The victory was Hornish Jr.'s first of the season, first at Indianapolis and 15th of his IndyCar career. It is owner Roger Penske's 14th Indy 500 win.

"Its been a long month and not everything went our way as we saw today, but we stuck together as a team, we had a good plan and we were fast when we needed it," said Hornish Jr.

The 90th running of the Indianapolis 500 began under bright sunny skies and hot, 92-degree temperatures.

Pole winner Hornish Jr. brought the 33-car field to the green flag to begin 200 scheduled laps for the right to hold up the Borg-Warner Trophy.

But Hornish Jr. didn't lead for very long. Teammate Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon both passed the pole winner in the first two laps.

The first caution of the afternoon involved P.J. Chesson and Jeff Bucknum and knocked both drivers out of the race on lap two.

When the race went back to green Wheldon slid underneath Castroneves for the lead. The defending champion took control of the early portion of the race edging out to more than a one-second lead over Hornish Jr.

Castroneves began to slide back through the field, though he radioed in that "nothing was wrong."

As the drivers approached their first stops, Wheldon's lead was more than eight seconds. It was still growing and after the first 50 laps, his margin was 13.6393 seconds over Hornish Jr.

Going in the other direction was Castroneves who found himself in 11th place, almost 30 seconds behind the leaders.

On lap 67, Tomas Scheckter lost control of his race car to bring out a caution flag and eliminate Wheldon's big lead.

The race restarted on lap 76 and Wheldon was off like a shot. In two laps his lead over teammate Scott Dixon was over 1.3 seconds.

The temperature continued to rise reaching a record 96 degrees. The hot weather would mean that the track would be more slick than usual and teams would have to adjust accordingly.

Wheldon's lead began to shrink as Dixon, Hornish Jr. and Kanaan all drew closer to the leader.

While the leaders seemed content to stay in line, Danica Patrick began to move towards the front. On lap 82 he passed Andretti and one lap later she went by Michael Andretti for sixth place. She was just half-a-second behind Dario Franchitti for fifth place.

At the midpoint, Wheldon held a 0.6960-second margin over his Target Chip Ganassi teammate Dixon.

On lap 110, one of the pre-race favorites two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, was involved in a crash with 2004 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice. It appeared that Castroneves made a move underneath Rice to pass him and the Rahal-Letterman driver never saw the move and cut down on Castroneves.

Both drivers were sent sliding into the outside wall. Neither driver suffered any serious injury but their day of racing was over.

As the drivers went back to green, Dixon showed that his Ganassi Racing Honda was pretty fast too. He passed Wheldon for the lead on lap 125. Hornish Jr. also made the move past Wheldon for second place.

Was there something wrong with Wheldon's race car?

Wheldon quickly answered the question by coming back on Hornish Jr. to retake second place behind his teammate. Wheldon continued his charge and flew past Dixon for the lead on lap 128. Hornish Jr. saw the move and followed Wheldon past Dixon.

Hornish Jr. wasn't done either.

On lap 130 he got momentum and slid underneath Wheldon for the lead.

Dixon fell all the way to fourth place as Kanaan joined the fight. All four leaders were within 1.41 seconds of each other.

Green flag pit stops began on lap 146 and one of the early stops was made by Patrick. It was costly because Al Unser Jr. was about to bring out the caution flag for a crash. The incident left Patrick one lap behind the leaders.

On Hornish Jr.'s pit stop, he pulled away from the fuel man before the fuel nozzle was fully removed breaking the fuel line. The lengthy stop left him in seventh place. Worse, IndyCar officials penalized him with a "drive-thru" penalty for leaving his pit box.

The penalty would take away almost any chance for Hornish Jr. and owner Roger Penske to win the race. He had just one hope, to refuel just before the race restarted and go to the checkered flag without stopping again.

Wheldon resumed his race leadership as the field went back to green on lap 162. with teammate Dixon just behind.

Behind the two Target drivers were two Andretti Green Racing teammates - Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti.

With 30 laps remaining, Weldon, Dixon and Kanaan were nose-to-tail.

Also still in the mix were Marco Andretti, who jumped past Franchitti for fourth, Patrick in sixth and amazingly Michael Andretti in seventh. The elder Andretti had also made a late stop for fuel and might be trying to steal the race by not pitting again.

On lap 174 Dixon was penalized for blocking Kanaan after being warned earlier in the day. That would knock Dixon out of the chance for victory and moved Kanaan up to second place.

At the 180-lap mark, Wheldon led Kanaan by 0.4124 seconds and Marco Andretti by 4.6166 seconds.

Penske radioed to Hornish Jr. at the same time that after making the calculations, he definitely could make it to the finish line without stopping.

On lap 182 Kanaan sailed past Wheldon for the lead as they both passed a backmarker. Wheldon then turned down pit lane on lap 184 for his final stop.

Could Kanaan post a couple of fast laps and keep the lead after his pit stop.

Just then a Felipe Giaffone accident on lap 186 brought out a caution flag, a huge break for Kanaan.

Kanaan and Franchitti both stopped and Franchitti beat his teammate out.

When everything got sorted out, Michael Andretti was the race leader with Dixon, Hornish Jr. and Wheldon just behind.

The green flag dropped with four laps to go. Michael Andretti led into the first corner, but his son Marco swooped past him on the outside for the lead.

Could the rookie win in his first try? Could he defeat the "Andretti" curse?

Hornish Jr. also got past Michael Andretti and on lap 198 took a shot in turn three for the lead. But Marco got to the corner first and Hornish Jr. fell back about six lengths.

"I thought that it was over when I didn't get by him in (turn) three," said Hornish Jr.

The two-time IndyCar Series champion gathered up his Penske Honda and made one last effort. He closed onto Marco Andretti bumper as they entered the final two turns. Marco was still ahead as they came out of turn four and could see the finish line and the last "yard of bricks."

Hornish Jr. made one last move on the inside and got alongside Marco Andretti as they neared the checkered flag. Hornish Jr. edged Marco to the finish line and earned his first Indy 500 victory.

"I thought I had it," said a disappointed, but proud Marco Andretti. "I don't know where that speed came from, I guess they were saving it."

"He (Marco) had a heck of a ride and no matter what happened he should be proud of that," said Hornish Jr. of the 19-year-old Marco Andretti.

Michael Andretti, Wheldon and Kanaan completed the top-five. Patrick finished eighth.

Copyright 2006. Courtesy of SportsNetwork.