Hornish-Kanaan Scuffle Simmers Down; Apologies Offered

LEBANON, Tenn. — They may not have been of biblical proportions, but the rainstorms that swept through central Tennessee Saturday evening were powerful enough to delay the running of the Firestone Indy 200 by about 18 hours.
After a few sprinkles fell in the hour leading up to the scheduled 6:45 p.m. start, the heavens opened up with comical timing at almost the exact moment the “Drivers, start your engines!” command was set to be given.
The initial storm lasted almost an hour, but a similar downpour at about 8:15 was the deciding factor. When rain started up again just after 9 p.m., Race Director Brian Barnhart made the decision to move the start to noon Sunday.
Nashville Superspeedway’s 25,000- capacity main grandstand was full prior to the Saturday night deluge, but only about a third of those spectators came back for the postponed start.
The delayed race was also affected by light rain and 13 laps (96-108) were run behind the pace car during a brief drizzle.
The Firestone 200 was only the third postponed race in the 12-year history of the Indy Racing League. Three races were shortened by rain.
 
• Dario Franchitti had the best quote of the weekend after finishing second.
“I guess it’s close but no guitar,” he said, referring to the custom Gibson ‘axe’ presented to all major race winners at Nashville Superspeedway as a trophy.
Gibson Guitar Corp. is based in Nashville.
 
• The Sam Hornish, Jr./Tony Kanaan rivalry that resulted in a highly publicized shoving match simmered in the week leading up to the Nashville race, but the pair of former IndyCar Series champions got together and shook hands on Friday before the start of practice. They also had a private meeting with Brian Barnhart.
Earlier in the week, Barnhart fined Hornish and Kanaan an equal, undisclosed amount for causing the brawl that broke out at Watkins Glen Int’l after Kanaan drove the American ace into the pit wall on the cool-down lap.
Hornish’s father, Sam, Sr., was denied pit access for one race, while Anthony Fedele, a friend of Andretti Green Racing owner Michael Andretti, had his IRL hard card revoked. Fedele was identified as the man who tackled 65-year-old Hornish, Sr. in the aftermath of his son’s initial confrontation with Kanaan.
Team Penske invoiced Kanaan for the damage caused to Hornish’s left- front suspension The bill included two hours of labor.
“Everybody was wrong in some form or fashion,” said Hornish. “I thought that the move I made on Tony was obviously a clean move and he didn't feel that way.”
Added Kanaan: “Sam apologized for coming at me in the pits, and we had a nice conversation. He mentioned that we have been racing for five years together, more than 70 races, and we never had a problem. Everything is cool.”
 
• Kanaan was less happy after the race. He crashed out on the 36th tour while trying to put a lap on Sarah Fisher.
“I tried to go around Sarah on the outside and I just lost it,” Kanaan admitted. “The track was still very green because of the rain last night, and I'm very disappointed right now because this really hurts in the championship. We’ve had a lot of accidents the last few weeks, so it's time to regroup and move forward.”

• Dan Wheldon almost took the lead at the moment Dixon seized control of the race, but the Englishman faded in the second half of the 200-lap contest and finished eighth.
“It ended up a pretty disappointing and frustrating day for the No. 10 Target team,” Wheldon stated. “We had a problem with the fuel probe and the airjack dropping on the last green-flag pit stop, and that was a big setback.”
 
• Danica Patrick matched her career-best IndyCar finish with a third- place. She felt it could have been better if drivers she was attempting to lap had been more cooperative.
“Ed Carpenter was not cooperating, and it’s unfortunate that there was zero cooperation from lapped traffic,” she said. “You have to accept when you're a lap down and when you're off the pace, you are. You need to let other people that are at the front have their race. 
“But what are you going to do?” she chuckled before jokingly adding, “I’ll just hit him next time.”
 
• The “Milka Duno Experiment” suffered another setback when the Venezuelan crashed heavily during a special practice on Thursday at Nashville Superspeedway.
SAMAX Racing hired former Panther Racing shoe Tomas Enge to set up the team’s Dallara-Honda for Duno, who has struggled to adapt to oval racing in her rookie IndyCar campaign.
Duno’s best lap before the wreck was 194.9 miles per hour, almost five mph off of slowest qualifier Darren Manning and 10 mph down on Scott Dixon’s pole lap.