The 2007 Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 presented by Mr. Clean was an IndyCar Series motor race that was held on September 9, 2007 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. It was the 17th and final round of the 2007 IndyCar Series and the seventh running of the event. Dario Franchitti of the Andretti Green Racing team won the 200-lap race from the pole position. Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon finished second and Sam Hornish Jr. came in third for Team Penske.
Before the race, Franchitti, Dixon, and Tony Kanaan all had a chance to win the Drivers' Championship. Franchitti earned the pole by recording the fastest lap time of qualifying, but quickly lost the lead to Hornish on the first lap. He and his teammate Hélio Castroneves dominated the majority of the race before a lengthy caution flag on lap 137 gave Franchitti and Dixon the opportunity to top off on their fuel supply without having to make another pit stop. This strategy benefitted them when another caution was issued on lap 195, allowing the two racers to gain a full lap advantage over the other competitors. On the final lap, Dixon's car ran out of fuel as he was leading in turn three, and Franchitti overtook him to claim the 18th victory of his Indy car racing career.
There were three cautions and 13 lead changes among five drivers during the race. The race result won Franchitti his first Drivers' Championship and the third title for Andretti Green Racing, a record-high for the series. Kanaan did not challenge Franchitti or Dixon for the title because of an unplanned pit stop early in the race and remained third in the standings, ahead of fourth-place Dan Wheldon and fifth-place Hornish in what wound up being his final race in the series.
Background
The 2007 Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 was the 17th and final round of the 2007 IndyCar Series and the seventh consecutive year that the event was included on the IndyCar Series schedule dating back to 2001. It was held at Chicagoland Speedway, a D-shaped asphalt tri-oval race track, in Joliet, Illinois on Sunday, September 9, 2007, over a scheduled distance of 200 laps and . Dan Wheldon was the defending race winner from the 2005 and 2006 editions.
Heading into the race, Dario Franchitti held the Drivers' Championship lead with 587 points, three more than Scott Dixon and 39 more than Tony Kanaan. Because the race offered a maximum of 53 points, Franchitti, Dixon, and Kanaan were the only drivers who had a mathematical chance of winning the title. Franchitti and Dixon needed to win the race in order to clinch the championship; Kanaan had to win the race, lead the most laps, and have Franchitti finish no higher than 13th and Dixon no better than 16th. Behind them, Wheldon held fourth place with 449 points, and Sam Hornish Jr. had fifth on 427.
Franchitti, who lost the 1999 CART FedEx Championship to Juan Pablo Montoya on a tiebreaker, held a 65-point advantage over Dixon after the SunTrust Indy Challenge race in June, but Dixon's three-race winning streak and Franchitti's numerous crashes allowed Dixon to take the championship lead following the Motorola Indy 300 in August. Franchitti regained the lead in the season's penultimate round, the Detroit Indy Grand Prix, but only after a last-lap collision with Dixon which drew outrage from Franchitti's team owner Michael Andretti. Franchitti recognized the competitive nature of his and Kanaan's team (Andretti Green Racing) and Dixon's team (Chip Ganassi Racing), but remained determined to "win the race or try to be up front and do the best we can to beat Dixon." Dixon, the 2003 champion, felt that his win streak did not provide him with a major advantage over Franchitti because he "seemed to be finishing right behind us," but assured that his team would put up a good fight at Chicagoland. Kanaan, the 2004 titlist, did not regret his controversial decision to stay behind his teammate Franchitti in the Motorola Indy 300: "Five years from now when we all retire, people are not going to remember anything, and my friendship for my teammate for sure will last forever. We all three have a chance at the championship, so we'll go to Chicago next week and see what happens there. May the best man win."
A total of 22 cars were entered for the race, all of which used Dallara IR-05 chassis, Honda Indy V8 engines, and Firestone tires. After completing a rookie test at Chicagoland Speedway on August 16, Indy Pro Series (IPS) driver Hideki Mutoh was hired to drive a third entry for Panther Racing in what was his IndyCar Series debut. He expressed confidence that he could perform well because of his win in the IPS race at Kentucky Speedway in August, which was his first victory on an oval track. Marty Roth, who had not competed in the series since that year's Indianapolis 500, fielded two cars from his Roth Racing team. The second entry was initially reserved for the 2007 IPS champion, who wound up being Alex Lloyd, but a scheduling conflict led to P. J. Chesson attaining the seat, his first start since the 2006 Indianapolis 500.
Practice and qualifying One day before the race, two practice sessions were held at Chicagoland Speedway, the first lasting for 105 minutes and the second 60 minutes. The racers were split into two groups for the second session, with each being allotted equal track time. Dixon was fastest in the first practice session on Saturday morning with a lap time of 25.1725 seconds, ahead of Hornish, Kanaan, Franchitti, and Wheldon. The session was briefly halted for Buddy Rice, whose car ran out of fuel in turn three. Milka Duno was forced to miss most of the session because her spotter was not at the spotter stand, as did Castroneves because his team had to remove his engine to repair a broken O-ring; he resultantly received an extra 10 minutes of track time for the second practice session, which he led with a 25.3097 second-lap. He was followed by Dixon, Franchitti, Kanaan, and Marco Andretti.
