In discussing the last two races that haven't been covered here in this column, it was great to see one of the newbie's to the IRL, Adrian Fernandez, win in his first year with the series. Fernandez came into the series when Bobby Rahal switched over to the IRL from CART. The Mexican hotel chain that was sponsoring Fernandez didn't want to make the switch to the IRL because the series didn't race in Mexico. As a result, the switch was made without their backing, leaving them without a team or car to sponsor. Neither the team sponsor nor the CART league was happy to see Rahal or Fernandez defect to their fiercest competitor. Rahal partnered up with David Letterman with the very successful team winning this season's Indy 500 with Buddy Rice at the helm. Fernandez has his own team and sponsor and is also becoming very successful as an owner/driver.
At any rate, Fernandez has shown his worth by winning his first IRL event at the Kentucky Speedway. He was followed across the finish line in the top ten by Buddy Rice, Dan Wheldon, Kosuke Matsuura, Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Vitor Meira, Ed Carpenter, Bryan Herta, and Darren Manning. The top ten starters at Kentucky and how they finished:
- Buddy Rice -- #15 Honda -- finished 2nd
- Tony Kanaan -- #11 Honda -- finished 5th
- Sam Hornish Jr. -- #6 Toyota -- finished 14th
- Adrian Fernandez -- #5 Honda -- finished 1st
- Dario Franchitti -- #27 Honda -- finished 6th
- Helio Castroneves -- #3 Toyota -- finished 12th
- Vitor Meira -- #17 Honda -- finished 7th
- Darren Manning -- #10 Toyota -- finished 10th
- Scott Dixon -- #1 Toyota -- finished 13th
- Kosuke Matsuura* -- #55 Honda -- finished 4th
The next race was the Pikes Peak event high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains which was handily won by Scotsman Dario Franchitti. They're calling Franchitti "The Mile King" after he won the event on The Milwaukee Mile and again at the one mile facility at Pikes Peak.
Pikes Peak was a difficult track for the majority of the competitors. The thin air at the high altitude creates havoc with the naturally aspirated engines and also with the downforce on the front and rear wings that stabilize the car. The low atmospheric pressure just doesn't hold enough force on the car's wings to keep it stabilized through a couple of the bumpy corners on the old track surface. There were more wrecks than usual due to the different aero package that was instituted this season along with the smaller engines.
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