Franchitti wins at Milwaukee

Dario Franchitti moved into an equal points lead with Will Power by taking victory on the IndyCar Series' return to Milwaukee Mile, although the Australian was able to salvage fourth place having started only 17th.

Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Franchitti led much of the race, with Helio Castroneves (Penske) and Tony Kanaan his main rivals, in the latter's strongest run since joining KV Racing Technology for 2011.

"That was a hell of a run today," said Franchitti, who tied Rick Mears with 29 victories  (ninth on the all-time list). "The first part of the race I thought I had a bit of an advantage on everybody. Very tough, as usual here. Tough on your own just balancing the car, but then you get in traffic and it gets really difficult. It's the same for everyone.

"Then Tony (Kanaan) came marching along and he looked really, really strong, and he gave me a hard time as usual. Great day. To win here at Milwaukee is always special. It's such hard work and such a hard race. It's a delight for the Target Team and we got the Downy colors in Victory Lane."

All three drivers had stints in the lead amid some classic racing on the much-loved short oval, but both the Brazilians would hit trouble in the closing stages, with Kanaan spinning into the wall with 29 laps to go, and Castroneves having to pit with a deflating tie, leaving him ninth at the flag.

"I was trying. If you're trying to win races, that's the way it is," Kanaan said. "I saw the opportunity when Helio got traffic, stepped on it and lost the rear. It's a shame. It's my fault. But, hey, it was a fun race. We raced each other hard the whole race. Unfortunately, I'm human. I make mistakes sometimes as well. I'd rather make a mistake trying hard than actually not trying at all."

Graham Rahal therefore came through to second after a strong run for Ganassi's new second team, with Newman/Haas' Oriol Servia taking his first IndyCar Series podium in third after running with the frontrunners all day. His teammate James Hinchcliffe made rapid progress from a midfield start to take sixth.

"A great job for the Service Central team today," Rahal said. "To come from 12th and move up like that. We passed a lot of cars. I thought passing was going to be tough today and it was, but we were able to do it. I'm really proud of my guys. They gave me a great car, and yet again, qualifying is our weak link, but time and time again we're proving we can compete and this is one of the toughest ovals we go to, so to have that finish is great. We're knocking on the door (of Victory Lane). It's our second second-place finish of the year and third podium. We're getting closer. It's going to come one of these days."

Power had looked unlikely to get much from Milwaukee as he fell as low as 19th in the opening stint, but he clawed his way up the order as the race progressed and eventually salvaged fourth place ahead of Andretti Autosport's Danica Patrick.

Scott Dixon (Ganassi) fell down the order from his second row start and was then caught up in an early pit-lane incident with KV's Takuma Sato and Penske's Ryan Briscoe, caused by Sato pulling into the wrong pit stall. Dixon and Sato recovered to seventh and eighth, with Briscoe 11th behind Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson.

Sato ended up being KV's best finisher, despite all three of its cars running in the top six at first. As well as Kanaan's crash, EJ Viso also hit the wall hard while fighting in the front group.

Other drivers in trouble included Ana Beatriz, whose Dreyer & Reinbold car needed a long stop for repairs after a brush with the wall, solo crashers JR Hildebrand (Panther) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti), and Alex Lloyd and Sebastian Saavedra – who collided on a mid-race restart.

Simona de Silvestro took the start after her heavy practice crash but withdrew early on.