Rice Edges Meira at the Finish

The race was so close, Vitor Meira believed he might have won. Buddy Rice knew better.

Rice picked up his second victory of the year Sunday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, only 0.0051 seconds ahead of his Rahal Letterman Racing teammate in the second-closest race in Indy Racing League history.

“I don’t even know how to measure that,” Meira said.

The only IRL race that was closer was at Chicagoland in 2002 when Sam Hornish Jr. beat Al Unser Jr. by 0.0024.

“If I could actually see him alongside me, that would mean I’d be behind,” Rice said. “When I didn’t see him when we went past the start-finish line, I was assuming -- but I felt I’d won the race.”

Rice, the Indianapolis 500 winner and Sunday’s pole-sitter, narrowly lost the lead to Meira going into the last lap of the 200-lap Argent Mortgage Indy 300 -- with IRL points leader Tony Kanaan close behind, looking for an opening.

With Rice inside and Meira outside, Kanaan never got a chance.

“They did a great job controlling the pace,” said Kanaan, who dealt with fuel and gear problems for much of the day but still led a race-high 64 laps during a long green-flag stretch. “Buddy was lifting to keep Meira on the outside.

Meira’s runner-up finish was his second in as many weeks -- but he had to check with his spotters to make sure.

“Before doing anything stupid, I just talked to the team and asked who won,” he said. “Even then, I didn’t really know for like 10 seconds afterwards.”

Rice was just glad not to be dueling with a driver from a rival team.

“It’s great being able to race each other cleanly,” he said. “That’s how it’s supposed to happen, so I’m glad I could do it with my teammate.”

Dario Franchitti was fourth, followed in the top 10 by Bryan Herta, Adrian Fernandez, Helio Castroneves, Hornish, Dan Wheldon and Alex Barron.

Honda engines took the top six spots and seven of the top 10. Barron had the only top-10 finish for Chevrolet.

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It’s nine of 10 for Michael Schumacher.

The six-time Formula One champion won the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours by making the most of a daring strategy in which he used four pit stops.

“No risk, no fun,” Schumacher said. “We might have won on a normal three-stop, but that would have involved passing cars on the track.”

Renault, led by Fernando Alonso, managed to end Ferrari’s string of three consecutive 1-2 finishes. Alonso held the pole position and was runner-up, 8.3 seconds behind.

This was Schumacher ninth victory this season and 79th in his Formula One career. Renault’s Jarno Trulli, who finished fourth, is the only other winner this season, taking the Monaco Grand Prix in May.

There are eight races left and Schumacher is edging closer to his seventh world title. He has 90 points, with teammate Rubens Barrichello second at 68. Jenson Button of BAR-Honda is the best non-Ferrari driver with 48 points, two ahead of Trulli.

Schumacher pitted on the 11th, 29th, 42nd and 58th laps. He took the lead on the 33rd of the 70 laps on the 2.74-mile circuit. Alonso pitted on the 14th, 32nd and 46th and gave up the lead to Schumacher after the second pit stop.

Barrichello, despite starting from the 10th position, passed Trulli on the final lap to finish third.