Castroneves takes canny Barber win

Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti followed the same two-stop plan to complete the podium, while Will Power's run of wins came to an end as his choice of three stops left him fourth for Penske.

But the race could easily have seen Marco Andretti win for the first time in nearly four years, as he led for much of the distance before his fuel conservation bid failed and he had to make a late pitstop, dropping him to fifth.

With passing extremely difficult at the undulating Alabama track, the race soon became a tale of pit tactics.

Some drivers, led by Andretti Autosport's eighth-placed Tony Kanaan, chose to make their first of three stops at the earliest opportunity in the hope of vaulting to the front later.

Early leaders and front row partners Power and Mike Conway (Dreyer & Reinbold) were among a group who pitted when the first yellow came out on lap 11, caused by Takuma Sato's seventh-placed KV car grinding to a halt with a throttle problem.

But Castroneves, Andretti and the Ganassi duo decided to stay out and stretch their fuel mileage as long as possible in the hope of making just two pitstops during the race, a strategy that turned out to be ideal.

Castroneves therefore led away at the green flag after the Sato yellow - but only as far as Turn 5, where Andretti muscled past him and into first place.

The American edged clear initially, which ultimately proved his undoing, for Castroneves, Dixon and Franchitti were throttling back and saving more fuel.

When Andretti had to come in for his second and final pitstop with 34 laps to go - four more than even the frugal Castroneves had managed on a single fuel load - it was obvious that Andretti's only hope of winning was for a yellow to come out. He drove as conservatively as possible, hanging back behind midfielders Graham Rahal and Raphael Matos for lap after lap while defending from Castroneves and Dixon, but gave up and pitted eight laps from the end.

That dropped Andretti to fifth behind Castroneves, Dixon, Franchitti and Power, who emerged as comfortably the top three-stopper, and ironically just three laps later the yellow Andretti required came out when Simona de Silvestro spun her HVM car at Turn 5.

A two-lap shoot-out followed at the green, with Castroneves able to hold off Dixon and ensure that while Power's winning streak ended, Team Penske remains undefeated in the 2010 IndyCar season. Dixon was left frustrated that race control had adjudged that he had passed Andretti and Castroneves before the line at the start and ordered him to relinquish the positions - a decision the Ganassi driver felt cost him a win.

Behind Franchitti, Power and Andretti, Ryan Briscoe completed the top six in the third Penske entry. Justin Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold) set the fastest lap and put determined moves on Conway and Kanaan as he made up ground from his disappointing grid slot to take seventh.

Alex Tagliani's early first stop helped him to come through from 21st to 10th for Fazzt, ahead of Dan Wheldon (Panther) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti).

Pos  Driver               Team                         Time/Gap
 1.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                  1h56m41.3928s
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                     + 0.5703s
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi                     + 8.1590s
 4.  Will Power           Penske                      + 8.6639s
 5.  Marco Andretti       Andretti                    + 9.7410s
 6.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                     + 10.9611s
 7.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold          + 11.5478s
 8.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti                   + 12.8533s
 9.  Mike Conway          Dreyer & Reinbold          + 13.3162s
10.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt                      + 14.8450s
11.  Dan Wheldon          Panther                    + 15.2007s
12.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti                   + 15.6727s
13.  Mario Moraes         KV                         + 16.7242s
14.  Raphael Matos        Luczo Dragon de Ferran        + 1 lap
15.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas/Lanigan           + 1 lap
16.  EJ Viso              KV                            + 1 lap
17.  Graham Rahal         Sarah Fisher                  + 1 lap
18.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                          + 1 lap
19.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                      + 1 lap
20.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest                      + 1 lap
21.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                           + 1 lap
22.  Mario Romancini      Conquest                      + 1 lap
23.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne                    + 1 lap
24.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne                   + 4 laps
25.  Takuma Sato          KV                          + 22 laps