2006 Firestone Indy 400

The race was scheduled to begin at 3:30 PM EDT (UTC−04:00);^[3] however, all pre-race activities were halted for 2 hours and 30 minutes after significant rainfall impacted the track at around 2:50 PM.^[24][25] The long postponement affected the live coverage of the race. It was originally due to air on ABC,^[3] but after exceeding the network's television window, live coverage was shifted to ABC's sister networks ESPN and ESPN2.^[26] Commentary was provided by Marty Reid, Rusty Wallace, and Scott Goodyear.^[27] When the track was completely dried, weather conditions had become partially cloudy, with air temperatures at 77 °F (25 °C) and track temperatures at 98 °F (37 °C). Firestone OEM president Mike Martini gave the command for drivers to start their engines and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford drove the pace car, which led the field under the caution flag in the first two laps because of a moist track surface.^[24][28]

On lap 4, Hornish Jr. drove up the track and passed Castroneves on the back stretch. Castroneves remained in Hornish Jr.'s trail as part of a fuel-saving strategy for the next 37 laps, while Wheldon climbed to third place and Kanaan, Scheckter, Carpenter, and Meira engaged in a tight battle for the fourth position. Green-flag pit stops began on the 40th lap, with Hornish Jr. and Castroneves stopping a lap later, giving the lead to Wheldon. On lap 44, the second caution was issued after Roth's car ran out of fuel on the back stretch.^[24][25] Dixon suffered the same misfortune from second place one lap later, as he and teammate Wheldon were making their way into pit road. Dixon was towed into his pit stall and lost two laps;^[29] Wheldon made his stop on the 46th lap and conceded the lead to Matsuura.^[24] Three laps later, Hornish Jr., who had been relegated to tenth place, entered pit road with an overheating engine. He rejoined the race in 17th, losing a lap in the process.^[30]

Matsuura led the field back up to speed on the lap-52 restart,^[31] though he was quickly overtaken by Herta.^[32] Meira, meanwhile, climbed from the fifth position to pass Herta for the lead on lap 54.^[33] Over the next 34 laps, by which point Meira held a 2.2-second lead,^[24] Hornish Jr. made pit stops on laps 59 and 73 before retiring from the race with persistent engine issues.^[30] The second round of green-flag pit stops began on lap 87. Meira made his stop for four tires and fuel on lap 88, handing the lead to Scheckter, who pitted two laps later. After pit stops concluded on the 93rd lap, Meira reclaimed the first position. Castroneves managed to close the gap to Meira by lap 105, but was unable to pass him. Twenty-four laps later, Castroneves kicked off the third round of green-flag pit stops; Meira made his stop on lap 130, as did Wheldon on lap 133.^[24]

Castroneves took the lead once pit stops ended on the 134th lap, while Meira fell to second. Castroneves widened his gap over Meira to 4.3 seconds before making his final pit stop on lap 168. Meira made his stop four laps later, along with Carpenter, Patrick, and Andretti. After Wheldon and Scheckter stopped for tires and fuel on lap 177, Castroneves cycled back to the first position,^[33] and Kanaan overtook Scheckter for fourth place.^[34] Meira gradually condensed his gap behind Castroneves from four seconds to 1.5 seconds by the 187th lap.^[35] Despite Meira's rapid pace, Castroneves maintained the lead for the final 13 laps and secured his eleventh career IndyCar win and fourth of the season. It also marked Marlboro Team Penske's first win at Michigan since 1991.^[30]

Meira finished second for the seventh time in his career,^[36] ahead of Wheldon in third, Kanaan fourth, and Scheckter fifth. Sharp, Carpenter, Andretti, Matsuura, and Simmons rounded out the top ten, and Herta, Franchitti, Rice, Bucknum, Lazier, Dixon, and Roth were the last of the classified finishers.^[37] The race had two cautions and fifteen lead changes among seven different drivers. Meira led three times for a total of 75 laps, more than any other driver.^[31] The average speed was 193.972 mph (312.168 km/h), making this the fastest American open-wheel race at Michigan and the third-fastest race in IndyCar Series history.^[38]

