Dan Wheldon won his second Indianapolis 500 Sunday during the race’s centennial run.
What was truly incredible about Wheldon’s victory is he secured the win on the final lap and on the final straightaway when rookie J.R. Hildebrand (who was leading to this point) took his car into the turn 4 wall on that final lap. IRL had to review Wheldon’s victory since you cannot pass a car under caution which would mean Hildebrand would’ve still won the race. However replays showed that Wheldon passed Hildebrand before Hildebrand passed the start/finish line and before the yellow caution was signaled.
Hildebrand was able to take the lead late when Danica Patrick and then Bertrand Baguette had to make pit stops with less than 10 laps remaining. From here it looked like he would have enough fuel to hold on for an amazing victory. Things certainly changed in an instant for the rookie who will forever be remembered as one of the most disappointing second place finishes in Indy 500 history.
For Wheldon, his road to the Indy 500 was certainly a rocky one. Going into this season Wheldon was without a full time ride after being dropped from his former team Panther racing who ironically replaced him with J.R. Hildebrand. Wheldon was picked up by Bryan Herta Autosport to compete in the 2011 Indianapolis 500.
Throughout most of the day Target Chip Ganassi dominated the race. Ganassi drivers Scott Dixon and defending 500 champion Dario Franchitti led a large portion of the race until they rolled the dice with some late pit strategy that ended up playing against them late. This was also the case for Danica Patrick who led several laps toward the end of the race. She too however had to pit late which took her out of lead.
Here are is the final results of the 2011 Indianapolis 500…
1. (6) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
2. (12) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
3. (29) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
4. (22) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
5. (2) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
6. (3) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
7. (14) Bertrand Baguette, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
8. (21) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
9. (27) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
10. (25) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
11. (8) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
12. (9) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
13. (28) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
14. (5) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
15. (11) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
16. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
17. (16) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
18. (7) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
19. (30) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
20. (31) Pippa Mann, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
21. (32) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
22. (17) John Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
23. (33) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
24. (15) Davey Hamilton, Dallara-Honda, 193, Running
25. (24) Paul Tracy, Dallara-Honda, 175, Running
26. (4) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Honda, 157, Contact
27. (26) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 157, Contact
28. (1) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 147, Contact
29. (13) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 99, Contact
30. (20) Jay Howard, Dallara-Honda, 60, Contact
31. (23) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 44, Handling
32. (18) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 27, Contact
33. (10) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 20, Contact
Source: IndyStar.com
