Whether Tony Kanaan was inspired to win the Honda Indy 300 by a visit to Motegi's museum and the sight of idol Ayrton Senna's McLaren F1 car or not, one thing is clear: Andretti Green Racing needs to be taken seriously again this year.

Winning the Indy Racing League's annual Japanese jaunt filled a gap on Kanaan's resume, as the veteran's fuel strategy proved decisive in holding off the expected frontrunners from Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. The Brazilian's victory was the first for any of the four Andretti Green Racing cars on a 1.5-mile oval since he took the chequered flag at Kansas Speedway in 2005, as results on the six similar tracks produced just four top five finishes from AGR's quartet last season.

As a result, there was a period of off-season soul-searching among the drivers, engineers and crews, as they looked at what was missing on those 'handling' tracks. Answers began to appear during the Open Test on the Homestead oval in February, lifting the mood of the entire operation.

"It definitely feels very good," said Kanaan, after taking the finish 0.4828secs in front of Ganassi's Dan Wheldon, "The best way to thank Honda, the Honda family, is winning. That's all they want to do."

In two oval events this season, Kanaan and Dario Franchitti have already combined for four top ten results, with the Scot finishing third at Motegi. Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick haven't caught up yet, but the mood of the team remains optimistic.

"This was a very important win for the entire Andretti Green Racing team," Kanaan concluded, after moving up to second in the championship, "Ganassi and Penske have been so strong on the one-and-a-half-mile tracks for the past year or so, while it was an area were we had to make some improvements. Our team worked very hard over the winter to improve our performance on the big tracks like Motegi, and that makes this win very sweet for us."