By Andrew Charman

The Indy Racing League heads into its second successive Saturday night round this weekend under the lights at the tight three-quarter mile Richmond International Speedway, and the question many are asking is can anyone stop Andretti-Green Racing?

Okay, Sam Hornish Jnr won the opening round of the championship for Penske, and Buddy Rice was successful in a rain-shortened Indy 500, but the class outfit of the season has definitely been Andretti-Green, wins shared out between Tony Kanaan and the ever more impressive Brit Dan Wheldon.

Kanaan, with two wins, comes to the SunTrust Indy Challenge, round six of the 16-race championship, leading the championship 35 points ahead of his team-mate Wheldon. And despite Hornish's initial race win, it's his Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves that holds third in the standings courtesy of a better finishing record, Sam not even making the top five.

Richmond, however, could easily shake up the standings, as it's a fast but tight track, and even quicker following recent resurfacing – lap times here are around 16 seconds at close to 170mph. Keeping an eye on the mirrors is vital – one mistake when lapping a backmarker can be disastrous.

In theory Hornish should have an advantage – he won the race in 2002, but he's not the only past victor in the field. Scott Dixon took the race 12 months ago on his way to the IRL title, and he'll be seeking to kick-start his season in the Target Chip Ganassi Dallara, having so far scored a best finish of second to Kanaan at Phoenix. Dixon dominated Richmond last year, leading all the practice sessions, taking the pole and leading every lap of the rain-shortened race, and he admits to liking the short tracks. “Shorter ovals for a driver and engineers are a lot more difficult,” he said this week. “They are a lot more like a road course because you are constantly working on the cars.

“These shorter tracks are going to be a good chance for us to win, and hopefully we can make the most of the race as we did last year,” he added. “It's exciting to go back there, especially since we were so dominant there last year. We'll see how we fare. Toyota had a good test there with all of us guys and we should be right on top of it.”

Dixon will be well aware that his biggest threat is likely to be Andretti-Green's cars and particularly Kanaan. He's coming off a sequence of five top-10 finishes in the first five races of the season – last year at Richmond, he started fourth and finished fifth.

“Richmond is definitely the fastest track I've ever done,” said Kanaan. “It's like a roller coaster when you feel the (G force) loads on your body every 15 seconds. It's a lot of fun, but it's also a tough racetrack.”


“There is a long way to go in the season, so we have to take it one race at a time and Richmond is the next one in front of us,” added Kanaan, who has completed all 980 laps run in the IndyCar Series season. “It's a tough race track, but I'll certainly give it everything I have there. We need to have a good run there, for sure, and stay on top of the championship battle.”