front tire, and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. He was seen and released, and a team spokesman said he broke the tip of his right shoulder blade. Stewart -- who slipped to fourth in the standings, 209 points behind Johnson -- also was taken to the hospital because of a bruised shoulder following a wreck in Saturday's second-tier Busch Series race.
"He's going to be sore -- it's the same spot he hit last time," team president J.D. Gibbs said. "There isn't much you can do about it. He needs rest."
It looked as if pole-sitter Scott Riggs was going to make a run at his first career victory until a series of mistakes during his pit stop with 40 laps to go took him out of contention.
Riggs was the leader when he pitted, but didn't come to a clean stop, stalled his Dodge when he tried to pull away, and as his crew pushed him out the jack and fuel can left his assigned area -- drawing a stop-and-go penalty that took him out of contention. He ended up 13th.
He was 17th on the restart, with Edwards, Johnson and Kasey Kahne leading the field with 33 laps to go.
Kahne grabbed the lead moments later, his seventh time out front in NASCAR's longest race of the season. He led a race-high 158 of the 400 laps in a race that begins in the day, ends in the night and leaves most drivers mentally and physically exhausted.
"Kasey's car was pretty awesome," Edwards said. "I couldn't keep up with him when he went by us, so I'm pretty happy with third place."
Tempers flared late in the race when Casey Mears lost control of his Dodge, bounced off the wall and into Kyle Busch while the two were running second and fourth. Mears suffered slight damage, but Busch's night was ruined.
As NASCAR officials tried to coax Busch back toward the garage, he angrily tried to break free so he could get at Mears as he passed by. He only managed a feeble, left-handed toss of a safety device that failed to hit Mears.
"Just a very frustrating moment for me," Busch said. "I had a really great race car that I thought could have won the race."
Drivers had to contend with a slick new track surface, a very hard tire that made it difficult from them to get good grip, and NASCAR-mandated small fuel cells which forced them to stop for gas more times than usual.
Veteran driver Mark Martin used the pre-race driver's meeting to implore the competitors to use patience on the track surface, which had a US$3 million repaving job over the winter. The new surface was fast -- and slippery to drivers on cold tires -- and Goodyear tried to counter it with one of the hardest tire compounds it could create.
But just to be on the safe side, NASCAR ordered the use of a 14-gallon fuel tank to ensure drivers could not put together long runs that would cause extensive wear on the tires.
Despite all the precautions, the race was still plagued with plenty of spins and an occasional tire problem. There were 15 cautions -- down from a record 22 a year ago -- and drivers had mixed opinions on the surface and the tire.
"I can't believe this is the kind of tire we have to race on," Jeff Gordon grumbled after wrecking out to finish 36th. "Goodyear could do better than this, and we could put on a better race than this."
Winning Formula One's most prestigious grand prix in Monaco ranks right up there in Fernando Alonso's fast growing list of milestones.
F1's youngest world champion was ecstatic over his seemingly easy victory, knowing the race's history, and his own previous failures to win on the tight, street course.
"Its very special, probably the most popular motor race in the world and we did it," Alonso said.
"I think in 2003 we had a small opportunity, the car wasn't really good enough to fight for victory. In 2004 I had the incident in the tunnel. In 2005 we were on the pace until the tires gave out.
"This is a special place for any driver to win a race, for the history, for what it represents to Formula One and because it is such a big challenge to get through the race with no mistakes."
Alonso's second straight grand prix victory and fourth this year in seven races was made to look even more of a cruise in his Renault while his chief rivals -- Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen -- were enduring problems.
Schumacher started from pit lane after he was stripped of the pole position late Saturday. Stewards ruled Schumacher deliberately stopped his Ferrari on the circuit, blocked other drivers, gave Alonso the pole, and placed the German at the back of the grid. Schumacher's dream of a record-tying sixth victory in Monaco was shattered, and he was a minute behind after 20 laps. But he salvaged fifth as others dropped out.
Schumacher later defended his actions during qualifying.
"I was amazed at how tough the stewards' decision was," he said. "I can understand that, from the outside, things might seem a bit strange. I am sorry that Fernando's lap was ruined and it was definitely not my intention to do that."
Raikkonen ran Alonso close through the first 50 laps, but on the 51st Raikkonen's race ended when his engine overheated.
"There was a small fire caused by a heat shield which damaged wiring, and that was the end of the race for me," Raikkonen said.
It was the same problem he had in the first practice on Thursday when he ran just three laps.
After Raikkonen dropped out, Alonso eased to a 15-second victory over Juan Pablo Montoya and David Coulthard. Montoya drives for McLaren but the Colombian driver may be pushed out by Alonso when Alonso joins the team next season.
Coulthard won the Monaco race twice for McLaren, and his third place for Red Bull on Sunday earned the first podium in the team's short history.
With his 12th career victory, Alonso has 64 points, second-placed Schumacher 43, and Raikkonen and Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella 27 each.
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