By Arni Sribhen
indycar.com

Thursday Jul 07, 2005

Close finishes have been the signature of IndyCar Series events – especially on high-banked 1.5-mile ovals. The Argent Mortgage Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway on July 3 was no different.

Tony Kanaan’s victory over Dan Wheldon was by 0.0120 of a second, the sixth-closest finish in series history. Vitor Meira finished third, 0.0242 of a second behind Kanaan and 0.0122 of a second behind Wheldon. The margin from first to third was the second-closest in the series’ 10 years of competition.

In all, 50 of the 111 IndyCar Series races have had a margin of victory of less than a second – including the past three (Kanaan; Helio Castroneves by 0.5588 of a second over Dario Franchitti at Richmond International Raceway; and Tomas Scheckter by 0.0534 of a second over Sam Hornish Jr. at Texas Motor Speedway).

“I knew that oval racing had the potential to showcase the most exciting racing, from the spectator standpoint, and I knew that NASCAR had a reputation for close racing. But in our young history we may be redeveloping the standard by which close motorsports competition is measured,” Indy Racing League founder Tony George said earlier this year.

 “To the credit of our technical team, they have done a good job of developing specifications and writing rules that, for the most part over the last eight years, has led to the parity on the race track that in turn has produced the close finishes.”

When it comes to winning nail-biting races, no driver has had more success than two-time IndyCar Series champion Hornish. He has won five of the 10 closest finishes in series history, including three of the four closest finishes. Hornish defeated Al Unser Jr. in 2002 at Chicago by 0.0024 of a second, the closest finish in history. The week after Chicago, Hornish defeated Castroneves by 0.0096 of a second at Texas Motor Speedway in the third-closest finish in history. Hornish repeated at Chicagoland in 2003, defeating Scott Dixon and Bryan Herta in the closest 1-2-3 finish in series history (0.0100 of a second).

“I think that the IndyCar Series is probably the most competitive series out there if you look at how close the finishes are and how frequently we have them,” Hornish said. “It goes to show how competitive this series is that this many races come down to the wire.”

Hornish, who has been involved in 14 of the 50 finishes, has been involved in nine of the top-20 closest finishes in history and has a record of 6-3. He won the closest finish in history as well as the third, fourth, ninth, 10^th and 15th closest and has finished second in the seventh, 11^th and 19^th closest.

Closest margin of victory

The top 6 of 50 races that have been decided by less than one second:

High percentages

Oval tracks, the corresponding numbers of races decided by less than one second and total races:

On the hot seat

Times driver has been either winner or runner-up in races finishing with a margin of victory of less than one second: