Fort Worth, Texas ? Tony Kanaan regained the lead with 12 laps left and held off teammate Dario Franchitti to win the IndyCar Series race Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

While the race missed the 220-mph speeds and much of the three-wide racing that had become characteristic at the 11/2-mile, high-banked track, Kanaan won with a last dash to the finish.

Just one lap after a restart from the caution that knocked Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice out of the race, Kanaan overtook another Andretti Green Racing teammate, Dan Wheldon.

Wheldon and Penske driver Helio Castroneves had been 1-2 on the restart, but both were trying to make it the last 72 laps without a stop. They didn’t have enough fuel to keep up the pace, or finish the race.

Kanaan went flying by Wheldon, and was joined by polesitter Franchitti soon after the green flag as Castroneves quickly dropped four spots. They stayed 1-2 the rest of the race, the margin of victory being a quarter of a second.

It was the second win of the season for Kanaan and third in the IRL. He took over the series points lead (210-175) over Wheldon, who had led by just a point going into the race.

Kanaan led 145 of 150 laps and finished with an average speed of 153.965 mph.

Alex Barron finished third after starting at the back of the 22-car field because of a mechanical problem that kept him from posting a qualifying speed. Sam Hornish Jr., Castroneves’ new teammate, was fourth and Adrian Fernandez fifth.

Rice had just led the previous lap when his front left wheel made contact with Darren Manning’s wheel on the 179th lap. Hornish had to go high to avoid the mess.

“I didn’t know anybody was down there,” Rice said. “I started to fall back in line, started to turn in and got a big hit from the side. I had no idea he was there.”

Though he managed to keep the car off the wall and get into the pits, Rice had a broken drive shaft and was done. After top-10 finishes in his first four races for Rahal-Letterman Racing, Rice dropped to 15th.

Rice’s misfortune set up a possible shootout at the track where four of the IRL’s eight closest races have been held. But it wasn’t as tight — or fast — Saturday with the smaller engines and aerodynamic changes that have been made.

The fastest lap was Vitor Meira’s 211.483 mph on the third lap of the race, after four straight Texas races with laps of at least 220 mph. It was the largest margin of victory for a green-flag finish since June 2000 — a span of nine races.

Franchitti had the pole at 209.609, 13 mph slower than Gil de Ferran in the series finale in October.