By Andrew Cutler
September 5 2010

What at first seemed like a race-killing mistake later proved to a fortuitous incident that brought victory to Helio Castroneves in the Kentucky Indy 300. A miscommunication during a yellow flag pit stop near the half-way mark forced Team Penske to bring the Brazilian back in to top off his car's tank a few laps later, putting him out of sequence with the rest of the field.

This eventually worked out to hs avantage, as the lack of any further caution flags (with the improved fuel milage that accompanies them) forced nearly all of the other front-runners to duck into thr pits for a 'splash-&-go' in the closing laps. Castroneves, who was hanging onto the tail end of the lead pack - and turning laps at almost 10 mph slower to save fuel - was then able to stay out and grab the victory.

For Helio, it was payback for what befell him here a few years ago. “I remember in 2008 here I ran out of fuel and finished in second (to Scott Dixon). This time it paid off for Team Penske. We were loose in the beginning, but at the end it was meant to be.”

As happened last weekend at Chicagoland, Panther Racing showed improved form, with Polesitter Ed Carpenter placing second and Dan Wheldon third.

As for the season championship chase; it is essentially down to just Will Power and Dario Franchitti now (Scott Dixon is still mathematically in the hunt, but it would take a miracle). Franchitti again finished ahead of Power, drawing down the Aussie's points lead.

Here are the complete race results: http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/KentuckyIndy300BoxScore.pdf

Next up for the IndyCar Series will be their annual trip to Motegi, Japan for a race on September 18.

The Firestone Indy Lights Series race was dominated flag-to-flag by Pippa Mann: This was her first series win. JK Vernay placed third; good enough to essentially clinch the 2010 series championship (he has but to start the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami).