JOLIET, Ill. -- Adrian Fernandez needed a caution. He was trying to run the final 63 laps in the Delphi Indy 300 yesterday at Chicagoland Speedway without making a pit stop.

After all, when he stopped as the leader on lap 89 of the 200-mile race, the air jack on his Honda-powered G Force failed and he dropped to 19th in the 22-car field.

"I knew we had the car to win the race," said Fernandez, who bailed on the rival Champ Car Series to drive in the Indy Racing League's IndyCar Series. "But with the pit stop, there was no way."

So when the leaders made stops with 58 laps to go, Fernandez opted to stay on the track, having pitted himself only six laps earlier. He moved to second behind Bryan Herta. With a clear horsepower advantage, Fernandez charged around the outside of Herta, exchanged the lead with him with 18 to go and took the lead again with 17 laps left, still hoping for a caution to help him extend his fuel mileage to reach the checkered flag.

Then Fernandez got his caution, and it was scary. Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice touched wheels with Chip Ganassi Racing's Darren Manning as they exited Turn 2 on lap 185. The contact between the left rear tire of Rice's car and the front right tire of Manning's car shoved Rice sideways and sent him airborne upside down over Manning. Rice slid down the backstretch on the roll hoop, trapped inside. Not until safety crews flipped over his car did Rice emerge unharmed.

"It is hard to say what happened in the crash," Rice said. "I'm sure Darren didn't try to crash me. It's just close racing all the time. It's wheel-to-wheel and things can happen.

"Actually, the crash wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The car moved up in the air and I just grabbed my seat belts and held on. The smack wasn't too bad at first and I was just waiting for the big one."

After it was clear Rice was not hurt, Ganassi, of Fox Chapel, was able to smile in disbelief about it even though one of his Toyota-powered cars that was contending for the victory was taken out.

"That'll make the video tonight on SportsCenter," he said. "All you think about is the safety issues. I'm just glad that someone thinks about safety enough around here that Buddy can get up and walk away."

The wreck set the stage for a seven-lap shootout at a track where the IRL has staged its closest races. The wheel-to-wheel battles throughout the event yesterday resulted in six cautions for 58 laps. But on the final restart, Fernandez held off the powerful Hondas of Andretti Green Racing, leaving Herta second followed by teammates Tony Kanaan, the points leader, and Dan Wheldon.

Scott Dixon, who won the championship last year for Ganassi, finished seventh.

As Fernandez celebrated his 0.0716-second victory, his second of the season, drivers were focused on the race within the race. Kanaan, a career journeyman who has finally found a home with the Michael Andretti-owned team, is on pace with only two events remaining to win his first open-wheel championship.

Kanaan, a Brazilian, extended his lead in the overall standings to 75 points over Wheldon, of England, and 95 points over Phoenix-native Rice.

"I was doing everything I could to push Bryan to the front," Kanaan said. "I think he deserved to win. He's a big part of my success. He's been helping us so much with the setup. Unfortunately I couldn't make him win, or he couldn't make himself win, either, because I think Adrian had a better car.

"The run for the championship, I'll think about it at Fontana [California, site of the next race]. It's still a long ways to go."

Kanaan believes that with events at California and Texas, tracks that produce similar 215-mph speeds and contact as the race at Chicagoland, winning the championship is not yet certain, especially in a battle with Team Rahal's Rice, who Kanaan believed was at fault for the crash with Manning.

"We touched wheels on the straightaway before, he hit me on the straightaway," said Kanaan, who was just to the outside of Rice when he flipped over Manning. "I don't think it's the right way to drive like that. He has a lot more to lose than I did. He made himself a favor, took himself out of the championship, and then it's just between me and Dan now. So I think he should be mad at himself. That's not the way he should be driving for a championship, I believe.

"I think he's a great race car driver, but today he was a little crazy out there."

From Manning's seat under the flipping car of Rice, he wasn't sure what had happened.

"I got a good run up inside of Buddy and he checked down on me a little bit," said Manning, who just extended his deal to continue driving for Ganassi. "I don't know if he knew I was there or not. We were just kind of moving around a little bit and we just touched. It's such close racing out there it's difficult to place blame on anybody, really. It's a shame. That's what happens at 215 mph when wheels touch. I'm just glad to see we're both all right."

At the checkered flag, though, Fernandez was best of all, and ended up $110,300 richer and with his car intact.