By Andrew Cutler
June 21 2010

It has been nearly two years since Tony Kanaan last won in the IndyCar Series. Given his record to date at Iowa Speedway (he has crashed out of the past two events here) and his lack-luster qualifying result on Saturday, Sunday's race didn't seem to hold much promise of a return to Victory Lane.

But that is why they take the time to run the race; because you just never know what might happen.

In a race that saw several different drivers fight for the lead, only to experience handling issues or mechanical 'gremlins' that took them out of contention, TK methodically worked his way up to the point by the half way mark, where he stayed in contention thoughout the rest of the event. In the end he held off Team Penske's Helio Castroneves, who's rapidly wearing tires left him unable to challenge his old rival (the two have raced against each other since their karting days back in Brazil) for the win. KVRT's EJ Viso came home in third, his best result so far in his IndyCar career.

“I have to thank my team and the entire 7-Eleven crew,” said Kanaan. “They did a great job. I had a great car. I have to thank my teammates, too.  Marco (Andretti) gave me a little bit of his setup and Ryan (Hunter-Reay) actually helped me with the setup, putting it together for today. It was a great job as a team and it feels good.” 

Here are the complete race results: http://www.indycar.com/var/assets/IowaCornIndy250boxscore.pdf

On Saturday evening Sebastian Saavedra won the Firestone Indy Lights support race.

Next up for the IndyCar Series will be five consecutive road and street course races, begining at historic Watkins Glen on Sunday, July 4th.