by CHRIS ESTRADA, Special to FOXSports.com

Updated: April 3, 2008, 1:09 AM EST 1 comment

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One week removed from perhaps the greatest finish in the history of the Indianapolis 500, the series had moved on from sweltering conditions at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to raw, wet conditions at Watkins Glen International, a twisting, turning road course in the Finger Lakes region of western New York State. The color of gray was as ubiquitous as the facility's blue ARMCO barriers.

A slippery track awaited all the teams on race day, including Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. The low-budget franchise hadn't gotten a sniff of the lead pack all season long, so they went for a ringer with plenty of road-course experience, a driver who formerly drove for one of the top teams in North America.

A driver that was on a mission.

Ryan Briscoe doesn't know if that day at the Glen helped make a difference in his IndyCar career. But he does know that the chances of him driving for Roger Penske would have been slimmer had that day not occurred the way it did for him.

In soggy conditions, the Australian pilot took a car that had no business being at the front of the field and put it there. Starting 10th on the grid, he worked his way through the field and the rain. By the closing stages of the race, the rain had finally stopped, but wet patches still loomed at all parts of the course. Still, Briscoe carried on and brought Dreyer and Reinbold a third-place finish.

For the struggling squad, it was practically a victory. And for the former Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver, it was vindication.

"You know, it was just a great experience," said Briscoe. "It was so exciting to get that result for Reinbold. They had been a struggling team, not getting results, and to come away from that with a [third] place, it was great to see their faces; and Dennis Reinbold himself was so happy and so was everyone there.

"It was a lot of fun, and for me, being my first race back in the Indy Racing League since my departure from Ganassi, couldn't have been better. ... I think certainly in terms of opening possibilities in the IRL, it did help a lot."

Briscoe now has his second chance in the IndyCar Series. After driving for Penske's American Le Mans Series team last season, he got the call to replace NASCAR-bound Sam Hornish Jr. behind the wheel of the No. 6 Team Penske Honda-powered Dallara for the 2008 campaign.

His first race for Team Penske last Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway was going according to plan — run solid, get a rhythm for oval racing back, play conservatively. But on Lap 128, he couldn't quite dodge the spinning car of Milka Duno and smashed into the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2.

"We were probably looking at finishing anywhere between, I reckon second and fourth or, keeping in touch, you never know what happens with a win," Briscoe said. "But I wasn't really expecting to win at Homestead, and at the worst — very worst — was going to look like fifth, which would have been great for starting off a championship."

But even though he's in a hole heading into this weekend's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, no one is disputing that Briscoe still has a golden opportunity to be the darkhorse in the championship.

Is Ryan Briscoe a darkhorse for the IndyCar championship? (Robert Laberge / Getty Images)

It's a far cry from where he was at the end of his rookie season in 2005. It was a hellish campaign for TCGR, a dizzying fall from grace after winning the IndyCar title in 2003 with Scott Dixon. Their Toyota engine had gone from first class to slow-class as the Honda-powered teams held superiority on the track.

Even the Chevrolet-powered brigade — all of two cars from Panther Racing — were fighting in the lead pack more often than Ganassi's gang. Team Penske, who was running Toyotas at the time, did manage to break that group, but they starved for wins as well.

That was the way of the IndyCar world heading into Chicagoland Speedway, a hyper-fast 1.5-mile oval in the farmland outside the Windy City. The race was only 20 laps old when Briscoe's No. 33 machine made contact with the No. 51 car of Alex Barron.

As the two cars headed toward the wall, Briscoe ran over the left-front tire of Barron's car and sent him and his G-Force car airborne. The impact of Briscoe's car with the catch fence in Turn 3 caused the No. 33 to explode in a ball of fire, its parts disintegrating into thousands of pieces.

As Barron spun along the wall, the driver's tub — amazingly still intact — skidded down the asphalt and onto the apron with Briscoe inside. Once the tub came to rest, Briscoe was extricated from it and put on a helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Although he had back pain and a possible concussion, he was still in one piece. His career wasn't so lucky. Weeks later, he got his walking papers from Ganassi. The IndyCar tenure of Ryan Briscoe had apparently ended in a horrific inferno.

Today, Briscoe is enjoying a career renaissance and a complete 180 from where he was immediately after his near-death experience at Chicagoland Speedway. Thanks to his time with Penske's ALMS squad, he's already cultivated a strong relationship with his crew mates and his engineers.

On top of that, he's got an indispensable ally in his teammate, two-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves. The Brazilian's offseason exploits on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars" may put Briscoe in the shadows, but the Aussie appears not to worry about that. He's too busy gushing at his good fortune to be around such top-notch talent.

"I was coming into a group of people where I'm already feeling pretty comfortable and our working relationship has been spot on," he said. "I'm really happy, and we're understanding each other really well, and it's just perfect.

Ryan Briscoe looks to make good on his 2nd chance. (Gavin Lawrence / Getty Images)

"And Helio, he's just been great. For a guy that's been at Penske for so long and had so much success, he's really made me feel so welcomed and a part of the team, and that's perfect for me being new."

Briscoe is also putting past lessons into action this season, lessons that were taught by his car's former driver. In his rookie IndyCar campaign, he watched how Hornish, an oval master, went about his business on the speedways.

His Ganassi experience didn't allow him to put his newfound knowledge to good use, but he now has the ability to do that with Team Penske, who won the 2006 IndyCar championship with Hornish at the wheel.

"Sam was an amazing driver in the Indy Racing League, and he was the guy that I used to watch every race when I would come out to the track and always trying to learn things," he said.

"I would watch him and how he raced, and so it's kind of a special feeling to be taking his seat at this point. And working with his engineer, his mechanic, I'm really just taking it all in right now and trying to learn as much as possible; trying to learn what setups he ran and what his strategy was and all of that. I'm just working really hard to be the right guy to fill his shoes."

Time will tell if he is truly the right guy — not just to replace Hornish, but to become one of the faces of the unified IndyCar Series.

But there's no doubt that Ryan Briscoe is determined to make the most of his second chance.

With race coverage, breaking news and a splash of opinion for good measure, Indy Racing Revolution on Most Valuable Network tells you what's up in the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights. Join the Revolution at www.mvn.com/irl.