Fuel-sipping Helio Castroneves holds on to win Indy 300

Castroneves stretches fuel to win Indy 300

SPARTA, Ky. — Helio Castroneves crossed the finish line in front.

This time it counted.

The IndyCar star won the Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night, 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. He’s over it. Almost.

When he was introduced to the media after getting a fist-bump from Cincinnati Bengals star Terrell Owens in Victory Lane, Castroneves couldn’t help but tweak the moderator.

“Just a little correction, it was the third win,” he said, laughing.

He also considers it a bit of redemption. Castroneves was yards away from winning at the 1.5-mile oval two years ago 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 at 220 mph, 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 with 20 laps to go the math started to get easier. 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 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.

Castroneves’ shot at the title is long gone, thanks in part to his meltdown at Edmonton.

He was leading with a handful of laps left when officials ruled he illegally blocked Power during a late restart. Castroneves was ordered to the back of the lead lap but refused and stayed in front instead. He crossed the finish line first even as the flagman withheld the checkers until Dixon hit the line moments later.

The normally ebullient Castroneves lost his cool in the aftermath, grabbing IndyCar director of security Charles Burns. He later apologized, but the uncharacteristic outburst cost him a chunk of change.

The two have since made up, and Castroneves and Burns hugged after the driver collected the 24th victory of his IndyCar career.

“I thought I grabbed his shirt, but I’m on probation,” Castroneves said, smiling.

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 in the Bluegrass.

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 when forced to turn left instead of left and right.

“I’m going to get it one day,” Power said. “We led plenty of laps. We’ll get there.”

Ultimately it wasn’t speed, but strategy that mattered. Castroneves led three laps, but they were the final three, allowing him to do his trademark fence climb in celebration.

Carpenter’s finish matched the best of his career. Not bad for a driver making just his third start of the season. He drove at Indianapolis then signed a three-race deal last month to drive the No. 20 as part of a collaboration between Vision Racing and Panther Racing.

“I think 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.