Rice Wins Kansas Squeaker

7/5/04... Buddy Rice got the nod over his teammate Vitor Meira and claimed the checkered flag for the Argent 300 on the Kansas Speedway. The two Rahal-Letterman Racing's drivers showed the Kansas fans one of the closest race finishes in history, along with the cat and mouse side by side racing at speeds over 200 miles per hour for several laps. As they approached the finish line, Rice was the cat and Meira ended up being the mouse, giving Rahal-Letterman a one two finish.

The win was Rice's second of the season, he won the Indy 500 subbing for the injured Kenny Brack. Following Rice and Meira across the finish line were Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, Adrian Fernandez, Helio Castroneves, Sam Hornish Jr., Dan Wheldon, and Alex Barron. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Buddy Rice -- #15 Honda - finished 1st
2. Tony Kanaan -- #11 Honda - finished 3rd
3. Vitor Meira -- #17 Honda - finished 2nd
4. Sam Hornish Jr. -- #6 Toyota - finished 8th
5. Tomas Scheckter -- #4 Chevy -- finished 15th
6. Helio Castroneves -- #3 Toyota - finished 7th
7. Townsend Bell -- #2 Chevy - finished 17th
8. Kosuke Matsuura* -- #55 Honda - finished 18th
9. Dario Franchitti -- #27 Honda - finished 4th
10. Bryan Herta -- #7 Honda - finished 5th

Tony Kanaan still sits atop of the driver's point's standings with 275 points, followed by Dan Wheldon with 247. Buddy Rice moved up to third and is now listed with 225 points, only 50 points from the lead and less than 25 points out of second place. Helio Castroneves is sitting patiently (or maybe not so patiently) in fourth place with 207 points while Bryan Herta rounds out the top five with 165. Defending champion Scott Dixon is mired in sixth place just a point down from Herta.

Al Unser Jr. has called it quits, as most of you know by now. The 42 year old two-time Indy winner (1992 & 1994) figured it was time for him to step down after more than 20 years in the driver's seat, keeping the Unser family name unique in open wheel racing industry.

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