Backstretch Motorsports

FORT WORTH, Texas - Helio Castroneves won for the third time at Texas Motor Speedway, grabbing the lead off a Lap 175 stop, courtesy of his Tim Cindric-led crew and was followed across the finish line by his Penske Racing teammate Ryan Briscoe with a gap of 0.3904 of a second.

“It was an incredible day for Team Penske,” said the popular Brazilian. “All the credit also goes to Ryan Briscoe and his team. They push us and we push them, and together we’re pushing towards the top. Having first and second at Texas is not easy, so that’s a compliment for everyone.

Briscoe was dominant for most of 228 lap event. He led a race-high 160 laps.
Continuing the Aussie’s remarkably consistent season that includes the win at the St. Petersburg opener, this is his second consecutive runner-up finish. He remains is the only driver to finish every lap this season.

“We did the best we could, I just didn’t have enough for Helio in the final stages,” said Briscoe, who took over the IndyCar Series championship race with 199 points (three ahead of Dixon). “The last 20 laps were some of the most frustrating I’ve ever driven. To lead the whole race and have the quickest car out there, I just couldn’t pass Helio. The high line was slower.”

Target Chip Ganassi racer Scott Dixon crossed the line in third.

From the last, late caution flag period of the Bombardier Learjet 550 IndyCarSeries race to the checkered flag, plenty of cars got racy. A good old fashioned sprint shootout. The top seven cars were all within .7 of a second for several laps.

A real Texas barn-burner in the closing circuits saw Andretti Green teammates Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick fighting a side-by-side battle that irritated the younger Andretti, but delighted the Texas fans.

(Andretti, about battle with Danica Patrick): “The toughest people out there passing me are my teammates, and I don’t get that. I think three out of four of us get what the camaraderie of Andretti Green Racing is.”

Marco did complete the race in fourth position, with a final dash over-taking of pole sitter Dario Franchitti, who recorded a fifth place finish.

Patrick came home in sixth. “We had a strong car all weekend and then during the race, the steering became really heavy, said the driver of the No. 7 Boost Mobile/Motorola AGR entry, “it just wasn’t the car we started with. I wish we could have had a top-five finish, but Marco passed me at the end far and square.”

Texas Motor Speedway Race Results
Race Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009

Key:
No: Car Number C/E/T: Chassis/Engine/Tire
S: Starting Position F: Finishing Position
XL: Times Led LL: Laps Led
Pts: Points

Pos. Driver/Car No C/E/T S Qual
Speed Laps XL LL Status Pts

1 Helio Castroneves
Team Penske 3 D/H/F 4 214.228 228 3 57 Running 50

2 Ryan Briscoe
Team Penske 6 D/H/F 2 214.413 228 3 160 Running 42

3 Scott Dixon
Target Chip Ganassi Racing 9 D/H/F 3 214.296 228 0 0 Running 35

4 Marco Andretti
Team Venom Energy 26 D/H/F 8 213.540 228 0 0 Running 32

5 Dario Franchitti
Energizer 10 D/H/F 1 214.513 228 1 10 Running 31

6 Danica Patrick
Boost Mobile/Motorola 7 D/H/F 5 213.929 228 0 0 Running 28

7 Dan Wheldon
National Guard Panther Racing 4 D/H/F 7 213.596 228 0 0 Running 26

8 Tony Kanaan
Team 7-Eleven 11 D/H/F 16 212.108 228 0 0 Running 24

9 Ed Carpenter
Menards/Vision Racing 20 D/H/F 10 213.435 228 1 1 Running 22

10 Mario Moraes
KV Racing Technology/Votorantim 5 D/H/F 6 213.717 227 0 0 Running 20

11 Robert Doornbos
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 06 D/H/F 9 213.479 227 0 0 Running 19

12 Raphael Matos
US Air Force Luczo Dragon Racing 2 D/H/F 15 212.137 226 0 0 Running 18

13 Tomas Scheckter
Mona-Vie/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 43 D/H/F 18 211.741 226 0 0 Running 17

14 Alex Tagliani
Conquest Racing 34 D/H/F 13 213.173 225 0 0 Running 16

15 Justin Wilson
Z-Line Designs 18 D/H/F 17 212.021 225 0 0 Running 15

16 Ryan Hunter-Reay
Vision Racing 21 D/H/F 23 210.532 225 0 0 Running 14

17 Sarah Fisher
Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing 67 67 D/H/F 14 212.554 222 0 0 Running 13

18 Jaques Lazier
CURB/Agajanian/Team 3G 98 D/H/F 24 209.329 210 0 0 Running 12

19 Mike Conway
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 24 D/H/F 19 211.686 185 0 0 Running 12

20 A.J. Foyt IV
ABC Supply Co. AJ Foyt Racing 14 D/H/F 22 211.454 170 0 0 Contact 12

21 Hideki Mutoh
Formula Dream 27 D/H/F 11 213.327 153 0 0 Electrical 12

22 Graham Rahal
McDonald’s Racing Team 02 D/H/F 12 213.178 1 0 0 Contact 12

23 Milka Duno
CITGO/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 23 D/H/F 20 211.601 1 0 0 Contact 12

24 E.J. Viso
PDVSA HVM Racing 13 D/H/F 21 211.553 1 0 0 Contact 12