A Big Day for Hornish

Sam Hornish Jr. threw himself a birthday party in Victory Lane.

The icing on his cake: Hornish now leads the Indy Racing League season points race after his second straight win.

“It’s a great day to celebrate my birthday,” said Hornish, who turned 27 on Sunday -- and got a cream pie in the face from Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves before the race at Kansas City, Kan. “We’re just so happy right now.”

Hornish blew past Dan Wheldon after a restart with 17 laps to go at Kansas Speedway, then won a back-and-forth battle down the stretch for his third victory of the season. He also extended his series record with the 17th win of his career.

“The last couple of laps were a little bit fun -- but a little bit nervous too,” said Hornish, this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner.

Castroneves fell out of the points lead despite recovering from an early crash to finish sixth. Hornish now leads him by 20 points in the standings.

Wheldon, the defending IRL champion, passed Hornish on the 197th lap of the 200-lap, 300-mile race. He was still narrowly ahead with two to go, but Hornish retook the lead in the white flag lap and held it until the end of the Kansas Lottery Indy 300.

Vitor Meira was third for the second straight year, his third straight top-three finish here.

He was followed in the top 10 by Scott Dixon, 2005 race winner Tony Kanaan, Castroneves, Tomas Scheckter, Kosuke Matsuura, and rookies Marco Andretti and Jeff Simmons.

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Spain’s Dani Pedrosa ran away with the British Grand Prix to add pressure on MotoGP championship leader Nicky Hayden.

American Hayden, Pedrosa’s Honda teammate, saw his lead slashed to 26 points from 42 after finishing a disappointing seventh at Donington Park.

Pedrosa took the checkered flag 3.864 seconds ahead of world champion Valentino Rossi, a brilliant performance by the Italian, who started from 12th place and raced despite the pain of a fractured hand.

Italian Marco Melandri finished third.