Tomas Scheckter finished fifth in the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead, Miami, on Sunday. The South African was the top-finishing Chevrolet driver in his début with Pennzoil Panther Racing.
Tomas Scheckter finished fifth in the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead, Miami, on Sunday. The South African was the top-finishing Chevrolet driver in his début with Pennzoil Panther Racing.
The race was won by Team Penske’s Sam Hornish, who won the opening round of the IRL IndyCar Series thanks to a daring last lap pass of team-mate Helio Castroneves.
Scheckter started third and finished fifth with Chevy Indy V8 power. He led 22 out of 300 laps.
“I’m happy,” Scheckter said. “We got a little unlucky with a yellow flag that caught us out in the beginning, and it was tough passing people when they were racing side by side. But the team had unbelievable pit stops. We got some points on the board in the first race, and we’ll be back in Phoenix.
“I tried going low, I tried going high, but there was no way I was going to pass them if they were running side by side,” Scheckter explained. “If we want to win a championship, we have to finish in the top five continuously, and we came back from 15th early in the race to get some championship points.”
The new banking at Homestead produced wheel-to-wheel action and showcased a brilliant late-race, five-way scrap between the Penske duo, Dan Wheldon, Scheckter and Tora Takagi.
After running three-wide with Wheldon, Castroneves grabbed the advantage when Hornish got blocked behind the lapped car of Bryan Herta in the closing stages of the race.
However, Castroneves could not defend Hornish’s daring lunge to the inside of Turn 1 on the last lap. With just millimetres separating them, Hornish held Castroneves off over the last three turns to take a sensational win in his first race for Penske.
Hornish also became the first driver in the 37-year history of Roger Penske’s team to win his first race with the team.