Zoom Savvy first win for Danica Patrick at Motegi

Danica Patrick drove to her first career IndyCar victory on Sunday at the Honda-owned Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Japan.

Starting from the sixth position, Patrick drove among the top-eight cars for the entire 200-lap event. As the race wound to its conclusion, the majority of the field came in to pit under yellow-flag conditions on lap 143. As the race was about to return to green-flag racing, race strategist Kyle Moyer called Patrick back into the pits on lap 148 to top off her fuel.

With five laps remaining in the race, the leading cars began to pit for a quick splash of fuel. It was during this time that Patrick passed each of the cars in front of her while they were making pit stops. Patrick was able to maintain her fuel mileage and claimed her first career IndyCar victory.

Patrick’s victory came in her 50th career IndyCar Series start. She is the first female to win a major racing series event in history. She was followed across the finish line by Helio Castroneves, who was also on the same strategy as Patrick. Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan rounded out the top five.

“Finally! This is a long time coming," said the delighted Patrick. "It was a fuel strategy race, but my team called it perfectly for me. I know I was on the same strategy as Helio and when I passed him for the lead, I couldn't believe it. This is fabulous."

Meanwhile, the final Champ Car race took place at Long Beach with Will Power making best use of a fast start to vault from fourth on the grid to take the lead on lap one. The KV racer controlled the race from that point to take the chequered flag ahead of former F1 racer Franck Montagny who made his debut with Forsythe Pettit racing.

E.A. © CAPSIS International
Source: AGR