Welcome to the Indy Japan 300, the 16th race of the 2009 IndyCar® Series season. John Griffin, vice president of public relations for the Indy Racing League, Yoshihisa Ueno, Manager of Public Relations for Twin Ring Motegi, and their staffs are here to assist you. Please direct your questions and requests to anyone in the Media Center.
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Brawn GP driver Jenson Button, the current point leader in Formula 1, is attending today's race as a guest of Honda.
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Luczo Dragon Racing driver Raphael Matos fell in the hotel overnight and is driving with a sore wrist.
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Vision Racing has created a tribute to three crew members that did not make the trip to Japan. Cardboard cutouts of Nathan O'Rourke, Dave Bishop and Dan Rushing have been taped to the team's pit stand.
INDY JAPAN 300 RACE SPECIFICS:
· The race is 200 laps/300 miles on the 1.5-mile oval.
· Green flag will be shown third time by the flag stand.
· The fuel allotment is 112 gallons of 100-percent fuel-grade ethanol with a fuel window of 48-50 laps under green flag conditions.
· The restart cone for restarts will be between Turns 3 and 4.
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INDY JAPAN 300 RACE RUNNING:
At 11:30 a.m., the ambient temperature was 76 degrees. Skies were cloudy. The track temperature was 96 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.
11:55 a.m. - Osamu Inoue, Senior Vice President of Bridgestone Corporation and grand marshal of the event gave the command "Drivers start your engines." All cars have started and are rolling on the grid.
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INDY JAPAN 300 RACE RUNNING:
Lap 1: GREEN. #9 Dixon leads the field into Turn 1. #10 Franchitti passes #5 Moraes for second.
Lap 5: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .8784 of a second. #26 Andretti runs eighth after starting 14th.
Lap 10: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .9415 of a second.
Lap 15: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by 1.1365 seconds.
Lap 20: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by 1.0663 seconds.
Lap 25: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .9760 of a second.
Lap 30: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .6224 of a second.
Lap 35: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .4795 of a second.
Lap 40: Working heavy traffic, #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .4801 of a second.
Lap 44: #34 Matsuura on pit road for four tires and fuel.
Lap 45: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .4129 of a second.
Lap 46: #5 Moraes on pit road for four tires and fuel. Slow stop for refueling.
Lap 47: #14 Hunter-Reay on pit road for four tires and fuel.
Lap 48: #4 Wheldon on pit road for four tires and fuel and front wing change.
Lap 49: #27 Mutoh, #20 Carpenter and #9 Dixon on pit road for four tires and fuel. New leader is #10 Franchitti.
Lap 50: #10 Franchitti, #6 Briscoe pits for four tires and fuel.
Lap 52: Green flag stops complete, #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by .4398 of a second.
Lap 55: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by .6362 of a second.
Lap 61: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by .5523 of a second.
Lap 65: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by 1.0843 seconds.
Lap 70: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by .9037 of a second.
Lap 71 #5 Moraes pits from fifth spot for four tires, fuel and wing adjustments.
Lap 75: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by 1.3664 seconds.
Lap 80: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by 1.8279 seconds. #43 Yasukawa rejoins after changing a broken rear shock.
Lap 85: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by 2.2412 seconds. Top 10 cars are on the lead lap
Lap 90: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by 2.4034 seconds. #23 Scheckter has climbed from the car after a mechanical issue. #34 Matsuura returns to pit lane for four tires and fuel.
Lap 95: #10 Franchitti leads #9 Dixon by 2.7408 seconds.
Lap 98: #18 Wilson pits four tires and fuel.
Lap 99: #4 Wheldon also pits for four tires and fuel.
Lap 100: #9 Dixon pits for four tires and fuel and front wing adjustment.
Lap 101: #10 Franchitti pits for four tires and fuel. New leader is #6 Briscoe.
Lap 102: #7 Patrick, #26 Andretti and #06 Servia pit for four tires and fuel.
Lap 103: #02 Rahal pits for four tires and fuel.
Lap 105: #6 Briscoe leads #9 Dixon by more than 22 seconds.
Lap 106: #6 Briscoe on pit road for four tires and fuel. YELLOW. #24 Conway spins and makes contact with the SAFER Barrier between Turns 3 and 4. #6 Briscoe hits inside wall exiting the pit lane and has the pit cone trailing from behind front wing.
Lap 109: #6 Briscoe back on pit road for four tires, fuel and to replace the nosecone.
Lap 111: #6 Briscoe on pit road to repair left-front suspension.
Lap 118: GREEN. #9 Dixon leads the field into Turn 1.
Lap 120: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .5687 of a second.
Lap 124: #6 Briscoe has rejoined the race 12 laps down.
Lap 125: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .8534 of a second.
Lap 130: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by 1.0719 seconds. #6 Briscoe is back on pit lane.
Lap 135: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .9466 of a second.
Lap 140: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .8826 of a second.
Lap 146: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .9523 of a second.
Lap 150: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .5516 of a second. #4 Wheldon is 1.6849 seconds behind in third.
Lap 157: #4 Wheldon, running third, on pit road for four tires and fuel.
