Kanaan wins, takes points lead

Tony Kanaan regained the lead with 12 laps left and held off teammate Dario Franchitti to win the IndyCar Series race Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

While the race missed the 220-mph speeds and much of the three-wide racing that had become characteristic at the 1 1/2 -mile, high-banked track, Kanaan won with a last dash to the finish.

Just one lap after a restart from the caution that knocked Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice out of the race, Kanaan overtook another Andretti Green Racing teammate, Dan Wheldon.

Wheldon and Penske driver Helio Castroneves had been 1-2 on the restart, but both were trying to make it the last 72 laps without a stop. They didn’t have enough fuel to keep up the pace, or finish the race.

Kanaan went flying by Wheldon, and was joined by polesitter Franchitti soon after the green flag as Castroneves quickly dropped four spots.

They stayed 1-2 the rest of the race, the margin of victory being a quarter of a second.

It was the second win of the season for Kanaan and third in the IRL. He took over the series points lead (210-175) over Wheldon, who had led by just a point going into the race.

Kanaan led 145 of 150 laps and finished with an average speed of 153.965 mph.

Alex Barron finished third after starting at the back of the 22-car field because of a mechanical problem that kept him from posting a qualifying speed.

Sam Hornish Jr., Castroneves’ new teammate, was fourth and Adrian Fernandez fifth.

Schumacher has work cut out

It’s going to be a lot harder for Michael Schumacher to win the Canadian Grand Prix this time.

The six-time Formula One champion and six-time winner on Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will start sixth in today’s race.

Schumacher will be going after his third straight win in Montreal and fourth in the last five years.

To get it done, though, the Ferrari star will have to get past four other fast drivers before he can even think about chasing down and passing younger brother Ralf, the record-setting pole-winner.

“I have won races from lower positions on the grid and so I am still confident for tomorrow,” said Michael, whose worst previous start in this race was fifth as a rookie in 1992.

He should be confident, having won six of the first seven races this season and building a 60-46 point lead over teammate Rubens Barrichello, who also struggled in qualifying and will start seventh.

Ralf Schumacher won his fifth F1 pole and will start from the front of the 20-car field. That’s the same place he started last year, with Michael right behind him in third.

Ralf took advantage of being last to qualify, posting a lap of 1 minute, 12.275 seconds (134.974 mph) and knocking the 1:12.341 of BAR-Honda’s Jenson Button off the pole.

Both of them bested the record 1:12.836 set in 2002 by Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher’s teammate.