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Wheldon takes IRL season opener

Dan Wheldon, left, celebrates his win with driver Tony Kanaan after the Indy 300. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Dan Wheldon, left, celebrates his win with driver Tony Kanaan after the Indy 300. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Celebrating in Victory Lane after an overpowering victory Sunday in the IRL IndyCar opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Dan Wheldon was hoping for a similar scene at another racetrack later this year.

“I’ve got to be honest,” the Englishman said. “My passion is the Indianapolis 500. The championship is important, but my goal is to drink the (winner’s) milk at Indy. We just want to keep the momentum until that race in May.”

Wheldon began this season as one of the favorites to win the title. Sunday’s dominating run, leading 158 of the 200 laps on the 1 1/2 -mile oval, only strengthened that perception.

But Wheldon said that even as he celebrated by doing doughnuts in his car and getting victory hugs from his crew, he was thinking that nobody should make too much of one win.

“It’s one race into the championship. One race,” the smiling Wheldon said. “If it’s meant to be it’s meant to be. I just enjoy winning races.”

The race ended with Wheldon’s Honda-powered Dallara 3.7 seconds – virtually an entire straightaway on the 1 1/2 -mile oval — ahead of a three-wide-battle for second barely won by Sam Hornish Jr.

“It was a heck of a finish for the fans,” said Hornish, who barely held off Helio Castroneves for the victory here a year ago. “I don’t think they could have gotten a much better show than that.”

Tony Kanaan, who completed every lap of every race and finished out of the top five only once on the way to beating Wheldon for the 2004 title, was credited with third, inches behind Hornish and just ahead of Vitor Meira.

Castroneves finished fifth, followed by Darren Manning and IRL newcomer Patrick Carpentier.

Only 10 of the 22 starters were running at the end of the race.

Among the drivers who failed to finish were preseason championship favorite Buddy Rice, who went out after just 92 laps with an engine failure and Andretti Green driver Dario Franchitti, who completed only 12 laps before his engine blew.

Truex wins first Mexican NASCAR race

Defending Busch Series champion Martin Truex Jr. held on after an early pit stop in Mexico City, to win the first NASCAR points race outside the United States.

Truex slipped into the pits for a final stop on the 46th lap, moments before a caution flag came out, and finished more than 6 seconds ahead of Nextel Cup regular Kevin Harvick in the Telcel-Motorola 200.

Harvick, the Busch Series leader after three races, slipped past Carl Edwards on the 78th of 80 laps on the 2.518-mile road course.

Edwards finished third, followed by Shane Hmiel, Boris Said, Rusty Wallace, Clint Bowyer and Kenny Wallace.

The race was a boost for NASCAR’s effort to build a fan base in Mexico, where open-wheel racing has been dominant. Promoters said 94,229 people turned out on race day following a crowd of 38,319 crowd for Saturday’s qualifying.

Adrian Fernandez, making his first NASCAR start, had the fastest practice time but a crash in qualifying knocked him to the back of the grid. He fought back to the lead, but was then penalized to the back again.

Carlos Contreras, the first Mexican to race in a Busch race, was running a steady sixth when his car slowed on the 72nd lap and he pitted.