Briscoe slips past Carpenter to win Kentucky 300

Ryan Briscoe slipped past Ed Carpenter in the final yards to win the IndyCar Kentucky 300 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.

Briscoe’s Penske Racing Honda had just enough momentum coming off the final turn Saturday night to hold off Carpenter, who was searching for his first win in 94 career starts.

Instead, Briscoe picked up his second victory of the year and moved into the series points lead ahead of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

Dixon started from the pole and dominated the first half of the race but struggled in the late stages and finished seventh. Tony Kanaan was third, followed by Helio Castroneves and Graham Rahal.

Briscoe’s triumph didn’t come easy.

Carpenter, who had led all of four laps during his entire career before Saturday, took the lead with about 45 laps to go and held his ground as Briscoe and Kanaan closed in.

Using the “Push to Pass” button the series adopted this week in an effort to provide more compelling racing, Carpenter was able to hold off Briscoe for a while.

Briscoe managed to pull even with about 10 laps to go, starting a thrilling duel around the 1.5-mile oval. Carpenter, racing on the inside, had the advantage around the first two turns, but Briscoe got better runs over the final two turns.

The final lap was no different, though Carpenter did his best to swing his No. 20 Vision Racing Honda as far up the track as he could. It wasn’t enough to keep Briscoe from nipping him at the line. Briscoe won by 0.0162 of a second, the seventh-closest finish in series history.

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Nationwide Series

Brad Keselowski passed Kyle Busch with eight laps left and held on to win the inaugural Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway in Newton.

Keselowski stayed on the track during a caution flag late in the race, a risk that paid off with his second victory of the year. He also won at Dover, Del., on May 30.

Busch, who started at the back after spending the morning in Pennsylvania practicing for the Sprint Cup race today at Pocono, finished second after leading 84 laps. He has nine consecutive top-two finishes, tying the series record set by Jack Ingram in 1983.

Jason Leffler was third, followed by Carl Edwards and Kelly Bires.

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NASCAR Trucks

Ron Hornaday Jr. raced to his record fifth straight NASCAR Camping World Trucks victory, easily holding off Brian Scott in a green-white-checker finish at Nashville Superspeedway in Gladeville, Tenn.

The Kevin Harvick Inc. driver has six wins this year to push his series-record total to 44. He also has a record three season titles.

Rick Ren also set a series record for victories by a crew chief with 27.

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Irwindale

Rip Michels of San Fernando and Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills each scored victories in the NASCAR ACDelco Super Late Model twin 40-lap feature races at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale. Joanides finished second to Michels in the first race and won the second race maintaining his division championship points lead over Michels.