Kanaan grabs Motegi win

Kanaan pitted under green while leading with 10 laps remaining, then watched as Sam Hornish Jr. and Scott Dixon were also forced into the pits for fuel while leading, and went on to hold off Dan Wheldon at the finish line by 0.4 seconds.

It was Kanaan's first IRL IndyCar Series victory on a 1.5-mile oval since winning at Kansas in July 2005.

The drama began when Wheldon had to pit for fuel while leading with 14 laps remaining. The other drivers in the top five at the time - Kanaan, Hornish Jr., Dixon and Helio Castroneves - would all have to pit for fuel before the end of the race. Castroneves pitted, then Kanaan, and later Hornish and Dixon.

But Kanaan's quick splash was faster than Wheldon's, and his Andretti-Green Racing Dallara-Honda emerged about a second ahead of Wheldon's Ganassi car. Wheldon, who led most of the 200 laps, closed on Kanaan in the waning laps, but couldn't catch him.

Following Kanaan and Wheldon to the finish line was Dario Franchitti, who nearly stole the race with a shrewd fuel move.

After everyone had pitted under caution during a lengthy delay to clean up a crash by Marco Andretti, Franchitti returned to the pits to top off on the 146th lap - nearly 10 caution laps after most of the field had pitted.

As a result, he was able to come back from being the last driver on the lead lap - nearly being lapped by Wheldon before his final stop - to finish third.

But the spoils belonged to Kanaan, who stayed on the track as long as he could in order to take on a lighter fuel load and thus make a quicker pit stop.

Dixon, who held out longest of the leaders before pitting with just six laps left, finished fourth. Hornish, whose car sputtered and stalled when he tried to leave the final pit stop, finished fifth.

Scott Sharp took sixth, Castroneves seventh, Jeff Simmons eighth, Tomas Scheckter ninth and Buddy Rice 10th.

Wheldon's run to second place, which included a malfunctioning radio and a near-miss when Andretti spun in front of him, gave him the series points lead after three races. Wheldon is now three points ahead of Kanaan, with Dixon six points off the pace. Castroneves is fourth, 17 points behind.

Results

Pos  Driver             Team                 Laps/gap
 1.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green       200 laps
 2.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi              + 0.4828
 3.  Dario Franchitti   Andretti-Green      + 11.5538
 4.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi             + 13.0623
 5.  Sam Hornish Jr     Penske                + 1 lap
 6.  Scott Sharp        Rahal-Letterman       + 1 lap
 7.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                + 1 lap
 8.  Jeff Simmons       Rahal-Letterman       + 1 lap
 9.  Tomas Scheckter    Vision                + 1 lap
10.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold     + 1 lap
11.  Danica Patrick     Andretti-Green       + 2 laps
12.  Darren Manning     Foyt                 + 2 laps
13.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision               + 3 laps
14.  Sarah Fisher       Dreyer & Reinbold    + 3 laps
15.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               + 8 laps
16.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green      + 66 laps
17.  Vitor Meira        Panther            + 150 laps
18.  Kosuke Matsuura    Panther            + 200 laps