IZOD IndyCar Indy Japan 300 Race Preview and Writer's Picks

The crews, drivers, and gear of the IZOD IndyCar Series packed up their shops and overnighted to Japan this week for the annual trip to Twin Ring Motegi in Japan to compete in the Indy Japan 300.

The race in the tiny town of Motegi, in the Tochigi province, has been hosting Indy Car racing since 1998, with CART/Champ Car competing in the first five races until 2003 when the Indy Racing League took over. 

Since 2003, Motegi has been a staple in the IZOD IndyCar Series and an important cog in the partnership with Honda, who owns the track.

The race is most popularly known as the location where Danica Patrick secured her first and to this point only win in the IZOD IndyCar series. 

In 2008, Patrick had the perfect fuel strategy and outlasted Helio Castroneves to secure a trophy that stood nearly as high as she did.

Castroneves won the last race at Kentucky through fuel strategy, outlasting a spectacular effort by team Panther drivers Dan Wheldon and Ed Carpenter. 

While Castroneves may have stolen a win at Kentucky, he will look to earn a win the hard way at Japan, where he has always been a fast competitor.

Scott Dixon won the 2009 race, after race and series points leader Ryan Briscoe ran over a timing cone exiting pit lane.  The mistake cost Briscoe the race win, and eventually cost him the points championship as well.

Current points leader and Briscoe teammate, Will Power is hoping to avoid those types of mistakes and stay ahead of Dario Franchitti.  Power currently holds a stressful 17-point lead over the 2009 series champion with just two races to go.

The Motegi race will also mark the crowning of the champion of the initial AJ Foyt Oval Championship. 

While the series finale at Homestead is also on an oval, the series chose to leave the final race of the season off the oval championship, leaving the honor at the track for the overall series champion. 

Franchitti has already clinched the title and will be awarded the trophy at the conclusion of the race.

Six of the seven former winners from the Indy Japan 300 are in the field on Saturday night.  Dan Wheldon is the only two-time winner of the event, and is joined by Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick, and Scott Dixon.

The track itself is a very unique oval for the series, as the shape of the track is egg-shaped with turns three and four being the tighter end of the track. 

The track features 10 degrees of banking through the turns, and the tight turns are very bumpy.  The track conditions require the drivers to downshift and brake on the oval, which is rare for the current Dallara IndyCar setup.

The race is held very late on Saturday night for US fans.  Versus network will begin their coverage at 11 p.m., with the green flag expected around midnight.

To help fans stay awake and interact, Versus will be hosting an online race chat through their website, hosted by Lindy Thackston and others.

So without further preview, we present our writers picks for the weekend.

Chad Smith

This race is dumb. There has to be a way to compromise on a race time that fits over there and here at a decent time. I always dread when this race comes up. Oh well, guess I will Tivo it again this year. (Ed. note: a common sentiment among US fans)

First to Crash: Takuma Sato
Just look at his crash history…wow.

Dark Horse: Ryan Hunter-Reay
Ryan has been running very well late in this season, and I see him with a top five in Japan.

3rd place: Dan Wheldon
Dan has been on fire the last few races, and another podium finish will bode well for his career next year.

2nd place: Ryan Briscoe
Ryan has been running very well the last few races, but for some odd reason, he keeps fading late in the races. Not this time.

Race winner: Dario Franchitti
Dario is making a charge for another championship, and not even a rough trip across the world is going to stop Dario. What a finish we will see in Florida.

Christopher Leone (ed note: Chris will be covering the NASCAR action from New Hampshire this weekend, follow him for all your fendered news)

Win: Dario Franchitti. He wants to make Homestead interesting. Reeeeeeal interesting.
Place: Helio Castroneves. He wants to make Homestead uninteresting for teammate Will Power. If he can take the victory, it’ll be that many fewer points for Dario.
Show: Scott Dixon. He just wants to make the oval standings more interesting, though making up 27 points on Dario is going to be tough.
Dark Horse: Takuma Sato. Because come on. (That sentence fragment should sum it up if you know anything about anything in IndyCar this year, i.e. his nationality, his string of bad luck, and the law of averages.)
First to Crash: Mario Moraes. Because it always happens to KV…

Ryan Worden

Win:  Helio Castroneves.  He has always been very fast here, and will look to win one on effort instead of coasting around the track saving fuel.

Place: Dario Franchitti.  Like the boys said, he wants this championship.  Its gonna be a barnburner by the time we get back to Miami.

Show: Ryan Briscoe.  Briscoe will try to make up for his huge error in 2009.  He won't get it all done, but still a good showing.

Dark Horse: Dan Wheldon.  Panther showed their 1.5-mile oval package is fantastic.  This is an odd 1.55-mile oval, but I still think Dan can do well with it.

First to Crash: Takuma Sato.  The reason Sato crashes so much is that he drives too emotionally.  In front of his home crowd, this will be no different and KV will write another large check to Dallara parts department.