2006 Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix

United States 2006 Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix
Race details
5th round of the 2006 IndyCar season
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Layout of the Watkins Glen International circuit
DateJune 4, 2006
Official nameWatkins Glen Indy Grand Prix presented by Tissot
LocationWatkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York
CoursePermanent racing facility
3.370 mi / 5.423 km
Distance55 laps
185.350 mi / 298.292 km
Pole position
DriverBrazil Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske)
TimeNo time
Fastest lap
DriverUnited States Marco Andretti (Andretti Green Racing)
Time1:34.8752 (on lap 38 of 55)
Podium
FirstNew Zealand Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing)
SecondBrazil Vítor Meira (Panther Racing)
ThirdAustralia Ryan Briscoe (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
Chronology
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2005 2007

The 2006 Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix presented by Tissot was an IndyCar Series motor race held on June 4, 2006, in Watkins Glen, New York at Watkins Glen International. It was the fifth round of the 2006 IndyCar Series season and the second annual edition of the event. The race was contested of 55 laps, shortened from the scheduled 60 laps due to rain. Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon won the race. Vítor Meira finished second for Panther Racing, and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing driver Ryan Briscoe finished third.

This race ended up being the final win for the Panoz chassis in IndyCar. Panoz would eventually discontinue their IndyCar involvement after the 2008 Indianapolis 500, leaving Dallara as the sole chassis manufacturer for 2009 and beyond.

This was also the first race in IndyCar history to be contested in the rain.[1]

Background

Further information: 2006 IndyCar Series § Confirmed entries
Watkins Glen International (pictured in 2021), where the race was held.

The Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix was confirmed to be part of IndyCar's 2006 schedule in September 2005.[2] It was the 5th of 14 scheduled races for 2006,[3] the second annual edition of the event,[4] and the first race of the season to be held in the Northeastern United States.[5] It was held on Sunday, June 4, 2006, at Watkins Glen International, a 3.37 mi (5.42 km), 11-turn permanent road course circuit, in Watkins Glen, New York, United States,[6] and was scheduled to be contested over 60 laps and 202.2 miles (325.4 km).[7] Scott Dixon was the defending race winner.[3] Heading into the event, Hélio Castroneves held the Drivers' Championship with 156 points. Sam Hornish Jr. improved to second in the standings with 144 points.[8] Dan Wheldon fell to third with 139 points, while Dixon and Tony Kanaan rounded out the top five with 120 and 119 points, respectively.[9]

This race marked the return of Ryan Briscoe, who suffered several injuries after a fiery crash at Chicagoland in 2005.[10] He drove the No. 5 entry for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, filling in for Buddy Lazier.[11] Team co-owner Dennis Reinbold stated that he and his team planned to evaluate Briscoe's performance during the race in order to improve their road-course efforts; Reinbold confirmed that Lazier would return in the next round at Texas.[12] Besides this lone driver change, Hemelgarn Racing shut down their operations for the remainder of the 2006 season, following a second-lap crash in the Indianapolis 500 which took out both of the team's entries,[13] thus leaving P. J. Chesson as a "free agent".[14]

In the days after Hornish Jr.'s victory in the Indianapolis 500, he began his "Victory Tour", which consisted of many media interviews on television and radio shows such as Mike & Mike in the Morning, Anderson Cooper 360°, and Live With Regis and Kelly; an additional appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman would air the day after the race at Watkins Glen.[15] Hornish Jr. admitted that he was slightly tired, but was also grateful for the experience and hoped to do it again next year.[16] By contrast, second-place finisher Marco Andretti was still dejected by the finish of the Indianapolis 500[17], but expressed excitement for the forthcoming event at Watkins Glen after successfully completing a test at the track the month prior.[18]

Practice and qualifying

Hélio Castroneves (pictured in 2009) was awarded the pole position.

