Franchitti grabs late lead, wins at Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa, June 21 (UPI) -- Dario Franchitti took advantage of a lengthy late pit stop by Ryan Briscoe to grab the lead and hang on to win the Iowa Corn Indy 250 Sunday.

Briscoe needed 7.1 seconds to clear the final rounds of pit stops, which enabled Franchitti to jump into the lead and beat Briscoe, who finished second 5.0132 seconds later. It was Franchitti's second victory of the season.

Hideki Mutoh finished third followed by Dan Wheldon, who won the Iowa race last year. Danica Patrick, who led for 24 laps, wound up ninth.

"The pit stops were awesome," said Franchitti, who was in second place behind Briscoe when the final session of green-flag stops began with 55 laps to go. "It was a track position race."

The positions were significantly scrambled twice due to crashes. Three cars were knocked out in a pile-up on the first lap. On lap 111, leader Tony Kanaan smacked the wall; the third consecutive year Kanaan had crashed.

Briscoe, who led for 85 laps, remained atop the IndyCar points standings after finishing second in consecutive races. Franchitti moved up to second place with the win.