Racetrack Insider - News and Views of the Motorsports Industry from Insiders Drew Patey and Buddy Judy

Penske Driver Briscoe By Inches at Chicagoland

Penske Racing 's Ryan Briscoe won by less than an inch ahead of Scott Dixon to take the victory at the Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday in what is believed to be the closest finish in Indy Car Series history. The top finishing 13 cars came to the checkered flag all with in a second of each other - .826 seconds to be exact. Briscoe's win was far from easy as he took the pole on Friday but during the race had to fight off Dixon for the entire event. The Penske teammates were the cars to beat early on in the race but the Ganassi drivers kept the pressure up and during early pit stops Dixon was able to take the lead only to give it back when the leaders hit traffic. With 16 laps to go Penske driver Helio Castroneves had a suspension failure that put him into the wall, setting up the great finish. With 13 cars on the lead lap it was the dash for the cash as the green flag flew. On the last lap, Briscoe moved in front of Dixon coming out of the final corner, as Mario Moraes passed Dario Franchitti to finish third and fourth with Rahal, Carpenter and Servia rounding out the top six. The result stretched Briscoe's championship lead to 25 points with races in Japan and Homestead left to decide the championship. The Safety-Kleen supported Andretti Racing cars had a up and down race with Marco Andretti finishing in 11th place followed by Danica Patrick and Tony Kanann. The Dolton crew from Safety-Kleen were on hand this weekend servicing the teams - Ron Call led the activities at the Safety-Kleen motorhome compound were he hosted another great tailgate party for the customers. The Indy Car teams now head to Japan. Here are the full race results.