By Andrew Cutler
June 8 2009

The Team Penske drivers proved to be the class of the field Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. After taking the lead from polesitter Dario Franchitti in the early going, Ryan Briscoe ran off an hid from everyone else for most of the race. Meanwhile, team mate Helio Castroneves spent his evening getting his car dialed in.

After an early wreck, when Graham Rahal spun and collected EJ Viso and Milka Duno, the race stayed green until about the 2/3 mark. As Briscoe lead easily, The Ganassi duo of Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon fought over the 2nd spot, with AGR driver Marco Andretti getting in on the action.

Then came two quick yellow flags; one for debris & one for a wreck involving AJ Foyt IV. Helio used a quick pit stop during the first to catch up to Ryan, and then another to get ahead of him during the second. From there the Brazilian held the lead unchallenged to win his second race of the year: It was also his third win at Texas. Briscoe would hold on to the second spot, followed by Dixon, Andretti and Franchitti.

Afterwords, a beaming Castroneves exclaimed; "I drove it like I stole it".

"In the beginning of the race, we were saving fuel, but you're also trying to figure out what your car is doing, and that what I was trying to do. The car was loose, and there were some moments out there. But we figured out what to do and great pit stops the guys put me up front. In the end it was 50 laps and full throttle. It was the toughest 50 laps that I had to go through, but we held it together."