"When you get to the back of the pack, stuff like that happens," Hornish said. "Greg just ran right into him. I was just there with no place to go."
Wheldon and Kanaan dueled for the next 50 laps. A frustrated Castroneves was third when he made a huge pit stop blunder, missing his refuel area to slide 16 spots as Rice began his charge.
Brazil's Bruno Junqueira briefly grabbed the lead by delaying a pit stop, but his hope for well-timed rain ended when he was forced into the pits on lap 152 just as Rice roared past Kanaan on the front straightaway to take the lead, setting the stage for the final fuel and rain drama.
FORMULA 1
After returning to the victory stand in Europe, Michael Schumacher looks to North America to strengthen his grip on the Formula One world championship.
Schumacher won the European Grand Prix on Sunday for his sixth win in seven races this season.
From the pole, he recorded his 76th F1 victory, and was followed by Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello, almost 18 seconds behind. It was the fourth Ferrari one-two of the season.
Schumacher extended his lead in the drivers' standings with 60 points. Barrichello has 46, and Jenson Button 38.
The six-time world champion will go to North America for the Canadian GP on June 13 and the US GP a week later confident of putting the drivers' championship almost beyond reach of anyone else.
He has won the Canadian GP six times, including the last two, and is the reigning champion of the US GP.
He made his latest drive look easy in his native Germany, rebounding from last week's crash at Monaco which ended his record-tying five wins to open the season.
"Monaco was an exception," Schumacher said.
His car hasn't failed in a F1 race since the German GP in 2001, an unrivaled string of 45 races.
Button was third after his BAR-Honda teammate Takuma Sato blew an engine late in the race while running second.
The Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, the only two cars to beat the Ferraris since last August, were fourth and fifth over 60 laps on the 5.1km Nuerburgring.
Trulli won in Monaco last week and Alonso in Hungary last year.
Schumacher led easily into the first turn then pulled away with astonishing ease.
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