Castroneves Wins 2009 Bombardier Learjet 550k
Fort Worth, Texas – Helio Castroneves continued his good fortune, easily winning the IndyCar Series Bombardier Learjet 550k at Texas Motor Speedway. This was his 2nd victory of the year, his 16th career win of the IndyCar Series. Castroneves becomes the 2nd driver to win 3 times at Texas Motor Speedway (Sam Hornish, Jr.)
Coming in second was Castroneves’ Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe, who lead the most laps during the race.
“It was an incredible day for Team Penske.”, said Castroneves, “Having first and second in Texas is not easy, so that’s a compliment for everyone. Great pit stops, the guys put me up front, and in the end it was 50 laps, full throttle. It was the toughest 50 laps that I had to go through, but we held it together.”
Finishing runner-up for the 2nd consecutive race was not easy for Briscoe. “We did the best we could, I just didn’t have enough for Helio in the final stages.”, he said. “The last 20 laps were some of the most frustrating I’ve ever driven.”
Rounding out the top 5 were Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti, and Dario Franchitti. Andretti, who ran much of the race behind Danica Patrick, was not happy with the 4th place finish, saying, “The toughest people out there passing me are my teammates, and I don’t get that. I think three out of four of us get what the camaraderie of Andretti Green Racing is.”
Patrick finished sixth after a night of emotional driving. “All weekend we had a strong car and then during the race, the steering became really heavy, it just wasn’t the car we started with. I wish we could have had a top-five finish, but Marco passed me at the end fair and square.”
There were only 3 cautions during the race, totaling 26 laps. The first caution came on lap 2 when Graham Rahal got loose at the exit of Turn 2 and collided with E.J. Viso and then Milka Duno. None of the cars were able to continue. Rahal stated “Something did not feel right going back into Turn 1 and I let up for the second lap and I was trying to be careful but as I went into Turn 1 something snapped. I couldn’t hang on. I feel bad for the others involved. It was horrible.” Duno, who was able to drive her torn-up car back around to pit road, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, “It was Graham who spun and Viso had nowhere to go. I went to the left but at the very last moment my car was caught in the right rear”
A.J. Foyt, IV, was involved in a single-car accident on Lap 172. Foyt wasn’t sure what happened, “Something broke. I felt it in the front during the initial hit. The left front went down and dragged, and then I lost the rear right after that. Hopefully, we can find out what happened.
