Wheldon heads clean sweep

Wheldon's win marked a good day for British drivers

Dan Wheldon scored an impressive win in the Indy 225 at Nazareth as the Andretti team claimed Indy Racing's first ever top three clean sweep.

Wheldon led for the last 79 laps and won in one hour 46 minutes and 11 seconds, 3.55 seconds ahead of Tony Kanaan, with Dario Franchitti third.

Buddy Rice was fourth, with Darren Manning coming home in sixth place.

It was Wheldon's third win of the season and he now lies second behind Kanaan in the driver points table.

The race was the last one at the Nazareth Speedway, home track of the Andretti team, and kept up their record of having won every one-mile oval race this season.

"It's a fantastic team achievement," said Wheldon.

"I keep hearing a lot of grumblings that Andretti Green is dominant on the one-mile ovals, but it's not the case.

"Penske Racing and Rahal Letterman Racing were very strong but our guys did a fantastic job," he said.

"To have three drivers on the podium in the Indy Racing League is an exceptional achievement."

Wheldon said the fact it was the track's farewell race meant it was even more important to team boss Michael Andretti, who drove to victory in the track's first race, that they won.

"I think to Michael, this is his backyard," Wheldon said.

"He's obviously known very well around here. To win the last one here as team owner I knew would be something special.

"But to have three of his drivers on the podium is fantastic."