2006 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

The race was held on Sunday, April 2, at 3:45 PM local time. Television coverage of the race began at 3:30 PM local time on ESPN, with Marty Reid serving as the play-by-play commentator and Rusty Wallace and Scott Goodyear serving as race analysts.^[28][29] Race conditions were dry and relatively hot, with air temperatures reaching a peak of 82.4 °F (28.0 °C).^[30] Gene Simmons gave the command for drivers to start their engines, and all nineteen cars rolled off of pit road to begin the race.^[31] Most of the grid maintained their starting positions in the opening laps of the race, with the exception of Rice, who passed Herta for sixth. Wheldon, who qualified a disappointing 13th,^[32] was climbing his way up through the field when on lap 7, he made contact with the right-front wheel of Andretti's car in turn two, which nearly sent Wheldon spinning.^[33] He recovered, though he lost some positions.

On the 15th lap, problems arose for Franchitti, who had led every single lap up to this point when he reported damage to the right side of his suspension and slowed down in turn five to allow the other drivers to pass by him. Franchitti was forced to retire from the race due to these issues, becoming the race's first retiree.^[26] Franchitti later said that he first noticed the problem on the fifth lap, but he persevered for the next ten laps.^[25] Wheldon simultaneously entered pit road for new tires due to his contact with Andretti.^[33] Dixon, who was running in the second position, capitalized on Franchitti's misfortune and maintained a three-second lead over Kanaan. While no cautions were issued throughout the first half of the race, a close call occurred in the final corner on lap 28, when Moreno's front nose made contact with Meira's right-rear tire. Moreno pitted five laps later with a damaged suspension and retired from the race.^[31] Green-flag pit stops began on lap 33 when Kanaan entered pit road for four tires and fuel. Dixon pitted three laps later and was one of the last drivers to pit.^[34] After Hornish Jr. led two laps, he entered pit road and gave up the lead to Dixon, who rejoined the track in the second position.^[35] However, Dixon began experiencing issues with his front wing, which was rubbing against his left-front tire.^[34] Castroneves would soon take advantage of the situation and overtake Dixon for the lead on lap 45. Kanaan remained third, not far behind the two leaders.

Castroneves experienced minor troubles getting by slower cars, such as Giaffone and Sharp, but held onto the race lead ahead of Dixon and Kanaan. The first caution was issued on lap 53 when Chesson locked up the brakes and stalled in turn ten. Chesson subsequently retired from the race.^[31] As most of the leaders entered pit road, Castroneves gave up the race lead to Rice, who stayed out, while Wheldon improved his position from tenth to fourth (of the drivers who pitted). Wheldon exited pit road ahead of Hornish Jr. but paced behind him on the track, and IndyCar chief steward Brian Barnhart ordered Wheldon ahead of Hornish Jr. As Wheldon attempted to pass Hornish Jr., his car suddenly jerked left and made contact with Wheldon, spinning him out.^[36] Wheldon was eventually able to get his car restarted, but he had sustained enough damage to the rear suspension to take him out of the race.^[33] Andretti also retired from the race, citing a broken drive shaft as the reason for the second consecutive race. He had been running just outside the top ten prior to the retirement.^[37] Three laps after the race's restart on lap 60, Castroneves passed Patrick, Herta, and Rice to retain the first position. Rice and Herta later pitted on lap 69, in hopes of an incident-free finish so that the leaders would be forced to pit one last time. Patrick and Hornish Jr., utilizing the same strategy as Rice and Herta, pitted a handful of laps later in what was their final pit stops of the race. Meanwhile, Castroneves and Dixon, the latter of whom had to persist through issues with his front wing and radio communications, remained in the first and second positions, respectively, and stretched out their fuel as long as they could.^[38]

With eighteen laps to go, Hornish Jr. was running solidly in ninth when his car suddenly locked up the brakes entering turn ten. Hornish Jr. luckily slowed his car enough to complete the turn, but he had lost several crucial positions in the process.^[36] Unfortunately, Hornish Jr.'s brake issues only intensified in the coming laps, as his car drove into the run-off area in turn four on lap 85. Two laps later, Castroneves entered pit road for the final time for a splash of fuel, giving up the lead to Dixon. With the finish rapidly approaching, Dixon no longer tried to save his fuel and attempted to gain a large enough gap from second position so that he could remain in contention for the win, even after his final pit stop. His strategy was initially successful, as he had gained a 15-second lead over Castroneves by the time he entered pit road for fuel on lap 95. Additionally, when Dixon rejoined the track, he placed himself in between Castroneves (now in first) and Kanaan (in third), meaning that he was in a perfect position to overtake Castroneves for the win.^[34] However, Dixon's strategy was ultimately hindered when Rice and Scheckter, who was running in fourth, made contact in turn four, sending Scheckter airborne and into the tire barriers on lap 96.^[39] The final four laps of the race were run under caution, and Castroneves was scored as the race's victor.^[38] Dixon finished second, and Kanaan third.^[39] Herta, Meira, Patrick, Matsuura, Hornish Jr., Giaffone, Sharp, and Cheever took positions three through eleven, and were the last of the classified finishers.^[40] Castroneves' win was the eighth of his IndyCar career (fourteenth win if one counts his six Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) wins), his first of the season, and his first IndyCar win on a road course. Prior to this, Castroneves had never even finished an IndyCar-sanctioned race on a road course.^[41]

