There were 22 cars that qualified for the race and there was a stronger field that Cunningham was facing than was the case when he won the Freedom 100 in 2006.  That year he not only won the pole, but led from start to finish in a race that did not have any yellows.  Jay Howard, who went on to win the championship that year, was his only real challenger in that race.  This year was very different and would call for a different strategy.  

Qualifying 2nd with a 190.023 mph was Columbia’s Sebastian Saavedra, driving for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing, who was on the front row next to Wade. Cunningham knew the challenge Saavedra represented because of the previous race, at the Kansas Speedway 1.5-mile oval.  

At the Kansas race, Cunningham was also on the pole with Saavedra next to him.  Wade took the lead for the first 2 laps and for the following 7 under a yellow.  But on the restart, Sebastian passed Wade and kept the lead for the rest of the race and won while Wade remained in 2nd for the remainder of the 40 laps.  Qualifying and race day setups and conditions don’t always give the same final results.

Behind Wade on the Freedom 100 grid was Saavedra’s teammate, American J. R. Hildebrand.  J.R. already had 2 poles, 1 win and a 3rd place finish this season, not to mention a win at Kansas Speedway last year.  Next to J. R. was Wade’s teammate, Brazil’s Ana Beatriz.  She already had two 4th’s and a 5th.   And behind Ana was the 2006 Indy Lights champion, England’s Jay Howard driving for Team Palm Beach International Raceway (PBIR).

Behind the first three rows was a field of 16 more talented drivers who also wanted to achieve the fame of winning at the most famous of all auto-racing tracks in the world, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Before the start of this year’s Freedom 100 Wade was asked about the competition he would be facing.  He said he did not expect to be able to lead from start to finish, but with the experience he had that his competition didn’t (this is his 5th year in the Indy Lights and 5th Freedom 100 at the IMS) he was still confident he could win.

That wasn’t bragging, just a statement of fact.  No other driver in the Indy Lights Series, going back to the first IMS race in 2003, had ever mastered the IMS at that level the way Wade Cunningham has. But more on that later.

When the green flag dropped on Carb Day Cunningham already had his car up to the speed he wanted and he led the first lap just as he planned.  That was his first calibration on his competition.  On lap 2 Sebastian Saavedra passed Wade – or Wade let him pass. At the same time, J. R. Hildebrand passed Wade’s teammate, Ana Beatriz, and took over 3rd after she had taken it away on lap 1.

On lap 3 Wade showed his passing speed and took the lead back from Saavedra. On lap 4 Hildebrand traded places with his teammate Saavedra.  Then on lap 5, the AFS/AGR pair made their team move on Cunningham, moving Wade back to 3rd as they took over the top two positions.

Cunningham followed by putting his second calibration move on the pair and passed them both on lap 6 to take the lead back.  On lap 7, Panther Racing’s Martin Plowman from England and teammate Pippa Mann, also from England, made contact with each other, bringing out the yellow and taking them both out of the race.  When the track went back to green on lap 12 leader Cunningham showed Hildebrand, who was in 2nd place, that he could not jump Wade on the restart.   

Finally, on lap 13, Saavedra passed Cunningham for the lead again and Wade showed him on 14 that he still had the speed to re-pass Sebastian when he wanted to as he took the lead back for the 3rd time.     
 
Then, on lap 15, the AFS/AGR pair re-passed Wade again, this time with Saavedra ahead of Hildebrand, and put Cunningham back into 3rd again.  On lap16, the AFS/AGR pair swapped places and J. R. Hildebrand took over the lead. But by then Wade Cunningham had learned what he wanted to know about these two drivers.  All of Wade’s passes were on the low side and were successful.

The yellow came out for the second time on lap 17 when Ana Beatriz, who was in 6th, and her teammate, Columbia’s Gustavo Yacaman (who had started 13th), who was in 7th, made contact and both were out of the race. It was the second time in the race that teammates took each other out, but it was another “driver development” lesson. They would be in no position to be able to catch up to give their teammate, Wade, any help.  

While all of that was going on, Brazil’s rookie Mario Romancini, who finished 3rd at Kansas, was putting on a show of his own.  He had qualified 18th but had ended up 10th by the end of the first lap, 8th by lap 2, 6th by lap 3, 5th by lap 13 and finally 4th by lap 14.  Cunningham then had another competitor to be concerned about.

On lap 25 of the race’s 40 laps, Romancini, driving for RLR/Andersen Racing, made his move on Wade and passed him to claim 3rd.  Wade re-passed him back on the following lap, 26.  In the meantime, Hildebrand had remained in the race lead and Saavedra right behind him.

The drama and suspense really started to escalate on lap 30 when Romancini passed both Saavedra and Cunningham to take over 2nd place and push these other two down to 3rd and 4th respectively.

Two things happed on lap 31, Cunningham passed Saavedra to take over 3rd and Mike Potekhen spun in Turn 3 and brought out the 4th yellow.  The track went green again on lap 34 of the 40 and on lap 35 Saavedra re-passed Cunningham to take 3rd place back – until the following lap 36 when Wade cranked it up.  It was time to go for the win.  This was what it was all about.

On lap 36 Saavedra and Cunningham both helped each other and passed Romancini, dropping him to 4th.  Then when Romancini made a move to re-pass Cunningham and Saavedra on lap 37, Wade brilliantly tagged onto Romancini and they both passed Saavedra.  Romancini was back in 2nd and Wade still in 3rd, while Saavedra was left back in 4th.  There were only 3 laps left then.

