The celebration, literally, was over as it began.
Standing on their pit wall in the shadow of the scoring pylon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the National Guard team was preparing for a celebration decades in the making.
Panther Racing has seen a flurry of runner-up finishes the past three years, but it looked certain that owner John Barnes would finally get his first win.
Easing through turn three, JR Hildebrand has clear sailing-and five car lengths ahead of second place Dan Wheldon on lap 200 of the Indianapolis 500.
"We were there," said Hildebrand, who made his way through the short chute and into turn four.
Then came the car of Charlie Kimball a lap down on the bottom. Running low on fuel and not wanting to downshift, Hildebrand went high with speed.
Into the wall went his front right tire, and down off the wall came the crew of the number four National Guard team that had gone there to celebrate seconds before.
"It's heartbreaking for me not to be able to give this to them," said Hildebrand of the Indianapolis 500 victory, which escaped his grasp when Dan Wheldon passed him on the front stretch before the caution came out.
It would have been the first victory for Panther Racing at the Indianapolis 500 since they started making their way to the oval in 1997. Instead it became their fourth consecutive second-place finish in the 500 mile race-two of those oddly enough coming from the driver who passed a wrecked Hildebrand for the win.
"It's just one of those things that happened," said Barnes, who decided not to protest the decision that Wheldon had indeed passed Hildebrand after the yellow came out. "The team did a great job today."
His driver took the news a little harder, but did so with dignity, conducting a number of post race interviews following the incident. Hildebrand took full blame for the incident, claiming that his attempt to pass Kimball on the outside to prevent fuel consumption he hit tire "marbles" which caused him to slide into the wall.
The number four car would skid its way down the wall and past the yard of bricks for the second place, while the 23-year old driver was left to regret.
"We could have won, and we didn't there at the end and I felt like I just made a mistake and it cost our boys," said Hildebrand. "I guess that's why rookies don't win the Indianapolis 500 a whole lot.
"We'll be back next year."
