Hornish Wins IRL Championship

Sam Hornish Jr.’s strategy was simple: Stay out of trouble and avoid mistakes.

He did just that Sunday and claimed his third IRL series championship.

While Dan Wheldon beat Target Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon by 0.1897 of a second to win the PEAK Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, Hornish finished third, 0.2323 of a second behind. But he celebrated a championship.

“I can’t think of how next year could be any better, but hopefully, it is,” said Hornish, the series winner in 2001 and 2002 for Panther Racing.

Hornish and Wheldon finished the season with 475 points, but Hornish had four victories -- two more than Wheldon. And he did enough Sunday at Joliet, Ill., to give Marlboro Team Penske owner Roger Penske his first title and claim a $1-million bonus.

“When we came over to the IRL, our goal was to win a championship,” Penske said. “The guy sitting on my right [Hornish] beat us the first two years -- beat us like a drum. To get him on the team and then deliver here is pretty special.... This is another one for the record books. But we’ve got to do it next year.”

The day began with Penske driver Helio Castroneves holding a one-point lead over Hornish with 431, with Wheldon and Dixon 19 and 21 points back, respectively. Castroneves was fourth Sunday and finished the season with 473 points, and Dixon was fourth at 460.

With no margin for error, Castroneves committed a speeding violation early on in the pit and moved to the back of the pack. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner was in fourth after 62 laps, but he was in danger of falling out of contention before a yellow flag with 50 laps to go.

With about 30 laps left, Wheldon and Dixon began trading leads, one refusing to yield to the other. Not with the championship at stake -- and not with Hornish right behind.

Wheldon figured that he needed the three bonus points for leading the most laps, so he was aggressive from the start. The same went for Dixon.

They immediately jumped ahead and ran side by side, treating the opening laps like the final ones, with Hornish close behind. Wheldon led 166 laps, with Dixon and Hornish trading second and third most of the race.

Wheldon led with 10 to go and stayed in front, and Dixon and Hornish volleyed the second and third spots over the final laps.

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Michael Schumacher climbed to the top of the podium, where he has been so many times. He took a long look at the red-clad Ferrari fans below, and told them what they didn’t want to hear.

He was retiring from Formula One after the season, ending one of the great careers in sports, let alone auto racing. Fittingly enough, his announcement Sunday came after he had won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

“The day has to come, and I felt this was the moment,” the 37-year-old German said. “After the checkered flag I came on the radio and told all my friends in the team what I was about to announce, and it was really difficult to keep my emotions under control.”

The same could be said for the fans of the seven-time world champion. After his 90th victory and fifth at Monza -- in which he drew to within two points of leader Fernando Alonso with three races left -- they pleaded for a change of heart.

“You could feel the love they have for Ferrari,” Schumacher said. “If I had to talk about that decision at that moment, I would not have managed to get the words out of my mouth.”

He will leave the sport following the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix on Oct. 22.

Ferrari plans to announce a “new role” for Schumacher at the end of the season.

On Sunday, Schumacher won in 1 hour 14 minutes 51.975 seconds. Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren-Mercedes was second, 8.046 seconds behind, and Robert Kubica of BMW-Sauber was third, 26.414 back.