2006 ABC Supply / A. J. Foyt Indy 225

Live coverage of the race began at 12:30 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT) in the United States on ESPN.^[3] Commentary was provided by Marty Reid, Rusty Wallace, and Scott Goodyear.^[22] Weather conditions at the start of the race were fair, with air temperatures reaching 77 °F (25 °C) and track temperatures measuring 105 °F (41 °C).^[23] A. J. Foyt, for whom the race is named, gave the command for drivers to start their engines; prior to the race weekend, he had spent the past three weeks recovering from knee replacement surgery.^[24] Johnny Rutherford drove the pace car.^[25] During the pace laps, Bucknum was forced to start in the 18th position, despite qualifying 16th, due to an engine swap after the final practice session.^[21][26]

Castroneves maintained his pole position advantage on the first lap, while Kanaan passed teammate Andretti and Hornish Jr. to move into the second position.^[27] Castroneves managed to open his lead over Kanaan to 0.62 seconds by the tenth lap; meanwhile, Briscoe drove into pit road with a right-rear suspension issue. Ten laps later, Castroneves began navigating around lapped drivers, allowing Kanaan to close the gap. He drove down the track in an attempt to take the lead on lap 21, though Castroneves kept the position and built a quarter-second lead by the 25th lap. Kanaan moved into the lead in the first turn on lap 32. Matsuura entered pit road on the 42nd lap for tires and adjustments. Castroneves was passed by Andretti for the second position on the 54th lap,^[23] and by Meira for the third position three laps later.^[28]

Green-flag pit stops began on lap 70, with Andretti and Franchitti making pit stops for new tires and fuel. Kanaan made his stop four laps later, handing the lead to Scheckter and Simmons, who each led one lap before entering pit road. After the pit stops had concluded, Kanaan regained the first position and held a seven-second lead over Andretti until the first caution was flown on lap 96, when debris was spotted in the third turn. During the caution period, most of the leaders made pit stops; Castroneves stopped for a front wing adjustment and Carpenter was forced to stop twice after dropping a wheel weight while exiting his pit stall. Kanaan, Franchitti, and Meira chose to stay on track and remained the leaders at the lap-108 restart.^[23] Franchitti drove left on the back stretch to take the lead from Kanaan on lap 109;^[29] two laps later, the second caution was prompted after Castroneves and Carpenter collided in the third turn, damaging the left-front suspension of Castroneves' car and the right-rear suspension of Carpenter's car. Carpenter retired from the race.^[30] Most of the leaders, with the exception of Scheckter, did not make pit stops.^[23]

Franchitti led the field back up to speed on the lap-116 restart.^[31] Kanaan drove to the left to pass Franchitti in the first turn on lap 125, but backed off. He completed the pass and reclaimed the lead on the 135th lap.^[23] The third caution was triggered two laps later when Meira, from third place, made heavy contact with the turn-three wall, ending his race.^[28] All the leaders made pit stops under this caution, with Andretti taking the lead from Franchitti on lap 141 by virtue of a quick pit stop.^[32] After Castroneves' team repaired his suspension, he returned to the race one lap later in order to gain points.^[30] Andretti led at the lap-146 restart; he was followed by Scheckter and Kanaan, the latter of whom passed Scheckter for second place the following lap. In the next 33 laps, Kanaan gradually condensed Andretti's lead from 1.1 seconds to 0.4 seconds.^[23] On lap 180, Kanaan drove to the inside line and overtook Andretti in the third turn.^[33] Hornish Jr. moved into fourth place over Herta on the 183rd lap, and Dixon pitted for tires and fuel two laps later.^[33]

The fourth (and final) caution was necessitated on lap 200 when Bucknum slid up the track and contacted the turn-four wall, dealing unfixable damage to his car.^[34] All the leaders elected to make pit stops under the caution. Kanaan led the field at the lap-209 restart, followed by Andretti and Franchitti.^[23] Hornish Jr. swiftly overtook Franchitti for the third position in the third turn.^[33] He then passed Andretti for second place three laps later. Scheckter, meanwhile, moved into third on the 217th lap.^[35] On lap 220, Kanaan's car began sputtering, igniting fears that he may run out of fuel;^[36] despite this, he maintained the lead for the final five laps and earned his seventh IndyCar win and the first of the season for him and his team Andretti Green Racing.^[26] Hornish Jr. finished second, ahead of Scheckter in third, Patrick fourth, and Andretti fifth. Franchitti, Herta, Wheldon, Simmons, and Dixon completed the top ten, and Rice and Sharp were the last of the classified finishers.^[37] The race featured four cautions and eight lead changes among six different drivers. Kanaan led four times for a total of 127 laps, more than any other competitor.^[31]

