Indianapolis 500 2008

Indianapolis 500 2008

Venue:	Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Date:	May 25, 2008
Winner:	Scott Dixon
Pole position:	Scott Dixon (364.3 km / h)
Most leadership laps:	Scott Dixon
Transmitting sender:	Premiere Sport
Transmitting sender (USA):	ABC
Distance:	500 miles
Number of laps:	200

The Indianapolis 500 in the 2008 IndyCar Series season was the 92nd edition of the circuit racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway , which took place in the 2008 IndyCar Series season. The fifth race of the season was held on May 25, 2008. In Germany, the race was broadcast live by Premiere Sport . An enormously high starting field was expected, especially due to the merger of the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car . However, the assumption was refuted with an average starting field. The prize money that went to the winner Scott Dixon was an unprecedented 2.5 million dollars . The total prize money for all drivers was $ 13.4 million.

First week of training

Indianapolis Star Opening Day presents the Unsers / Rookie Orientation

Will Power in Indianapolis (2008)

May 4, 2008 - Best training placements
space	Car no.	driver	team	highest average speed (mph)
1	8th	Will power	KV Racing	220.694
2	33	EJ Viso	HVM Racing	220.445
3	5	Oriol Servià	KV Racing	220.102
4th	16	Alex Lloyd	Rahal Letterman Racing w / CGR	219,964
5	27	Hideki Mutoh	Andretti Green Racing	219.824
Official report

Introducing the newbies

May 5, 2008 - Best training placements
space	Car no.	driver	team	highest average speed
1	16	Alex Lloyd	Rahal Letterman Racing w / CGR	223.033
2	27	Hideki Mutoh	Andretti Green Racing	222,600
3	8th	Will power	KV Racing	222.267
4th	5	Oriol Servià	KV Racing	222.089
5	06	Graham Rahal	Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing	221.155
Official report

Indy Car Series training

Marco Andretti dominated the first week of training

Andretti's car with special Indiana Jones paintwork

space	Car no.	driver	team	highest average speed
May 6, 2008 - Best training placements
1	26th	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	226,599
2	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	225.269
3	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	225.011
4th	6th	Ryan Briscoe	Penske Racing	224,804
5	10	Dan Wheldon	Chip Ganassi Racing	224.727
Official report
The training sessions on May 7th and 8th were canceled due to rain.
May 9, 2008 - Best training placements
1	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	226.968
2	26th	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	226.710
3	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	226.688
4th	6th	Ryan Briscoe	Penske Racing	226.143
5	27	Hideki Mutoh	Andretti Green Racing	225.990
Official report
May 10, 2008 - Best training placements
space	Car no.	driver	team	highest average speed
1	26th	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	228.318
2	10	Dan Wheldon	Chip Ganassi Racing	227.223
3	6th	Ryan Briscoe	Penske Racing	227.163
4th	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	227.055
5	12	Tomas Scheckter	Luczo Dragon Racing	227.015
Official report

Qualification (1–11)

Scott Dixon takes pole position.

Wheldon took second place

The first "Pole Day" for the allocation of the first ten starting positions was held on May 10th. The allocation of ranks twelve to 22 could not take place on the following Sunday due to rain, which forced the organizers to allocate the starting places for the remaining 33 participants on Sunday, May 17th. This was particularly disadvantageous for the rookies, as they had very little track experience due to the multiple failures.

May 10, 2008 - Top 11 qualifying results
space	Car no.	driver	team	Qualification speed
1	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	226,366
2	10	Dan Wheldon	Chip Ganassi Racing	226.110
3	6th	Ryan Briscoe	Penske Racing	226,080
4th	3	Helio Castroneves	Penske Racing	225.733
5	7th	Danica Patrick	Andretti Green Racing	225.197
6th	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	224.794
7th	26th	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	224.417
8th	4T	Vítor Meira	Panther Racing	224,346
9	27	Hideki Mutoh	Andretti Green Racing	223.887
10	20th	Ed Carpenter	Vision racing	223.835
11	12	Tomas Scheckter	Luczo Dragon Racing	223.496
Official report

