His pole position may have been a gift thanks to Friday's inclement weather conditions at Twin Ring Motegi but Helio Castroneves certainly earned his second consecutive IRL IndyCar Series win on Saturday. source: crash.net The Brazilian born Marlboro Team Penske driver was able to take his fence-climbing road show overseas for the first time since joining the IRL, dominating the 200-lap Indy Japan 300 and completing a rain-hit weekend that saw him lead every practice session that he participated in. From the front row of the grid, Castroneves was able to open up an early advantage and stay ahead of his pursuers through a pair of back-to-back caution flags in the first 60 laps that thinned the starting field from 20 to 15, thankfully without injury to any of the drivers involved. He then stretched his legs during a lengthy green flag run, leading the pack by a secure margin and only losing the lead during a round of green flag pitstops at two-thirds distance. With that round of pitstops also helping to reduce the number of Castroneves' closest challengers, the third and final caution of the day on lap 155 gave the remainder of his rivals one final stab at glory. However after soaking up some early pressure, notably from Homestead winner and double defending Motegi winner Dan Wheldon, Castroneves was once again able to ease away as the final 35 green flag laps unfolded without further incident and eventually took the chequered flag with an almost unheard of (in IRL oval races) seven second advantage over runner-up Wheldon.
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