The qualifying session on Saturday afternoon set the starting grid for the race. Each driver was required to go on track individually and complete two timed laps, the faster of which would determine their starting position. Franchitti earned the pole position with a time of 25.4931 seconds, his third pole of the season, his sixth in the IndyCar Series, and his 17th in top-level Indy car racing, counting his 11 poles in CART. Hornish joined him on the front row of the grid with a lap that was less than two hundredths of a second slower. Castroneves started third, Kanaan fourth, and Wheldon fifth, with Dixon, Danica Patrick, Darren Manning, Tomas Scheckter, and Andretti completing the top-ten. Scott Sharp, in 11th, only completed one lap in his qualifying attempt because his team hoped to gain an advantage by pulling him out of line in order to qualify last on a cooling track surface. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Mutoh, Ed Carpenter, Vítor Meira, Kosuke Matsuura, Sarah Fisher, A. J. Foyt IV, Rice, Chesson, Roth, and Duno took the last 11 positions. After qualifying, Franchitti spoke positively of his car: "First run already I knew the Canadian Club car was very fast, which is something I haven't had here at Chicago before. And it's a big part of running up front here, just getting a good car, very good balance in the car. The speed was there as well." Qualifying classification + Final qualifying results Driver Team 1 27 Dario Franchitti Andretti Green Racing 25.4931 214.646 1 2 6 Sam Hornish Jr. Team Penske 25.5115 214.492 2 3 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 25.5248 214.380 3 4 11 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing 25.5331 214.310 4 5 10 Dan Wheldon Chip Ganassi Racing 25.5407 214.246 5 6 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 25.5442 214.217 6 7 7 Danica Patrick Andretti Green Racing 25.5925 213.813 7 8 14 Darren Manning A. J. Foyt Enterprises 25.6900 213.001 8 9 2 Tomas Scheckter Vision Racing 25.6995 212.922 9 10 26 Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing 25.7031 212.893 10 11 8 Scott Sharp Rahal Letterman Racing 25.7095 212.840 11 12 17 Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman Racing 25.7566 212.450 12 13 60 Hideki Mutoh Panther Racing 25.7829 212.234 13 14 20 Ed Carpenter Vision Racing 25.8297 211.849 14 15 4 Vítor Meira Panther Racing 25.8678 211.537 15 16 55 Kosuke Matsuura Panther Racing 25.8784 211.450 16 17 5 Sarah Fisher Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 25.9194 211.116 17 18 22 A. J. Foyt IV Vision Racing 25.9430 210.924 18 19 15 Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 25.9585 210.798 19 20 76 P. J. Chesson Roth Racing 26.0962 209.686 20 21 25 Marty Roth Roth Racing 26.1307 209.409 21 22 23 Milka Duno SAMAX Motorsport 26.5623 206.006 22 Source:
Race
The weather conditions towards the beginning of the race were sunny and dry, with an air temperature at and a track temperature between . Jim Shea, the executive vice president of merchandising for AutoZone, commanded the drivers to start their engines. The race began at 3:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time (UTC−05:00). Hornish pulled alongside Franchitti on the back stretch and led the first lap by 0.0617 seconds. His Team Penske teammate Castroneves quickly assumed second place from Franchitti and remained within under a tenth of a second behind Hornish's lead. On the 17th lap, Kanaan sustained a puncture to his right-rear tire and was forced to make a pit stop, effectively eliminating him from championship contention. Nine laps later, Dixon passed Franchitti for fourth place. The first caution flag of the race was issued on lap 35; Andretti spun backwards into the outside wall in turn four and did not return to the race. Due to complaints of neck pain, he was transported to Provena St. Joseph's Medical Center in Joliet, Illinois to be evaluated by CAT scan; he was found to have no significant injury. The next lap, Scheckter lost his right-rear tire and came into pit road to replace it. All of the drivers, except Kanaan, made their first pit stops on lap 38, with Castroneves exiting pit road ahead of the others to claim the lead ahead of Dixon, Hornish, Wheldon, and Franchitti. Chesson endured a long stop because of a bent right-side mirror, while Carpenter was ordered to drop to the rear of the field for exceeding the pit road speed violation.
Green-flag racing resumed on lap 45; Hornish promptly overtook Dixon for second, as did Sharp for fifth place over Franchitti. Following a lap-53 pit stop from Manning, who later retired from the race because of handling issues, a round of green-flag pit stops began with Kanaan and Carpenter on the 70th lap. Castroneves and Hornish pitted 16 laps later, giving up the lead to Dixon, who himself came in for a stop on the 89th lap. After Franchitti made his stop on lap 93, Castroneves retained his lead, only to be passed by Hornish in turn three nine laps later. The Team Penske drivers remained near each other until the second cycle of green-flag pit stops commenced on the 126th lap. Dixon again assumed the lead for six laps once they both came in for their stops on lap 130. As Dixon and Patrick made their pit stops on the 136th lap, the caution flag was flown for the second time the following lap when Meira slammed the turn four wall, by which point Franchitti had already taken the lead. He made a stop on lap 140 for four fresh tires and fuel, handing the lead to Dixon. The caution was extended to let track officials repair the damaged SAFER barrier that Meira collided into. Dixon and Franchitti took advantage of the lengthy caution period to fill up their fuel tanks on lap 147, which put them on a separate fuel strategy from their fellow competitors. The green flag was waved again on lap 152. Hornish moved his way through the field over the next eight laps, taking the lead from Dixon in the second turn on the 160th lap. He maintained an approximately 0.2-second lead over Dixon until he pulled into pit road for the last round of stops on lap 184.