Hornish Wins on Pass

Sam Hornish Jr. blew past Gil de Ferran on the inside of the first turn with less than two laps to go Saturday night and handed the vaunted Penske team a bitter loss in the SunTrust Indy Challenge IRL race at Richmond, Va.

Hornish, never a factor until the end, passed Felipe Giaffone for second in the same spot on the 246th lap, then reeled in De Ferran. Hornish finally got underneath De Ferran in the front straightaway, pulling ahead entering the first turn and racing away to win by 1.8323 seconds.

“I didn’t know I could pass him until I did,” Hornish said.

It was the defending series champion’s sixth victory all-time and third this season, and came at the expense of one of the Penske teams, which have dominated the IRL in their first season since coming over from CART.

De Ferran, who led 168 of the 250 laps, held on to finish second.

Of the 22 cars that started, only 13 were running at the end. The race was slowed by eight caution flags that covered 94 laps, but ended with 55 laps of green-flag racing, the longest segment of clean racing all night.

Points leader Helio Castroneves was the first to crash, losing his grip coming out of Turn 2 on the eighth lap and hitting the inside wall. The crash put Castroneves behind the wall for 150 laps, but he returned.

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Dario Franchitti posted the fastest lap for today’s CART Chicago Grand Prix at 158.118 mph Saturday at Cicero, Ill., giving him his first pole on an oval track in four years.... IRL president Tony George expects to rule late this week or early next week on the appeal of the disputed finish of the Indianapolis 500.

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Terry Cook took advantage of a race-extending caution at West Allis, Wis., passing Jason Leffler with less than two laps remaining to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series GNC Live Well 200.... Greg Biffle won the pole for the Busch Series’ GNC Live Well 250 at West Allis, Wis.

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Tony Bruncati of Glendora and Rip Michels of Mission Hills split the twin 50-lap Jani-King Super Late Model series feature races in front of 6,500 at Irwindale Speedway, the first sellout of the season.

Greg Adler won the 50-lap Ultra Wheels Super Truck series feature, and Roger Carufel Jr. won the 35-lap Grand American Modified series feature.

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Josh Larsen of Monrovia, starting dead last with a 70-yard handicap, charged through a field of 11 other riders to win Costa Mesa Speedway’s 25-lap classic at the Orange County Fairgrounds, successfully defending his title from last season.