Lap 158: #2 Matos on pit road for four tires and fuel.
Lap 160: Leaders #9 Dixon and #10 Franchitti on pit road for four tires and fuel. Leader is #02 Rahal. YELLOW. #14 Hunter-Reay spins and makes hard contact in Turn 4.
Lap 163: Leaders, #02 Rahal, #06 Servia and #7 Patrick and #5 Moraes, pit for four tires and fuel. #9 Dixon inherits leads.
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Medical update from Dr. Geoffrey Billows, IRL medical official, Mike Conway has been checked and released from the infield care center. He is cleared to drive.
MIKE CONWAY (No. 24 Charter Media/Dreyer & Reinbold): "I had a little run on Tony (Kanaan) into Turn 3 but was never really alongside him. I was slipping my nose on him and backed down at the last minute as we were in the corner and I just went down onto the apron and kicked it around. It is a long way to come to not finish the race. Thanks to the guys for the car they gave me this weekend."
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Lap 172: #9 Dixon leads the field into Turn 1.
Lap 175: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .7120 of a second.
Lap 180: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by .8321 of a second. #02 Rahal is third 3.3 seconds behind.
Lap 185: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by 1.3727 seconds.
Lap 190: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by 1.4920 seconds.
Lap 195: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by 1.4649 seconds.
Lap 199: WHITE: #9 Dixon leads #10 Franchitti by 1.4609 seconds.
Lap 200: CHECKERED: Scott Dixon wins the Indy Japan 300 by 1.4475 seconds.
INDY JAPAN 300 POST-RACE NOTES:
· This is Scott Dixon's fifth win of the season and the 21st of his IndyCar Series career. His last win came at Mid-Ohio.
· It is the 22nd win of Scott Dixon's open-wheel career tying Tony Bettenhausen, Helio Castroneves, Emerson Fittipaldi and Dario Franchitti for 16th on the list of all-time open-wheel wins.
· This is Target Chip Ganassi Racing's ninth win of the season and its 33rd win in the IndyCar Series.
· Dario Franchitti finished second, his 12th top-five finish and eighth podium finish of the season.
· Graham Rahal finished third, his fifth top-five finish of the season.
· Oriol Servia finished fourth, his best finish of the season and matching his career-best finish of fourth at Belle Isle in 2008.
· Mario Moraes finished fifth, his third-straight top-five finish.
INDYCAR SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
· Scott Dixon takes the point lead with his win at Twin Ring Motegi, the 14th change at the top of the point standings in 16 races.
· The eight points separating first place Scott Dixon from third-place Ryan Briscoe is the second-closest spread between in series history. Only the 2003 season had a closer margin between first and third.
· The five points separating first place Scott Dixon from second-place Dario Franchitti is the fourth-closest spread between first and second. There was a tie in 2003, 1 pt margin in 2006 and 3 points in 2007.
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Medical update from Dr. Geoffrey Billows, IRL medical official, Ryan Hunter-Reay has been checked and released from the infield care center. He is cleared to drive.
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INDY JAPAN 300 POST-RACE QUOTES:
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, winner Indy Japan 300): "A fantastic day for Team Target. A 1-2. For me it's tremendous. It's a track I've always wanted to win in. I kind of put Motegi just below the Indy 500. It's a very difficult circuit. I remember coming here in the early years and competing for different engine manufacturers and how much emphasis is put on this race. If you have a fast car, you can still get to the front. Put on a good show. Over the moon. Definitely a good day for points and very happy."
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Lifelock, finished second): I think we could see the Target cars were very strong. Both cars were very equally matched. Probably my car more so in traffic, and Scott maybe a little bit in clean air. But both cars, whichever one was in front was going to win. I managed to go longer than Scott in the first run. It was looking good. We came out of the pits after the second stop having pulled a pretty substantial gap. I was coming up to lap the No. 2 car, and I went to go on the inside and he came down, so I moved up, he moved up. He kept moving up until I hit a bump and ended up in the marbles. I managed to gather it back up, by which point Scott had a massive run and passed me. It was unfortunate to lose the lead that way, but we've seen that all year from him, to be honest. After that, it's just trying to pass Scott. We tried on the pits, on the restarts. We were so equal today, I needed traffic in front of us to slow Scott so I could get a run on him, and there wasn't any. "
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 02 McDonald's Racing Team, finished third): "The McDonald's boys have been working awfully hard this entire time, and we've had the pace and it's nice to get our first podium on a superspeedway and second of the season on an oval. It's such an interesting track and a change from what we're used to with the classic superspeedway shape. The McDonald's boys did a great job in the pits today and we saved a lot of fuel which put us in that position."
ORIOL SERVIA (No. 06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing, finished fourth): "It was a very good race. I'm extremely happy for the team to finish just behind Ganassi is very good. I'm very pleased, but obviously, I would have preferred to be on the podium but Graham had a run on me there at the end and he got the best out of it. I'm happy with the performance. I'm happy that the team gave me the opportunity. We had a good four races and definitely gained momentum, and I hope we can continue the momentum next year. I think we can be contenders for the championship if we start together from Day 1. That's what I really hope will happen. I'm happy how things have gone. I want to thank Carl and Bernadette Haas, Mike Lanigan and McDonald's for the opportunity."
