 Castroneves had not won a race so far this year |
Brazilian Helio Castroneves took his first Indy Racing League win of the year at Richmond, Virginia. The Penske driver had a close call with nine laps to go when he narrowly avoided being caught up in a collision between two other cars.
The crash caused a caution period, which ended with just one lap to go and Castroneves held off Scot Dario Franchitti to win by 0.5588 seconds.
Canadian Patrick Carpentier was third with points leader Dan Wheldon fifth.
Defending champion Tony Kanaan crashed and was classified 19th.
Results from Indy Challenge at Richmond, Virginia:
1. Helio Castroneves (Brz) Dallara-Toyota 250 laps in one hr 38 mins 33.1105 secs, 114.153 mph (182.644 km/h)
2. Dario Franchitti (GB) Dallara-Honda 0.5588 seconds
3. Patrick Carpentier (Can) Dallara-Toyota same lap
4. Tomas Scheckter (ZA) Dallara-Chevrolet same lap
5. Dan Wheldon (GB) Dallara-Honda sl
6. Alex Barron (USA) Dallara-Toyota sl
7. Tomas Enge (Cze) Dallara-Chevrolet one lap down
8. Bryan Herta (USA) Dallara-Honda sl
9. Kosuke Matsuura (Jpn), P/H, s.l. 10. Danica Patrick (USA) Panoz-Honda three laps down Season Points (after 7 of 17 races): 1. Wheldon 292
2. Kanaan 209
3. Castroneves 206
4. Hornish 198
5. Franchitti 187
MMIX
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