Helio Castroneves Comes From Nowhere To Claim IndyCar's 200th Race

An unseasonably chilly night in Kentucky gave fans that strange feeling that something was in the air. Something about tonight seemed different than the rest of the IZOD IndyCar races this season. They were right.

In a season filled with Will Power dominating everyone on the road courses, and Dario, Wheldon, and Kanaan taking the spotlight on the ovals, this weekend was something different.

When the drivers and teams began qualifying for this weekend's race at Kentucky, the lineup for the race almost seemed to be in reverse order. Hideki Mutoh, Bertrand Baquette, Mario Moraes, and Thomas Sheckter all had top-10 starting spots. Oh yeah, and Ed Carpenter was on the pole.

At the back of the pack were notable names like Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Paul Tracy, Graham Rahal, and Danica Patrick. Kanaan told everyone he would pass 11 cars on the first lap of the race, but because of an early caution with Takuma Sato, he was only able to get 10.

For the better part of the first 100 laps, Will Power and Dan Wheldon were battling for the lead. Wheldon ended up with the most laps led for the race, with 93. Power lead 83 laps himself, but faded in the latter stage of the race, to finish in eighth.

Dario Franchitti finished ahead of Power, in fifth place, which narrowed the gap in the Championship standings to just 17 points going into Motegi, the second-to-last race of the season two weeks from now.

Ed Carpenter finished in second place for the second year in a row, and Dan Wheldon ended up with another podium finish, as he came home in third. Tony Kanaan took his car from 26th to finish the race in fourth place, with a smile on his face.

The real story here (as it should be with every race) was the winner. No, it wasn't Will Power.

The three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Helio Castroneves pulled a rabbit out of his hat, and stole the show in the final few laps. He had been running in the middle of the pack for most of the race, but was on a slightly different pit cycle than everyone else. This worked perfectly for the team, and enabled Helio to take the lead with just three laps remaining, and he had enough fuel to stretch it to the end.

Maybe it was karma, maybe some people feel as if he was owed that one because of the race he didn't actually win at Edmonton.

No matter how you look at it, this couldn't have worked out better for Helio, or Team Penske. Perhaps it is us that needed the reminder here. Even though the last four or five races are all going to be about Power and Franchitti, Helio is going to let people know he is still out there, and he is still a great driver.

Tonight he may have had lady luck on his side, but he crossed the line first tonight, and this time it actually counted.