IndyCar Series Notes - June 22, 2009

Bonus points keep Briscoe in the points lead: Ryan Briscoe has led the most laps by wide margins in the past three IndyCar Series races and what does he have to show for it? Runner-up finishes in each of those events.

Still, Briscoe leads the championship chase by three points over two-time race winner Dario Franchitti heading into the SunTrust Indy Challenge this weekend at Richmond International Raceway. That's considerable consolation to the second-year Team Penske driver.

He's been the beneficiary of six bonus points by pacing the field in laps led (154 of 225 at Milwaukee, 160 of 228 at Texas and 85 of 250 at Iowa). Not even halfway through the schedule, Briscoe has led 509 laps. The record is 899 by Scott Dixon last year.

"I don't think we're doing anything wrong," said Briscoe, who finished second to Franchitti in the Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Pioneer on June 21. "We're doing an extraordinary job as a whole team. It's going to be like this for the rest of the season. It's going to be very close. Every race we go to, it's going to be tough."

Maybe he can receive additional perspective from teammate Helio Castroneves, who recorded three consecutive second-place finishes in the second half of the 2008 IndyCar Series season to put him in position to keep the pressure on points front-runner Dixon.

Dixon was 48 points clear of Castroneves pointing to Richmond last year. Castroneves finished second to Tony Kanaan, and Dixon was third in the race under the lights on the 0.75-mile track. Castroneves, driving the No. 3 Team Penske car, reeled off a string of seven (of eight) races in which he didn't finish lower than third (including two victories). The championship was decided in the season finale.

As Briscoe forecasts, he's poised for a similar scenario. Dixon is 12 points off the lead, and the top five (Castroneves is fourth and Danica Patrick is fifth) are separated by 52 points.

"We're just going to have to keep on our game and keep doing what we're doing," said Briscoe, who has finished 15th and 21st in his Richmond visits. "Hopefully, we'll start with those last few laps instead of the first few laps."

***

Two top-10s for Dreyer & Reinbold: When the green flag dropped to start the Iowa Corn Indy 250, there was no holding back for Tomas Scheckter. The IndyCar Series veteran, making his third start for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, rocketed his No. 23 MonaVie entry past six cars into the top 10.

Scheckter spent most of the 250 laps in the top 10, including three stints running in second. He ended up sixth, his best finish since 2007.

"It was a good race," Scheckter said. "I made up a lot of positions in the beginning, and I just have to thank everybody at MonaVie. The car looks beautiful. Everyone on the team did a great job."

The finish was the best this season for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and coupled with Mike Conway's eighth-place finish, gave the team two cars in the top 10 for the first time since the 2008 Indianapolis 500.

"We had good cars all weekend, and it's really too bad that qualifying got rained out or we would have started up further in the cycle," team co-owner Dennis Reinbold said.

Conway, a rookie, earned his first career top-10 in his eighth start.

"It was a tough race," Conway said. "We started from the back with what happened with qualifying. We kept it steady at the start, but even when you are trying to stay out of trouble and everything is happening around you, it makes it difficult. At the restart, we just tried to gain positions, but it was hard with the bumps through (Turns) 1 and 2, because your car can get really loose, so we were just trying to hang on."

The team will look to continue its success June 27 at Richmond where it finished eighth last year.

"We go to Richmond next weekend, and our setups are good on short tracks, so I'm looking forward to it," Reinbold said.