IRL /INDYCAR CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

The IndyCar championship comes down to Saturday’s finale at Homestead-Miami fitting since the series main stay track has always been the 1.5-mile ovals.

 Three drivers, two team battle royale for the title and, while we know either a Target/Ganassi or Team Penske driver will likely be standing in victory lane, we don’t know which one.

Saturday afternoon, one of these three drivers will be crowned 2009 IndyCar Series champion.

Scott Dixon,with a  five-point lead over teammate Dario Franchitti and is eight points in front of Ryan Briscoe, has  a slight advantage.

In the five 1.5-mile shows this season, Dixon has led 367 laps and come away with a pair of wins at Kansas and Japan. His average start on these ovals is third and his average finish is 2.8.
And the two-time IndyCar champion is the only one of this trio with a Win  here, last year and in 2003.
Franchitti, who looked like his old self straight away following one year in NASCAR, is use to the pressure of a championship being decided in the last race.
The 36-year-old Scotsman lost the 1999 CART title to Juan Montoya on a tie-breaker and captured the 2007 IRL crown on the final lap of the season.

INDYCAR NOTEBOOK

James Davison, seeking to finish runner-up to Firestone Indy Lights champion J.R. Hildebrand, earned the pole for the Homestead-Miami 100.

It’s the third pole start of the season and fourth of his two seasons in the series (Nashville Superspeedway). Davison, driving the No. 21 People*s Liberation car for Vision Racing, had a two-lap average of 185.546 mph (57.6245 seconds cumulative) on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Wade Cunningham, the final qualifier, grabbed a front-row spot with an average of 185.428 mph (57.6613) in the No. 11 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car.

Davison leads Cunningham by 28 points as both drivers seek to finish second in the standings to Hildebrand, who clinched the title at Chicagoland Speedway last month. Sebastian Saavedra, sitting between Davison and Cunningham and involved in the chase for second and Rookie of the Year, did not record a qualifying time as the No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers Inc. car experienced fuel pressure issues on its first lap.

Pippa Mann will start a season-best third following a 185.364 mph average in the No. 16 Panther Racing car. Brandon Wagner followed his pole start at Chicagoland with a fourth starting position (185.339) in the No. 32 Davey Hamilton/Kingdom Racing car.

Charlie Kimball tied his season best by starting fifth (185.251) in the No. 35 Palm Beach International Raceway entry, and he’ll be joined on the third row by Mike Potekhen (185.210) in the No. 24 Efusjon Energy Club/Alliance Motorsports car.

Hildebrand (184.848) will be joined on Row 4 by Logan Gomez (184.764), driver of the No. 20 IZOD/Healthy Choice/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car.

CLOSE INDY CHAMP RACE EXPECTED

Franchitti trails teammate Scott Dixon by five points entering the season finale – the Firestone Indy 300 on Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe is the third man in on this title fight, sitting eight points back. Franchitti’s goal is simple: finish ahead of Dixon – as he did by a whisker in the 2007 finale to win the title – and Briscoe to earn a $1 million bonus among other prizes. It’s already been a successful and memory-laden return to the series’ diverse set of ovals and road/street courses at age 36 — four victories, four pole starts, 12 top-five finishes, 470 laps led and the opportunity to become the third multi-time champion in series history. Just like his major North American open-wheel racing experience that will reach 200 events at St. Petersburg (Fla.) in March 2010. A decade ago, Franchitti was involved in a down-to-the-wire race for the CART title, which he lost to Juan Montoya based on a tiebreaker (seven wins to three). In 2007, he swapped the spot atop the standings with Dixon – ahead by three points — entering the finale at Chicagoland Speedway. After running second for the final 6½ laps, he overtook Dixon’s car to claim the victory and championship. Franchitti projects the battle to play out to the conclusion of the 200 laps on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval, where he has three top-10 finishes (high of fourth in 2006) in five races. “It’s going to be a very close race,” he said. “It’s not a typical one-and-a-half mile because the corners are so tight. It’s a one and a half that drives more like an Iowa. It’s going to be a hell of a show at Homestead.”