The 2006 Toyota Indy 300 Presented by XM Satellite Radio was an IRL IndyCar Series open-wheel race held on March 26, 2006, at the Homestead–Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida. It was the first round of the 2006 IRL IndyCar Series season and the eleventh edition of the event (sixth under Indy Racing League (IRL) sanctioning). Chip Ganassi Racing driver Dan Wheldon won the 200-lap race; Hélio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr., both of Team Penske, completed the podium in second and third place, respectively.
Hornish Jr. won the pole position and dominated the first three-quarters of the race, leading a race-high 145 laps and only forfeiting the lead during green-flag pit stops. However, as Hornish Jr. pitted on lap 161, a caution was flown for a spin involving Tony Kanaan, which sent Hornish Jr. to the back of the field. From there, Castroneves inherited the first position, but engaged in an intense battle for the lead with Wheldon in the final twenty laps of the race. Wheldon, who led eight laps, emerged victorious by 0.0147 seconds over Castroneves after overtaking him on the final corner of the final lap. It was the ninth-closest finish in series history.
The race was marred by a violent crash in the warm-up session several hours prior to the race, which claimed the life of rookie driver Paul Dana. Dana slammed into the rear of Ed Carpenter and died two hours later. Carpenter suffered injuries to his lungs, though he recovered. To honor Dana, his Rahal Letterman Racing teammates, Buddy Rice and Danica Patrick, withdrew from the race.
Background
The Toyota Indy 300 was confirmed to be on the Indy Racing League (IRL)'s 2006 schedule in September 2005. It was the first of 14 scheduled races for 2006, the eleventh annual edition of the event (dating back to 1996), and the fifth consecutive year that the race hosted the season opener. It took place on March 26, 2006, at the Homestead–Miami Speedway, a intermediate oval-shaped asphalt race circuit, in Homestead, Florida, United States, and was contested over 200 laps and . Dan Wheldon was the defending race winner.
Several drivers changed teams ahead of the 2006 season, which marked the ten-year anniversary of the Indy Racing League. Arguably the biggest storyline from the offseason was reigning IndyCar champion Wheldon's move to Target Chip Ganassi Racing's #10 entry. Ganassi also announced his switch from the Toyota engine and Panoz chassis to Honda and Dallara. With the #26 Andretti Green Racing entry left vacant, rookie driver Marco Andretti, son of AGR team owner Michael Andretti, was tasked to drive the car full-time in 2006. In January, Paul Dana, who suffered a season-ending injury during a practice crash for the 2005 Indianapolis 500, announced his return to IndyCar with Rahal Letterman Racing, becoming the second Rookie of the Year contender. Finally, famed NBA player Carmelo Anthony announced his partnership with Hemelgarn Racing to field the #91 entry for P. J. Chesson. Another big storyline was the return of 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner Eddie Cheever, who announced in February that he was planning to run the first four races of the season, including that year's Indianapolis 500. Chevrolet and Toyota both withdrew from IndyCar during the off-season, leaving Honda as the sole engine provider.
Prior to the Homestead race weekend, two testing sessions were held for all IndyCar teams in order for them to become familiarized with their new Honda engines. The first was held at the Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, on January 24 and January 25, and was not open to the public. Fifteen IndyCar teams took to the track on the first day, with Tony Kanaan setting the fastest lap at a time of 20.6161 seconds and a speed of . On the second day, Wheldon continued to prove his strength despite the team change with a blistering time of 20.1700 seconds and a speed of , becoming the only driver to pass the 178-mph mark in the session. The second pre-season test was held at the Homestead–Miami Speedway on March 2, March 3, and March 5; the first two days of testing were held on the road course configuration, while the third day was held on the oval configuration. On the first day of testing, recently retired NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace took a drive in a Marlboro Team Penske-prepared Honda car to prepare for his role as an analyst for IndyCar broadcasts on ABC Sports and ESPN. The tests were considered a success, as Castroneves swept both days of testing on the road course, with a fastest overall lap of 1 minute and 10.5683 seconds and a speed of . Wheldon's chart-topping lap of 24.5088 seconds and on the oval on March 5 was faster than the official track record set by Buddy Rice in 2004. The top ten drivers were also separated by less than four tenths of a second, leading anticipation to build for the season opener.
After the road course testing sessions at Homestead, Target Chip Ganassi Racing announced that they would revert to Panoz chassis for the three road course races of the 2006 season. Team director Mike Hull stated that their knowledge of the Panoz chassis on road courses influenced their decision: "It was a team decision. We have a lot of information about the Panoz car, and we think the Panoz on a road track is a great race car. We've committed ourselves to running a Dallara car on all the ovals, but with the limited amount of testing we have with the series, we felt we should take things one step at a time."
Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions were held prior to the race, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session began at 10:30 AM local time and lasted for 60 minutes. The second session began at 2:00 PM local time and lasted for 90 minutes. The final session began at 10:30 AM and lasted for 60 minutes. All three sessions were divided into two groups. Scott Dixon led the first session with a time of 24.8974 seconds, ahead of Sam Hornish Jr., Kanaan, Hélio Castroneves, and Bryan Herta. Wheldon was fastest during the session on Friday afternoon with a time of 24.8004 seconds. Dixon, Castroneves, Hornish Jr., and Kanaan rounded out the top five. The only incident occurred three minutes into the session, when Vítor Meira spun into the SAFER barrier in turn four after a suspension failure. Despite heavy damage to the right side and rear of the car, Meira was uninjured and resorted to a backup car for qualifying. The next morning, Castroneves put down the fastest time of 24.5736 seconds. Hornish Jr., Dixon, Tomas Scheckter, and Dario Franchitti took positions second through fifth.
Qualifying was held on Saturday at 2:45 PM local time. Each driver was required to run two laps in their qualifying attempt; the best of the two laps would determine their starting position. Conditions for the session were reportedly quite warm, with ambient temperatures at . Hornish Jr. grabbed his seventh career pole position with a time of 24.4625 seconds and a speed of , breaking Rice's 2004 track record. Castroneves, Hornish Jr.'s teammate, joined him on the front row. Dixon, Danica Patrick, Kanaan, Rice, Franchitti, Wheldon, Dana, and Felipe Giaffone rounded out the top ten, and Herta, Scheckter, Ed Carpenter, Kosuke Matsuura, Scott Sharp, Cheever, Andretti, Buddy Lazier, Meira, and Chesson filled out the remaining ten starting positions. Unlike the other drivers, Lazier was only permitted to run one lap because of a gear change. After qualifying, Hornish Jr. described his mindset heading into qualifying: "The past couple of days we've been out here, we've been up towards the top of the speed charts. We were trying to be a little bit conservative and make sure that we had good race setup. When it came time for qualifying, we put as little downforce as we could on it and went out there and tried to hold on to it."
Qualifying classification KeyMeaningRookiePast winner
Driver Team Chassis Lap 1 Lap 2 1 6 Sam Hornish Jr. Marlboro Team Penske Dallara24.462524.47221 23 Hélio Castroneves Marlboro Team Penske Dallara24.513124.51752 39 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara24.738424.65893 416 Danica Patrick Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz24.738424.658917 511 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing Dallara24.757824.72964 615 Buddy Rice Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz24.772024.760018 727 Dario Franchitti Andretti Green Racing Dallara24.766424.77315 810 Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara24.841724.77256 917 Paul Dana Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz24.816024.796719 1014 Felipe Giaffone A. J. Foyt Racing Dallara24.811724.85747 117 Bryan Herta Andretti Green Racing Dallara24.977524.81928 122 Tomas Scheckter Vision Racing Dallara24.856724.83379 1320 Ed Carpenter Vision Racing Dallara24.869224.839920 1455 Kosuke Matsuura Super Aguri Fernández Racing Dallara24.846724.843210 158 Scott Sharp Delphi Fernández Racing Dallara24.928524.889611 1651 Eddie Cheever Cheever Racing Dallara25.099824.969012 1726 Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing Dallara24.981325.002213 185 Buddy Lazier Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara24.9878 14 194 Vítor Meira Panther Racing Dallara25.032024.989215 2091 P. J. Chesson Hemelgarn Racing Dallara25.202525.243916 Official qualifying results Notes Bold text indicates fastest time set in session. – During final practice, Paul Dana crashed into Ed Carpenter, which led to Dana's death and Carpenter was injured. Both teams withdrew their entries -- Vision Racing withdrew their #20 entry and Rahal Letterman Racing withdrew the #15, #16, and #17 entries. By rule, the qualifying positions were used to determine final finishing positions and half points were awarded to the entries.
Warmup On Sunday, at 10:00 AM local time, the drivers took to the track for a planned thirty-minute warmup session. Carpenter set the fastest lap of the session with a time of 25.9465 seconds, ahead of Kanaan, Patrick, Rice, and Herta.
Death of Paul Dana
About three minutes into the session (10:03 AM local time), Carpenter spun in turn two and made heavy contact with the SAFER barrier. As Carpenter's car slid down the track, the caution lights had turned on and several drivers immediately slowed down at the scene of the crash. Unfortunately, Dana continued driving at an estimated speed of and slammed head-on into the left-rear of Carpenter's car, causing Dana's car to split in half and lift about six feet in the air before landing upright. After the crash, it was reported that Carpenter was briefly knocked unconscious but was awake and alert, and that Dana had suffered serious leg injuries. The session had also been delayed, and instead ended at 11:00 AM local time. Both drivers were assisted out of their cars and airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where Dana was pronounced dead shortly before noon. Carpenter was listed in stable condition and remained in the hospital for further evaluation.