page_title: 2007 Indy Japan 300
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 Indy Japan 300 / Race
caption_attribution_description: en:Tony Kanaan practicing for the en:2007 Indianapolis 500
context_page_description: The 2007 Indy Japan 300 was an IndyCar Series motor race held on April 21, 2007, at the Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Tochigi, Japan. It was the third race of the 2007 IndyCar Series season, the fifth annual edition of the Indy Japan 300 in the IndyCar Series, and the tenth anniversary running of the race. Andretti Green Racing driver Tony Kanaan won the race with a 0.4828 second margin of victory over Chip Ganassi Racing's Dan Wheldon. Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, and Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the top five.
  Hélio Castroneves, the defending champion of the Indy Japan 300, won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying. In the race, Wheldon gained the lead from Castroneves on lap 44 and led for more than half of the 200 laps, but a pit stop with 14 laps remaining forced him to relinquish the top position. Kanaan took the lead because of a late pit stop by Dixon, and held off a late challenge by Wheldon to secure first place.
  There were four cautions and nine lead changes among five different drivers during the race. It was Kanaan's first win of the season, and the eighth of his career.
context_section_description: The conditions on the grid were dry but cloudy before the event with an air temperature between 70–74 °F (21–23 °C) and a track temperature of 80 °F (27 °C). Bridgestone CEO Soshi Arakawa commanded the drivers to start their engines. The race began at 1:00 p.m. JST, as Tomikazu Fukuda, governor of Tochigi Prefecture (location of the Twin Ring Motegi track), waved the opening green flag to signify the start. Shortly afterward, however, Matsuura suffered an accident; he crashed into the turn two wall during the first lap after he spun, and did not return to the race. A caution flag came out as a result of the incident; several drivers made pit stops for new tires, fuel and car adjustments during the caution, and Meira made two stops. On lap 9, the field returned to green flag racing, and Castroneves maintained his lead, which reached nearly three seconds by lap 25. The second caution flag of the race was flown on lap 31, to allow for the removal of debris on the track in the fourth turn. A round of pit stops occurred during the caution; Castroneves held on to the lead, with Wheldon and Kanaan in second and third. The green flag came back out on lap 39, and Hornish Jr. immediately took third place from Kanaan. Lap 44 saw a lead change as Wheldon passed Castroneves; he would go on to lead 126 of the race's 200 laps. Wheldon gradually increased the lead to almost two seconds by lap 80. Kanaan had risen to second by this point, ahead of Franchitti and Castroneves.
  From laps 81 to 90, pit stops were made by all the drivers. After Ed Carpenter's stop, one of his wheels came off while he attempted to return to the track; he would ultimately finish 15th, eight laps behind. At the end of this series of pit stops under the green flag, Wheldon remained out in front, ahead of Kanaan. By the halfway point of the race, Kanaan had begun to narrow his deficit, which by lap 115 was less than a second. Wheldon, meanwhile, was faced with a mechanical problem—his radio was malfunctioning, preventing him from talking to his pit crew; he later said that he and his team "lost radio contact early on". On lap 122, Kanaan made a pass while coming out of turn two, taking the lead from Wheldon. Soon after, the drivers began their third round of pit stops, and Wheldon took back the lead before Andretti was afflicted with oversteer and crashed into the turn four inside wall on lap 135, bringing out a caution flag. The yellow flag period saw pit stops continue. Castroneves stopped twice on pit lane on top of a prior stop just before the caution; during the second yellow flag stop, he overshot his designated area on pit road, and his car needed to be pushed into position by crew members. With 51 laps left, the caution period ended, and Wheldon slowly built a gap over Kanaan of 1.8834 seconds entering the final 20 laps.
  Wheldon made a pit stop on lap 186, giving Kanaan, who had been conserving fuel since early in the race, the lead. Four laps later, Kanaan stopped, and the lead briefly went to Hornish Jr., before he too pitted and Dixon assumed the top spot. On lap 196, however, Dixon was also forced into the pits. Kanaan had come off pit road ahead of Wheldon after his stop, and therefore was in position to assume the lead. Wheldon closed in on Kanaan, and by the final lap was less than four-tenths of a second behind. Kanaan, though, held off Wheldon to win the race with a .4828 of a second margin of victory. Third place went to Franchitti, who was over 11 seconds off the pace. Dixon was fourth, followed by Hornish Jr., who finished one lap behind the leaders, having stalled his engine on pit road in the closing laps. Scott Sharp was the sixth-place finisher, and early leader Castroneves wound up seventh. Simmons, Scheckter, and Buddy Rice finished eighth through tenth; all other drivers ended the race two or more laps behind.
  There were nine lead changes in the race; five drivers reached the front of the field. Wheldon's total of 126 laps led was the highest of any competitor. Kanaan led four different times, for a total of 26 laps. The victory was the 
caption: Tony Kanaan won the race after gaining the lead with four laps remaining.
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