Kanaan becomes first to complete every lap

Tony Kanaan took runner-up behind Helio Castroneves in the season finale.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Tony Kanaan found himself in the middle of a leading three-wide pack going more than 200 mph through the turns. A few laps later, he drove the left side of his car through the grass to avoid contact with another driver.
And he still managed to do what he did throughout his IndyCar Series championship season. Kanaan finished every lap.
Kanaan became the first driver in any major series to complete every lap of a season, going the last 200 Sunday for a runner-up finish in the season-ending Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
"Tony just did an awesome job to finish every lap," team co-owner Michael Andretti said. "That says not just something about Tony keeping it out of trouble, but about the team."
For 3,305 laps in 16 races over nine months, Kanaan didn't have an accident, engine failure or even a flat tire.
"This car never stopped," said Kanaan, who clinched the season title with a runner-up finish at California two weeks ago. "You know how many million pieces that could fail on this car or how many positions I could put myself in that I could be out of the race."
Castroneves wins
Kanaan finished the finale behind Helio Castroneves, who took his first win in 19 races even after being penalized and fined by the Indy Racing League for accelerating too quickly on the final restart with two laps remaining.
Castroneves quickly shot ahead of Dan Wheldon and Kanaan on the 199th-lap restart and wasn't challenged again. Castroneves finished a couple of car-lengths ahead of Kanaan, who was side-by-side and edged Wheldon -- also driving for Andretti Green -- by a nose at the finish line.
Nearly four hours after the race ended, the IRL agreed with Andretti Green that Castroneves took off before the designated restart zone between the third and fourth turns. He was fined $50,000 -- he won $122,500 for winning -- and penalized 15 points that didn't change his fourth-place standing for the season.
Probably didn't matter
Wheldon and Kanaan conceded the quick throttle probably didn't matter, and that they probably wouldn't have caught Castroneves anyway.
Castroneves led from the pole four times for 104 laps, including the first 56 and last 21 for his sixth career win and first since Nazareth in August 2003. His average speed was 159.347 mph, slowed by 35 caution laps.
The win by Castroneves provided a bookend finish for Marlboro Team Penske and Toyota.