2008 Nikon Indy 300
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Non-championship round of the 2008 IndyCar Series season | |
Track map of the Surfers Paradise street circuit at Surfers Paradise, Australia.
|
|
| Date | 26 October, 2008 |
| Official name | Nikon Indy 300 |
| Location |
Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Queensland, Australia |
| Course | Temporary Street Circuit 2.795 mi / 4.498 km |
| Distance | 60 laps 167.700 mi / 269.880 km |
| Weather | Fine with temperatures reaching up to 27.9 °C (82.2 °F) |
| Pole position | |
| Driver | Will Power (KV Racing Technology) |
| Time | 1:34.9451 |
| Fastest lap | |
| Driver | Dario Franchitti (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) |
| Time | 1:35.1552 (on lap 54 of 60) |
| Podium | |
| First | Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske) |
| Second | Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) |
| Third | Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal Letterman Racing) |
The 2008 Nikon Indy 300 was the 19th and final race of the 2008 IndyCar Series season. It was held on 26 October 2008 on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Queensland, Australia.
It was the first time the race was held for the Indy Racing League after 17 years as a Champ Car race. The race did not count towards the 2008 IndyCar season points as the race date was held after Chicagoland Speedway, which was preset as the season finale prior to the merger of Champ Car and IRL. The previous non-points race had been the 1992 Marlboro Challenge, a CART all-star race.
The race was won by an Australian driver for the first time in the 18-year history of the event with Ryan Briscoe winning for Team Penske after leading much of the race, while pushed hard by the near-local, New Zealander Scott Dixon. Ryan Hunter-Reay emerged from an entertaining dice to complete the podium in third position.
With the championship decided, some teams used the race as a prelude to the 2009 season. Dario Franchitti made his return to IndyCar after a failed attempt at breaking into NASCAR, taking Dan Wheldon's seat at Chip Ganassi Racing, with Wheldon moving on to his 2009 team, Panther Racing, replacing Vitor Meira. Meira moved to his new team, A. J. Foyt Enterprises.
Rain fell on early parts of qualifying which caught several cars out, most notably Danica Patrick who hit the wall on her out lap wrecking the nose of the car and putting her out of qualifying without a lap recorded. The rain stopped fairly early and Ryan Hunter-Reay made best fist of the conditions, topping Group 1 two and a half tenths of a second clear of Alex Tagliani. The group was well spaced with Vitor Meira and E. J. Viso almost a second behind the top two and well clear of the final two cars to advance, Mario Moraes and Ryan Briscoe. Graham Rahal missed the cut by less than two-tenths of a second with Oriol Servià the other car unlucky to miss out.
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