Ryan Briscoe (Penske) had to battle hard and won by a mere 0.0162 seconds a spectacular Kentucky race in which Ed Carpenter could have won his first ever IndyCar event for him and his team Vision Racing.
By finishing in second position, Carpenter produced by far the best performance of his IndyCar career to charge through the field and challenge both the Penske and Ganassi teams for victory. Tony Kanaan took third for Andretti Green, with polesitter and pre-race points leader Scott Dixon fading to seventh by the flag. The event was comfortably the most exciting oval race of the season so far, as the Indy Racing League's rule tweaks to improve the spectacle proved very successful at the first attempt. The first half of the race was dominated by Dixon and Briscoe, with the Australian stalking the New Zealander until lap 49, when Briscoe took advantage of Robert Doornbos' lapped Newman/Haas/Lanigan car to sneak ahead. But it was Carpenter who was on the move when racing resumed after a yellow. He had rapidly charged from 14th to fourth in the first part of the race, and at the restart he pounced on Dixon and Castroneves in quick succession, then benefited when Briscoe slithered high at Turn 4 and tumbled down the order. That allowed Carpenter to chase down Power for the lead and begin a long running side by side dice that persisted until Power made his final stop on lap 156. Carpenter then found himself in the race lead, but with both Penske drivers, Dixon and Kanaan but the American proved unflappable though, shrugging off his challengers and holding the lead through the final stops, which saw Kanaan emerge in second ahead of Dixon and the recovering Briscoe. Although Kanaan tried his utmost to resist Briscoe, the Penske driver eventually got ahead and then pulled up to Carpenter, who hogged the inside line as Briscoe tried again and again to drive around his outside as they raced wheel to wheel throughout the last 10 laps. It looked like Carpenter had done enough to clinch his maiden win, but when they charged out of Turn 4 for the final time, Briscoe inched ahead just far enough to take his first victory since St Petersburg and deny Carpenter and Vision a shock success. His second win of the year put the Australian into the championship lead by eight points. IndyCar Kentucky event - Results Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1h28m24.3246s 2. Ed Carpenter Vision + 0.0162s 3. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green + 0.1614s 4. Helio Castroneves Penske + 0.2728s 5. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 0.6346s Etc. IndyCar Standings - After Kentucky Pos. Driver Points 1. Ryan Briscoe 416 2.Scott Dixon 408 3. Dario Franchitti 405 4. Helio Castroneves 340 Etc.
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