Dario Franchitti was disappointed that qualifying Saturday for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 in Newton was canceled. He felt that a few late tweaks made to his No. 10 car had turned it into a "rocket ship."

Franchitti settled instead for a checkered flag yesterday -- his second victory in two tries at the Iowa Speedway.

Franchitti, of Scotland, took the lead with 50 laps to go and cruised to victory in the Iowa Corn Indy 250. Franchitti beat Ryan Briscoe by just over five seconds to grab his first victory since the Streets of Long Beach in April and move into second place in the IRL standings.

It was the 10th career IndyCar win for Franchitti, who took the lead three laps after making his final pit stop on the 7/8-mile oval.

"In the last stop, the changes were fantastic and I was able to pull away -- I had a good gap on [Briscoe]," Franchitti said. "I was able to get through traffic really well."

Briscoe finished second for the third consecutive race despite leading for 85 laps. Hideki Mutoh took a season-best third after notching a career best of second in Iowa in 2008.

Dan Wheldon was fourth, while pole-sitter Helio Castroneves took seventh.

Briscoe maintained his lead in the points race -- becoming the first driver this season to do so for more than one race. He's three points ahead of Franchitti and 15 up on Scott Dixon, who finished fifth.

"I don't think we're doing anything wrong. We're doing an extraordinary job as a whole team," said Briscoe, who has led the most laps at each of his past three races. "It's just going to be like this the rest of the season. It's going to be very close."

The start of the race was marred by a number of accidents and cautions. By the halfway point, seven cars had been knocked out -- including Tony Kanaan, who had led for 48 laps.

Worse yet, Kanaan has crashed in the same corner three consecutive years at Iowa.

Danica Patrick took her first lead of the season 38 laps in after Justin Wilson's spinout brought out a yellow flag. Raphael Matos then spun out and Mario Moraes lost control trying to avoid him, drawing the fourth caution of the day just 55 laps in.

Patrick led for 24 laps but wound up ninth, her worst finish since taking 19th at the Streets of St. Petersburg.

n British Grand Prix: German Sebastian Vettel won in Silverstone, England, leading Red Bull to a 1-2 finish and claiming his second F1 victory of the season. Vettel beat teammate Mark Webber by 15.1 seconds to duplicate their finish at China in April. Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello was third, but teammate and championship leader Jenson Button finished a season-low sixth in front of home fans. Having won six races out of eight, Button still leads the championship by 23 points.