Castroneves stays calm over Hornish clash.

Marlboro Team Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr were both at their diplomatic best following their collision in Sunday's ABC Supply Co./AJ Foyt 225 at Milwaukee that cost Castroneves a shot at a win that Hornish Jr eventually salvaged.

Running side-by-side through turns one and two of the flat one-mile Milwaukee oval with less than 40 laps remaining, Hornish Jr clipped the left rear of Castroneves' machine, bouncing the Brazilian into the air and around. While the right front corner of Hornish Jr's Dallara-Toyota sustained no damage, Castroneves spent nearly 20 laps in the pits making repairs to his left rear suspension assembly.

"What can I say?" said Castroneves, who eventually finished 16th. "I just hope Sam gives me half the prize money. It's a shame that he and I got together, but sometimes these things just happen.

"The good news is that Sam was able to win the race. Marlboro Team Penske did a great job all weekend and it's too bad we weren't there at the end going for the win. My crew did a great job getting me back out there, and I'm happy that we were able to finish the race on the track and not in the pits.

"Hopefully, today's result won't affect our chances in the points championship. We had everything in our hands today and it's unfortunate that things ended up the way they did. Now we just have to turn the page and move on to Michigan."

Eager to make amends for his faux-pas, Hornish Jr then proceeded to bring the Milwaukee crowd to their feet with a series of stunning passes on Andretti-Green teammates Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan in betwixt a breathtaking brush with the unforgiving Milwaukee wall which dropped him back behind Franchitti just several laps after he first took the lead. Another wheel banging episode at some 180mph followed between him and Franchitti but Hornish Jr held his nerve and claimed his second win of the year.

"It was a heck of a race out there today for Marlboro Team Penske," said Hornish Jr, who moves into a tie for second in the championship with Franchitti. "The team put a good car underneath me today.

"I really wanted to win after we had that little problem with Helio. I don't ever want to see that happen. I feel real bad for that guy. It's close racing, and you can't take it back. You've got to go out there and try and win it, and I was pushing it really hard there at the end. I was trying to baby the gearbox, and make sure I didn't hurt it at all.

"I wasn't down shifting quite as hard as I needed going into Turn 1, and the car pushed up and got into the marbles. I did all I could trying to save it and keep it off the wall. That's how he (Franchitti) got around me because I still didn't have my momentum back up yet. It was a tough race for us today, but I'm happy."

During a late-race interview, team boss Roger Penske indicated that Hornish Jr's lap 186 crash with Castroneves was a typical racing incidents but that all parties would be spoken to behind closed doors.