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John Oreovicz, Autos, Open-Wheel 18y

Castroneves' dominance a downer at Motegi

Whether you followed the Indy Japan 300 via the internet, radio, television or in person, it was a tough race to get excited about.

Helio Castroneves was utterly dominant, leading 184 of 200 laps to claim his second consecutive IndyCar Series race win heading into the all-important Month of May at Indianapolis.

There were a couple of crashes on the tricky Motegi oval, but what really took the stuffing out of the IRL's annual Japanese jaunt was the way Castroneves' competition eliminated itself.

His Penske Racing teammate Sam Hornish Jr. finished fourth but was generally half a step off the pace courtesy of a Thursday practice crash; Scott Dixon looked set to finish second until he stalled his engine during his final pit stop; and Dario Franchitti also seemed podium-bound before he bowled down three members of his Andretti Green Racing crew like a 2-4-7 spare.

That left it to Dan Wheldon to take the fight to Castroneves, but the two-time defending Motegi champion was 6.8 seconds behind when the checkered flag flew. That margin of victory probably would have been even greater had there been more green-flag racing at the end.

"My car was unbelievable, especially at the end of a run," gushed Castroneves. "What a team!"

The numbers certainly back that up. Castroneves and Hornish have combined for Penske to lead 413 out of a possible 500 laps in 2006, a solid 83-percent clip. Castroneves now holds a 42-point lead over Wheldon in the series standings, albeit only three races into a 14-race campaign.

With two wins and a second-place finish to start the season, the man who pioneered the fence-climbing victory celebration is one of the hottest figures in American motorsport. And if it wasn't for Wheldon's extraordinary display of bravado in the season opener, Helio could have started 2006 3-for-3.

"We were fast from the very start this week, which is good because there wasn't a lot of practice time," said Castroneves, alluding to the rain that washed out most of practice and qualifying. "But [Saturday] was perfect, and the car was perfect, too. I said that I wanted to finish where we started, and I don't think it was ever in question.
We were fast all day."

Wheldon was fast, too, just not fast enough.

"I would love to have made history by winning this race three straight times, so it's a shame from that standpoint," he said. "But Helio deserved to win today."

Tony Kanaan wound up best of the rest despite having his pit stop schedule thrown out of whack by a deflating rear tire two-thirds of the way through the race. The 2004 series champion thought discretion was the better part of valor, a smart move at 200 mph.

"[Co-owner] Kim Green came on the radio and told me the tire was losing one pound, two pounds and asked me what I wanted to do," Kanaan said. "I said in the car it doesn't feel bad but in my head it feels terrible! So I'm happy to take third place here."

A bigger drama for AGR occurred when Franchitti suffered his incident while making his final pit stop. He blamed a raised timing and scoring line for sending his Dallara-Honda skittering into a tire and three crewmen. Steve Price, the left-rear tire changer, sustained the most serious injuries and was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

"Obviously we're worried about Pricey and hope he's okay," said Franchitti. "I think we had a third-place car today, which I'm not delighted by, but we would have taken it."

Instead, Franchitti wound up eleventh, two spots behind Dixon. The New Zealander said he lost the clutch in his Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda.

They still fared better than the half-dozen drivers who crashed out of the race, none with injury. The most spectacular incident came on the first restart of the race when Scott Sharp spun and collected rookies Jeff Simmons and P.J. Chesson. Simmons, who was making his debut in Rahal Letterman Racing's Ethanol-sponsored car, spun when he checked up for Sharp's rotating car, and was merely a passenger when his car made rear-to-rear contacts with Sharp's and got launched end-over-end.

"That's really disappointing and not the way anyone wants to start anything," said Simmons. "Two wrecked cars in one weekend is something that I have never done before."

At least RLR had the satisfaction of seeing its other two drivers reach the finish, Buddy Rice in fifth place after an aggressive drive. Danica Patrick finished eighth, the last car on the lead lap.

John Oreovicz covers open-wheel racing for National Speed Sport News and ESPN.com.

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