Drivers happy to run without a hitch at Motegi

"It was really exciting to have the green flag all of the time, because you come into the pits fast, you get out fast, and that's pretty good," said runner-up Helio Castroneves. "I think the crowd had a great race here. They saw passing, and that's CART ­ very competitive."

"I think it makes it pretty straightforward when a race turns out that way," remarked race winner Kenny Brack. "I think it's a lot easier, because you don't choose the wrong strategy. You just have to make sure you have a good fuel run. Fortunately, we managed to save a lot of fuel running in traffic, and even on our own we got great mileage.

"If you have a lot of yellows, a lot of different strategies come into play, like in Nazareth. We were pretty good there and we still managed to get second because of the different fuel strategy. You can get into that situation when you have a lot of yellows. But here it was pretty easy, and it was fun too. It's fun for the fans and it's fun for us because over a fuel run, the car changes a little bit. You can make some gains or lose some positions to other competitors that way, and it makes for quite an interesting race for everyone."

Third place finisher Tony Kanaan added: "It was a fun race for us, and you definitely don't know what to expect. Should you save fuel or not? Is a yellow going to come out or not? You're constantly adapting to the situation."