Wheldon wins again in Kansas; Patrick fails to contend

There was no magic for Danica Patrick this time, with Dan Wheldon holding off Tony Kanaan on Sunday to win his second straight IRL IndyCar Series race at Kansas Speedway.

Patrick, who last week became the first woman to win an IndyCar race, never got into contention in the RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300 and wound up on the sideline with a broken wheel hub.

It was the 14th career victory for Wheldon, a former series champion, but the first time he has taken a checkered flag since winning on the 1.5-mile Kansas track a year ago.

"It has been a little frustrating at times and to get the (No.) 10 car back to Victory Lane just shows that we could be back and we certainly mean a lot of business," the Englishman said. "It was a real strong day."

Next up is the Indianapolis 500, a race Wheldon won in 2005 and that he still holds in great esteem.

"I haven't really worried about that so much this year because it's been so competitive you need to concentrate on each individual race at a time," Wheldon said. "But it's going to be an incredibly competitive Indianapolis 500. I expect both Target cars to be up front. It's certainly very, very tight out there."

This race appeared to belong to Scott Dixon, Wheldon's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, who led 145 of the first 152 laps. But the New Zealander, who won the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, ran into bad luck when he made his final pit stop just seconds before Buddy Rice crashed, bringing out a caution flag that allowed all the other leaders to pit under yellow.

Wheldon, who finished at Kansas in 2005 and 2006, inherited the lead when Wheldon pitted and stayed there the rest of the way.

"It was a fantastic team effort. Unfortunately, Scott just got caught out on the yellow," Wheldon said.

Dixon restarted seventh with 27 laps remaining in the 200-lap event and managed to get all the way to third. But, with everyone running with plenty of fuel to get to the end, Dixon was unable to get close to runner-up Kanaan.

"It was pretty frustrating," said Dixon, who pounded his fists on the steering wheel before getting out of his car at the end of the race. "You have a good car that you think should win and it doesn't.

"I knew it was going to be tough. We probably needed another caution for it to pack up and give us a real chance."

Helio Castroneves, who has yet to finish worse than fourth this season, was right behind Dixon, followed by Marco Andretti, rookie Hideki Mutoh and Ryan Briscoe.

Patrick started third, but fell back into the pack after her first pit stop and never got back into contention.

She was running fifth when she drove into the pits during the final caution. As her team tried to chance her tires, they found the right rear hub was broken and told her to shut off the engine.

As the frustrated Patrick emerged from the car, she put out her hands in the classic, "What's happening" motion.

"My understeer at the beginning was definitely what made me drop back," Patrick said. "But I was back up again and I could see the leaders. It was like, `We get a yellow and we're back in it.'"