Briscoe, Castroneves give Team Penske sweep in Honda 200

The owner’s hunch on when to pit paid off for the IRL winner.

LEXINGTON (AP) — Ryan Briscoe never doubted The Captain’s call.

That’s team Penske boss Roger Penske, who came up with a surprising strategy Sunday that Briscoe turned into his second IndyCar Series victory.

“Roger, with his experience, he always finds a way to pit at the right time and get you back up to the front,” said Briscoe, who drove sports cars for Penske last year before moving to the IndyCar team this season. “Today was a perfect case of that. Once we got back up there, we had the pace to run fast and pull away. It was just perfect.”

Penske, the winningest team owner in open-wheel history, made the call to put Briscoe out of sequence with the other contenders. In the end, the team wound up with a 1-2 sweep in the Honda Indy 200 as Helio Castroneves followed Briscoe across the finish line.

“Team Penske was just awesome,” Briscoe said. “We ran into a bit of trouble early on and there was a chance we stayed on a bit too long there. That was all Roger; that was his strategy.”

The race began about one hour after a downpour soaked the 2.25-mile, 13-turn road circuit at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, leaving puddles in places. IndyCar officials ruled it a wet start, and all the cars had to begin the race on grooved rain tires.

But, with the sun shining and the track drying fast as the 26-car field took the green flag, cars quickly began heading for pit road to change to racing slicks. The Penske team waited to bring Briscoe onto pit lane until lap six, dropping him all the way to 16th.

“There was one point where we fell back in the pack, staying out a bit too long on the wets,” the 26-year-old Australian driver said. “I was thinking to myself ... ‘I know it can be done. I know with Roger calling my strategy, we’ll get up to the front. But if we get to win this, it’s going to be awesome.’ I actually thought that to myself, and here we are.”

With little to lose, Penske brought Briscoe back into the pits again on lap 23, ahead of most of the other contenders, putting him completely out of sequence and, eventually working to his advantage.

“I think that was the only chance we had,” Penske said. “What a great drive for Briscoe. I think he’s validated himself now as one of the top drivers in the Indy Racing League. And, to finish 1-2, I couldn’t believe when I saw what happened here a few minutes ago.”

It’s the eighth 1-2 finish and first since 2005 at Phoenix for Penske, whose team now has 136 open-wheel wins, including seven at Mid-Ohio.