Dan Wheldon has admitted that he made a 'stupid mistake' in the closing stages of Sunday's Meijer Indy 300 as he and his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon watched Marlboro Team Penske claim another victory.

Wheldon led the 200-lap race right up until the final round of late race 'splash and go' pitstops but when it was Wheldon's turn to stop he parked too far away from his refuelling nozzle, causing a lengthy delay as his crew placed his car within reach of the nozzle.

“I just simply made a mistake on the last pitstop,” said Wheldon, who went on to finish fourth behind Sam Hornish Jr, Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves. “I overshot and was too wide for the guys to plug in properly. I guess I was headed for Sam's (Hornish) pit. I think I was just too desperate for the win. It was a stupid mistake that should never happen especially at this point in the season. The Target boys did a fantastic job and performance wise, I thought we were the best out front. We just can't seem to close the deal.”

Dixon was one of those to benefit from Wheldon's mistake and went on to grab second place behind Hornish Jr, holding off Castroneves over the final five laps in a stirring side-by-side battle.

“Not too bad a day,” said Dixon of his seventh top-five finish of the season. “The car seemed really strong early on, so I just sat back and saved fuel and that helped us with a great in-lap for our final pitstop and gave us the lead back in the final stretch.

“It was pretty good at the end, but the other cars seemed to get stronger, or at least they came on at the end. I was pretty happy but the restart hurt us. I think our restart gears were totally different to the Penske's', and Sam's seemed to be a lot better. It would take us a lap or two to get going after a caution and he seemed to get speed straight away. That was the difference in the end. I definitely think I would have been able to hold Sam off if we hadn't had that yellow.”

With the win at Kentucky, Hornish regains the points lead with 418 points, seven points ahead of Castroneves (411 points). Wheldon (394 points) remains in third spot and is within 24 points of the leader while Dixon (385 points) is still in the hunt with his second place finish at Kentucky and is still within striking distance with a deficit of 33 points from the top spot in the Championship standings.

“They were still good points,” added Dixon, whose two wins at Watkins Glen and a second place finish at St.Pete make him a favourite at the upcoming Infineon Raceway's permanent road course race. “We really needed to win to try and gain on the championship but hopefully going into Infineon, we can hopefully gain a little more.”