Indianapolis, IN (Sports Network) - Dario Franchitti stretched his fuel long enough to capture his second Indianapolis 500 victory on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Franchitti, the defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion and 2007 Indy 500 winner, dominated the race by leading 155 of 200 laps. The Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver last pitted on lap 164. During that stop, several drivers, including pole sitter Helio Castroneves, remained on the track.

Castroneves gave up the lead to Franchitti with nine laps remaining when Castroneves was forced to pit for fuel. Franchitti went into fuel conservation mode from there until the final lap when Mike Conway was involved in a horrifying crash between turns three and four. Conway clipped Ryan Hunter-Reay and then sailed spectacularly into the catchfence before he landed back down on the track.

Conway was awake and alert after the incident, but had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital in Indianapolis for further observation. He sustained an injury to his right leg.

Franchitti not only gave Chip Ganassi his fourth Indy 500 victory as a team owner, but also made Ganassi the only owner to win the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500 in the same year.

"[Ganassi] is hogging all the trophies here," Franchitti said. "Up until the last 10 laps to go, I was pretty relaxed and then all hell broke loose with fuel saving and stuff. This No.10 Target car was the dominant car today."

Jamie McMurray, in his first year driving for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, won the Daytona 500 in February.

"It was a little dicey there at the end, and we tried to save some fuel there at the end to get to the finish, so I've got a great crew of guys and sponsors, and I'm a lucky guy," Ganassi said.

Franchitti left open-wheel racing after winning his first IndyCar championship in 2007 and headed to NASCAR to compete for Ganassi in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, but Franchitti's stock car racing efforts did not go as well as he had planned. He returned to IndyCar with Ganassi for the 2009 season.

"To come back after going away for a year, and to win a championship and then the Indy 500, I want to thank everybody at Team Target, and I'm speechless right now."

Dan Wheldon also saved enough fuel at the end to finish second. It's the second-straight year the Panther Racing driver has been the runner-up in the Indy 500. He won it in 2005, the same year as his first IndyCar championship.

Alex Lloyd from Dale Coyne Racing finished an impressive third, while Franchitti's teammate, Scott Dixon, took the fourth spot. Danica Patrick gave Andretti Autosport its best finish in the Indy 500 with a fifth-place run.

"I knew that the strength of the team was going to be raised during the running of the race," said Patrick, who started 23rd. "Between the pit stops and the strategy, this is why I was in the top-five."

All five of Michael Waltrip's teams struggled in last weekend's qualifying for the Indy 500. Tony Kanaan started from the rear of the 33-car field, but ran second behind Franchitti before he had to pit for fuel with four laps remaining. He ended up finishing 11th.

Marco Andretti finished sixth, while Justin Wilson took the seventh spot. Penske teammates Will Power and Castroneves finished a disappointing eighth and ninth, respectively. Alex Tagliani completed the top-10.

Power ran up front early but encountered a pit road mishap on his first stop. He left his stall with part of the fuel hose attached to his car. Power had to serve a pass-through penalty and never became a factor from there.

During a round of green-flag pit stops, Castroneves stalled his car as he was attempting to leave his stall. It took several seconds for his car to re-fire, as Castroneves saw his chances of winning a record-tying fourth Indy 500 begin to dwindle.

"The team and driver that makes the less mistakes wins," Castroneves said. "I let it stall right at lap 150, and those pit mistakes were crucial, which put us in the back."

Ryan Briscoe had been running among the top-10 throughout the race, but after Briscoe made his pit stop, he got loose coming out of turn four and slammed into the frontstretch wall.

"Just coming out of the pits that time, I was coming out of turn four, and I didn't realize how hot it was, and I'm feeling it right now, but I think we just lost a little bit of grip," said Briscoe, who finished 24th.

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