Castroneves Wins At Motegi

MOTEGI, Sept. 19, 2010: Helio Castroneves passed Team Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe on a Lap 118 pit stop and held on to win the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi. It was his second victory in a row and second at the 1.5-mile track.

"Team Penske is about execution and they gave me a fantastic car," said Castroneves, who backed up his win at Kentucky Speedway with the dominating win from the pole. "Every time I wanted to go for it, the car was responding."

Dario Franchitti beat Will Power to the finish line by 0.4997 of a second to claim second place and close the championship points gap to 12 heading into the season finale Oct. 2 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This is the fifth consecutive year that the championship will be determined at the final race of the season.

"It's great for us to put the Verizon car on the podium," said Power. "I've never finished ahead of him (Dario) on an oval and one day I'll get it, hopefully this year because if I don't, he'll win (the championship)."

The second-place finish also earned Franchitti the inaugural IZOD IndyCar Series A.J. Foyt Oval Championship.

Briscoe finished fourth, matching a career best finish at Motegi and Danica Patrick was fifth, further extending her series record for consecutive races running at the finish to 32.