JOLIET, Ill. — Sam Hornish Jr. really would prefer a nice, drama-free race that's decided by a couple of car lengths. Honest.
It just never seems to work out that way.
Hornish held off not one, but two cars this time, edging Scott Dixon and Bryan Herta on Sunday for his second straight victory at the Delphi Indy 300. He won by just .0099 seconds, the third-closest finish in IRL history.
Hornish has now been in on the three closest finishes in Indy car history, winning all three. He has 10 career IRL victories.
"I wish more of them were runaway wins than finishing side-by-side every race that we go to," Hornish said, smiling. "I mean, that's tough racing."
Yes, but he does it so well.
At last year's Delphi Indy 300, Hornish edged Al Unser Jr. by .0024 in the closest Indy car finish ever. Just how close was that? Hornish's car crossed the finish line a mere three inches before Unser's.
And Sunday's finish was so tight that Dixon and Herta weren't quite sure who ended up where until they saw the results. Dixon was second and Herta third, but just .0100 separated first and third places in the closest 1-2-3 finish in Indy Racing League history.
"I still feel really good about the race, but you just think, 'Gee, a tenth of a second?"' Herta said. "It's really not that much."
It sure made for an exciting finish, though. After starting in the fourth row, Hornish quickly worked his way toward the front and stayed there. Tomas Scheckter had the lead most of the day, but things started getting interesting when Helio Castroneves stalled on the backstretch on lap 186.
Herta was already on his way into the pits when he saw Castroneves slowing. The third caution of the day was announced as he was ready to come back onto the track, allowing him to jump to the head of the field when the rest of the leaders pitted.
When the race went to green again with six laps to go, Herta was in the lead with Roger Yasukawa, Hornish, Dan Wheldon, Scheckter and Dixon bunched up behind him.
Herta and Yasukawa were racing side-by-side on lap 196 when Hornish made a daring move, going to the outside to race three abreast through turns three and four.
But the gamble paid off, as Hornish pulled ahead of Yasukawa.
"I like to be on the high side, I can control it," Hornish said. "I've had a couple times where I've been on the bottom and I've gotten close to getting pinched across that line, and it really unsettles the car. It would be the worst thing in the world to spin and have about 10 guys run into you."
Hornish raced Herta side-by-side for the last three laps, staying on the outside. As they raced through the straightaway going onto the final lap, Hornish moved slightly ahead of Herta.
But then Dixon made his run. Weaving in and out of traffic after the last pit stop, he had moved all the way up into third place. Coming out of the third turn, he saw Herta go a little wide and ducked inside.
They tore through the straightaway three abreast, with Dixon nosing ahead at the finish line.
"Coming through three, I almost started to think I was going to hold (Hornish) off because I had Scott behind me," Herta said. "I figured, 'Well, Scott doesn't want Sam to get the points, he'd rather have me get them than nobody.'
"But then he had such a big run, we were suddenly three abreast," Herta said. "There was a lot of give and take there at the end that probably could have gotten messy."
Instead, fans got another thrilling finish.
"It'd be more fun to watch on TV," Herta said. "It's high-risk fun."
And a big reward for Hornish. Last year's IRL champion is still fifth in the standings, but he's just 41 points behind Castroneves, the leader, with two races to go.
Dixon moved into second place in the standings, 12 points behind Castroneves. Gil de Ferran, Castroneves' teammate, dropped from second to fourth in the points with a 12th-place finish.
"It's coming down to the wire," Hornish said. "While we're still 41 points out of the championship lead, when you get 52 for winning and leading the most laps, and you get 32 for sixth, anything is possible.
"We're just going to keep working as hard as we can, and see if we can get ourselves back in there."