Three practice sessions preceded the race on Sunday; the first two were held on Friday, and the third was held on Saturday. The first session lasted for 120 minutes, while the last two were split into two groups, each receiving 30 minutes of track time.[19] The groups would be determined by the speeds of the initial session.[20] Castroneves was fastest in practice on Friday morning, with a quick time of 1 minute and 30.9112 seconds, ahead of Kanaan, Dixon, Hornish Jr., and Dario Franchitti.[21] The session was stopped four times for spins involving Scott Sharp, Kanaan, Danica Patrick, and Tomas Scheckter, though they spun without contact.[22] Castroneves later improved on his quick lap during practice on Friday afternoon with a time of 1 minute and 30.6783 seconds, becoming the fastest driver of the day, ahead of Kanaan, Andretti, Dixon, and Wheldon;[23] he was accordingly given the responsibility to decide the qualifying order.[24] The lone red flag of the session occurred when Vítor Meira spun in turn seven.[25] Practice for the second group was also delayed by twelve minutes after a deer ran on the track.[22]

On Saturday morning, inclement weather prevented a medical helicopter from entering the track, forcing IndyCar officials to cancel qualifications.[26] The starting grid was determined by practice speeds on Friday. Castroneves was awarded the pole position, while fellow Brazilian driver Kanaan started alongside him on the front row.[27] Andretti, Dixon, and Wheldon took the third through fifth positions, while Hornish Jr., Franchitti, Meira, Bryan Herta, and Briscoe rounded out the top ten.[26] Buddy Rice, Kosuke Matsuura, Jeff Simmons, Sharp, Scheckter, Patrick, Eddie Cheever, Ed Carpenter, and Felipe Giaffone started in the final nine positions.[28] The third and final practice session was also delayed by nearly three hours and bunched into one group, which was given 75 minutes of practice.[29] Scheckter was the fastest driver of the rain-filled session with a time of 1 minute and 38.7505 seconds, besting Cheever, Giaffone, Briscoe, and Dixon.[30] Late in the session, Rice lost control of his car and spun in the first turn.[31]

Qualifying classification

Key Meaning
 R  Rookie
 W  Past winner
Pos No. Driver Team Chassis Final
grid
1 3 Brazil Hélio Castroneves Marlboro Team Penske Dallara 1
2 11 Brazil Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing Dallara 2
3 26 United States Marco Andretti  R  Andretti Green Racing Dallara 3
4 9 New Zealand Scott Dixon  W  Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz 4
5 10 United Kingdom Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz 5
6 6 United States Sam Hornish Jr. Marlboro Team Penske Dallara 6
7 27 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti Andretti Green Racing Dallara 7
8 4 Brazil Vítor Meira Panther Racing Dallara 8
9 7 United States Bryan Herta Andretti Green Racing Dallara 9
10 5 Australia Ryan Briscoe Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara 10
11 15 United States Buddy Rice Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz 11
12 55 Japan Kosuke Matsuura Super Aguri Fernández Racing Dallara 12
13 17 United States Jeff Simmons  R  Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz 13
14 8 United States Scott Sharp Delphi Fernández Racing Panoz 14
15 2 South Africa Tomas Scheckter Vision Racing Dallara 15
16 16 United States Danica Patrick Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz 16
17 51 United States Eddie Cheever Cheever Racing Dallara 17
18 20 United States Ed Carpenter Vision Racing Dallara 18
19 14 Brazil Felipe Giaffone A. J. Foyt Racing Dallara 19

Warm-up

All nineteen drivers took to the track on Sunday morning for a thirty-minute warm-up session under foggy conditions.[19][32] Castroneves lapped the quickest time of the session, at 1 minute and 49.2818 seconds.[33] Kanaan, who ended the session two minutes early after spinning in turn one, was second-quickest, followed by Meira, Franchitti, and Herta.[32] Cheever also spun in turn nine, but restarted his car with assistance from track marshals.[32]

Race

The race began at 3:45 PM Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, June 4, and was broadcast live on ABC in the United States.[19] Commentary was provided by Marty Reid, while retired drivers Scott Goodyear and Rusty Wallace took the roles of race analysts.[34] Chris Greico, executive of Tissot, commanded the drivers to start their engines. All nineteen drivers rolled off the pit lane, though Hornish Jr. experienced communication issues and drove off late.[32] Under damp weather conditions and air temperatures of 58 °F (14 °C), the race began with a rolling start.[32] Kanaan passed Castroneves for the lead in the fourth turn and led the first eight laps.[35] On the fourth lap, Scheckter became the first driver to swap out his rain tires for slick tires as the track gradually became dryer.[36] Many drivers, including Kanaan, would also enter pit road for slick tires and fuel on the seventh and eighth laps.[32] Simmons, on the other hand, assumed the lead and elected to stay on the track until lap 9. However, as Simmons exited pit road, his cold tires caused him to spin out; the yellow flag was resultantly flown for the first time.[37]