After the race, Castroneves commenced his usual victory celebration of climbing the catch fence before driving to victory lane.^[39] He earned $125,800 in race winnings.^[40] Castroneves was happy with the result and described his thoughts leading up to the finish: "Everyone was telling me, ‘Go for it. Go for it.’ I drove it like I stole it. You know, it was awesome. We didn't have many yellows, which made a very intense race probably for three of us. That was fun until I got the lead. I was like, 'OK, you guys better back off.' But they never did."^[39] Dixon, who finished second, lamented about his race performance: "The first stint we were consistently quicker, I think. We were running fairly lean. The car was doing good lap times. Once we got to the second set of tires, and about the fourth, fifth lap, it just started to fall off. It got worse and worse over that run. That’s when (Castroneves) started to catch me; I got traffic. I think with a good front wing, we would have been pretty solid. I just couldn’t turn right."^[34] Third-place finisher Kanaan was content with his result: "I believe we had a third place car today and we finished third. I think the guys that finished ahead of us deserved to finish where they finished, so I'm pretty happy."^[42]

After several years of missteps, the event was considered a success. It marked the first time in over a decade that a motor race was held at St. Petersburg, Florida for two consecutive years. The corporate suites were completely sold out, and grandstands were packed with fans. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker also attended the race, and was bombarded with requests for autographs and pictures.^[43] Kanaan also praised the atmosphere of the event and revealed that Hornish Jr., who was primarily successful on oval tracks, told him that "[IndyCar] should have more races like that."^[42] Due to the fans' support of the event, IndyCar announced on April 1 that the event would return to the series' schedule in 2007.^[44]

For the first time since September 2003, Castroneves led the Drivers' Championship as a result of his win; he earned a total of 93 points.^[45] Dixon also improved his position in the standings from fifth to second with 70 points. Wheldon gained 64 points and suffered a blow to his position, falling to third due to his poor finish. Hornish Jr. had two less than Wheldon and was placed fourth, while Kanaan climbed six positions in the standings and grabbed fifth with 54 points.^[40]

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Laps Led	Pts.
1	3	Hélio Castroneves	Marlboro Team Penske	Dallara	100	01:56:57.5172	5	40	531
2	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Panoz	100	+0.1386	2	36	40
3	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	100	+0.6284	3	0	35
4	7	Bryan Herta	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	100	+0.7813	6	0	32
5	4	Vítor Meira	Panther Racing	Dallara	100	+2.5995	12	0	30
6	16	Danica Patrick	Rahal Letterman Racing	Panoz	100	+3.0433	14	0	28
7	55	Kosuke Matsuura	Super Aguri Fernández Racing	Dallara	100	+52.7172	9	0	26
8	6	Sam Hornish Jr.	Marlboro Team Penske	Dallara	99	+1 Lap	4	2	24
9	14	Felipe Giaffone	A. J. Foyt Racing	Dallara	99	+1 Lap	16	0	22
10	8	Scott Sharp	Delphi Fernández Racing	Dallara	99	+1 Lap	15	0	20
11	51	Eddie Cheever	Cheever Racing	Dallara	99	+1 Lap	17	0	19
12	2	Tomas Scheckter	Vision Racing	Dallara	96	Accident	8	0	18
13	15	Buddy Rice	Rahal Letterman Racing	Panoz	96	Accident	7	8	17
14	5	Buddy Lazier	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	59	Handling	18	0	16
15	26	Marco Andretti  R	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	58	Mechanical	10	0	15
16	10	Dan Wheldon  W	Chip Ganassi Racing	Panoz	57	Accident	13	0	14
17	91	P. J. Chesson  R	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	55	Handling	19	0	13
18	20	Roberto Moreno	Vision Racing	Dallara	32	Handling	11	0	12
19	27	Dario Franchitti	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	15	Handling	1	14	12
Fastest lap: Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green Racing) - 1:03.5842 (lap 71)
Official race results

Notes

• ^1 — Includes three bonus points for leading the most laps.^[46]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 1 Hélio Castroneves 93 3 2 Scott Dixon 70 (–23) 2 3 Dan Wheldon 64 (–29) 1 4 Sam Hornish Jr. 62 (–31) 6 5 Tony Kanaan 54 (–39) Source:[47]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included.