Helio Castroneves’ No. 3 Team Penske car had just enough ethanol in the tank to pull into Victory Circle at Kentucky Speedway.
Just enough was good enough to take a surprising victory in the Kentucky Indy 300. It was surprising because a pit lane miscommunication on Lap 89 forced race strategist Tim Cindric to bring Castroneves back in three later on the final opportunity to pit under caution. Surprising because with 35 laps left Castroneves was running 10th. Surprising because he had to hit fuel mileage numbers while still trying to make up ground with cars traveling 217 mph-plus.
The victory in the 200th Indy Racing League event caught the three-time Indianapolis 500 champion off-guard.
It was win No. 2 for Castroneves, who overtook teammate Ryan Briscoe for fourth in the championship standings with two races left.
Pole sitter Ed Carpenter finished second at the track for the second year in a row and Panther/Vision Racing teammate Dan Wheldon was third. IndyCar.com
“You actually shouldn’t interview me, you should interview [Cindric],” Castroneves said. “Unfortunately, we had a little issue on the pit stop, and things happen for a reason. Maybe we weren’t the fastest car, but we were running good. All of the sudden we had an opportunity to try something, and [Cindric] said that we didn’t have that much to lose.”
Castroneves celebrated his victory with his trademark frontstretch fence climb.
His win came six weeks after his post-race altercation with an Indy Racing League official at Edmonton, Canada. Castroneves was leading the race at Edmonton when he was issued a black flag for blocking teammate Will Power just after a restart with three laps remaining. He failed to take the drive-through pit-lane penalty.
Castroneves was penalized 20 seconds and placed at the tail end of the lead lap, which resulted in a 10th-place finish. He was furious with the decision, as he confronted officials and made physical contact with one of the them on pit road.
IRL officials later fined Castroneves $60,000 and placed him on probation for the remainder of the year. MiamiHerald.com
Brazilian Tony Kannan and Scotland’s Dario Franchitti rounded out the top-five.
Carpenter, who led 11 laps, placed second at Kentucky Speedway for the second consecutive season. He lost out to Ryan Briscoe by 0.0162 of a second in the closest series track finish last season and fell victim to the widest series margin of victory at the track tonight. He has earned a total of two top-five and five top-10 finishes in his seven Kentucky Speedway starts since 2004.
“For Dan and I to finish second and third is a little disappointing because we were so strong all weekend. Dan had a dominant car tonight and it’s tough being in our position when you have a guy win on fuel mileage,” Carpenter said.
Castroneves’ teammate and championship leader Will Power scored an eighth-place finish and saw his lead over second-place contender Franchitti shrink from 23 to 17 points with two races remaining on the schedule.
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