MARIO MORAES (No. 5 Azul Tequila/Votorantim/KVRT, finished fifth): "I am happy for the KV Racing Technology team. They did a great job all weekend. We started second, but I fell in line in third place at the start of the race. Then on the first pit stop we had a problem refueling and had to come back in for more fuel. That put us two laps down. But, the whole team fought back and we got some luck with a yellow flag to get back on the lead lap in fuel sequence and finished fifth. It is our third consecutive top-five finish, so I am happy about that. I am also looking forward to going to Homestead. I think we are going to have a very good car there, so we can finish the season off really strong.
DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Boost Mobile/Motorola, finished sixth): "The No. 7 car was strong all day; unfortunately it just wasn't strong enough to defend my win from last year. We could have had a run on Mario (Moraes) but I got caught in traffic and just wasn't able to gain the position. Overall it was a good day and a solid finish for us."
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 Team Venom Energy, finished seventh): "Today wasn't a bad showing for the Venom boys, especially considering our starting position. A better qualifying run obviously would have made our day a lot easier, but we were able to work through some traffic and make the best it. Had that last yellow fallen a couple laps later I think it would have been a much brighter outcome for the #26 car, but you can't depend on yellows."
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske, finished 10th): "We were shooting for a top-10 finish for Team Penske here in Japan and we got it today. It was very difficult to pass out there but we did the best job we could. The team made some great calls and we had good pit stops. It's a shame that Ryan lost the points lead, but we know we will be strong at Homestead and our goal is to bring home a championship for Team Penske."
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven, finished 11th): "Starting last made it a difficult day for Team 7-Eleven. We did what we could, but it's a tough race and now-a-days track position is everything. Going from dead last to 11th makes for an okay day, but obviously we are always hoping for more."
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, finished 18th): Yeah, it was pretty frustrating. With the accident leaving the pits, it was a huge opportunity for me to get the race lead. I just gassed it too much leaving my box, and the car spun. I hit the wall. We had to change the front upright. The team did a great job doing it in the time they did, but unfortunately that was our day done pretty much. Just sort of brought the car home without pushing too hard at the end. The good thing is that it's only eight points to Scott. I feel real good going into Homestead. We've been strong on all the one and a halves this year. This track is unique. Ganassi had the upper hand on us this weekend. Homestead, Team Penske I'm confident is going to be the team to beat. Eight points is the difference between first and second. It looks like is it's going to be a pretty tough battle to see who can win the race.
HIDEKI MUTOH (No. 27 Formula Dream): "I am disappointed that I was injured during the qualifying session yesterday, but I did my best today. I would like to thank all the fans for cheering for me and want to apologize for not being able to show a better performance during the race. I saw the fans waving the flags during the yellow, and it gave me energy and made me realize how lucky I am to have such warm-hearted people on my side."
TOMAS SCHECKTER (No. 23 MonaVie/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing): "We were having a great run and I was able to get the MonaVie car in the top six on the start. I just have to thank the guys for giving me a good car. We were running solidly in the top eight, having a good race. At that point I started to conserve fuel because I got into a battle with Graham Rahal and Oriol Servia. Then we had an internal problem with the gearbox. It's very unfortunate, but that's racing and these things happen. I just have to thank everyone with MonaVie Japan for coming out and supporting me. I'm really looking forward to getting this MonaVie car in the top five in Miami, because the Dreyer & Reinbold car keeps getting quicker and quicker."
ROGER YASUKAWA (No. 43 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing): "We had a really good car for the race. At the start I was a bit conservative, but once we got it up to speed we had a good balance and passed a couple of cars. Right after the first stop, I went over a bump and we had an issue with the damper that broke and unfortunately was very close to hitting the wall. I was able to bring the car back into the pit and the race was pretty much over at the point for me, because we had to fix the car in the pits. I just want to thank my crew because I was able to get back out and the car felt great. I had great speed. I really want to thank the fans and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. After this race I was thinking if I don't have a good run maybe I will quit and do something else, but I was so happy to be back in the car and all of the hard work was definitely worth it. I will just have to give it another go next year and also at the Indianapolis 500."
KOSUKE MATSUURA (#34 Click Securities/Conquest Racing): "It was nice to be back in an IndyCar Series race. We would have liked to finish higher up but overall I had a good weekend and enjoyed being back behind the wheel. The team did a great job not just on pit stops but all weekend and it was great working with them. I want to say thank you again to Click Securities and Conquest Racing for giving me this chance of racing again at Twin Ring Motegi. Hopefully I can come back next year."
DAN WHELDON (No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing, finished eighth): "It was really good to be back and running up front again, and obviously from the entire Panther Racing team standpoint I feel everybody did an excellent job. The engineering staff made a big change last night for the race and it was very positive and I could see that it made the car very nice to drive today and certainly when catching lapped traffic I was able to make a lot of time up. Unfortunately it was one of those things for us today; we got caught on the yellow flag. But like I said everybody here has come here and put a lot of effort into this weekend and unfortunately they weren't rewarded. We again showed that we can run with the best."