Kentucky: Giaffone hangs on to win

Hornish moved into second by passing Buddy Lazier with five of the 200 laps to go and put the erstwhile leader under intense pressure but could find no way of moving past him into the lead. However, second place was enough to give him the championship lead as rivals Helio Castroneves finished back in fifth and Gil de Ferran was an early retirement.

Lazier held on to take the final podium position, Scott Sharp was fourth. Al Unser Jr's jump back on the wagon appears to have rejuvenated him and he was a competitive sixth.

Pole winner Sarah Fisher was unable to convert her fine qualifying effort into a race win, but eighth was still a good result.

Tomas Scheckter failed to add to the points he scored for taking his debut win last time out. He retired after colliding with Airton Dare on lap 89, which was caused by the South African suffering a blow out. Richie Hearn was another driver to hit the wall, the American bringing out the yellow flags on lap 24. Buddy Rice also spun but somehow managed to avoid hitting the wall. He eventually finished 12th.