Helio Castroneves reverses fortune for Honda Grand Prix victory

Scott Dixon was second and Tony Kanaan finished in third.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- Spiderman finally got to climb the fence at an IRL road race.
A year ago, Helio Castroneves finished fewer than half the laps and failed to finish any of the first three races in the history of the IRL IndyCar Series on the circuits with left and right turns.
But Castroneves, who had won six road or street events while racing in the rival CART series before 2002, turned around his IRL luck Sunday, winning the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg when Scott Dixon's fuel strategy came up just short.
For Castroneves, who earned his nickname with his fence-climbing antics after race victories, it was his 14th career IndyCar win.
Sporadic contact
Dixon, who ran second most of the day, was having radio problems and was in only sporadic contact with his team, but he tried to conserve fuel after pitting on lap 55 of the 100-lap event in downtown St. Petersburg.
The New Zealander stayed out as the other contenders made their stops, taking the lead when Castroneves drove his Marlboro Team Penske Dallara onto pit road on lap 88.
At that point, Dixon, also battling a broken wing that made it hard to turn in the slower corners, drove as fast as he could, trying to build a big enough margin that he could make a quick fuel stop near the end of the race and hold onto the lead.
Though he didn't know it, Dixon was ahead of Castroneves by nearly 16 seconds when he finally pitted on lap 96.
The stop was a quick one, but not quick enough.
Another caution
Dixon came back onto the track just behind Castroneves and never got the chance to make a run at him as a collision between Buddy Rice and Tomas Scheckter, battling for sixth place, brought out the second caution flag of the day and forced officials to end the race under yellow.
Castroneves finished the race driving slowly behind the pace car. He pulled to a stop on the track, leaped from his car and ran to the nearest fence, climbing onto the wire and punching the air with his left fist in jubilation.
While Dixon was unsure of what was going on because of his radio problems, Castroneves knew he had a lot of ground to make up after his last pit stop.
"I was really going so fast, getting this close to the wall," Castroneves said, holding his right thumb and forefinger inches apart. "They told me, 'Go for it, go like hell.' I drove it like I stole it."
Tony Kanaan finished third, followed by Bryan Herta, Kosuke Matsuura, Vitor Meira and last year's top rookie Danica Patrick.
Pole-winner Dario Franchitti and defending series and race champion Dan Wheldon both failed to finish the race.
Franchitti went out with a broken suspension and Wheldon damaged his car in a collision with Sam Hornish Jr.