DETROIT - The return of open-wheel racing to the Motor City started with a picture-perfect day on the Detroit River, with the city skyline framing the background. It ended with a confusing tangle of ultra-expensive bumper cars, tempers at the boiling point, a flurry of verbal volleys, and a muddled championship race.
When it was over, about all that was immediately clear was that Tony Kanaan had won the Detroit Indy Grand Prix, simply by surviving a little more than two hours of racing on the street course called The Raceway at Belle Isle, and that Danica Patrick was second, the best finish in her IndyCar Series career.
"It was just a very bizarre day out there," said Dario Franchitti, who led the most laps in the first race held here in six years and took a paper-thin lead in the points race, despite finishing sixth after crashing at the end.
On the second-last lap of the event, Scott Dixon was running third behind Buddy Rice, with Franchitti right on Dixon's tail in fourth. As Rice ran out of fuel and suddenly slowed, Dixon slammed into Rice, shoving the 2004 Indy 500 champ into a barrier.
When Dixon's car surged backward, he was struck by Franchitti, whose team owner Michael Andretti was furious with Dixon over the incident. Dixon had long been doggedly pursuing Franchitti in this season's points race, finally overtaking him in the race before Detroit, so their battle within yesterday's race often supplanted the actual scenario playing out on the course.
"Poor sportsmanship is what I saw," Andretti said. "He clearly took Dario out on purpose, and that's not the way to do it."
Franchitti inched three points ahead of Dixon, who ended up eighth in the race, and was less sure of Dixon's intent. "Scott blocked me a few times today, and some people think that crash at the end was intentional," Franchitti said. "But I don't know if he would have done that intentionally - but my owner has a different opinion."
Kanaan, a former IndyCar Series champion who was roundly criticized after his performance at Infineon the previous week, came out firing in the moments after leading the final 20 laps to win yesterday's race.
"That's for all the guys who bad-mouthed me last week," Kanaan said. "I'm back. I always said that people who criticized me, it all comes back to you."
Polesitter and two-time Belle Isle race winner Helio Castroneves was involved in a soap opera of his own. Castroneves, who led the first 26 laps of the race, got tangled up with Tomas Scheckter with 23 laps left.
As Castroneves tried to move around Scheckter, they made contact, and Castroneves slammed into the tire barrier, mangling the front of his Team Penske car and wiping out his chance to win. Castroneves, who won his IndyCar Series record seventh pole of the season here, said Kanaan had just moved around Scheckter, and Castroneves was attempting to make the same maneuver.
"I don't understand why he let Tony by, then would not let me by," Castroneves said. "As soon as I had a moment, I said I was going to go for it. It's disappointing because my car was faster than his."
Scheckter was fuming and used the opportunity to take a shot at Castroneves, who is scheduled to appear on the television show Dancing with the Stars.
"Maybe he was thinking about dancing instead of racing," Scheckter said.
Race winner Kanaan, an Andretti Green Racing teammate and close friend of Franchitti, wanted to brush off the chaotic day and celebrate his team's good fortune.
"We came here to take the championship lead away from Dixon, and it doesn't matter what else happened, we accomplished what we came here to do," Kanaan said. "It was a crazy race behind us, so it was good to stay in front."
Defiance native and IndyCar Series defending champion Sam Hornish Jr. was involved in a crash early in the race, came out 15 laps down after his car was repaired, and finished 12th, 14 laps off the pace.
Kanaan, who won for the fifth time this season and the third time in the last four races, said the tension in the ranks surrounding the points race might ultimately be good for the series.
"It was a crazy day, and it's been a crazy year. It's been weird, and I think it's been good," he said. "Sometimes it's good to have all of this. We're humans, and there's pressure, and it just keeps getting tighter and tighter and tighter."
Contact Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6510.
First Published September 3, 2007, 8:59 a.m.
