As predicted here in TOMAS TALES, the result of the IZOD IndyCar Series mess at New Hampshire is now official…. and unchanged!

Ryan Hunter Reay wins it, even though the folks at Newman-Haas and Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Oriol Servia and Scott Dixon don’t agree.

The teams filed a protest after the soggy, muddled finish on the New England oval.

After a hard-t0-fathom re-start in the rain late in the race, a start the drivers say never should had happened because the track was too wet, Danica Patrick spun trying to apply power, and after the pile up, IndyCar race control scrubbed the start and called the race done, awarding the win to Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Oriol Servia claims IndyCar control confirmed on the radios Car # 2 was ahead when they went red, and Scott Dixon maintains there’s no way Hunter-Reay could have been the leader ( and winner ) since he didn’t “fire”, meaning he was passed on the re-start.

If Hunter Reay is the winner, that would indicate to me, and to Dixon too by the way, IndyCar went back to the last green flag lap to score the win, and Dixon says they’ve never done that before.

Any way you examine it, RHR is your New Hampshire winner, because the 3-person panel decided it in Monday’s protest hearing in Indianapolis.

The issue is closed for now, but as stated previously, when we go back and review the 2011 IndyCar season, the officiating and rule enforcement will be the hot topic of debate.

ET

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 11:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.