Rice wins Michigan duel

Rice inexplicably fooled Tony Kanaan's Andretti Green Racing crew into thinking he wouldn't make it to the end of the race, took the lead with 11 laps left, and went on to win.

Kanaan, who led 183 laps of the 200-lap race, said he was ordered by his AGR team to let Rice pass, thinking that Rice's Rahal Letterman Racing Honda-powered Panoz G Force wouldn't have enough fuel to reach the end of the race. Instead, Rice won by 0.0796s, then burned off the remaining fuel with excessive donuts and a victory lap.

"I have no idea what was said in their pits or what their strategy was or what they were planning on," Rice said, "but you could tell they were on the same more or less the same thought process as me. I could watch him back up a little bit at times. You can pretty much see what somebody else is doing when they start trying to save fuel. We've seen it in the past, and I was definitely looking at it."

With Kanaan and his crew leading but being hounded by Rice, they decided to let him by, assuming he wouldn't reach the end of the race. Trouble is, both cars had pitted with 42 laps remaining in the race, and the anticipated fuel window at MIS was somewhere between 40 and 44 laps.

"I did what I was told to do," Kanaan said. "Somebody asked me to let him by. I did. That's what happened... Having to let somebody by because someone is telling you on the radio that he's not going to make it and then I see the guy make it doesn't make me very happy. I'm not going to point fingers at anybody. I'm a team player, and I'm a part of that, too. Today, I don't think we were very smart. I think the other team was smarter than us. It is what it is."

With just four caution periods, the race's average speed of 182.123mph made it the fourth-fastest in IRL history. The race also marked Rice's third win of the season - matching Kanaan's three wins - and pulled Rice to within 57 points of Kanaan in the standings with six races left in the IRL IndyCar Series season.

"It came down to a bit of a fuel race," Rice said. "Obviously, we had saved more than he had. When it came down to it and we had to run full rich, we were able to do it and drive away."

When the Andretti Green Racing Dallara slowed enough to let Rice go by, Kanaan's crew thought Rice had burned enough fuel in his relentless pursuit of Kanaan that he would run dry before the finish. The move also was made to allow Kanaan to save fuel for a few laps before a final charge at Rice.

"I don't know why they thought we were going to be out of fuel," said Scott Roembke, the Rahal's chief operating officer who calls Rice's races. "They have the same motor we have. We gave Buddy the numbers we needed to work with, and normally we'll save fuel until the lap when we want him to go to full rich. That lap came, we went to full rich, and a half-lap later, we were P1."

As Rice and Kanaan were exchanging fakes - both real and perceived - Dan Wheldon managed to nose out ahead of a pack that hit the stripe behind Rice and Kanaan to claim third place. That kept Wheldon firmly in the points battle in third place, 32 behind Rice.

"We were just a little bit off, but that was probably the best I could have gotten," Wheldon said.

The racing was overshadowed at times by three incidents in the pits in which cars struck crew members. One of them, Pennzoil Panther Racing fueler Steve Namisnak, sustained a broken right tibia and was being transported after the race to Indianapolis for further treatment.

The incident was the first of several that made things difficult for workers in the pits. It began when Tomas Scheckter's car was struck by Tora Takagi's as Scheckter was entering the pit stall ahead of Takagi's on the 36th lap. The left front wheel of Scheckter's car pinned Namisnak against the pit wall. The accident ruined a strong run by Scheckter, who had moved from 13th to second during the first stint.

"The guy pitted behind me was sent out too early and ran in to the back of me," Scheckter said. "Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt, but it definitely cost us some time on the track."

Then, as Wheldon's car was being serviced in the pits on the 125th lap, his chief mechanic, Mike Horvath, was struck by Vitor Meira's car, pinning him between the nose of Meira's car and the right front wheel of Wheldon's car. Horvath used his free leg to push against Wheldon's car and force Meira's car backward, then slammed his fist down on Meira's left front wing in anger as he rolled over and got back on his feet.

"I've got to apologize to those guys for that," said Horvath, who was not seriously injured in the incident. "That was all out of anger. I didn't know if my foot was going to come out of there or not."

Later, as Adrian Fernandez came into the pits, he spun out of control and knocked down Rhodri Griffiths, the left-front tire changer for Kosuke Matsuura's car.

"I got a penalty for that, which was a good call," said Fernandez, who also was involved in the Meira-Wheldon incident. "Two mistakes, unfortunately, but we've learned from this."

Rice's win continued Honda's dominance this season, giving it nine consecutive wins. Honda swept the top three positions, With Sam Hornish Jr's fourth-place Toyota the only non-Honda in the top six. Following Rice, Kanaan, Wheldon and Hornish to the finish were Meira, Bryan Herta and Scott Dixon, who sat out last week's race at Milwaukee after crashing twice in the same day.

Once again, Townsend Bell was the highest-finishing Chevrolet at eighth place.

The IRL IndyCar Series takes a break next week before resuming Aug. 15 at Kentucky Speedway.