Birthday win for Hornish in Kansas

Hornish battled side-by-side with Dan Wheldon before Wheldon conceded the high groove and fell in behind Hornish with two laps remaining.

Hornish and the No. 6 Marlboro Team penske Honda/Dallara hit the finish line 0.0793 seconds ahead of Wheldon's No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda/Dallara.

"I was more concerned about him beating me than I was about him running into me," Hornish said of the a close and sometimes frightening duel.

"We've fought before and had some problems. It's like that with every driver, but if you remember every little thing that happens, you're not going to ever get close to anybody. ... Dan is a 500 winner and champion of the series. He knows what he's doing."

Wheldon tried to hold the outside line and even hold Hornish tight to the bottom of the track, but his car couldn't maintain the pace of Hornish's. Eventually, Wheldon had to give in. Once he fell in line behind the No. 6 car, Hornish took off.

"I just wasn't quick enough," Wheldon said. "It was going to be difficult for me. You can drive very close with Sam. I tried pinning him down there a couple of times.

"I've got to respect the fact that he needs racing room and his car was pushing a little bit. It got to the point where he was just quicker. I tried to stay there, but he was gradually working in front of me."

The win vaulted Hornish past Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves into the IRL IndyCar Series standings after eight of 14 races. It was Hornish's third win of the season and second in succession. He won last week at Richmond and won the Indianapolis 500 in May.

"It's already been a special season - I won Indy," Hornish said. "That makes the whole year special. I don't care what I do this year, that was the main thing. I love to win as much as the next guy, but that was the crowning achievement of my career.

"I don't know if anything will ever match up to that, but I've sure been having a lot of fun winning races since then."

Vitor Meira passed Tony Kanaan for third on the 199th of 200 laps, and Scott Dixon then passed Kanaan for fourth place. Following the top five was Castroneves, who lost control and hit the wall earlier in the race but recovered to finish sixth.

Tomas Scheckter was seventh, followed by Kosuke Matsuura, Marco Andretti and Jeff Simmons.

Meira's podium finish was the 10th of his IRL career without a win. He finished second last week to Hornish at Richmond and, without a primary sponsor on the No. 4 Panther Racing Honda/Dallara, currently stands fifth in driver points.

"Every weekend we're moving our way up," Meira said. "On the last set of tyres, the car was at its best. That's why we gained so many positions after the last restart."

Dixon, who battled for the lead with Hornish and Wheldon most of the race, fell from third to fifth on a restart with 17 laps remaining in the 200-lap race. He recovered to follow Meira past Kanaan on the final lap.

"On that last restart, I'm not sure if I got some stuff on my tyres, but I really got loose and sideways a few times and lost a lot of spots," Dixon said.

"I started picking them off again to finish fourth and got some good points, but I can't help feeling like it should have been a better result."

Hornish, who led all but 51 laps, regained the lead by passing Wheldon on the high side on the final restart. The two battled nose-to-tail before Wheldon pulled alongside on the outside with three laps to go. The two raced that way for more than a lap before Wheldon gave way.

"We were just a little bit faster than Wheldon," Hornish said. "Maybe we would have been a little bit better if he could have been out front, but in traffic, our car was quite a bit better."

After his crash and three pit stops to fix the rear wing on the No. 3 Penske Honda/Dallara, Castroneves raced back to fourth in the late stages of the race before an extra pit stop dropped him to sixth place and 20 points behind the new IRL leader.

"I thought when I crashed that was it, but when my guys fixed the car, I was like, 'Wow, I'm still in it,'" Castroneves said. "It took a little while to get back in the groove, but I was able to battle through the field and bring the car home near the top."

Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that he fell behind Hornish in the standings, especially considering the Sunday morning pastry-in-the-face that he planted on his teammate, who was wearing sunglasses at the time and caught completely off guard.

"I was more worried about getting caked the first year I was with the team," Hornish said. "Kanaan got Helio with a cake that year. I decided then that I didn't want cake in my face, so I didn't do it to Helio. I made it for three years without getting a cake, but I did tell him afterward that paybacks are hell."

The IRL takes a week off before resuming July 15 at Nashville Superspeedway but Hornish doesn't want to stop. "I wish we could just keep going," Hornish said with a laugh.

Pos  Driver             Laps
 1.  Sam Hornish Jr.    200
 2.  Dan Wheldon        200
 3.  Vitor Meira        200
 4.  Scott Dixon        200
 5.  Tony Kanaan        200
 6.  Helio Castroneves  200
 7.  Tomas Scheckter    200
 8.  Kosuke Matsuura    200
 9.  Marco Andretti     199
10.  Jeff Simmons       199
11.  Danica Patrick     198
12.  Dario Franchitti   198
13.  Bryan Herta        197
14.  Eddie Cheever Jr.  196
15.  Buddy Lazier       194
16.  Ed Carpenter       184
17.  Buddy Rice         174
18.  Scott Sharp        165
19.  Felipe Giaffone     66