A pole and a win. This is the kind of weekend Roger Penske is used to having.

Helio Castroneves came into Saturday night’s race at Texas Motor Speedway tied for first place in the championship standings with Marco Andretti. After a phenomenal drive, he leaves Texas with his first win of the season, and a 22 point lead in the standings.

Speaking of Marco, it was his show for the first half of the race. Once he got shuffled back in with traffic though, he couldn’t get back up to the front. Ryan Hunter-Reay finished second, and Tony Kanaan grabbed the final spot on the podium. Ed Carpenter and Andretti rounded out the top five.

Castroneves ended the winless drought that has been plaguing Team Penske all season long. It was the fourth win at Texas for Helio; the first driver to record that many wins at the track. This is career victory number 28 for Castroneves, breaking a tie with Johnny Rutherford for 12th. Scott Dixon and Rick Mears are up next with 29 wins.

For the second year in a row, Scott Dixon was snake bitten at Texas, this time due to a mechanical failure. His engine let go early in the race, and literally blew up in the faces of his crew on pit road. Three of the crew members suffered burns on their hands and faces, but were expected to fully recover.

It was another sour performance for Graham Rahal. After starting 19th, he was never a factor, finishing in 21st position. His teammate James Jakes once again carried the torch for RLL, finishing 12th after running in the top 7 for most of the night.

We’ve now completed eight races in the 2013 IndyCar season, and have had seven different race winners. Up next is the Milwaukee IndyFest next Saturday, June 15th. The race will air at 4 PM ET on NBC Sports Network.