Kentucky Indy 300 Highlights

SPARTA, Kentucky - Helio Castroneves upstaged the rest of the field when he won Saturday night’s Kentucky Indy 300, but there was plenty of action on the track throughout the night. Here’s a look at the fallout behind P1:

Ed Carpenter: After winning the pole and starting in first position at Kentucky Speedway, Carpenter led 11 laps and finished in second place. He spent much of the night running behind teammate Dan Wheldon, who led 93 laps (the highest of the night), and was somewhat disappointment with the final result. “I think Dan and I can honestly say we had the best cars in the race. But that’s racing. The best car doesn’t always win,” said Carpenter. Wheldon finished third.

Tony Kanaan: Untroubled about starting in 26th position, Kanaan quickly worked his way through the field (10 cars on the first lap alone) and ended his night in fourth place. “I promised my fans on Twitter that I was going to pass 11 cars on the first lap and I only got 10, so I want to apologize to all of my followers that I couldn’t do,” said Kanaan.

While other teammates worked on the track together to press through the field, such teammwork was noticeably absent among the Andretti Autosport drivers. When asked about it, Kanaan responded, “I worked with Marco and Ryan so well,” hinting that perhaps Danica Patrick is the weak link.

Andretti finished in sixth, Patrick in ninth, and Hunter-Reay accrued a DNF on account of a mechanical problem.

Marco Andretti’s sixth place finish is his second consecutive top 10 finish; nonetheless, it was a disappointing evening for him: “The Meijer car wasn’t as strong in traffic as we needed it to be. I wasn’t able to work my magic on the high line and we fell on the wrong side of strategy. It’s still nice to be able to finish inside the top 10, but after running in the top three for most of the night, I was hoping for more out of the finish,” he said.

Dario Franchitti: Franchitti finished in fifth place ahead of Will Power, who finished eighth, and once again cut down Power’s lead in the series overall championship standings. Power now has 552 points while Franchitti has 535, a gap of only 17, setting up a tight championship race between Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing as the drivers enter the final two oval races of the 2010 season at Motegi (September 19) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (October 2).

Power had promised to win at Kentucky Speedway, but after leading 83 laps, his No. 12 car began to slow noticeably once it was in traffic.

“The Verizon car was great out in front. I had a little understeer back in traffic. Really, my night was quite good, although after my last stop I think I hit some oil from an earlier incident between Turns 3 and 4. I pushed up straight towards the wall; I was very close to hitting it,” said Power.

Still looking for his first win on an oval, Power will have his work cut out for him in two weeks. The Indy Japan 300 will mark his first time competing at Twin Ring Motegi.

Robyn Lynne Schechter