2008 Indy Japan 300


The 2008 Indy Japan 300 was the third round of the 2008 IndyCar Series season, for drivers who competed in the series in 2007 and teams that had entered for 2008 who were not former Champ Car teams that were in transition. This was because the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach occurred on the same weekend and there was no way of changing dates to avoid the clash when the reunification took place. Originally scheduled for the afternoon of April 19, 2008 at the Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Tochigi, the race was delayed by 22 hours until the morning of April 20, due to water seeping up onto the track from previous heavy rains. The race was historic in that Danica Patrick became the first woman to win a race in the history of top-level American open-wheel racing.

Qualifying

Due to rain in the Tochigi region, qualifying was cancelled and the field was set by driver points. Thus, the grid was:
PosNo.DriverTeam
13 Hélio CastronevesPenske Racing
29 Scott DixonChip Ganassi Racing
311 Tony KanaanAndretti Green Racing
426 Marco AndrettiAndretti Green Racing
510 Dan WheldonChip Ganassi Racing
67 Danica PatrickAndretti Green Racing
720 Ed CarpenterVision Racing
82 A. J. Foyt IVVision Racing
927 Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green Racing
1017 Ryan Hunter-ReayRahal Letterman Racing
1115 Buddy RiceDreyer & Reinbold Racing
1214 Darren ManningA. J. Foyt Enterprises
134 Vítor MeiraPanther Racing
1424 Jay Howard Roth Racing
156 Ryan BriscoePenske Racing
1623 Townsend BellDreyer & Reinbold Racing
1725 Marty RothRoth Racing
1877 Roger YasukawaCURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports

Race