No worries, hardly anyone watched the controversial IndyCar finish

In one way, the IZOD IndyCar Series bosses got really lucky with one of the stupidest calls ever made in elite level racing when they black-flagged Helio Castroneves at the Honda Indy Edmonton.

To fill in those folks who were among the tens of millions of sports fans who didn’t watch the TSN/Versus telecast of Sunday’s event, Castroneves was leading the race on the final lap holding his line going in to Turn 1 of the Edmonton City Centre Airport temporary street course when Penske Racing teammate Will Power attempted a pass on the outside line that failed sending the No. 12 Verizon-sponsored Dallara way wide and allowing Scott Dixon to move into second place.

IndyCar sheriff Brian Barnhart waited for what seemed like an eternity, then black-flagged Castroneves for blocking Power. Castroneves crossed the start/finish line with Dixon — who had never led a lap the entire race — in second and Power third.

Barnhart’s call, however, put Dixon on the top step of the podium and Castroneves back to 10th place.

Other than the drivers who benefited from the enormous Barnhart gaffe — that would be Dixon, Power, Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy, who all moved up on the final leader board — no one could believe what had occurred.

But luckily the race was being shown on that vast wasteland of television sports — Versus — in the U.S. and any controversy went pretty much unnoticed. Toronto Sun