INDYCAR SERIES Watkins Glen Grand Prix
Final
for this game
Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix Preview
Jul 8, 2007 - 10:50 AMJuly 8, 2007
Watkins Glen International
Watkins Glen, New York
Race 10 of 17 in the 2007 IndyCar Series season
TV: ABC, 3:30 p.m. EDT
Length: 60 laps
Race length: 204 miles
Track length: 3.37-mile road course
Qualifying record: Helio Castroneves, 133.806 mph, 2005
Race record: Scott Dixon, 114.771 mph, 2005
DRIVERS TO WATCH
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Helio Castroneves
Team: Marlboro Team Penske
2007 Earnings: $1,167,603
Struggled to 11th place last week at Richmond but remained sixth
in the standings; still is a whopping 114 points behind leader
Dario Franchitti; crashed early at Texas en route to a
16th-place finish three weeks ago; also finished 16th four weeks
ago in Milwaukee; Indy 500 pole winner finished third in the
rain-shortened race; claimed four poles this season, which leads
the circuit; took the checkered flag at St. Petersburg on April
1, leading 95 of 100 laps in the road-course race to collect
his 12th career win; ran seventh from the pole in this event
last season.
Scott Dixon
Team: Target Chip Ganassi Racing
2007 Earnings: $1,336,517
Was runner-up to Franchitti last week at Richmond and trails the
Scot by 65 points; finished 10th in Iowa following a 12th-place
finish in Texas; ran fourth at Milwaukee, his third
fourth-place finish of the season; has three other runner-up
finishes this season, including the Indy 500; won the inaugural
running of this race in 2005 and defended his title here last
season; looking for seventh career win and first since Nashville
last July.
Dario Franchitti
Team: Andretti Green Racing
2007 Earnings: $2,372,383
Won last week at Richmond to capture his second consecutive
checkered flag and build a 65-point cushion atop the series
standings; also won in Iowa and in the Indy 500; his checkered
flag at Indianapolis continued a progression up the leaderboard
that began with a seventh in the season opener in Miami and has
included a fifth, a third and a runner-up; struggled to 14th in
this race last season.
Danica Patrick
Team: Andretti Green Racing
2007 Earnings: $717,355
Ran sixth at Richmond but remained eighth in the standings; was
unable to follow up her career-best third-place finish at Texas,
finishing 13th in Iowa two weeks ago; switch to Andretti Green
Racing has not produced the anticipated performance, as the
series starlet continues to run in the middle of the pack;
finished eighth at both Milwaukee and in the Indy 500; owns just
five top-five finishes in 39 career starts.
Dan Wheldon
Team: Target Chip Ganassi Racing
2007 Earnings: $938,205
Finished third at Richmond and climbed into a third-place tie
with Tony Kanaan; bounced back from a poor performance at the
Indy 500 by running third at Milwaukee, but slipped again,
finishing 15th at Texas and 11th in Iowa; was one of the
favorites heading into the Indy 500 but came up with his worst
showing of the season, finishing 22nd due to an accident; by
comparison, his finishing spots in the season's first four races
totaled 13; won the season opener at Miami from the pole and
also won at Kansas, where he started fourth; struggled with
mechanical failure here last year and finished 15th.
2006 Top 10
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1. Scott Dixon (9)
2. Vitor Meira (4)
3. Ryan Briscoe (5)
4. Buddy Rice (15)
5. Felipe Giaffone (14)
6. Ed Carpenter (20)
7. Helio Castroneves (3)
8. Danica Patrick (16)
9. Scott Sharp (8)
10. Tomas Scheckter (2)
Past Winners
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2006 Scott Dixon
2005 Scott Dixon
