Crashes cause tempers to flare

INDIANAPOLIS -- Teammates Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti tangled on the track, perhaps costing Kanaan a chance to win. Danica Patrick -- all 100 pounds of her -- went looking for a fight before cooler heads prevailed.

Scott Dixon took the victory, but the walls at Indianapolis Motor Speedway claimed plenty of trophies in a mayhem-filled Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

No one was injured seriously in the seven crashes and spinouts that marred the race, but Kanaan still paid a heavy price. He went from leading the race to crashing out of it in a matter of seconds.

Kanaan put the blame his teammate and didn't seem to take any comfort in the fact that Andretti apparently said he was sorry over the team's radio.

"He'd better be," Kanaan said. "That was a very stupid move. Me being a good teammate, I didn't want to turn into him and take out two cars."

Kanaan was leading on lap 106 when he appeared to slow on the backstretch and was passed by Scott Dixon and Andretti.

Kanaan seemed to think Andretti didn't give him enough room to race, and that caused him to slide out of control coming out of Turn 3 -- where he was blindsided by Sarah Fisher, who had nowhere to go.

Andretti went on to finish third and didn't seem willing to take the blame.

"Stupid? I don't know about stupid," Andretti said. "Last-minute, maybe."

Team owner Michael Andretti, Marco's father, tried not to take sides.

"It's just a tough call," Michael Andretti said. "It's racing. I guess he was surprised Marco was there, and it's tough."

Kanaan decried his tough luck at Indy, a complaint usually reserved for the Andretti family. Counting the 12 laps he led Sunday, Kanaan has led 214 career laps at Indy but still hasn't come home with a win.

"Every time I lead, something happens," Kanaan said.

Kanaan was seething, but his display of anger was nothing compared to Patrick's after she was run into by Ryan Briscoe while trying to leave pit lane late in the race.

A furious Patrick then got out of her car and walked purposefully toward Briscoe's pit for what was shaping up as a confrontation with his crew. She removed her gloves and seemed ready to rumble before track security personnel directed her back to her own pit area.

"I was ready to take it all off, my helmet and everything -- because it's hard to talk through the helmet," Patrick said. "It's probably a better idea that I didn't make it all the way down there anyway because, well, as you guys know, I'm a little emotional."

Patrick said she was waiting for Briscoe to come talk to her about the incident. She said it was obvious what happened on pit road.

"You don't pull out from your pit box three lanes out. You have to wait 'til you blend in there," she said. "That's why they have a get-up-to-speed lane, which is the inside lane, and then, when you're at speed, you're at the outside lane.

"It's not the right thing to do that you just go all the way out to the wall. That's not right."

Briscoe, unaware Patrick was after his head, watched a replay of the crash after the race and didn't see it the same way.

"From what I could see, there was still plenty of room on the right side for her to get around me," he said. "There are people pointing fingers, but that's not the way we are in here.

"You know, we both have a brake pedal in our cars. I was trying to get around (Dan) Wheldon in front of me, and I was staying in the middle lane. I got ran up in the back, and it's a real shame for both of us."