Peak performance

Monday, Aug. 22, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.

FOUNTAIN, Colo. -- If Dan Wheldon thought his Indianapolis 500 victory went somewhat unnoticed because of Danica Patrick's historic fourth-place finish in the race, he is doing his best to make sure his 2005 season is unforgettable.

Wheldon earned his fifth victory of the season, tied Sam Hornish Jr.'s single-season record for wins and inched closer to his first Indy Racing League IndyCar Series championship with a dominating performance Sunday in the Honda Indy 225 at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

Wheldon opened a 98-point lead ahead of Sunday's second-place finisher, Hornish, but was careful to sidestep talk of a championship until all challengers have been mathematically eliminated.

"Until it's mathematically impossible for anybody to catch me, I'm going to keep trying to do the same," Wheldon said of winning races and posting top-five finishes.

Wheldon's victory Sunday was his first since the Indy 500 and put him in position to break Hornish's single-season win total with four races remaining. Wheldon made it clear that the record is one he covets.

"I would love to try and get six wins," he said. "That statistic of most race wins in a season is something pretty special to me. That statistic somewhat means as much (as) a championship for me -- it's that important.

"If you can win a championship and win a lot of races on the way, that would be pretty special."

After battling an ill-handling car during the first 75-lap green-flag run, Wheldon charged to the front on lap 153, taking the lead from Andretti Green Racing teammate and defending race winner Dario Franchitti.

"The first stint was pretty difficult -- I had a lot of push," Wheldon said. "Then we made some changes during that (pit) stop and it just transformed the car."

Franchitti regained the lead under green-flag pit stops but then stalled his car while on pit road when his clutch failed. Franchitti fell back to ninth when the stops cycled through and he eventually finished seventh.

"I was waiting for the ... car to fill with fuel," Franchitti said. "I had the clutch pedal depressed but the car slowly started to creep forward and the engine stalled.

"So, another mechanical problem took us from a race that I feel we had the car to win."

Team owner Michael Andretti agreed.

"I just felt so bad for him," Andretti said of Franchitti. "His year has been that way; he's had such strong cars in every race ... but he's had the worst luck over the year."

Wheldon, meanwhile, cruised to a whopping 12-second margin of victory ahead of Hornish in a league that prides itself on close finishes. Tony Kanaan took third and polesitter Helio Castroneves and Vitor Meira rounded out the top five as only three cars finished on the lead lap.

Patrick, who started fifth, finished eighth in her first start on the 1-mile PPIR oval after getting caught behind lapped traffic when the race was restarted after the caution period.

"I think the biggest problem was the fact that when the yellow flag came out and we did a wave-around, I was still running in the top 10 ... but I had to start second to last or something.

"There's really, really slow cars out there (that are) laps down that are in the way. It's tough ... they get in the way. When there's like eight of you on a restart trying to get by them, it's a complete mess."

Only one caution period (for 10 laps) allowed Wheldon to win with an average speed of 153.790 mph, which shattered the race record of 146.210 set in 2003.

Hornish, who led twice for 71 laps in the first half of the race, said the handling of his car went the opposite direction from Wheldon's during the second green-flag run.

"I didn't think anybody was going to catch us at first," Hornish said. "The car was set up really well; just the second stint we weren't quite as fast as we needed to be (and) we got stuck in traffic.

"There's always a chance the yellow would have come out towards the end and I would have had a shot to go after him. As it turned out, I didn't."