Hornish regains points lead with win

Hornish passed Scott Dixon with four laps remaining and went on to win the Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway to regain the lead in the IRL IndyCar Series standings with just two races remaining.

The victory was Hornish's fourth of the season and put him seven points ahead of Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves, who came into the race eight points ahead of Hornish and finished third Sunday.

"We had to try to catch Scott at the end," Hornish said. "I was upset that the last yellow came out, but in the end, it turned out OK."

Following Hornish, Dixon and Castroneves was Dan Wheldon, who was battling Hornish for the lead before a mistake on a pit stop cost him precious track position with 15 laps remaining.

Wheldon is now 24 points behind Hornish in the standings, with Dixon in fourth, 33 points behind.

The victory was especially important to Hornish's bid to win the championship because the next race - Aug. 27 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California - is a road race, where Hornish is considered to be at a slight disadvantage when compared to the other three contenders.

Following the 1-2-3-4 sweep by Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing drivers was Andretti Green's Tony Kanaan in fifth, Vitor Meira in sixth and Tomas Scheckter in seventh.

Danica Patrick, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta rounded out the top 10, with returning Sarah Fisher in 12th.

Pos  Driver             Laps
 1.  Sam Hornish Jr     200
 2.  Scott Dixon        200
 3.  Helio Castroneves  200
 4.  Dan Wheldon        200
 5.  Tony Kanaan        200
 6.  Vitor Meira        200
 7.  Tomas Scheckter    200
 8.  Danica Patrick     200
 9.  Dario Franchitti   200
10.  Bryan Herta        200
11.  Ed Carpenter       199
12.  Sarah Fisher       199
13.  Jeff Bucknum       199
14.  Jeff Simmons       199
15.  Buddy Rice         198
16.  Scott Sharp        198
17.  Marco Andretti     197
18.  Marty Roth         196
19.  Kosuke Matsuura    118