Sam Hornish Jr put the demons of his retirement in Richmond twelve months ago firmly behind him with a dominant victory in the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway.
The reigning Indy 500 champion, who also suffered an accident during testing earlier in the week, started the race from the second row of the grid but hit the front 39 laps in after working his way past Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves and led the final 212 laps of the race en route to victory - the most consecutive laps led and third-most total in series history.
Hornish claimed his victory under a caution period when Castroneves was forced to slow with a puncture late on, but the yellow flag came just too late for Andretti Green Racing driver Dario Franchitti, who was unable to hold off the challenge of Vitor Meira for second as the Rahal Letterman Racing claimed the place just before the caution went out for the sixth runner-up finish of his career.
Rookie driver Marco Andretti claimed fourth, with Scott Sharp and Bryan Herta rounding out the top six.
Castroneves, the points leader heading into the race, was able to limp round to take the flag in tenth place, despite his puncture.
