Australia's Ryan Briscoe pulled away in the closing laps after briefly losing the lead to Danica Patrick on his way to an IndyCar Series race at Texas Saturday. It was the fourth time in the last five races at Texas that a Roger Penske-owned car drove to Victory Lane. It was the first victory this season for Briscoe, who started the race on the pole. “This is a huge win,” Briscoe said. “It has been a rough start. My two teammates have won races this year. It is a great feeling to join them in the winning list. ... Hopefully, we can get a few more victories this season.” A year ago, Briscoe dominated at Texas, leading 160 laps and having almost a 10-second lead before two late cautions bunched up the field. That allowed his teammate, Helio Castroneves, to get ahead and win the race. This year, he led 102 of 228 laps and finished 1.463 seconds ahead of Patrick, who followed up her sixth-place showing at the Indianapolis 500 with her best finish of the season. Patrick's teammate, Marco Andretti, was third. New Zealand's Scott Dixon was fourth, followed by Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti of Scotland, who took over the series points lead from Penske driver Will Power of Australia. Power finished 14th and dropped out of the top spot for the first time this year. Briscoe gave up the lead when he made a green-flag pit stop with 38 laps to go, after Patrick had already gotten back on the track from her last stop. But within a lap after that, Briscoe was able to get the No. 6 car around the outside of Patrick. Once he did, Briscoe stayed there and built as much as a 2-second lead before setting for the win. Early in the race, Briscoe was running more than 3 seconds ahead of Power soon before the first pit stops. But when he got caught in his pit box by a car in front of him, he came out fifth. On the radio after that, Penske reassured Briscoe that there was nothing that could have been done to avoid it, and “We've got a good car.” Tony Kanaan finished sixth and Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose future with Andretti Autosport after this race is uncertain, was seventh. Rookie Alex Lloyd finished eighth.
