Dario Franchitti drives away with victory in Iowa

Dario Franchitti was disappointed that Saturday’s qualifying for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 was canceled. He thought that a few late tweaks made to his No. 10 car had turned it into a “rocket ship.”

Franchitti settled instead for Sunday’s checkered flag -- his second victory in two tries at Iowa Speedway in Newton.

Franchitti took the lead with 50 laps to go and cruised to victory. Franchitti beat Ryan Briscoe by just over five seconds to grab his first victory since Long Beach in April and move into second place in the IRL standings.

It was the 10th IndyCar win of his career for the Scot, who took the lead three laps after making his final pit stop on the 7/8 -mile oval.

“In the last stop, the changes were fantastic and I was able to pull away -- I had a good gap on [Briscoe],” Franchitti said. “I was able to get through traffic really well.”

Briscoe finished second for the third straight race despite leading for 85 laps. Hideki Mutoh took a season-best third after notching a career best of second in Iowa in 2008.

Dan Wheldon was fourth, and pole-sitter Helio Castroneves took seventh.

Briscoe maintained his lead in the points race -- becoming the first driver this season to do so for more than one race.

Danica Patrick led for 24 laps but wound up ninth, her worst finish since taking 19th at St. Petersburg, Fla.

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Formula One

Sebastian Vettel won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, England, leading Red Bull to a 1-2 finish and claiming his second Formula One victory of the season.

The German beat teammate Mark Webber by 15.1 seconds to duplicate their finish at China in April.

Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello was third, but teammate and championship leader Jenson Button finished a season-low sixth in front of home fans.

Having won six races out of eight, Button still leads the championship by 23 points.