Gateway: De Ferran pips Castroneves

By recording the third Team Penske one-two finish this season, de Ferran and Castroneves also tightened up the IRL points race heading into the final two rounds of the championship at Chicago and Texas. Castroneves now leads the standings by a single point over his teammate, with defending champion Sam Hornish Jr, the leader coming in but only the fifth-place finisher at Gateway, eight points back in third.

De Ferran, who started from pole position and led 81 of the 200 laps, cited the handling of his Dallara-Chevrolet as the key to his win. "The advantage I had," he explained, "was that late in the stint my car picked up a little bit of pace in relation to everybody else, so my car continually got better while everybody else seemed to go off a bit. That's what gave us the edge there in traffic to pass Helio there at the end."

Third place went to Alex Barron in Larry Blair's Dallara-Chevy, but Barron could possibly have had more. Clearly the fastest car in the late stages of the race, Barron made a big outside move on Castroneves away from the lap 151 restart from the caution period caused by Greg Ray's brush against the Turn Two wall. Having entered Turn One too hot, he drifted out of the groove and up into the gray while fighting to regain control. Barron fell back to fifth and began his recovery drive, but could only manage to get back to third by the chequered flag.

Buddy Rice finished a fine fourth in the second Cheever Racing Dallara-Infiniti, while Hornish trailed home fifth with a Panther Dallara-Chevy whose handling was never quite right all afternoon. Robbie Buhl (G-Force-Infiniti), Al Unser Jr (Kelley Dallara-Chevy) and Raul Boesel (Bradley Dallara-Infiniti) all finished on the lead lap in sixth through eighth positions, respectively, while rookie Vitor Meira (Menards Dallara-Chevy) and Eddie Cheever (Red Bull Cheever Dallara-Infiniti) filled out the top 10, both two laps back.


1, Gil de Ferran, Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet, 1h44m22.5736s
2, Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet, 200 laps
3, Alex Barron, Blair Racing Dallara-Chevrolet, 200
4, Buddy Rice, Cheever Racing Dallara-Infiniti, 200
5, Sam Hornish Jr, Panther Racing Dallara-Chevrolet, 200
6, Robbie Buhl, Team Purex GForce-Infiniti, 200
7, Al Unser Jr, Kelley Racing Dallara-Chevrolet, 200
8, Raul Boesel, Bradley Dallara-Infiniti, 200
9, Vitor Meira, Menards Dallara-Chevrolet, 198
10, Eddie Cheever, Cheever Racing Dallara-Infiniti, 198