Video: Dempsey wins sensational Freedom 100 (2nd Update)
05/24/13 Added photo of the 4-wide finish.
 |
| Dempsey wins in a photo finish |
05/24/13 Peter Dempsey came from fourth place on the final corner of the final lap to overtake Gabby Chaves, Sage Karam and Carlos Munoz and win a thrilling Firestone Freedom 100.
Exiting Turn 4 Munoz, Karam and Chaves were racing side by side to the start-finish of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Suddenly, Dempsey found a seam close to the outside wall on the 50-foot-wide frontstretch.
The 27-year-old native of Ashbourne, Ireland, immediately knew he had won the marquee race of the Firestone Indy Lights season, raising his left hand off the steering wheel, though it was a photo finish. The margin of victory was 0.0026 of a second — the closest on an oval in the 100-plus-year history of the Speedway.
Chaves was second and pole sitter Karam was 0.0280 of a second behind the winner in third. Munoz, who led Laps 13-39, was 0.0443 of a second off the winner.
POST-RACE QUOTES:
PETER DEMPSEY (No. 5 Belardi Auto Racing): “I said it before the race, it’s 40 laps, and you go around in circles, but there’s no better place to do that than in Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Spotter and Firestone Indy Lights veteran) Stefan Wilson, hats off to him. He’s a British guy, hard to hear sometimes, but I’m glad he spoke to me as much as he did that time. He won the race for me. He said, ‘Be patient, get us across the line, they’re going to spread out, and you’ll sneak up on them.’ He’s never won here with himself, but I definitely owe him this one. Beers will be on me tonight. It was a fantastic finish. Firestone Indy Lights needs finishes like that. Huge thanks to Firestone. My car was tough to drive the whole race, and the tires held in there really great. So huge thanks to them. I was expecting the rears to go off more, but they hung in there with me. Firestones got me across the line." (About his journey to this point): “I mean, if you’re going to win your first Firestone Indy Lights race, there’s no better place to do it than at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I had a feeling this end was going to happen. And you know it’s going to be four-wide across the line certain enough. It’s massive. Belardi Auto Racing gave me this opportunity, and it’s Brian’s (Belardi) first win, so it’s much his dream as mine to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And I beat the guy that qualified second in the Indianapolis 500, so that’s not a bad thing, is it?"
BRIAN BELARDI (Owner, Belardi Auto Racing): “It literally took my breath away. He did such a great job just holding station. We knew it was going to be a shootout with those three cars in the front, and they just poked a massive hole, and he (Dempsey) was able to sneak in there and just drove a flawless race. He is a great race car driver; we all know. For the team to get their first here, it is so special. Words cannot describe it."
CHASE AUSTIN (No. 28 Starting Grid): “It was fun. I had a good time. Too bad the driver messed up and had a little error and brushed the wall. I was tightening up my car and kind of went the wrong way with it, ended up brushing the wall, and bent some wishbones on it. I had fun, but I wish there was a caution. I’m just proud to be out here. We are going to go to Iowa and try to do better than eighth next time. Hopefully, I’ll be here next year. I am really excited. I love these cars."
JUAN PABLO GARCIA (No. 2 TMR-International-Euclid Chemical): “I couldn’t keep up; I don’t know why. I was trying to get on pace at the beginning, but it was really hard. I wanted to work hard and get up to my teammate at the end. I didn’t have enough power. We will have to work on it. This is the way it is."
ZACH VEACH (No. 12 K12/Andretti Autosport): “I had a beautiful view of the finish; I just wish I was a little closer to it. The first 20 laps, the car was really good. I had enough tools in the car to adjust it and take it where I needed. The last 20 laps, I was out of adjustment on everything I had on the car. From that point on, I was just hanging onto a loose race car at Indy. I stayed in the draft through the last 15 laps, but with five to go, I started falling back. I couldn’t do anything to bring the car back to life. At that point, it was either push harder and crash the car or take home what we had. It was a good run for us. We’ll get them back on the short ovals."
JORGE GONCALVEZ (No. 4 Belardi Auto Racing): “I was at the back of the field when Chase Austin touched the wall. I slowed down because I thought he was going to crash, and I lost the gap with the car in front of me. I had a pretty good drag, and when you're not fast enough without the draft, you cannot catch the car in front of you. Before that, the car was pretty good."
Results
1. (3) Peter Dempsey, 40, Running
2. (4) Gabby Chaves, 40, Running
3. (1) Sage Karam, 40, Running
4. (2) Carlos Munoz, 40, Running
5. (6) Zach Veach, 40, Running
6. (10) Jorge Goncalvez, 40, Running
7. (11) Jimmy Simpson, 40, Running
8. (9) Chase Austin, 40, Running
9. (7) Juan Pablo Garcia, 40, Running
10. (5) Jack Hawksworth, 14, Contact
11. (8) Kyle O'Gara, 2, Contact
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 162.995
Time of Race: 00:36:48.6540
Margin of victory: 0.0026
Cautions: 1 for 4 laps
Lead changes: 2 among 3 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Karam 1-12
Munoz 13-39
Dempsey 40
Point Standings: Munoz 167, Dempsey 140, Chaves 139, Karam 138, Hawksworth 132, Goncalvez 118, Garcia 106, Veach 106, Matthew Di Leo 30, Victor Carbone 2