Castroneves performed his usual celebratory practice of climbing the front stretch catchfence before driving into victory lane; he earned $125,800 for his win.^[31] Castroneves was jubilant with his victory, saying: "I'm extremely happy. It was hard on everybody, not only myself but the entire team. Well, that's just to prove that you can't give up, you have to believe. The entire team believed."^[30] He admitted that he drove "like a maniac" in the final ten laps of the race upon seeing Meira in his rearview mirror.^[24] Second-place finisher Meira was pleased despite failing to win: "Panther Racing gave 102 percent today. We are doing it week in and week out at any track with any aero configuration. This is what makes champions, and winners and that's what we have here at Panther Racing. Everything is working."^[39] Third-place finisher Wheldon felt sympathetic for Hornish Jr. and admitted his performance paled in comparison to some of his competitors. He also thanked teammate Dixon for helping him at the end of the race.^[29]

Kanaan, who finished fourth, was reportedly seen in a heated discussion with Wheldon after the race.^[35] Though he felt his car was not capable of winning, he was angered that he did not finish third: "[Chip] Ganassi put Dixon between Dan and myself. They are going for a championship and we are going for race wins. We have two superspeedway races remaining and [Andretti Green Racing] has four cars for the payback."^[34] According to Wheldon, Kanaan never argued with him: "He came up to me and said, 'Good race.'"^[38] Patrick, who ran out of fuel with two laps remaining, was evidently infuriated with her retirement and stomped on pit road.^[25] She revealed that she had been dealing with telemetry issues throughout most of the race and stated: "This one is going to bug me for a while."^[35] Hornish Jr. said of his lap-73 retirement: "It's a shame to end a day like that, but that's how it goes sometimes."^[30]

The final result dropped Hornish Jr. to second in the Drivers' Championship with 368 points, eight less than Castroneves.^[25] Wheldon, with 359 points, moved to third over Dixon, who had 345 points. Meira, with 320 points, broke his tie with Kanaan for fifth.^[40] With three races remaining in the season, the 56-point margin separating Castroneves and Meira marked the closest points deficit between the top-five drivers since 2001.^[30]

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts.
1	3	Hélio Castroneves	Marlboro Team Penske	200	02:03:43.7441	1	50
2	4	Vítor Meira	Panther Racing	200	+1.6229	6	431
3	10	Dan Wheldon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	200	+6.2259	9	35
4	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	200	+6.9874	3	32
5	2	Tomas Scheckter	Vision Racing	200	+27.9005	8	30
6	8	Scott Sharp	Delphi Fernández Racing	200	+28.5560	13	28
7	20	Ed Carpenter	Vision Racing	199	+1 lap	4	26
8	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	199	+1 lap	19	24
9	55	Kosuke Matsuura	Super Aguri Fernández Racing	199	+1 lap	14	22
10	17	Jeff Simmons	Rahal Letterman Racing	199	+1 lap	16	20
11	7	Bryan Herta	Andretti Green Racing	199	+1 lap	12	19
12	27	Dario Franchitti	Andretti Green Racing	199	+1 lap	7	18
13	15	Buddy Rice	Rahal Letterman Racing	199	+1 lap	10	17
14	14	Jeff Bucknum	A. J. Foyt Racing	198	+2 laps	18	16
15	5	Buddy Lazier	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	198	+2 laps	15	15
16	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	198	+2 laps	5	14
17	16	Danica Patrick	Rahal Letterman Racing	197	Out of fuel	11	13
18	25	Marty Roth	Roth Racing	192	+8 laps	17	12
19	6	Sam Hornish Jr.	Marlboro Team Penske	61	Engine	2	12
Sources:[31][37][41]

Notes

• ^1 — Includes three bonus points for leading the most laps.^[42]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 2 1 Hélio Castroneves 376 1 2 Sam Hornish Jr. 368 (–8) 1 3 Dan Wheldon 359 (–17) 2 4 Scott Dixon 345 (–31) 1 5 Vítor Meira 320 (–56) Sources:[31][40]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included.