Ryan Briscoe never doubted The Captain's call.

That's team Penske boss Roger Penske, who came up with a surprising strategy Sunday that Briscoe turned into his second IndyCar Series victory.

"Roger, with his experience, he always finds a way to pit at the right time and get you back up to the front," said Briscoe, who drove sports cars for Penske last year before moving to the IndyCar team this season. "Today was a perfect case of that. Once we got back up there, we had the pace to run fast and pull away. It was just perfect."

Penske, the winningest team owner in open-wheel history, made the call to put Briscoe out of sequence with the other contenders. In the end, the team wound up with a 1-2 sweep in the Honda Indy 200 at Lexington, Ohio, as Helio Castroneves followed Briscoe across the finish line.

"Team Penske was just awesome," Briscoe said. "We ran into a bit of trouble early on and there was a chance we stayed on a bit too long there. That was all Roger; that was his strategy."

The race began about one hour after a downpour soaked the 2.25-mile, 13-turn road circuit at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, leaving puddles in places. IndyCar officials ruled it a wet start, and all the cars had to begin the race on grooved rain tires.

But, with the sun shining and the track drying fast as the 26-car field took the green flag, cars quickly began heading for pit road to change to racing slicks. The Penske team waited to bring Briscoe onto pit lane until Lap 6, dropping him all the way to 16th.

With little to lose, Penske brought Briscoe back into the pits again on Lap 23, ahead of most of the other contenders, putting him completely out of sequence and, eventually working to his advantage.

Hamilton wins German GP, solidifies F1 lead: Lewis Hamilton won the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Germany, solidifying his lead in the Formula One standings with two dramatic passes that made up for a strategic blunder by his McLaren team.

Hamilton overtook Ferrari's Felipe Massa and then runner-up Nelson Piquet Jr. of Renault at the same hairpin after a crash involving Timo Glock had brought out a safety car that nearly cost the McLaren driver his fourth victory of the season.

Most teams chose to pit when the safety car was out, but McLaren left its star driver out only to see him fall to fifth place when he pitted with 17 laps to race.

But Hamilton, who now leads Massa by four points in the overall standings, worked his way through the field before nudging past the Ferrari driver from the inside at turn No. 6 and then holding off Massa's outside challenge soon after.

Italy's Rossi wins U.S. Grand Prix: Valentino Rossi won the United States Grand Prix at Monterey, giving the Italian rider his first victory at Laguna Seca.

Rossi's 66th career victory stopped defending world champion Casey Stoner's winning streak at three races. Rossi finished the 32-lap race in 44 minutes, 4.311 seconds with a top speed of 97.72 mph to set an event record.

Bartone earns first Funny Car crown: Tony Bartone captured his first career win in his 119th career Funny Car start, winning a final-round thriller over Ron Caps at the Schuck's Auto Supply NHRA Nationals in Kent, Wash.

Tony Schumacher won the Top Fuel final over Brandon Bernstein and Jason Line beat Allen Johnson in the Pro Stock final.