Castroneves wins at Texas

With help from a quick pit stop 16 laps from the finish, Castroneves took control of the Bombardier Learjet 500k from Dan Wheldon and ended a two-race non-winning streak with a 0.2402-second victory Saturday night over Scott Dixon at Texas Motor Speedway.

The victory reiterated the dominance of Castroneves so far this season. He has won three of the first six races and padded his IRL IndyCar Series points lead over Dixon to 22 points.

It also was the fourth win this season by Marlboro Team Penske, which also won the Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago with Sam Hornish Jr.

"Toward the end, it turned out to be a sprint," Castroneves said. "It was full throttle the whole time and looking in the mirrors. The gap was getting a little tricky between me and Scott.

"The last five laps were the longest five laps I've ever had here, but the pit stop was the key to winning the race. This gives us back the momentum."

Wheldon, whose crew had a problem replacing a wheel on its final pit stop, finished third, his No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda/Dallara 0.2581 seconds behind Castroneves' No. 3 Penske Honda/Dallara.

Hornish, whose car ran out of fuel and sputtered as he tried to leave his final pit stop, came home fourth in the No. 6 Penske Honda/Dallara.

Thanks to no crashes and just two caution periods, the 300-mile race ended in less than two hours and took its place as the third-fastest race in IRL history with an average race speed of 185.710 mph.

The reason, in part, is a combination of aerodynamics and grip that doesn't allow the cars to run in two-wide, nose-to-tail packs as they have at Texas and other high-speed ovals in previous years.

"For Texas, that was pretty amazing," Dixon said. "Everybody definitely kept it very clean. Some of the situations with the cars - like the tires - don't allow you to stay in one big pack very long anymore. It's only at the start of a stint where you have a ton of grip. The better cars and better teams start moving away from each other."

Following Castroneves, Dixon, Wheldon and Hornish to the finish line was Scott Sharp. Vitor Meira finished sixth, Tony Kanaan seventh, Kosuke Matsuura eighth, Ed Carpenter ninth and Tomas Scheckter 10th.

After Wheldon led 171 of the first 186 laps, the drama moved from the track to pit road. As Wheldon pitted and gave the lead to Hornish, a crew member struggled with a tire on the No. 10 car. The bobble cost Wheldon three to four seconds - "the poor guy who is putting that wheel nut on, it's not his fault," Wheldon said - and gave Hornish a 13-second lead over Sharp with 10 laps remaining.

However, Hornish still had to pit, and when he did, he encountered problems of his own. His car run out of fuel as he rolled to his pit box. When he attempted to leave, the engine fluttered just long enough to keep him from getting back out close to the lead pack.

"We ran the car out of fuel," Hornish said. "It's unfortunate for us, but that's the way it goes sometimes. We'll have to figure out what we did wrong and try not to do it again. We win as a team and we lose as a team. That's all there is to it."

The sputter and stall gave the lead to Hornish's teammate, who held it the final five laps as Dixon's No. 10 TCGR Honda/Dallara steadily shaved tenths off Castroneves' lead. By the time he reached the finish line after five agonizing laps, Castroneves knew the credit belonged to his crew members, who gave him a razor-quick stop when he needed it most.

"This is not an individual sport; it's about the team effort," Castroneves said. "Without a good car, you can't win a race. Without a good driver, you can't win a race. Without key moments like we had today, you're not going to win championships."

For Dixon, the runner-up finish was his second of the season, keeping him tantalizingly close to Castroneves, but not close enough.

"Being second in points is a pretty good thing to be frustrated about," Dixon said. "We've had some good finishes, but we need to capitalize on these. Penske definitely has been, and you can see Helio has a bit of a jump again now. We just need to work a little bit harder."

Wheldon, frustrated by yet another dominating performance that didn't end in victory, remained third in points despite leading 314 of the last 400 laps on ovals.

"That's what makes it even more frustrating," he said. "We have good race cars, but we're not capitalizing. We're losing to the guys who are leading us in points, which makes it even worse."

While pleased with his performance and his team's - and enthused about leading the standings as the season approaches its halfway point - Castroneves stopped short of thinking about a championship.

"It's too early to be thinking about a championship," he said. "The gap isn't large enough. Scott and Dan and Sam are still right there. We just need to keep finishing ahead of those guys."

The IndyCar Series takes a week off before resuming June 24 at Richmond International Raceway.

Pos  Driver             Team               Make          Time
 1.  Helio Castroneves  Penske             Dallara       1:34:01.0482
 2.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi            Dallara       +     0.2402
 3.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi            Dallara       +     0.2981
 4.  Sam Hornish Jr     Penske             Dallara       +    14.5389
 5.  Scott Sharp        Fernandez          Dallara       +    14.5895
 6.  Vitor Meira        Panther            Dallara       +    15.9294
 7.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green     Dallara       +    16.1398
 8.  Kosuke Matsuura    Fernandez          Dallara       +    22.3327
 9.  Ed Carpenter       Vision             Dallara       +    22.9791
10.  Tomas Scheckter    Vision             Dallara       +     1 lap 
11.  Bryan Herta        Andretti-Green     Dallara       +     1 lap 
12.  Danica Patrick     Rahal              Dallara       +     1 lap 
13.  Dario Franchitti   Andretti-Green     Dallara       +     1 lap 
14.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green     Dallara       +     1 lap 
15.  Jeff Simmons       Rahal              Dallara       +     2 laps
16.  Felipe Giaffone    Foyt               Dallara       +     3 laps
17.  Eddie Cheever Jr   Cheever            Dallara       +     3 laps
18.  Buddy Rice         Rahal              Dallara       +   130 laps
19.  Buddy Lazier       Dreyer & Reinbold  Dallara       +   144 laps