Round 11 of the Indy Racing League at Michigan International Speedway
source: Max d'Orsonnens Bryan Herta wins the 200-Lap Race Canadian driver Patrick Carpentier scored another Top-10 finish in Round 11 of the Indy Racing League Indy Car Series held Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. After qualifying 19th on Saturday, the Red Bull Cheever Racing driver eased his way up the field and was running 14th on the lead lap when he was assessed a drive through penalty for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane during his third stop. His lap 118 penalty did not cost him too much since he was already one lap down on the leaders. Carpentier came back out in 18th place and stayed out of trouble at the end of the race to finish ninth overall, the seventh time this season he's finished in the Top-9. Polesitter Bryan Herta was dominant in this race leading 159 of the 200-lap Firestone Indy 400. He finally edged his teammate Dan Wheldon by only 0.0374 seconds at the finish to give Andretti-Green Racing team another 1-2 finish. South African Tomas Scheckter finished third ahead of Brazilian Tony Kanaan. Sam Hornish Jr., of the United States, finished fifth ahead of fellow countrymen Buddy Lazier and Scott Sharp. Dario Franchitti of Scotland was the last driver on the lead lap, finishing eighth ahead of Carpentier and rookie Ryan Briscoe. Alex Barron, Carpentier's teammate, finished 11th. Four cautions slowed the race down with only one major crash involving four cars. None of the drivers were injured in the accident. 13 of the 23 starters were still running at the finish. ''It's another Top-10 finish, but I wish we could be a little more competitive in qualifying so that we can start near the top of grid and battle with the leaders during the race,'' Carpentier said. ''Throughout the race, the team kept on improving the car and at the end, the car was more neutral, the way I like it on this track. The car was fast in traffic, but we need to be fast all the time. There is still a bit of work to be done on the chassis in order to chase the faster teams. Toyota is holding a test session at Kentucky Speedway next Wednesday, and Cheever Racing is looking forward to test new components on the car. The last time we tested with Toyota at Richmond, we qualified fourth and finished third the following race at Richmond. Let's hope we can do that again''
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