SPARTA, Kentucky (AP) Helio Castroneves won the Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday, squeezing the last 53 laps out of one tank of fuel and then taking advantage when the leaders were forced to make last-second pit stops to fill up.
It was the second victory of the season for Castroneves, at least officially.
Unofficially, he considers it his third. He led the field to the wire at Edmonton in July, but was dropped back to 10th after officials penalized him for blocking with a couple of laps to go.
Castroneves was fined $60,000 and placed on probation for manhandling an IRL official after that decision, and being stripped of that win clearly still grates.
Introduced to the media in Victory Lane, Castroneves couldn't help but correct the moderator.
``Just a little correction, it was the third win,'' he said, laughing.
He also considered Saturday's win as making up for the events here in 2008 when he was yards away from winning only to run out of fuel exiting Turn 4, allowing Scott Dixon to steal the win.
Not this time. While the leaders zipped around the track, Castroneves slowed down after pitting on lap 147 when race strategist Tim Cindric suggested he could win if he went a little easy on the throttle.
Castroneves was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a masterstroke. When the leaders took turns heading down pit road for splash-and-go stops with a handful of laps left, Castroneves steadily made up ground.
In the end, he had more than enough to ease past pole-sitter Ed Carpenter, who matched a career-best with a second place finish. Dan Wheldon was third, followed by Tony Kannan and Dario Franchitti.
Points leader Will Power led 83 laps but slipped to eighth after a late-race slip. The bobble allowed Franchitti to draw within 17 points with two races remaining. The series races in Japan on Sept. 19.
``We finished ahead of Will, which was one of the things we needed to achieve, but it would have been nice to have finished a little further up,'' Franchitti said.
A week after a pit road gaffe cost Power a chance at his first oval victory, a slight bobble while getting up to speed shortly after exiting the pits cost him.
Power dominated the middle of the race but briefly got loose while heading into Turn 3. He narrowly missed the wall, but the break in momentum prevented him from making inroads on the leaders, meaning the road-racing star will have to wait a little longer to breakthrough for an oval win.
``I'm going to get it one day,'' Power said. ``We led plenty of laps. We'll get there.''
Carpenter was making just his third start of the season, after signing a deal last month as part of a collaboration between Vision Racing and Panther Racing.
``Dan and I can say we probably had the best cars in the race, but the best car doesn't always win,'' Carpenter said. ``That's racing ... it was (Castroneves') night. It was meant to be. But I am a little bummed out.''
Danica Patrick was ninth. Defending race champion Ryan Briscoe, who edged Carpenter by 0.0162 seconds last year, finished 24th after getting collected in a three-car pileup with Vitor Meira and Simona de Silvestro.
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