Penske, Ganassi drivers continue their domination at RIR

Before Saturday night's SunTrust Indy Challenge began, the track announcer proclaimed that it would be "anybody's race."

And while that may have been literally true, 16 of the 20 drivers knew that it probably wasn't going to be their night -- after all, they hadn't had one all year.

Each of the eight races so far in the IRL schedule has been won by a driver for Team Penske or its top-tier rival, Target Chip Ganassi. They make their presence known on race week -- at RIR, they took the top four qualifying spots, then Ganassi took the 1 and 2 spots with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

But has the dominance extended too far, keeping other teams off the podium week after week?

On Saturday, both Penske drivers crashed, opening up a spot on the podium for Graham Rahal of the McDonald's Racing Team.

"To come in second to the Target team is like a victory for us," he said.

Rahal's race strategist, John Tzouanakis, agreed, radioing the driver late in the race to tell him not to worry about overtaking the Target team for first -- the third-place points were too valuable to risk them on a late move.

That's a humbling thought for the rest of the drivers in the field, though they all maintained that the Penske/Ganassi juggernaut would eventually be beaten.

"Absolutely," said Tomas Scheckter of MoneVie/Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. "But to beat a Penske or Ganassi, you can't make a mistake. You have to get your setup right, you have to get your stops right, plus you have to get a little luck."

Perhaps the biggest concern is that the dominance at the top is keeping one of the tour's most popular drivers out of victory lane.

That, of course, is Danica Patrick, who drives for rival Andretti Green Racing. She came close to victory Saturday with a bold pitting strategy that almost worked out, but found herself trapped in fifth late.

A comeback wasn't going to be in the cards -- racing conditions dictated one-wide turns most of the night, making passing all but impossible. The final laps of the race had so little movement it was more of a parade than a car race.

But while Patrick may not be able to beat 'em, she could still join 'em. Her contract is up at the end of the year, and if she doesn't make the jump to NASCAR, she could switch teams to be a part of Penske or Ganassi. Penske currently fields the cars of both Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe.

The advantage those teams have isn't a strictly financial one -- IRL rules are fairly strict in terms of supplies and testing opportunities each team has. But Penske has spent 30 years in the sport, and the team's institutional memory comes in handy at regular tour stops.

Of course, that's not to say money doesn't play a part.

"I worked it out that probably all of our budget for the race team is probably one-third of their driver salaries," Scheckter said. "So you start figuring that out, and you realize how much good work our team does to compete with them."

Compete, yes. But that checkered flag remains elusive for all but the top two.

Contact Michael Phillips at (804) 649-6546 or .