The IRL’s annual visit to the Twin-Rings facility in Motegi, Japan provided an opportunity for the Andretti-Green Team to show that the off-season talk about them returning to the front of the pack had substance. The AGR squad proved quick in qualifying with all four cars taking top 10 grid positions.

Once the race started for real, after a short delay after home-town hero Kosuke Matsuura had hit the wall at Turn One, Lap One, it looked like it might be another Penske / Ganassi battle. But Tony Kanaan had other ideas and made his way to the front where he swapped the lead with Gannasi’s Dan Wheldon for the majority of the race.

The real drama came with just 14 laps to go as all the lead pack started diving for the pits for a lat minute splash-and-go fuel stop. First to blink was Wheldon, then Helio Castroneves followed quickly by Kanaan. After Kanaan, Sam Hornish Jr. and Scott Dixon made their stops. But canny fuel management meant that Kanaan’s stop was the shortest and after all the stops cycled around he ended up in front. The AGR car managed to hold on ahead of the fast charging Wheldon to take the victory.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Tony Kanaan (Andretti-Green)
2. Dan Wheldon  (Ganassi)
3. Dario Franchitti (Andretti-Green)
4. Scott Dixon (Ganassi)
5. Sam Hornish Jr. (Penske)
6. Scott Sharp (Rahal-Letterman)
7. Helio Castroneves (Penske)
8. Jeff Simmons (Rahal-Letterman)
9. Tomas Scheckter (Vision)
10. Buddy Rice (Dreyer & Reinbold)

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