AUTORACING
Scott Dixon took control of the IndyCar championship race when Helio Castroneves suffered his second mechanical failure in two days at the Grand Prix of Houston. After a final-lap wreck by Dario Franchitti and Takuma Sato, the caution came out to freeze the field, allowing Penske Racing’s Will Power to win the race while halting Dixon’s final attempt for a sweep of the doubleheader sweep. Dixon settled for second. He entered the Houston doubleheader trailing Castroneves by 49 points, but leaves with a 25-point lead going into Oct. 19 season finale. Oakville’s James Hinchcliffe finished third on Sunday after finishing last on Saturday because he stalled on the standing start and was rear-ended by Ed Carpenter. Franchitti’s accident in Turn 5 happened when the car of the four-time IndyCar champion launched over Sato’s and sailed into the fence. Debris was showered into the grandstand from both the cars colliding and the impact with the fence, and Franchitti’s badly damaged car bounced back onto the track.
E.J. Viso then hit Sato’s car. IndyCar said one series official was taken to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries, and Houston Fire Department spokesman Ruy Lozano said 13 fans suffered injuries, with two transported to hospitals. Franchitti has two fractured vertebra that will not require surgery, a fractured right ankle, and a concussion. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel’s relentless push toward a seemingly inevitable fourthstraight Formula One drivers’ championship continued with a victory at the Korean Grand Prix on Sunday. Vettel won for the third time in Korea, and has won the last four Formula One races. Nearest title rival Fernando Alonso was sixth, stretching Vettel’s lead in the championship to 77 points with only five races remaining, meaning he could wrap up the title at next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.