Sparta, KY (My Sportsbook) - Ryan Briscoe edged Ed Carpenter by inches to win Saturday's Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway.

Briscoe and Carpenter battled side-by-side for the lead during the final 10 laps before Briscoe beat him to the finish line by 0.0162 seconds, the seventh closest finish in IndyCar Series history. The Team Penske driver captured his second victory of the season and the fourth of his career.

"I'm pretty happy to get another one for Team Penske," Briscoe said. "I just wanted to keep doing what I had been doing. Ed would get a little bit in front of me in the middle of turns three and four, but with my momentum on the outside, I was able to edge him down the back straight."

Earlier this week, the series made aerodynamic changes to the cars to create more competitive racing. Brief bursts of additional horsepower made available to drivers through a button -- referred to as "push to pass" -- on their steering wheel, which played a huge factor in the late stages of the race.

"I would time my push to pass button so I would get the extra power through turns three and four," Briscoe said. "It was getting tougher and tougher, and I was just jumping in my seat trying to get in front of him across the finish line. It just worked out perfectly."

Briscoe won the season-opener in April at St. Petersburg but had finished second in five of the last seven races prior to Kentucky.

"Briscoe needed this one: he's been second, second and second, so it was a great day for us," team owner Roger Penske said.

Carpenter's second-place run marked his career-best finish in the series. He led only four laps in his IndyCar career prior to Kentucky but ran in front for 35 laps at the 1.5-mile track.

"It's been a tough year," Carpenter said. "I was hoping this was going to be a breakout race, try to get our team turned around for the rest of the season, and we did that."

Tony Kanaan rebounded nicely from his incident at Edmonton to finish third. Kanaan was slightly injured last Sunday when a fire in his cockpit ignited after he was doused by ethanol fuel while pitting. He did not suffer any burns on his hands and was cleared by Indy Racing League medical officials to drive earlier this week.

Helio Castroneves and Graham Rahal rounded out the top-five.

Dario Franchitti finished sixth, while his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon came in seventh. Dixon, the defending series champion, dominated the first half of the race, as he led 94 laps.

With the victory, Briscoe captured the lead in the championship standings. He took an eight-point lead over Dixon and an 11-point advantage over Franchitti.

Danica Patrick, Will Power and Marco Andretti completed the top-10.

The 300-mile race at Kentucky featured a season-high 20 lead changes and was the second-fastest race in series history with an average speed of 200.893 m.p.h.