Indy 500: Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing race report

McDONALD'S DRIVER RAHAL AND HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER DOORNBOS RETIRED FROM THE INDY 500 DUE TO CONTACT

McDonald's driver Graham Rahal started fourth in his second Indy 500 and was in fifth when he made contact while attempting to lap a backmarker on Lap 56 of 200 and retired in 31st place. At the start of the race, fifth and sixth place starters Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan passed him and he dropped to sixth place. He held sixth place until the first pit stop on Lap 23 under caution for Ryan Hunter-Reay who made contact. The McDonald's crew completed a quick stop and Rahal took fifth place from Kanaan in the pits before returning to the track. He held his position through the restart and until Lap 56 when he was attempting to lap Milka Duno. While trying to pass her, he drove high on the track and into the tire marbles which limited his ability to steer his race car and made contact with the wall exiting Turn 4. He retired in 31st place and collected 10 points to drop from an eighth place rank to 11th with 82. Following are his post race comments:

"We all caught traffic, basically," said Rahal. "Milka (Duno) got in front of me, and she was absolutely clueless. She would go low like she was going to let everybody by, but then she'd go fast enough where you can't get by her. She would come out on track and run you real tight. I tried to go half a car width up in (Turn) 4 and it just went straight. Same thing I did last year. I'm really upset and disappointed. The McDonald's car was feeling good. We had the pace to stay with the leaders. We couldn't get close enough to pass, but still it's disappointing."

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver Robert Doornbos competed in his first Indianapolis 500 and had climbed to 15th from his 23rd place starting position, contact on Lap 51 took him out of contention and he ultimately retired in 29th place after briefly returning to the track after the team repaired his race car. He gained two positions on the start and was up to 20th before his first pit stop on Lap 23 under caution. A quick stop gained him two positions and he retired in 18th place. By Lap 38 he was in 16th place and held the position until Lap 51 when Tomas Scheckter made a late pass going into Turn 4 and Doornbos was in the marbles and brushed the wall heavily exiting Turn 4. He immediately came into the pits and the team determined that the right rear upper and lower wishbone needed to be replaced so they pushed the car to the garage area. Around Lap 98 while the field was under caution Doornbos returned to the track 41 laps down to the leaders. He ran a dozen or so laps before he pitted again with a leak in the brake system and ultimately retired in 28th place. Helio Castroneves earned his third Indy 500 win with Dan Wheldon and Danica Patrick finishing second and third respectively. He collected 10 points and is ranked 15th in the standings with a total of 69 and maintained his lead in the Rookie of the Year standings. Following are his post race comments.

"I was so happy that we finally started racing today," said Doornbos. "I wanted to get going. On the grid I was so impressed to be part of this race. On my first stint, I was in traffic and I think we were on schedule because we made up eight places already and were running in the top 15 a quarter through the race. The car was decent, the car was good but then Tomas (Scheckter) made an over-optimistic pass in Turn 1 very late and left me no where to go on the marbles. It felt like forever, forever as the wall was getting closer and I just brushed it and we bent something and it was our day basically. It's very unfortunate because he could have tried to pass a bit later and we would still be running but that's the Indy 500 I guess. We went back to the garage and changed the right rear upper and lower wishbone and got back out to get some points and experience but we had poor brakes. It felt like we had some liquid from the brakes leaking on the rear end which made to car feel really loose. We came in and found there was a leak so we parked it. It's very disappointing."

Next Up...The team will compete at "home" next weekend when they return to the Milwaukee Mile for the ABC Supply Company A.J. Foyt 225.

-credit: nhlr