When the race was restarted on lap 12, Scheckter had interited the lead.[36] Only a lap later, the yellow flag was necessitated again when Hornish Jr. spun exiting the seventh turn. Wheldon, running closely behind Hornish Jr., barely avoided hitting him. However, as he attempted to refire his car, his engine stalled, placing him a lap down.[38] The third caution flag was issued on the restart on lap 16, when Franchitti, running in third, ran over a wet spot while entering the chicane and spun into the gravel trap.[39] As other drivers backed off, Rice did not see the initial incident and slid into the tire barriers at the chicane. Both drivers drove away with the help of track marshals.[37] During the subsequent restart on lap 20, Patrick backed into the wall exiting the final turn after receiving slight contact from Cheever, bringing out the fourth caution.[38] More issues arose in the first turn when Matsuura attempted to pass Simmons, but oversteered and slammed into the tire barriers, becoming airborne and collecting Simmons in the process.[40] Unlike Patrick, Matsuura and Simmons were unable to continue due to their heavy damage.[37] In the midst of the chaos, Scheckter led twelve consecutive laps and didn't reenter pit road until lap 22,[36] when he gave up the lead to Wheldon for fuel. The green flag was waved again on lap 23.[32]

As the attrition rate finally subsided, Wheldon pulled away from the field, gaining a 2.3727-second lead over Castroneves by lap 30.[32] Herta and Rice entered the pit lane on lap 34 for fresh tires and fuel, thus kicking off the second round of green-flag pit stops.[41] A lap later, Wheldon drove into pit lane and conceded the lead to Castroneves, who was three tenths of a second ahead of Dixon.[32] The fifth caution was triggered when Cheever, who had just exited pit lane with new tires, skidded into the path of Andretti in the ninth turn; Andretti resultantly veered into the tire barriers and retired from the race along with Cheever.[38] Andretti was evidently furious and shook his fist at Cheever as he exited his cockpit.[10] During this caution period, Castroneves and many other drivers dove into pit lane for tires and fuel, while Rice elected to stay out and take the race lead.[32]

Race classification

Pos No. Driver Team Chassis Laps Time/Retired Grid Laps Led Pts.1
1 9 New Zealand Scott Dixon  W  Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz 55 02:00:20.0224 4 9 50
2 4 Brazil Vítor Meira Panther Racing Dallara 55 +2.3311 8 0 40
3 5 Australia Ryan Briscoe Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara 55 +2.7999 10 0 35
4 15 United States Buddy Rice Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz 55 +9.2284 11 5 32
5 14 Brazil Felipe Giaffone A. J. Foyt Racing Dallara 55 +11.4811 19 0 30
6 20 United States Ed Carpenter Vision Racing Dallara 55 +12.4427 18 0 28
7 3 Brazil Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara 55 +13.0455 1 7 26
8 16 United States Danica Patrick Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz 55 +13.3289 16 0 24
9 8 United States Scott Sharp Delphi Fernández Racing Panoz 55 +16.6462 14 0 22
10 2 South Africa Tomas Scheckter Vision Racing Dallara 55 +48.4872 15 12 20
11 11 Brazil Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing Dallara 54 +1 Lap 2 8 19
12 6 United States Sam Hornish Jr. Team Penske Dallara 54 +1 Lap 6 0 18
13 7 United States Bryan Herta Andretti Green Racing Dallara 54 +1 Lap 9 0 17
14 27 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti Andretti Green Racing Dallara 44 +11 Laps 7 0 16
15 10 United Kingdom Dan Wheldon Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz 41 Mechanical 5 13 18
16 26 United States Marco Andretti  R  Andretti Green Racing Dallara 38 Accident 3 0 14
17 51 United States Eddie Cheever Cheever Racing Dallara 37 Accident 17 0 13
18 55 Japan Kosuke Matsuura Super Aguri Fernández Racing Dallara 19 Accident 12 0 12
19 17 United States Jeff Simmons  R  Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz 18 Accident 13 1 12
Fastest lap: United States Marco Andretti (Andretti Green Racing) - 1:34.8752 (lap 38)
Official race results
Notes
  • ^1 — Includes three bonus points for leading the most laps.

Championship standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included.

References

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