Sharp

MOTEGI, Japan -- American Scott Sharp won the crash-filled Indy Japan 300 on Sunday, and moved into a tie for the lead in career victories in the IndyCar series.

Sharp finished under the yellow flag at Twin Ring Motegi for his eighth career IRL victory, matching Sam Hornish Jr. and Buddy Lazier for wins in the series.

"If you don't finish, you don't win and you don't get the points,'' Sharp said. "We had great pit stops and had our best tires on at the end, and I don't think anyone could have caught us after that last crash.''

Sweden's Kenny Brack finished second, and Brazil's Felipe Giaffone was third.

The Japan 300 was the first Indy Racing League event held outside of the United States.

Sharp moved into the lead after polesitter Scott Dixon and leader Tony Kanaan crashed on the 178th lap. Dixon attempted to pass Kanaan on the inside on the third turn, but the drivers' tires made contact and the two cars crashed into the wall.

Kanaan, who led for much of the race, was taken to a hospital for a broken left arm. Dixon, who led for 45 of the 200 laps, injured his right wrist in the crash.

Brack, a winner on the Motegi oval in a 2001 CART event, believed he could have caught Sharp, if not for the yellow flags following the Kanaan-Dixon crash and Shinji Nakano's crash on the 193rd lap.

"I definitely thought I could have caught him,'' Brack said. "If you look at the lap times, I had the fastest car. But we had to make a pit stop out of sequence on the 82nd lap and that's what really screwed us up.

"I think that some of the moves the guys made out there were not good.''

Sharp was pleased with his performance, despite the anticlimactic finish.

"There were a lot of good battles near the end,'' said Sharp.

Sharp leads the IndyCar series standings with 106 points. Kanaan is second with 102, and Giaffone is third with 92.

Sharp is the first IRL veteran to win this season. Kanaan won in Phoenix on March 23, and Dixon won the season-opening race at Homested-Miami.

South Africa's Tomas Scheckter overtook Kanaan on the 123rd lap, but hit the wall on the 168th lap.