A dominant Helio Castroneves (Penske) won his second straight IZOD IndyCar race yesterday by taking with ease the Indy Japan 300 presented on Twin Ring Motegi in front of a large crowd.
Ganassi’s Dario Franchitti had a field day as he ended up second, clinching both the AJ Foyt Oval Championship Trophy and managing to trim Will Power’s lead at the top of the standings to only twelve points as the Australian finished third, his best ever finish on an oval. At one time, the Brazilian was leading by as much as five seconds. Only once during the entire duration of the race did Castroneves appeared to be under threat. For a long time, Franchitti and Castroneves' teammate Ryan Briscoe continually exchanged second place both in the pits and on track, until Power, who drifted back as low as 10th at some point, slipped past Briscoe for third shortly after the last restart with 31 laps to go. Briscoe finished fourth while Danica Patrick had a strong run to fifth in the leading Andretti Autosport car. The local favourites were not able to finish in the top-10 as KV Racing’s Takuma Sato ended up 12th, Andretti Autosport’s Hideki Mutoh 14th, and returnee with Conquest Roger Yasukawa 20th. The race saw several heavy accidents, with apparent car problems sending Mario Moraes (KV) and Alex Lloyd (Dale Coyne) into the wall. Moraes was flown to the hospital for checks, having reported back pain. Still another race to forget for Paul Tracy as he damaged Dreyer & Reinbold car following a brush with the wall and had to retire while FAZZT Racing Alex Tagliani still managed to finish 13th after having qualified a distant 23rd. IndyCar Indy Japan 300 - Results Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Helio Castroneves Penske 2h04m04.4780s 2. Dario Franchitti Ganassi + 4.5746s 3. Will Power Penske + 5.0743s 4. Ryan Briscoe Penske + 6.4825s 5. Danica Patrick Andretti + 7.6057s 6. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 8.3641s 7. Tony Kanaan Andretti + 9.4093s 8. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas + 11.7163s 9. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti + 12.2125s 10. Dan Wheldon Panther + 12.4720s 11. Marco Andretti Andretti + 15.5007s 12. Takuma Sato KV + 16.0693s 13. Alex Tagliani FAZZT + 17.6774s 14. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas + 18.2811s 15. EJ Viso KV + 18.7349s 16. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold + 19.4293s 17. Vitor Meira Foyt + 20.1047s 18. Raphael Matos De Ferran Dragon + 21.2346s 19. Milka Duno Dale Coyne + 3 laps 20. Roger Yasukawa Conquest + 5 laps Retirements: Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 131 laps Paul Tracy Dreyer & Reinbold 114 laps Simona de Silvestro HVM 85 laps Mario Moraes KV 66 laps Bertrand Baguette Conquest 1 lap IndyCar Standings – One event left Pos. Driver Points 1. Will Power 587 2. Dario Franchitti 575 3. Helio Castroneves 501 4. Scott Dixon 497 5. Ryan Briscoe 450 Recent Articles
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