Penske’s strategy notches win for Briscoe
Posted: 07/21/08 - 11:55:05 am CDT
LEXINGTON, Ohio (AP) — Roger Penske proved yet again he’s a master strategist, and a pretty good judge of racing talent, too.
The Captain came up with a surprising strategy in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course that newest Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe turned into his second IndyCar Series victory Sunday.
“Roger, with his experience, he always finds a way to pit at the right time and get you back up to the front,” said Briscoe, who drove sports cars for Penske last year before moving to the IndyCar team this season. “Today was a perfect case of that. Once we got back up there, we had the pace to run fast and pull away. It was just perfect.”
Penske, the winningest team owner in open-wheel history, made the call to put Briscoe out of sequence with the other contenders. In the end, the team wound up with a 1-2 sweep in the Honda Indy 200 as Helio Castroneves followed Briscoe across the finish line.
“Team Penske was just awesome,” Briscoe said. “That was all Roger; that was his strategy.”
The race began about one hour after a downpour soaked the 2.25-mile, 13-turn road circuit, leaving puddles in places. IndyCar officials ruled it a wet start and all the cars had to begin the race on grooved rain tires.
But, with the sun shining and the track drying fast as the field took the green flag, cars quickly began heading for pit road to change to racing slicks. The Penske team waited to bring Briscoe onto pit lane until lap six, dropping him all the way to 16th.
“There was one point where we fell back in the pack, staying out a bit too long on the wets,” the 26-year-old Australian driver said. “I was thinking to myself ... ‘I know it can be done. I know with Roger calling my strategy, we’ll get up to the front. But if we get to win this, it’s going to be awesome.’ I actually thought that to myself, and here we are.”
With little to lose, Penske brought Briscoe back into the pits again on lap 23, ahead of most of the other contenders, putting him completely out of sequence, a move that eventually made the difference.
“I think that was the only chance we had,” Penske said. “What a great drive for Briscoe. I think he’s validated himself now as one of the top drivers in the Indy Racing League. And, to finish 1-2, I couldn’t believe when I saw what happened here a few minutes ago.”
It’s the eighth 1-2 finish and first since 2005 at Phoenix for Penske, whose team now has 136 open-wheel wins, including seven at Mid-Ohio. The first six of those wins here were in the old CART series that later became Champ Car and was absorbed into the IndyCar Series in February.
The rain never returned, but the early pit stops and several spins and crashes in the early going turned the 85-lap event into a messy race, with a lot of differing strategies.
But Briscoe, who led a race-high 43 laps, was in the right position throughout the race, taking the lead when the other leaders pitted on lap 39, making his final stop on lap 55 and then regaining the lead for good on lap 60 as the other leaders finishing making their final stops.
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