Associated Press
Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas — Helio Castroneves raced to his first IndyCar victory of the season, leading the final 132 laps Saturday night for his fourth career victory at Texas Motor Speedway.
Castroneves also won at the 1½-mile, high-banked track in 2004, 2006 and 2009.
“Texas is awesome. I love this place,” Castroneves said after celebrating by climbing up the frontstretch fence.
Former series champion Sam Hornish Jr. was the only other three-time IndyCar winner at Texas, and his last came for Roger Penske, who now has eight victories at the track which hosted its 25th IndyCar race.
Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Motorsports finished second, more than 5 seconds back. He led 35 of the 228 laps.
With six other top-10 finishes in the first seven races, Castroneves entered the night tied with Marco Andretti for the season points lead.
Andretti, who led the first 53 laps after starting on the front row, finished fifth. He dropped to second, 22 points behind Castroneves.
Castroneves took the lead from Andretti, going around him in Turn 3 on lap 96, and stayed there. He is the seventh driver to win in eight races this season.
Before Oriol Servia spun out right in front of him on lap 113, Castroneves had built a 14-second lead over defending race winner Justin Wilson. Castroneves was able to get around Servia’s car without any issue.
That ended a sequence when Castroneves went 61 laps without a stop before going into the pit during that caution.
The top five finishers were Chevrolets, with Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan third, followed by Ed Carpenter and Andretti. The highest-finishing Honda was Dario Franchitti, just ahead of Castroneves teammate Will Power, the polesitter.
While nothing obscene, a clearly frustrated Andretti motioned with his hand to Sebastien Bourdais while completing a pass less than 70 laps in at Texas.
It was a week earlier in the first race of the Detroit doubleheader that Andretti was the target when Sebastian Saavedra flashed both of his middle fingers after the two made contact on the track. That motion by Saavera was caught on live television, and earned him a $30,000 fine from IndyCar.
Bourdais was placed on probation for the rest of the season for comments made toward officials on pit road after an accident with Power in Sunday’s race in Detroit. Power also was put on probation until the end of the season for throwing his gloves at Bourdais.
NATIONWIDE: The NASCAR series race at Iowa Speedway was postponed until today because of rain.
The postponement, which is the first for a major race in the six-year history of Iowa Speedway, ensures that field today will be made up solely of Nationwide regulars.
Sprint Cup driver Joey Logano, racing today at Pocono in Pennsylvania, will be replaced by teammate Ryan Blaney.
After rain cancelled Friday’s qualifying in Long Pond, Pa., point standings will be used to set the lineup for the Party in the Poconos 400. Points leader Jimmie Johnson will automatically sit on the pole.