Motegi: Sharp takes win in Japan

Sharp was in the right place at the right time, coasting home to victory under caution after three of the fastest cars in the field - Scott Dixon's, Tony Kanaan's and Tomas Scheckter's - crashed out of the race during the final 22 laps.

"It's a shame but not surprising that there were a lot of crashes," said Kelley Racing driver Sharp, moved into first place in his Toyota powered Dallara when Dixon and Kanaan crashed while racing for the lead on the 178th lap. "We had a good race, and the guys gave me great pit stops."

Swede Kenny Brack, using the extensive late-race caution periods to run the final 58 laps without pitting, finished second. Felipe Giaffone was third, Michael Andretti fourth and Al Unser Jr. - Sharp's teammate - was fifth.

Brack, who worked back into position after a punctured tire put him out of sequence, never got a chance to run down Sharp. "We had to conserve a lot of fuel," he said. "We just ran out of laps at the end of the race. I'm pretty confident I could have caught Scott at the end with a few more green laps."

The wreckage of the IRL IndyCar Series' first overseas race was highlighted by the numbers. Eleven of the 24 cars crashed out of the race. Nine caution periods covered 64 laps. Three of the top four starters crashed.

The crash between Dixon and Kanaan was the second in 10 laps involving the race leaders. Minutes before the pair collided, Scheckter hit the wall while trying to pass Kanaan for the lead. "When the yellow came, I heard there was oil in turn three or four," Scheckter said. "It just became a bad situation."

The victory was the eighth in Sharp's Indy Racing League career, tying him for the series' all-time lead with Sam Hornish Jr. and Buddy Lazier. The win also put Sharp into the season points lead after three races, four points ahead of Kanaan heading into the Indianapolis 500.

Afterward, Sharp insisted he had the car to chase down the leaders - if he'd had any leaders to chase down. "I knew I had the speed to maintain third if not actually run them down," Sharp said. "I fought really strong all day."

Overall, though, the IRL's first venture outside the States wasn't exactly a stellar example of open-wheel racing. "I think some of the moves that guys made out there were not good," Brack said. "I wasn't happy with some of the drivers out there today. It takes a lot of attention at 200 miles per hour, and there wasn't a lot with some guys."