Wheldon's victory common, but wide margin wasn't

Updated: March 25, 2007, 5:20 PM ET

Dan Wheldon put on a rare performance Saturday night in the season opener, winning the race for the third straight year. The runaway victory was so dominating, the rest of the IndyCar Series drivers have to wonder what it will take to catch him this year, writes John Oreovicz.

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By John Oreovicz
Special to ESPN.com
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HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Rain showers delayed the start of the 2007 IndyCar Series season by about 45 minutes. It took much longer than that for the action to truly kick into gear.

Paul Kizzle/AP PhotoDan Wheldon is the first driver in the 12-year history of the IndyCar Series to win three consecutive races at the same track.

The XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 was a curiously subdued affair, with the field seemingly content to follow leader Dan Wheldon for the first 100-odd laps. Then a full-course caution for a three-car accident triggered by Jeff Simmons prompted a round of full-field pit stops, during which a dropped wheel nut demoted Wheldon to ninth place.

All that minor disaster did was motivate the 27-year-old Englishman.

Within 11 laps, Wheldon worked his way back into the lead, and from there, his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda was untouchable. He claimed his third consecutive IndyCar Series win at Homestead-Miami Speedway by 6.499 seconds over teammate Scott Dixon, the largest margin of victory in more than two years at an IndyCar Series oval race.

"That's a great first step to start a championship!" Wheldon exclaimed to his crew on the radio after leading 179 of the 200 laps.

Wheldon has led 345 out of 600 since 2005 at Homestead, and he became the first series driver to win the same event three years in a row. His three wins at Homestead matched the record compiled at the 1.5-mile Florida oval by third-place finisher Sam Hornish Jr., who won here in 2001, '02 and '04.

The victory bodes well for Wheldon's championship aspirations. Four of the last six IndyCar Series champions won the opening race of the season, including Wheldon in his 2005 title run.

"It was a great way to open up the season," Wheldon said. "We worked very hard over the winter to perfect what we started last year. I think I underestimated the difficulty of coming to a new team, so a lot of credit goes to the engineering staff, especially Andy Brown, who has done a fantastic job."

Dixon and Hornish both had problems of their own during the Lap 109 round of pit stops that delayed Wheldon. But they figured once they were ahead of the No. 10 car on the track, they could keep it behind.

They were wrong. Wheldon quickly blasted past the pair of former series champions as if they were raw rookies.

"He was quick, man -- no doubt about it," Dixon observed. "Our cars were set up very equal, but he seemed to have a bit more speed. And I know when he was running out front, he was running very lean.

"Dan's car was very strong the last 10 laps of a stint," the New Zealander added. "Up until then, I could hang onto him quite happily. Then at the end of the race, we had the same speed, but we were too far apart by then."

"We just couldn't keep up with him," admitted Hornish, who was a massive 17.5 seconds back and in third place at the checkered flag. "Our car handled well, but we were just too slow.

"We took third place in this race last year when Dan won, and we went on to win the championship. So I'll take this as a good omen."

Based on what Wheldon showed Saturday night, his competition has its work cut out. Dashing Dan demonstrated the kind of dominance that happens about once every four years in the IndyCar Series.

"You always want to dominate," Wheldon said. "I knew at the open test that I would be very competitive here, but didn't know I would dominate like that. Everything went my way to a certain degree. Even with the thing in the pits, I didn't lose too much time, and I didn't work the tires too hard to get back to the front. I just pulled away then, and the longer the stints were, the better for me."

The winner questioned whether he would have had the maturity to come back from a pit stop misfortune a year or two ago.

"I do every now and then throw a tantrum," he admitted. "But even when we had the problem in the pits, I was pretty calm. I think its maturity and confidence in the car. With experience, you understand the circumstances. I knew I had a very good car underneath me and I still had about 90 laps to get to front. It wasn't a big issue."

IndyCar Series officials must be hoping that Saturday night's contest wasn't an indicator of how the season will go. After the Penske and Ganassi teams dominated 2006, they were hoping to see more teams and drivers capable of running at the front. Instead, they got a one-man show.

There were some individual signs of progress. Three of the four Andretti Green Racing cars qualified in the top five, although the team's challenge wilted under race conditions. Marco Andretti finished dead last, dropping out because of poor handling, and Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan struggled to remain in the top 10 after the first couple of stints. AGR newcomer Danica Patrick looked set to post the team's best finish, but the starlet of the IndyCar set spun under braking and tapped the wall while entering the pits for her final scheduled spot. Kanaan wound up fifth, Franchitti seventh.

Panther Racing's Vitor Meira, the IndyCar Series' Mr. Consistency, came through to take fourth place, and Ed Carpenter drove arguably the best race of his IRL career to take sixth for Vision Racing. Tomas Scheckter put a second Vision car in the top 10 for team (and series) owner Tony George, and third driver Anthony Foyt -- aka A.J. Foyt IV -- ran well before being taken out in the Simmons crash.

But the big story Saturday night was Wheldon and his remarkable mastery of Homestead-Miami Speedway. Can anyone rise to the challenge of denying him a second IndyCar Series crown?

John Oreovicz covers open-wheel racing for National Speed Sport News and ESPN.com.