2008 Indy Car Series Season - Race Summaries - Round 3A: Indy Japan 300

Round 3A: Indy Japan 300

• Sunday April 20–11:00 a.m. JST / Saturday April 19, 10,:00 p.m. EDT; postponed from Saturday April 19–1:00 p.m. JST / 12:00 a.m. EDT due to weepers (water seeping up onto the track from previous heavy rains).
• Twin Ring Motegi – Motegi, Japan (1.52-mile oval)
• Distance: 200 laps / 304 miles
• Race weather: 54 °F (12 °C), Mostly cloudy
• Television: ESPN Classic, ESPN2 (Marty Reid, Scott Goodyear, Jack Arute)
• Nielsen ratings: 0.27 (rainout); 0.19 (live); 0.33 (re-air)
• Attendance: TBA
• Pole position winner: No. 3 Helio Castroneves (qualifying rained out; lineup set by IndyCar points standings)
• Race summary

At the start, Marco Andretti lost control in turn one due to cold tires and crashed out of the race. Meanwhile, Helio Castroneves took the lead, and led the first 92 laps. On the 48th lap, Ed Carpenter and Danica Patrick pitted, but moments later the caution came out when Hideki Mutoh crashed. The pits became closed, and the remainder of the leaders had to wait to make their respective pit stops. After the field was shuffled, Castroneves still maintained the lead.

On the 92nd lap, Vitor Meira brushed the wall. In the pits, Vision Racing teammates Carpenter and A. J. Foyt IV made contact in their pit stalls. Scott Dixon exited the pits first, and took over the lead.

On lap 142, Roger Yasukawa stalled on the mainstretch with a brake failure. The ensuing caution period set up an exciting finish due to fuel strategy, as most teams were getting 51 laps on a single tank of fuel. The top seven leaders all pitted together, with Dixon coming out in the lead once again. On lap 148, Castroneves, Patrick, and Carpenter all returned to the pits to top off their tanks, in hopes of going the distance without one last pit stop, hoping that the race would go green to the finish.

Shortly after the restart on lap 149, Patrick dropped back to seventh place (last car on the lead lap) in a fuel conservation strategy to have enough fuel to challenge the leader at the end of the race. With the race remaining green, during the final ten laps, most of the leaders, not having enough fuel to get to the end, ducked off the track for "splash-and-go" pit stops for fuel. Despite topping off his tank earlier, Ed Carpenter, getting poorer fuel economy than the rest of the lead-lap cars, was forced to pit for fuel. Castroneves inherited the lead with less than 5 laps to go, with Patrick charging in second place. Castroneves slowed his pace to conserve fuel, and Patrick took the lead with 2 laps to go. Patrick held on to win, and became the first female to win a race in the history of top-level American open wheel racing.