A tight race most of the afternoon ends with a third straight victory for Wade Cunningham over Charlie Kimball and James Hinchcliffe.
View full sizePippa Mann, left, is hit by Jeff Simmons in the first turn of the Freedom 100 on Friday.INDIANAPOLIS -- If Sunday's race matches the Freedom 100 run Friday by the Indy Lights drivers, then don't expect to sit down.
A tight race most of the afternoon ended with a third straight victory for Wade Cunningham over Charlie Kimball and James Hinchcliffe.
View full sizeWade Cunningham celebrates after winning the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Two of the three drivers, Cunningham and Kimball, swapped the point four times during the 40-lap race, with Hinchcliffe swapping positions with them for second.
"Dude, it was unbelievable," Hinchcliffe said.
"I don't know what it looked like from the outside," Kimball said, "but it sure was a great show in the car."
The best seat belonged to Cunningham, who pumped his fist for victory well before the yard of bricks, even though Kimball and Hinchcliffe were just car-lengths behind. "I was tempted in Turn Four to wave, but I didn't," Cunningham said.
Pippa Mann, the first woman to win the pole at the 2.5-mile speedway, crashed on the second lap when Jeff Simmons lost control and pushed her car up into the wall.
"He spins, slides up the track, whacks me because I'm the car behind him," Mann said. "It was an accident that didn't need to happen, but it's actually not [Simmons'] fault. In my opinion, he got pushed down really, really hard. I saw it unfolding, but there was nothing I could do."
In the pits: No surprise, really, as Helio Castroneves won the pit-stop contest for the second straight year. Last year, the Brazilian driver swept the top awards: winning the pole, the pit-stop challenge and the Indianapolis 500. He won the pole earlier this month and now the pit-stop contest leaving only the race to make it another triple crown for the popular driver.
New tags? Roger Penske will need to change his license plates if Castroneves wins Sunday's Indianapolis 500. Right now Penske, a native of Shaker Heights who lives in Michigan, has a license plate that reads "1Indy15x." He will have to change it to "1Indy16x" if Castroneves comes through.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: ealexander@plaind.com, 216-999-4253