Ryan Briscoe went a long way to erasing memories of his controversial Indianapolis 500 exit by taking a maiden IndyCar Series win for Team Penske at the Milwaukee Mile - but it was a close-run thing.
Indeed, the Australian has had a tough introduction to life with the perennial frontrunner, and had to avoid a crash - not of his making - with two laps remaining before he could finally claim to be an IndyCar Series winner, but managed to hold off points leader Scott Dixon for the final 50+ laps to rack up Penske's 300th victory.
Briscoe and Dixon engaged in a cat-and-mouse duel during the final laps, but their work was almost undone when they came up on two cars spinning - and another flying - on the 223rd lap. Briscoe slammed on the anchors and managed to guide his #6 Dallara around the trouble, missing Andretti's car by a few feet, while Dixon also managed to take evading action, only to then be denied a shot at the leader by the arrival of the yellow flags.
“A million things went through my mind,” Briscoe admitted, “Just before that, I was pretty comfortable. I knew how to keep Dixon behind me, and I was like ‘let's just bring this thing home'. Then, all of a sudden, I'm seeing smoke in front of me and cars flying. If I would have gotten caught up in that, I would have been under the bus crying right now, that‘s for sure.”
The Australian had started from eleventh place, but a combination of strategy, fast pit work and a perfectly-tuned car allowed him to work his way to the front.
“It feels so good to take my first IndyCar win, and it feels so good to do it here in Milwaukee," he noted, "Indianapolis, when we had that get-together in pit-lane, was really unfortunate. I was having a really good race and looking at a top five, but we just had to put it behind us and move on to this race.”
Team owner Roger Penske sported a cap that read '300th win' following the victory - the first for his IndyCar operation this year - and said that the landmark victory was a tribute to all the people who have worked on his race teams.