Second week of training

Ryan Briscoe in Indianapolis 2008

John Andretti had the best training times on May 17th, 2008

space	Car no.	driver	team	highest average speed
May 14, 2008 - Best training placements
1	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	222.834
2	10	Dan Wheldon	Chip Ganassi Racing	222.810
3	26th	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	222,801
4th	27	Hideki Mutoh	Andretti Green Racing	221.868
5	7th	Danica Patrick	Andretti Green Racing	221.683
Official report
May 15, 2008 - Best training placements
1	6th	Ryan Briscoe	Penske Racing	223.708
2	3	Helio Castroneves	Penske Racing	223.284
3	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	223.192
4th	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	222.880
5	12	Tomas Scheckter	Luczo Dragon Racing	222,804
Official report
May 16, 2008 - Best training placements
1	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	223.713
2	3	Helio Castroneves	Penske Racing	223,411
3	6th	Ryan Briscoe	Penske Racing	223,372
4th	8th	Will power	KV Racing	223,039
5	06	Graham Rahal	Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing	222,959
Official report
May 17th, 2008 - Best training placements
1	24	John Andretti	Roth Racing	224,027
2	18th	Bruno Junqueira	Dale Coyne Racing	223.683
3	22nd	Davey Hamilton	Vision racing	223.638
4th	15th	Buddy Rice	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	223,557
5	99	Townsend Bell	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	222.499
Official report

Qualification (12–33)

The third qualifying session resulted in three accidents for Mario Domínguez , Max Papis and Phil Giebler . The former were only slightly affected, but Giebler made a 90-degree turn and flew backwards into the safer barrier. The driver's lungs were crushed and the car was almost totaled.

There was no bump that day, as only 22 other drivers tried to qualify. At AJ Foyt IV there were technical problems and most of the other candidates were not even present. Since both were already known at the time of Marty Roth's only qualification attempt, the time was irrelevant for this one, he still had to get through.

May 17, 2008 - Top 11 qualifying results
space	Car no.	driver	team	Qualification speed
12	99	Townsend Bell	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	222.539
13	06	Graham Rahal	Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing	222.531
14th	14th	Darren Manning	AJ Foyt Enterprises	222.430
15th	18th	Bruno Junqueira	Dale Coyne Racing	222.330
16	02	Justin Wilson	Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing	222.267
17th	15th	Buddy Rice	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	222.101
18th	22nd	Davey Hamilton	Vision racing	222.017
19th	16	Alex Lloyd	Rahal Letterman Racing w / CGR	221.788
20th	17th	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Rahal Letterman Racing	221,579
21st	24	John Andretti	Roth Racing	221.550
22nd	67	Sarah Fisher	Sarah Fisher Racing	221.246
23	8th	Will power	KV Racing	221.136
24	41	Jeff Simmons	AJ Foyt Enterprises	221.103
25th	5	Oriol Servià	KV Racing	220.767
26th	33	Ernesto Viso	HVM Racing	220.356
27	23	Milka Duno	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	220,305
28	19th	Mario Moraes	Dale Coyne Racing	219.716
29	36	Enrique Bernoldi	Conquest Racing	219,422
30th	34	Jaime Camara	Conquest Racing	219,345
31	98	Roger Yasukawa	CURB / Agajanian / Beck Motorsports	218,010
32	91	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	217,939
33	25th	Marty Roth	Roth Racing	215.506
Official report

Bump Day

Six drivers were supposed to try to qualify on that day. American Dream Motorsport did not show up after Phil Giebler's accident, although they would have had a second car. Since the team discontinued its activities in the IndyLights Series a little later, financial reasons must be assumed here.

The remaining drivers had very different requirements:

• AJ Foyt IV is one of the established drivers of the series, if not the absolute top. The fact that the car hadn't qualified so far was clearly due to technical problems during the previous practice session. His two teammates were clearly qualified in places 10 (Ed Carpenter) and 18 (Davey Hamilton). As expected, he qualified at the beginning of the session. However, it was already clear that the windy weather would not allow any miracle times - he was 11 km / h slower than the pole and would only have landed on starting position 31 on the previous qualifying day.
• Buddy Lazier is a former Indy500 winner, but Hemelgarn Racing only competed in this one race in 2008, which meant that the traditional team had to struggle with the density of power.
• Marty Roth drives the entire season in his own team, which is financed rather modestly and can only win sponsors from race to race. His team mate John Andretti was clearly qualified as 21st, but has a lot more experience; Roth was therefore unable to match Andretti's times, who even set faster lap times in free practice on the last day.
• Roger Yasukawa and Beck Motorsports previously only competed in Motegi, Japan. Here you were clearly the slowest car over the entire weekend - a qualifying session that was canceled due to rain did the rest. In Indy, on the other hand, they were halfway able to keep up with the back field, but in the end they just barely qualified.
• Mario Dominguez and Pacific Coast Motorsports are one of the former ChampCar teams, but this is their first time at the Indy 500. So there was no experience with the Dallara chassis and no oval races had been contested for a long time. The last qualification attempt, which began immediately before the time ran out, looked like a sensation at first. In the first of the four flying laps, Dominguez had achieved by far the fastest lap of a qualifier that day with 219.7 mph; on the second lap, however, he lost control of his car and ended up in the lane.
• Max Papis and Sam Schmidt Racing, like Hemelgarn, only competed at this event and also had to struggle with technical problems. The team did not drive a single lap that was even close to qualifying; the best was 216.3 mph.

space	Car no.	driver	team	highest average speed
May 18, 2008 - Best training placements
1	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	221.514
2	10	Dan Wheldon	Chip Ganassi Racing	220.653
3	06	Graham Rahal	Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing	220.627
4th	24	John Andretti	Roth Racing	219.836
5	96	Mario Domínguez	Pacific Coast Motorsports	219.780
Official report
May 18, 2008 - Bump Day: Qualification Results
31	2	AJ Foyt IV	Vision racing	219.184
32	91	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	219.015
33	25th	Marty Roth	Roth Racing	218,965
Official report
The last training session and the Miller Lite Pit Stop Challenge on May 23rd were canceled due to rain.

Starting grid

Row	Inside		center		Outside
1	9	Scott Dixon	10	Dan Wheldon (G)	6th	Ryan Briscoe
2	3	Hélio Castroneves (G)	7th	Danica Patrick	11	Tony Kanaan
3	26th	Marco Andretti	4T	Vítor Meira	27	Hideki Mutoh (R)
4th	20th	Ed Carpenter	12	Tomas Scheckter	99	Townsend Bell
5	06	Graham Rahal (R)	14th	Darren Manning	18th	Bruno Junqueira
6th	02	Justin Wilson (R)	15th	Buddy Rice (G)	22nd	Davey Hamilton
7th	16	Alex Lloyd (R)	17T	Ryan Hunter-Reay (R)	24	John Andretti
8th	67	Sarah Fisher	8th	Will Power (R)	41	Jeff Simmons
9	5	Oriol Servià (R)	33	Ernesto Viso (R)	23	Milka Duno
10	19th	Mario Moraes (R)	36	Enrique Bernoldi (R)	34	Jaime Camara (R)
11	2	AJ Foyt IV	91	Buddy Lazier (G)	25th	Marty Roth
Official report

Mario Domínguez (# 96, Pacific Coast Motorsports ) and Roger Yasukawa (# 98, Beck Motorsports ) did not qualify . Max Papis (# 44, Sam Schmidt Motorsports ) and Phil Giebler (# 88, American Dream Motorsport ) were there during the training session, but did not attempt to qualify. # 44 was clearly too slow in all training sessions, # 88 had an accident in free practice.

• (G) = Former Indianapolis 500 winner
• (R) = Indianapolis 500 rookie

run

Race start at the Indianapolis 500 2008

As expected, Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon led the race at the beginning . Already in the eighth lap there was the first yellow phase due to a fallen outside mirror on Bruno Junqueira . The front field took the opportunity for the first pit stop. When AJ Foyt IV was occurred during the caution period in the pit lane to a fire on the car, no one injured. The next caution phases were called in rounds 50 and 80. The leadership continued to be determined by the Ganassi pilots. On lap 94, Tony Kanaan took the lead, as in any of his previous Indy 500 starts. As with every one of his participation in the most traditional circuit car race in the world, he lost it again. On lap 106 Scott Dixon was in the lead again, ahead of Marco Andretti . During Andretti's overtaking maneuver, Kanaan lost control of his car and picked up Sarah Fisher . On lap 122, Andretti was ahead of Dixon, Scheckter, Meira and Ryan Hunter-Reay. The seventh caution phase was triggered by Alex Lloyd, who flew into the wall and then slid into the pit lane, where nobody was at the time. On lap 169 of 200, Milka Duno triggered the last interruption of the race through external fault. Danica Patrick took the opportunity to hold a pit stop. When exiting the pit lane, Ryan Briscoe slipped, leaving Patrick no room to evade. The contact caused a broken suspension for popular Danica Patrick. As a result, she retired from the race, visibly annoyed, but Briscoe could not continue the race either. After a chaotic restart, 24 laps remained to be driven, all of which were led by Dixon followed by Vítor Meira .

