Dan Wheldon entered Richmond coming off of his win at Iowa Speedway. In his sights was closing the points gap on teammate and series leader Scott Dixon and second-place Helio Castroneves.

His fourth-place finish could have been mission accomplished on some nights. But not this one.

Wheldon finished behind winner Tony Kanaan (right behind Wheldon in points), Castroneves and Dixon.

"In my situation, I try to win every race we can to close the points gap," Wheldon said. "It wasn't where I had the car or the track position to do it. Being in the top three would have been nice, but, like I said, top five is what we need, so we'll move on."

About that top three.

Coming into Turn 3 of the race's final lap, Wheldon says his car shut down. While he was coasting to the finish line, Dixon got around him.

"I don't know what happened," he said. "The car shut off going down into Turn 3."

Thus, no points gained on those in front of him.

Said Wheldon: "Yeah, I mean I think it's a three-point difference (between third and fourth place). It's not dramatic. We'll move on."

Wheldon says he was waiting for the race to calm after the numerous early cautions.

"I think everybody knew this was going to be a crash-fest," he said. "So I was conscious of that fact. I tried to let the race settle in and I was going to go from there. Unfortunately, it was difficult behind other cars."

"I tried to be aggressive and at the same time you've got to bear in mind that you've got to finish the race."

Three of the next four races for the series are on street or road courses, starting with a date at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Dixon has won there each of the past two years.

Stay tuned: We may remember those three points after all.
Contact Shawn Fenner at (804) 649-6412 or sfenner@timesdispatch.com.