Younger fans of IndyCar may not remember, owing to the current calendar composition, a time when the series was a strictly oval-based endeavor. That changed in 2005.
At the time, what we now know as the NTT IndyCar Series was still in its era known as “the Split.” Indy racing existed in two distinct forms, the Indy Racing League (IRL) and the Champ Car World Series (CCWS), which had evolved from Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). Since declaring its split from CART, home of Indy racing since the late 1970s, in 1994 and launching its first season in 1996, the IRL had been an ovals-only series looking to counter CART’s increasingly road course-focused rotation.
That history aside, the IRL existed in this manner until 2005, when three road courses were added to the schedule.
The season began in at the Homestead-Miami Speedway as had been the case the year prior, followed by Phoenix Raceway. Third on the schedule was St. Petersburg, boasting a street circuit which had been used by the Champ Car World Series (a successor to the by-then-defunct CART) in 2003. Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International occupied the 14th and 16th slots, respectively.
Entering the weekend of St. Pete, it was less than clear how this experiment would play out for the series. Some drivers, such as Sam Hornish Jr., had not competed outside of oval racing for the better half of a decade. Others, like Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta, were CART alumni with plenty of hours turning left and right under their belts. Expectations were wide and shaky.
Dan Wheldon and Hornish Jr. entered the weekend as the season’s two winners to that point, with Wheldon having won the opening race at Homestead and Hornish fresh off a triumph at Phoenix. Herta sat on the pole, as he had done in Phoenix and Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Franchitti completed the first two rows on the grid.
Also present, as rookies, were Ryan Briscoe, Tomas Enge and Danica Patrick.
The 100-lap race came down to its final 10 laps without a clear favorite in sight. Briscoe, who had controlled a decent portion of the event, controlled the final restart of the day mounted a valiant defense against Kanaan, allowing Wheldon to hang closely to the top two. The window for the driver of the No. 26 opened with 9 to go when Briscoe turned in on Kanaan as the latter challenged to the inside of turn 10. Kanaan left the scene in one piece while Briscoe was planted in the tire…
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