space	begin	difference	Car no.	driver	Round	time	team	Points
1	1	0	9	Scott Dixon	200	3: 28: 57.6792	Target Chip Ganassi	50 + 3
2	8th	+6	4th	Vítor Meira	200	+1.7498	Panther Racing	40
3	7th	+4	26th	Marco Andretti	200	+2.3127	Andretti Green Racing	35
4th	4th	0	3	Helio Castroneves	200	+6.2619	Penske Racing	32
5	10	+5	20th	Ed Carpenter	200	+6.5505	Vision racing	30th
6th	20th	+14	17th	Ryan Hunter-Reay (R)	200	+6.9894	Rahal Letterman Racing	28
7th	9	+2	27	Hideki Mutoh (R)	200	+7.8768	Andretti Green Racing	26th
8th	17th	+9	15th	Buddy Rice	200	+8.8798	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	24
9	14th	+5	14th	Darren Manning	200	+9.2019	AJ Foyt Enterprises	22nd
10	12	+2	99	Townsend Bell	200	+9.4567	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	20th
11	25th	+14	5	Oriol Servià (R)	200	+22.4966	KV Racing	19th
12	2	−10	10	Dan Wheldon	200	+30.7090	Target Chip Ganassi	18th
13	23	+10	8th	Will Power (R)	200	+31.6666	KV Racing	17th
14th	18th	+4	22nd	Davey Hamilton	200	+32.0084	Vision racing	16
15th	29	+4	36	Enrique Bernoldi (R)	200	+32.1075	Conquest Racing	15th
16	21st	+5	24	John Andretti	199	+1 lap	Roth Racing	14th
17th	32	+16	91	Buddy Lazier	195	+5 laps	Hemelgarn Racing	13
18th	28	+10	19th	Mario Moraes (R)	194	+6 laps	Dale Coyne Racing	12
19th	27	+8	23	Milka Duno	185	+15 rounds	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	12
20th	15th	−5	18th	Bruno Junqueira	184	+16 rounds	Dale Coyne Racing	12
21st	31	+10	2	AJ Foyt IV	180	+20 rounds	Vision racing	12
22nd	5	−17	7th	Danica Patrick	171	accident	Andretti Green Racing	12
23	3	−20	6th	Ryan Briscoe	171	accident	Penske Racing	12
24	11	−13	12	Tomas Scheckter	156	Mechnical defect	Luczo Dragon Racing	12
25th	19th	−1	16	Alex Lloyd (R)	151	accident	Rahal Letterman Racing w / Target Chip Ganassi	10
26th	26th	0	33	EJ Viso (R)	139	Mechnical defect	HVM Racing	10
27	16	−9	02	Justin Wilson (R)	132	accident	Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing	10
28	24	−4	41	Jeff Simmons	112	accident	AJ Foyt Racing	10
29	6th	−23	11	Tony Kanaan	105	accident	Andretti Green Racing	10
30th	22nd	−8	67	Sarah Fisher	103	accident	Sarah Fisher Racing	10
31	30th	−1	34	Jaime Camara (R)	79	accident	Conquest Racing	10
32	33	+1	25th	Marty Roth	59	accident	Roth Racing	10
33	13	−20	06	Graham Rahal (R)	36	accident	Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing	10

Web links

Commons : Indianapolis 500 2008  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reaction positive for IRL-Champ Car merge , Yahoo.com. February 23, 2008 . Retrieved April 19, 2008. 
2. ↑ Indianapolis 500 Purse, Winner's Payout To Soar In 2008 , Indy500.com. October 2, 2008 . Retrieved April 19, 2008.