Sharp denies Meira maiden win in Kentucky.

IndyCar Series veteran Scott Sharp became the latest driver to deny Vitor Meira a maiden IRL win as he held off the young Brazilian to win the Amber Alert Portal Indy 300 at the Kentucky Speedway.

The start of Sunday's 200-lap race may have been all about polesitter Danica Patrick and the Andretti-Green Racing powerhouse, the final laps were all about Sharp and Meira as the Fernandez Racing driver dug deep into his bag of tricks to keep Meira one car length at bay over the final lap of the 1.5-mile tri-oval.

Sharp's first IRL win since Motegi 2003 came on an afternoon where he spent the first half of the race lurking towards the tail of the top ten as Andretti-Green teammates Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti made most of the running. However AGR's normally rock-solid reliability went astray on Sunday as Franchitti lost a wheel exiting the pits before retiring with mechanical ailments and both Kanaan and Michigan winner Bryan Herta also fell by the wayside.

The demise of three of the four AGR cars left Wheldon fighting a lone battle to keep the teams' podium streak alive, a feat he accomplished by finishing third, and just holding off an inspired Alex Barron, who produced the best finish from a Toyota powered car.

Wheldon also substantially increased his advantage in the championship standings with five races remaining. With both Franchitti and Kanaan retiring and second place driver in points Sam Hornish Jr finishing only seventh, the young Briton now holds a commanding 90 point lead over the double IRL champion and is 105 markers clear of defending series champ Kanaan.

Helio Castroneves and Buddy Lazier finished ahead of Hornish Jr in fifth and sixth places respectively while the top ten was rounded out by Kosuke Matsuura, a much improved AJ Foyt IV and an overjoyed Jimmy Kite, who scored his first top ten finish since taking the reigns of the #91 Hemelgarn Racing entry.

Polesitter Patrick lost her grip on top spot in the early laps but was still running solidly in the top six when she suffered gearbox problems aboard her Rahal-Letterman Racing Panoz-Honda and dropped to 16th.