Kanaan appeared in victory lane to celebrate his win in front of a crowd of 30,610 spectators;^[10] the win earned him $121,400.^[31] Kanaan attributed his speed in the race to a recent test conducted at the track that he and his teammates participated in: "This victory proves that the Indy Pro Series test program works. I have to thank Jaime (Camara), Jonathan Klein, Dario (Franchitti) and Marco (Andretti). They did a great job testing here." He said the win felt more rewarding than clinching the 2004 series championship.^[27] Second-place finisher Hornish Jr. explained why he ran so poorly in the first half of the race: "We weren't quite handling the way we needed to be to be up there running with the leaders. We decided we would just try to save fuel, make it so we could do a two-stop race. That was the big thing for us."^[38] He also cited his teammate Castroneves' brief return to the race as an indication of how intense the championship battle had become.^[39] Scheckter, whose third-place finish marked the first top-five result for Vision Racing, stated that his last pit stop for tires helped him gain enough momentum to pass four drivers following the final restart.^[40]

After finishing fifth, Andretti said his attempt to save fuel and his ill-handling car gradually caused him to lose several positions in the final 20 laps.^[32] Sixth-place finisher Franchitti expressed disappointment, revealing that his car could only reach a certain pace before his tires would rapidly wear off; nevertheless, he congratulated Kanaan for winning.^[29] Herta, the seventh-place finisher, said he was "hanging on" in the last green-flag stint because he had been dealing with understeer and wished that he and his teammates could have held on to sweep the top four positions.^[41] Both Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates voiced complaints about their issues throughout the weekend, with Wheldon feeling a sense of urgency in his championship battle: "From here on out, it’s pretty simple; win at all costs."^[42] The final result maintained Hornish Jr.'s lead in the Drivers' Championship with 356 points, ahead of Dixon with 331. Castroneves held onto third place with 326 points, two more than Wheldon in fourth. Kanaan, with 277 points, was tied with Meira for the fifth position with four races left in the season.^[43]

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts.
1	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	225	01:42:37.8319	4	532
2	6	Sam Hornish Jr.	Marlboro Team Penske	225	+1.8276	2	40
3	2	Tomas Scheckter	Vision Racing	225	+2.0114	8	35
4	16	Danica Patrick	Rahal Letterman Racing	225	+8.4708	14	32
5	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	225	+10.2611	3	30
6	27	Dario Franchitti	Andretti Green Racing	225	+11.2373	12	28
7	7	Bryan Herta	Andretti Green Racing	225	+14.1195	9	26
8	10	Dan Wheldon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	224	+1 lap	11	24
9	17	Jeff Simmons	Rahal Letterman Racing	223	+2 laps	6	22
10	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	223	+2 laps	10	20
11	15	Buddy Rice	Rahal Letterman Racing	221	+4 laps	13	19
12	8	Scott Sharp	Delphi Fernández Racing	219	+6 laps	16	18
13	14	Jeff Bucknum	A. J. Foyt Racing	194	Accident	18	17
14	3	Hélio Castroneves	Marlboro Team Penske	170	In garage	1	16
15	4	Vítor Meira	Panther Racing	136	Accident	5	15
16	20	Ed Carpenter	Vision Racing	109	Suspension	7	14
17	55	Kosuke Matsuura	Super Aguri Fernández Racing	85	Steering	15	13
18	5	Ryan Briscoe	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	13	Handling	17	12
Sources:[31][37][44]

Notes

• ^2 — Includes three bonus points for leading the most laps.^[45]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Sam Hornish Jr. 356 2 Scott Dixon 331 (–25) 3 Hélio Castroneves 326 (–30) 4 Dan Wheldon 324 (–32) 1 5 Tony Kanaan 277 (–79) Sources:[31][43]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included.