JOLIET Ill. - Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe drove from 13th to victory Saturday night to pad his lead in the IndyCar Series drivers' championship with just two races remaining in the 2009 season.
Briscoe beat Scott Dixon to the finish line by little more than two feet - 0.0077 seconds - to win the Peak Indy 300 in the fourth-closest margin of victory in Indy Racing League history.
"It was a good night," Briscoe said. "It definitely wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, but we had a very good car. It was fast and consistent. I didn't think I was going to have enough for Scott, but as soon as I was able to get beside him, it really slowed both of our cars down a lot and really evened things out. That gave me the chance to beat him across the line."
Briscoe now leads Dario Franchitti, who finished fourth, by 25 points and Dixon by 33 in the drivers' standings with just two races remaining in the 2009 season - Sept. 19 at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan and Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Briscoe's teammate, Helio Castroneves, was running third when a suspension part failed on the No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda and sent him into the wall with 15 laps remaining in the race. An X-ray on Castroneves' right ankle were negative, and he was released from the infield medical center.
Castroneves finished 20th and was eliminated from the championship as he dropped 167 points behind Briscoe.
"We had a great race going until that incident," Castroneves said. "The Team Penske car was running very well, but then we had an issue with our front suspension and I ended up in the wall."
The victory was Briscoe's first at Chicagoland Speedway and third win of the 2009 season. He won earlier this year at St. Petersburg and Kentucky. He had finished second seven times this season, but won from the pole Saturday for the first time in his career.
"We've got to stay focused," Briscoe said. "The Target cars (Franchitti and Dixon) are going to be there in Motegi and Homestead, so we just have to stay focused. We've had good cars on all the mile-and-half ovals this year. We've just got to keep it together. We had a couple of mistakes tonight but were able to come back. We've just have to try to avoid those situations."
Briscoe was fourth when he missed his marks on a pit stop, which created difficulty in fueling the car and sent the No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda to eighth place. Briscoe faded to 13th before he rallied, moving into the lead with 40 laps to go.
"It was really good racing, really close," Briscoe said. "I was just happy when after about 40 laps or so, my spotter said, ‘Clear all around.' It was the best thing I'd heard in a long time."
Castroneves' crash ended his bid for the championship, but didn't end his drive to finish on a positive note while helping his teammate toward a championship.
"It's unfortunate because we could have battled for the win there at the end," Castroneves said. "The good news is that I'm OK and now we just have to move on to Japan. Congratulations to my teammate, Ryan. He ran a fantastic race and made some good headway in the championship."
The series takes a three-week break before the Japan race.
