Wheldon dominates Kansas

 Wheldon led 177 of the 200 laps and won under caution after Scott Sharp crashed, bringing out the yellow flag with two laps remaining.

At that point, Wheldon was ahead of second-place Dario Franchitti by 14.8 seconds. Helio Castroneves finished third, and Dixon raced back to fourth after his penalty.

"I was a little worried when I saw my lead growing and growing," Wheldon said. "I was waiting for something bad to happen. That's unfortunately the way some of our races have gone."

In the middle of the runaway victory, Wheldon's right rear tyre went flat, but he was close enough to the pits and far enough ahead that it didn't affect him.

"I got lucky with that," Wheldon said. "I was about to pit in two or three laps anyway, so from that standpoint it wasn't too bad. It is a shame, though. It seems that  I haven't had a race without any problems just yet."
 
Later, as he tried to catch Dixon before the penalty was assessed, Wheldon nearly lost control.

"The seams in the racetrack had more of an effect on the car today than normal," he said. "Because of that, the car was difficult to drive. I don't know if we had an in-car camera, but it would be impressive to watch the loose moment I had in traffic on one particular lap."
 
The excitement began shortly after Wheldon pitted with 42 laps remaining. Suddenly, Dixon darted onto the apron in Turn 4 in front of Tomas Scheckter, apparently out of fuel. After being refueled, Dixon emerged from the pits 2.5 seconds ahead of Wheldon, but he was given a drive-through penalty for the sudden move to the pits.
 
"It was unfortunate for Scott to not be second because he had a very good car also," Wheldon said. "Unfortunately circumstances cost him that. Nonetheless, it's a great team effort."
 
While his three teammates struggled with mistakes and bad cars, Franchitti recorded his second consecutive podium finish and his third consecutive top-five. He's now fourth in IndyCar standings, trailing only Wheldon, Dixon and Castroneves.
 
"We struggled a lot last year, but we've just worked hard this year," Franchitti said. "The owners gave the engineers a good development budget to go and find the speed.

"These guys have been working hard over the winter and continue to do so because we feel the opposition - particularly Ganassi and Penske - is moving the bar higher and higher. We've definitely made inroads, but we still have a little bit further to go."
 
Castroneves held on despite handling issues that had him far behind Wheldon near the end. In fact, only four cars - Wheldon's, Franchitti's, Castroneves' and Dixon's - finished on the lead lap.

"We didn't have the car to win, so we just made sure we played it conservatively and brought the car home," Castroneves said. "We set out to finish in the top three, and that's just what we did."
 
Wheldon's win, coupled with Tony Kanaan's misfortune, padded his points lead heading into preparations for Indianapolis, which begin next Sunday with rookie orientation. The No. 10 Ganassi Dallara-Honda has led nearly 70 percent of the laps in the first four races of the season, and Wheldon's lead is now 27 points over Dixon.
 
"Any race you're in, you want to beat as many people as you can that are close to you," said Wheldon, who was just three points ahead of Kanaan coming into the race. "It more rewarding that way. Having just won a couple of races and led a lot of laps, that does give you great confidence.

"But at the same time you have to continue to work hard because the league's too competitive to just rest on your laurels. You'll be swallowed up pretty fast."
 
Kanaan was furious after he tangled with teammate Danica Patrick in the pits on the 49th lap, a mistake by crew members that cost Kanaan, who was second at the time, eight laps and at least three positions in the standings. Kanaan was entering his pit stall when Patrick - not warned of Kanaan's approach by crew members - left her pit. The resulting collision broke Kanaan's left front suspension and forced him into a 15th-place finish.
 
"You listen and look for when to go," Patrick explained. "Kim (Green) is on the radio and Poppy (crew chief Dave Popielarz) is on my right front. They both tell me when to go. I listened to them and they said, 'Go.' Obviously, TK was there. I feel bad because Tony had a really fast car, but it cost both of us a chance to win."
 
Patrick held on to finish seventh, but the accident was particularly damaging to Kanaan, who scolded his crew over the airwaves after the crash. Afterward, he was still angry. "This is extremely disappointing," he said. "The car was capable of winning."
 
Following Wheldon, Franchitti, Castroneves and Dixon was Tomas Scheckter, whose fifth-place finish was his best of the season. "Everything came together," he said. "We've been waiting for these performances, running in the top five. We still need a little bit more."
 
Behind Scheckter came Sam Hornish Jr., Patrick and Vitor Meira, who recovered from a disastrous DNF last week at Motegi with an eighth-place finish.

Pos  Driver             Team               Laps
 1.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi            200
 2.  Dario Franchitti   Andretti-Green     200
 3.  Helio Castroneves  Penske             200
 4.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi            200
 5.  Tomas Scheckter    Vision             199
 6.  Sam Hornish Jr.    Penske             199
 7.  Danica Patrick     Andretti-Green     198
 8.  Vitor Meira        Panther            198
 9.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision             198
10.  Jeff Simmons       Rahal-Letterman    198
11.  Darren Manning     Foyt               198
12.  Sarah Fisher       Dreyer & Reinbold  196
13.  Scott Sharp        Rahal-Letterman    195
14.  Milka Duno         Samax              194
15.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green     192
16.  Alex Barron        Beck               191
17.  Ed Carpenter       Vision              99
18.  Kosuke Matsuura    Panther             57
19.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green      43
20.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold   37
21.  Marty Roth         Roth                24