Fontana: something to hang on the wall

[meteorite]

Apology: I was unable to edit and post this yesterday as I had to go to the emergency room with a sudden illness , and it used up over eight hours of my day. Never did find out what was biting me but tincture of time made it go away.

The first place to look in the ,story that follows is the results - only ten finishers on the lead lap, and that on a longish speedway. For the rest, look at the reasons out - a couple of mechanical failures, but mostly contact. And the most telling of this is that the contact retirements occur in pairs or groups on the same lap. Despite the fact they were running on an oval, where most retirements come from hanging the car on the wall, these come more from cars bouncing off each other, despite the"easy" corners and single barrier.

In one of the wrecks, Justin Wilson took a serious beating including pelvic injuries that may not be operable, plus miscellaneous others only slightly less serious. The racing community wishes him well.

POWER WINS RACE, DIXON CLAIMS TITLE AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

FONTANA, Calif. (Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013) -- For the eighth consecutive year, the IZOD IndyCar Series champion was determined in the final race -- 500 high-speed, high-drama miles played out over 3 hours under the lights at Auto Club Speedway.

Scott Dixon, who entered the 19th race of the season with a 25-point advantage over title rival Helio Castroneves, secured his third series championship in the past decade in his 220th Indy car start. Dixon finished fifth in the MAVTV 500, while Castroneves placed sixth in the high attrition race. The final margin was 27 points.

"It was a crazy day," said Dixon, who posted his field-high 10th top five of the season. "Just huge credit to Team Target. They played everything straight tonight. We had to work on a bit of strategy, we had to work on the car a lot, and then we had an issue with some overheating problems toward the end.

"I still can't believe we've won the championship. So many people to thank and it's just unbelievable."

It is the 10th Indy car championship for Target Chip Ganassi Racing and the ninth with Honda (Dixon won in '03 with Toyota).

Will Power, who lost the championship on this racetrack last year, won his third race of the season by 1.4883 seconds over 2012 race winner Ed Carpenter, who earned his first podium finish of the season.

"That is the most satisfying win of my life," said Power, who had been the series championship runner-up in 2010, 2011 and 2012. "I wanted to do it so badly all year. I knew in the early ovals, I just was kind of conservative because I just wanted to finish every lap. And this time I'm going for it."

Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan finished third and James Hinchcliffe, who earlier in the day announced his re-signing with Andretti Autosport for 2014, finished fourth.

Chevrolet earned its second consecutive manufacturer title.

ZOD INDYCAR Series

MAVTV 500

FONTANA, Calif. - Results Saturday of the MAVTV 500 IZOD INDYCAR Series event on the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):


1. (1) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 250, Running

2. (7) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 250, Running

3. (9) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 250, Running

4. (8) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevy, 250, Running

5. (17) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running

6. (12) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 249, Running

7. (6) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy, 248, Running

8. (16) Simona De Silvestro, Dallara-Chevy, 247, Running

9. (11) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy, 242, Running

10. (4) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 238, Mechanical

11. (15) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 237, Mechanical

12. (3) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 229, Contact

13. (13) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 217, Mechanical

14. (21) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 209, Contact

15. (22) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 200, Mechanical

16. (2) AJ Allmendinger, Dallara-Chevy, 188, Contact

17. (25) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 144, Mechanical

18. (18) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 110, Contact

19. (14) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Contact

20. (20) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 110, Contact

21. (23) Tristan Vautier, Dallara-Honda, 110, Contact

22. (5) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 110, Contact

23. (10) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Chevy, 100, Contact

24. (24) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 69, Contact

25. (19) Pippa Mann, Dallara-Honda, 68, Contact


Race Statistics

Winners average speed: 154.867

Time of Race: 03:13:42.8699

Margin of victory: 1.4883

Cautions: 7 for 55 laps

Lead changes: 28 among 11 drivers



Lap Leaders:

Power 1 - 11

Bourdais 12 - 31

Hunter-Reay 32 - 34

Power 35 - 38

Jakes 39

Hunter-Reay 40 - 81

Castroneves 8Z

Andretti 83 - 84

Castroneves 85 - 86

Kanaan 87 - 89

Bourdais 90 - 102

Castroneves 103 - 126

Tagliani 127 - 128

Bourdais 129

Tagliani 130 - 131

Andretti 132

Tagliani 133

Power 134 - 160

Kimball 161 - 163

Power 164 - 193

Carpenter 194

Dixon 195 - 198

Power 199 - 215

Kimball 216

Dixon 217

Kimball 218 - 227

Bourdais 228

Kimball 229 - 236

Power 237 - 250


Point Standings: Dixon 577, Castroneves 550, Pagenaud 508, Power 499, Andretti 484, Wilson 472, Hunter-Reay 469, Hinchcliffe 449, Kimball 427, Dario Franchitti 418.