Homestead: Hornish beats Penske

Hornish leapt into an immediate lead from the start, but an early sequence of yellow flags disrupted his quest to pull out an advantage. The first yellow came as early as lap four, as Eddie Cheever hit the wall in Turn Four thanks to contact from team-mate Tomas Scheckter, whose attempt to follow de Ferran past his team boss ended in disaster.

The incident not only left Cheever in the wall, but Scheckter stalled during a stop to check over his car and lost him a lap to the leaders. The South African eventually recovered to finish sixth.

Jaques Lazier, who had risen to third in the early going despite losing the bodywork covering his front suspension, was the next to cause a yellow after a spin in Turn Four, a feat repeated by Billy Boat a few laps later. High winds caused the drivers a few problems, especially on the exit of Turn Four as it blew them towards the wall.

Besides being briefly headed by Castroneves on lap 28, who jumped him at a restart, Hornish dominated at the front, and seemed able to pass his rivals' cars at will. Jeff Ward was the only other driver to lead for any length of time, thanks to a daring fuel strategy from Ganassi Racing that didn't work out as he was forced to pit under green after 25 laps at the front.

Hornish looked on course to win by two laps until a late yellow for Billy Roe's crash on the exit of Turn Four and Scott Sharp, who ground to a halt out on the circuit, allowed the Penske Racing duo to get back on the lead lap.

Airton Dare, whose last-minute ride with AJ Foyt's team had looked set to earn a podium finish for much of the race, crashed out with just three laps to go, meaning the race finished under yellow. Behind the Penske pair, Ward finished fourth, ahead of Chilean veteran Eliseo Salazar and Scheckter.

"It could've been a little bit better without those late cautions," said Hornish. "But I couldn't really go wrong with the car that the team gave me."

For full race results, click here.