IRL News - It's Going To Be A Nailbiter...05/09/2006

Four drivers go into the final round of the IRL IndyCar Series with a chance of winning the championship title.

Marlboro Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves leads team mate Sam Hornish Jr. by just one point, with Target Chip Ganassi’s pairing of Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon just 19 and 21 points behind the lead respectively. But the balance is definitely in the Penske duo’s favor.

“It's kind of every man for himself,” says Castroneves, “The odds probably help Sam a little, because he's more familiar with the ovals. It will be very interesting. No question we're going to try everything we can to finish and clinch this championship.”

With all cars running on Firestone Firehawk tires, all four have one less thing to worry about.

Essentially, for Castroneves to claim his first series title, he has to finish one position ahead of Hornish on the high-banked 1.5 mile Chicagoland Speedway oval, where Hornish is a two-time winner, holds the record for most top five finishes, and also most top 10 finishes... He’s feeling confident.

"One of us should win it, barring any major catastrophes," says Hornish. "I always feel good about going to Chicago.

Of the four, Castroneves is the only not to have been crowned champion yet. Wheldon won in 2005 (along with the Indy 500), Dixon in 2003, and Hornish in 2002 and 2001.

Should Hornish take his third title, he will also score the Indy 500/championship double, having won in dramatic fashion at the Brickyard back in May.

Wheldon, while a long shot, hasn’t given up. “As fast as we’ve been all year, as aggressive as everyone knows I can be, no one is going to want to mess with me in Chicago,” says the Brit.

“I have nothing to lose now and I’m not ready to give up and neither is the Target team. We’ve been really strong on mile and a half ovals and we can still win.

“We just have to win at Chicago and the rest will be in the Racing Gods’ hands. We’ve worked very hard all year to make a championship possible and it’s not over yet.”

The man fifth in points, Panther Racing’s Vitor Meira, can’t win the championship, but he will certainly still be after his first race win, having finished second an incredible seven times.

Murphy’s law suggests that he will win the race, and it will go unnoticed with the championship battle going on…