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Dan's Birthday Present
By Andrew Cutler June 23 2008
It was a pretty good 30th birthday for Dan Wheldon as the Englishman picked up his second win of the 2008 IndyCar season at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. He also gave a nice present to the people of the flood-ravaged state by donating all of his winnings from the event to the on-going relief effort.

Wheldon's teammate at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Scott Dixon, did likewise.

After starting 3rd due to his championship points standing prior to the race (qualifying had been rained out), Wheldon kept in sight the leaders all afternoon. He picked up the lead himself on lap 190 (of 250) when he, Hideki Mutoh, Marco Andretti & Danica Patrick all opted to stay out as the rest of the lead lap cars pitted under a caution flag: those four had pitted about 10 laps prior.

 Based on information that they had aquired during the Saturday practice sessions, Wheldon felt confident that they would be okay on fuel and tire wear. "It was a good call not to (pit)," Wheldon said. "But (team owner) Chip (Ganassi is) not here, so if they had called me in I don't think I would have come in anyway." Another caution on lap 207, brought about by a one-car wreck involving Tony Kanaan, helped to ease any lingering concerns about the fuel situation.

In the end Dan held off the Andretti/Green duo of rookie driver Hideki Mutoh and Marco Andretti, who were dicing for position amongst themselves. Championship points leader Scott Dixon came home in fourth, & Vision Racing's A.J. Foyt IV tied his best ever IndyCar result with a fifth after a solid run.

Here are the complete race results:

http://www.indycar.com/stats/boxscores/2008/iowa_06222008.pdf   

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