On lap 38 Wade made his last pass on Mario Romancini and moved into 2nd place.  And on lap 39 Cunningham decided coming down the back straight to make his move on J. R. Hildebrand.  Wade blew past and went into Turn 3 in the lead for his 5th time.  

The only question now as the white flag dropped and these two passed the yard of bricks was whether Hildebrand, now 0.2115 second behind, could catch Cunningham and pass him before they reached the bricks one more time.  When Wade had made his pass he was in the right gear for taking the lead and J. R. was in the gear for leading, but not for following Wade.  J. R. had to make the adjustments necessary to get his car re-set to run behind Wade and catch him. And that took some time, short as it was.    

By the time Wade Cunningham crossed the finish line as the checker flag fell, Hildebrand had closed the gap up to only 0.1046 seconds behind the Kiwi, but Wade had the win he wanted as he drove on to the winner’s circle to collect his Firestone Indy Lights record second IMS Freedom 100 trophy and a $40,000 check.  It had been the closest finish of the 7 Freedom 100 races at the IMS. And for Sam Schmidt Racing it was their 3rd Firestone Freedom 100 win.

Along the way, Wade also had the fastest leading lap in the race on lap 6 when he first passed Hildebrand.  The 9 race lead changes set a Freedom 100 record and Wade held the lead on 5 different occasions. Cunningham led a total of 14 laps.  Hildebrand led the race twice and totaled 23 laps.  Saavedra led the race 3 times for a total of 3 laps.

Mario Romancini, having started 18th, finished a remarkable 3rd and Saavedra finished 5th as Jay Howard passed him on the last lap to take 4th.  Of the starting field of 22 cars, 12 were still running at the finish.  The order going down from 6th to 12th was Davison, Herrington, Mason, Donoso, Strous, Wagner and Summerton, all of whom put on a great show also as did the other drivers who went out earlier.  There is great talent coming in the future for the IndyCar Series.

After the Freedom 100 the driver points stands with Hildebrand in first with 158, followed by Saavedra 153, Summerton 148, Strous 146 and Cunningham having moved into fifth with 135 points.

As for Wade Cunningham’s performance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the last five years, it would not be right to say that he has owned the IMS at the Firestone Indy Lights Series level – no driver ever owns that track – but the growth of his driving understanding and ability at the IMS has been phenomenal.

From day one, Wade’s grasp of how to drive the IMS track has been amazing.  On May 3, 2005, Series driver coach Rick Mears (who has 4 wins and 6 poles at the IMS) first drove Cunningham around the track that morning and explained the track and driving it.  Wade got it!  Later that day he became the first Indy Lights driver to break the 190 mph barrier in practice.

Then on race day, May 27, 2005, although he had qualified 5th, Wade got a perfect start, passed the all the cars in front of him and led the field going into Turn 1.  With the help of a yellow due to a car in the rear making contact with the wall, Wade led the first 4 laps.  Pole sitter Jaime Camara passed Wade on the lap 5 restart but Wade stayed right behind him in his draft as the two pulled away from the rest of the field for the rest of the race.

Wade was driving for Brian Stewart Racing and Jaime for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.  Cunningham was able to set Camara up for passes on the high side on two occasions and take the lead for 1 lap each, laps 18 and 21, before he was re-passed.  His plan was to try to set Camara up again on the last lap of the race, but a yellow that went green only for the last quarter of lap 40 prevented an effective attempt for a win.  Wade finished 2nd, led on 3 occasions and recorded the fastest leader lap.

As mentioned above, in 2006 Wade, driving for Brian Stewart Racing, won the pole for the Freedom 100, led all 40 laps and won his first race at the IMS.  Obviously, he recorded the fastest leader lap.

The 2007 Freedom 100 was the one Wade, driving for AFS Racing, would like to forget.  He qualified 5th, but a handling/tire problem with his car in the race led to him parking the car after 11 laps.  He finished 23rd in the field of 24.

Last year Wade did not race the full season (7 races), but did race the oval tracks four times for Brian Stewart Racing, including the Freedom 100 for the 4th time. He qualified 3rd and finished 3rd.  In between these two, Cunningham was never lower than 3rd, ran in 2nd on three occasions for a total of 23 laps, and led 1 lap, doing so turning in the fastest leading lap in the race.  Dillon Battistini, driving for Panther Racing, won the race and Richard Antinucci, driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, finished 2nd.

Summing up Wade Cunningham’s five Freedom 100 races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he had 2 poles and never qualified lower than 5th.  That record included the first pole over the 190 mph barrier.  He won 2 races, and had a 2nd and a 3rd place finish for a total of 4 podium finishes.  He also led 4 races and recorded the fastest leading lap in every one of those!

For his Firestone Indy Lights career to date in total, Wade has 9 poles (2 at Watkins Glen also) and 6 wins in his 52 races in the Series, 26 podium finishes, race leader 32 times, and 590 laps led to go with also being the 2005 Series champion.  

None of the earlier Series champions and other drivers (there have been 15) who took the “Fast Track to Indy” to qualify for and run in the Indy 500 had the experience at the IMS when they arrived that Wade Cunningham does.  While Wade has not been on the “Fast Track,” when he hopefully does get to the Indy 500 and the IndyCar Series his experience should lead to good results and his staying at that level longer than many Firestone Indy Lights graduates have.

As for the 2009 Firestone Freedom 100, it was the most exciting, dramatic and thrilling of all their races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Coming up next weekend is The Milwaukee Mile, which is always a great race and has in so many years past traditionally followed the Indy 500 race.  Sometimes the IMS winners follow up with another one and sometimes they don’t.  But the race on that track is always exciting.