Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300

The Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 is an Indy Racing League IndyCar Series race held at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.

In 2001, American open wheel racing debuted at the circuit with an IndyCar Series event. Since 2006, the race has served as the final round of the championship and where the series champion is decided.

Indy/Championship car racing first appeared in the Chicago area in 1914-1915 at Galesburg District Fairgrounds. Both races were 100 laps around the 1-mile (1.6 km) dirt oval. AAA held races at Speedway Park, a 2-mile (3.2 km) board track in nearby Maywood, Illinois. The first such race was a 500-mile (800 km) event in 1915. Subsequent races ranged from 10-300 miles, and the final race was held in 1918. The track was eventually demolished, and the Edward Hines Veterans Hospital now stands on its former location.

Although no races would be held in the Chicago area until 1999, the state of Illinois hosted numerous USAC Championship Car races at Springfield and DuQuoin.

A CART race was held at Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero, just outside of Chicago, from 1999-2002. It was discontinued, however, when the track closed after the 2002 race.

Past winners

Season	Date	Winning Driver	Chassis	Engine	Team
CART Champ Car history (Cicero)
1999	August 22	Juan Pablo Montoya	Reynard	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2000	July 30	Cristiano da Matta	Reynard	Toyota	PPI Motorsports
2001	July 29	Kenny Bräck	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	Team Rahal
2002	June 30	Cristiano da Matta	Lola	Toyota	Newman/Haas Racing
IRL IndyCar Series history (Chicagoland)
2001	September 2	Jaques Lazier	Dallara	Oldsmobile	Team Menard
2002	September 8	Sam Hornish, Jr.	Dallara	Chevrolet	Panther Racing
2003	September 7	Sam Hornish, Jr.	Dallara	Chevrolet	Panther Racing
2004	September 12	Adrian Fernández	G-Force	Honda	Fernández Racing
2005	September 11	Dan Wheldon	Dallara	Honda	Andretti Green Racing
2006	September 10	Dan Wheldon	Dallara	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2007	September 9	Dario Franchitti	Dallara	Honda	Andretti Green Racing
2008	September 7	Hélio Castroneves	Dallara	Honda	Team Penske
2009	August 29	Ryan Briscoe	Dallara	Honda	Team Penske

Past races

• 2008: Hélio Castroneves begun the race 30 points away from the lead, and he began from the back and charged to the lead. Scott Dixon often ran around the positions 6-10, and Castroneves was often in a points lead position. Dixon began to challenge for the lead, and after two late cautions, Dixon and Castroneves ran 2-wide for the final two laps after battling side by side for the lead for most of the previous 40 laps, and Hélio won the race by 0.0033 seconds or 12⅛ inches, in the second closest finish in the twelve-year history of the series^[1]. Dixon won the championship by 17 points.

• 2007: Dario Franchitti led Scott Dixon by three points in the championship standings going into the race, which was the finale for the season. With two laps to go, Dixon led second-place Franchitti on a restart after a late caution. Both drivers were nursing their fuel mileage, hoping to stretch it to the finish. On the final lap, going into the third turn, Dixon ran out of fuel, and Franchitti slipped by to take the lead, win the race, and win the IndyCar Series championship.

• 2003: Sam Hornish, Jr. edged Scott Dixon and Bryan Herta in a three-abreast photo finish in one of the closest finishes in Indycar racing history - .01 seconds. Hornish, who led 40 laps, battled Tomas Scheckter, (76 laps led), Dan Wheldon, and Tony Kanaan for the bulk of the race and also had to battle a late charge by Roger Yasukawa in the final six laps. The lead officially changed hands 20 times among eight drivers and was usually contested in multilap wheel to wheel battles inches apart.

• 2002: Sam Hornish, Jr. edged Al Unser, Jr. in a photo finish, officially by .0024 seconds in a battle in which the two racers fought for the lead for the final 22 laps side by side with literally no letup and at the head of a huge ten-car two-abreast draft that included Buddy Lazier, Hélio Castroneves, Buddy Rice, Eddie Cheever Jr., and Dan Wheldon.

Past winners of other Open Wheel Chicago events

AAA Championship car

• 1914 Ralph Mulford (Galesburg)
• 1915 Eddie O'Donnell (Galesburg)
• 1915 Dario Resta (Speedway Park)
• 1915 Dario Resta (Speedway Park)
• 1916 Dario Resta (Speedway Park)
• 1916 Dario Resta (Speedway Park)
• 1917 Earl Cooper (Speedway Park)
• 1917 Ralph DePalma (Speedway Park)
• 1917 Louis Chevrolet (Speedway Park)
• 1917 Tom Alley (Speedway Park)
• 1917 Ralph Mulford (Speedway Park)
• 1917 Pete Henderson (Speedway Park)
• 1918 Louis Chevrolet (Speedway Park)
• 1918 Ralph DePalma (Speedway Park)
• 1918 Ralph DePalma (Speedway Park)
• 1918 Ralph DePalma (Speedway Park)

Indy Pro Series/Indy Lights

CART Indy Lights history (Cicero)
Season	Date	Winning Driver
1999	August 22	Scott Dixon
2000	July 30	Scott Dixon
No Chicago race in 2001
IRL Indy Pro Series/Indy Lights Series history (Joliet)
2002	September 8	Aaron Fike
2003	September 6	Mark Taylor
2004	September 11	Thiago Medeiros
2005	September 11	Jeff Simmons
2006	September 9	Wade Cunningham
2007	September 9	Logan Gomez
2008	September 7	Arie Luyendyk, Jr.
2009	August 29	Daniel Herrington

TV Broadcasters

References

• http://www.indycar.com
• http://www.champcarstats.com