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2007 marked the twelfth season of the IndyCar Series.
The 2007 calendar consisted of seventeen events, beginning in late March and ending in early September.
There were twelve oval races, three road course race weekends and two street events.
As usual, the was some seat swapping, with Danica Patrick leaving Rahal Letterman Racing to join Andretti Green Racing. This opened a vacancy for Scott Sharp, who exited Delphi Fernandez Racing for the Rahal Letterman team. Perhaps the most exciting piece of driver news was that Michael Andretti would compete in the Indy 500 for Andretti Green Racing. The new season began with a couple of changes to the cars. The most notable was the engine. Honda Performance Development increased the engine displacement from 3.0-liters to 3.5-liters. The motors continued to produce 650-horsepower. At the same time, the fuel capacity was reduced from 114-liters to 83-liters. Teams continued to use the Dallara IR-05 chassis. The oval and road course weights of the Dallara remained unchanged, as did the vehicle dimensions. Competitors would continue to use Firestone Firehawk radial tires. Round twelve of seventeen contested for the 2007 IndyCar Series Championship was conducted at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Drivers would compete in an eighty-five-lap contest around the thirteen turn 2.258-mile road course in an event presented by Westfield Insurance.
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Scott Dixon didn’t collect his first win of the season until round ten at Watkins Glen International. However, eight podium results left him thirty-four markers behind the championship leader, Dario Franchitti. At the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the 2003 series title holder qualified sixth in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara IR-05. A quick final pit-stop moved Dixon from second to first and the victory. |
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One of the four members of the Andretti Green Racing team was the points leader, Dario Franchitti, who, to date, had three victories. Franchitti drove the No. 27 Canadian Club sponsored Dallara IR-05. His worst finish of the season was a seventh and the remainder were top-five finishes. During qualifying, Franchitti was fifth fastest. The final stop allowed him to advance from third to a second-place finish. |
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The usual steady Helio Castroneves was having an up and down season. Castroneves won round two at St. Petersburg but had two sixteenth place finishes and was the first driver to retire at Watkins Glen International. With a chance to redeem himself at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, he put the No. 3 Team Penske Dallara IR-05 on the pole. However, he slipped down the order and captured the final spot on the podium. |
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Tony Kanaan was seeking redemption at the Mid-Ohio Sports Course after an accident in the previous round at Nashville. Kanaan qualified third fastest at Mid-Ohio. On the opening lap, the driver of the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara IR-05 made contact with his teammates Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti. After the incident, he dropped to seventeenth place but battled back to finish in the fourth position. |
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Danica Patrick had her best qualifying performance of the season at Mid-Ohio, starting on the outside of the front row in the No. 7 Andretti Green Racing Dallara IR-05 with support from Motorola. Unfortunately, there was contact with her teammate, Tony Kanaan, on the opening lap, causing Patrick to drop to ninth place. Then she began her march forward and would cross the finish line in the fifth position. |
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Darrin Manning failed to have his contract renewed with Chip Ganassi Racing during the off-season, but he found a home on the A.J. Foyt team. He rewarded Foyt with a fifth-place result in round five at Iowa Speedway. Manning’s performance in the qualifying session placed him eighth on the starting grid for the 85-lap contest at Mid-Ohio. He turned in a solid performance which resulted in a sixth-place finish. |
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Team Penske’s Sam Hornish, Jr. had reason to be optimistic entering round twelve as he had just come off his best road course result at Watkins Glen – he finished second. Hornish qualified seventh fastest in the No. 6 Marlboro Dallara IR-05. By the mid-point of the contest, he was in fourth place. However, on lap-46, Hornish spun off the track in corner one and would finish a lap behind the leaders in fourteenth place. |
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Marco Andretti’s race ended on the back of a tow truck. Andretti qualified fourth fastest in the No. 26 NYSE Group sponsored Dallara IR-05. As the field headed into the ‘Esses,’ the third-place starter, Tony Kanaan, slid into his teammate Danica Patrick knocking her off course. Kanaan bounced across the track and into the path of Andretti. Andretti drove over Kanaan’s wheels, which caused the car to flip and land upside down. |
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| FIN. | START | DRIVER | CAR | ENTRANT | LAPS | RETIREMENTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Scott Dixon | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 85 | - |
| 2 | 5 | Dario Franchitti | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Andretti Green Racing | 85 | - |
| 3 | 1 | Hélio Castroneves | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Team Penske | 85 | - |
| 4 | 3 | Tony Kanaan | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Andretti Green Racing | 85 | - |
| 5 | 2 | Danica Patrick | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Andretti Green Racing | 85 | - |
| 6 | 8 | Darren Manning | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 85 | - |
| 7 | 10 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Rahal Letterman Racing | 85 | - |
| 8 | 9 | Buddy Rice | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 85 | - |
| 9 | 12 | Tomas Scheckter | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Vision Racing | 85 | - |
| 10 | 11 | Dan Weldon | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 85 | - |
| 11 | 15 | Scott Sharp | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Rahal Letterman Racing | 84 | - |
| 12 | 13 | Kosuke Matsuura | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Panther Racing | 84 | - |
| 13 | 14 | A.J. Foyt IV | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Vision Racing | 84 | - |
| 14 | 7 | Sam Hornish, Jr. | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Team Penske | 84 | - |
| 15 | 17 | Sarah Fisher | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 83 | - |
| 16 | 16 | Ed Carpenter | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Vision Racing | 82 | - |
| 17 | 18 | Vitor Meira | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Panther Racing | 54 | Water Pressure |
| 18 | 4 | Marco Andretti | Dallara IR-05 / Honda | Andretti Green Racing | 0 | Accident |
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