Helio Castroneves had never previously led a lap at Infineon Raceway, and had gone some 29 races without being able to enjoy his familiar fence-climbing 'spiderman' celebration, but put both right on Sunday afternoon in Sonoma.
Echoing the sort of resolve that saw Sam Hornish Jr win for Penske after its facilities had been badly hit by flooding a couple of seasons back, the Brazilian shrugged off this week's transporter fire to convert pole position into a first victory since St Petersburg in 2007, claiming the bonus point for most laps led for good measure along the way.
To make things even better for Penske, Ryan Briscoe backed Castroneves up in second place, the two distinctive red-and-white machines reprising the 1-2 result from qualifying as Castroneves made sizeable inroads into Scott Dixon's championship lead.
In a race largely decided by pit strategy, Castroneves led Briscoe away at the start of the 80 laps, returning to the front each time the early stoppers had to call in for more fuel and new rubber.
Vitor Meira, Buddy Rice and Dan Wheldon were the first to chance their arm by switching to an alternative gameplan, but otehrs followed the final results showed a mix of those to take the gamble and those, like Briscoe, Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick, who decided to stick with convention and hold on for as long as possible.
With just one yellow, for the hapless Marty Roth's spin on lap 16, the benefit of stopping as early as Wheldon, Meira and co had done was negated, with each needing to make a third fuel stop before the chequer came out. After that, it became a question of pace and positioning that determined who finished where as the strategies collided.
Castroneves led until the yellow prompted the first rush for the pits, handing the lead to his team-mate for the next ten laps. The Australian's need for fuel promoted leading rookie Ernesto Viso to the front of the pack, the Venezuelan having stopped amongst the early batch on lap 13.
![Helio Castroneves - Team Penske [pic credit: IRL/Haines]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/483209.jpg)
