Helio Castroneves finally broke through for a victory yesterday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., winning for the first time in 30 races.

More important, the Team Penske star, frustrated until now with seven runner-up finishes this season, kept alive his hopes for an IndyCar Series championship as points leader Scott Dixon had one of his worst days of the season, finishing 12th.

Dixon saw his lead shrink from a seemingly comfortable 78 points to 43 heading into a race at Detroit's Belle Isle next week, the penultimate race of the season.

Castroneves and teammate Ryan Briscoe started 1-2 and finished the same way, completing an amazing weekend after losing their primary cars in a transporter fire Wednesday and racing in the Grand Prix of Sonoma in hastily prepared backup cars.

Castroneves was almost delirious with joy as he crossed the finish line, screaming and hollering, "Bring it home, baby."

Nicknamed Spider Man for his fence-climbing victory celebrations, the Brazilian scrambled out of his No. 3 Dallara Honda at the finish line and looked for something to climb. The best he could do was a short fence behind the pits that put him into a crowd of fans, who helped Castroneves celebrate.

Castroneves then sprinted back to his team, joining them in a group hug.

"They kept telling me, 'Push, push, push.' And I was pushing to the limit," Castroneves said. "There was nothing left out there.

"That was fun, a lot of fun. Oh my God, this is awesome."

• European Grand Prix: Ferrari's Felipe Massa won in Valencia, Spain, for his fourth Formula One victory of the season, leading the race wire to wire to finish comfortably ahead of championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Massa easily held onto his lead after starting from the pole position and finished 5.6 seconds ahead of Hamilton's McLaren on the 3.4-mile street circuit. BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was third.