Ganassi's Scott Dixon beats Penske pack for Phoenix IndyCar win

Polesitter Helio Castroneves maintained the lead from the start, with team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya able to pass Tony Kanaan in the opening laps to underline the Penske Dallara-Chevrolet pair's speed.

But Castroneves was forced into an early first pitstop after a right front tyre failure that put him out of race-winning contention.

That left Montoya leading Kanaan by 0.9 seconds before the first race to the pits, which was prompted by a Turn 2 spin on lap 50 of the 250 for oval debutant Luca Filippi.

Montoya maintained the lead coming out of the pits, but a similar front right tyre failure around 40 laps into the stint meant he was forced to pit and handed the lead to Dixon.

From there the four-time IndyCar champion was able to control the race from the front, aided by a host of cautions through the middle of the race.

First Carlos Munoz underlined his torrid weekend with another slam into the wall, following on from his qualifying shunt, before a touch between Charlie Kimball and Josef Newgarden prompted another full-course caution.

A handful of laps later Sebastien Bourdais touched the wall attempting a pass on Montoya, followed by Ed Carpenter crashing in Turn 3 and retiring.

The race finished under yellow flags to confirm Dixon's 39th IndyCar win after a late touch into the wall by Ryan Hunter-Reay, who managed to hold 10th.

Simon Pagenaud and Will Power completed the podium for Team Penske, as the latter returned after being forced to sit out St Petersburg.

The Chevys dominated the season's first oval race with Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal the only Honda runners able to challenge for the top five.

Andretti driver Hunter-Reay was able to gain several places on each of the restarts while Rahal's clean race allowed him to finish fifth despite a lowly 19th qualifying spot.

Max Chilton finished highest of the rookies in seventh, while Montoya and Castroneves ended the race ninth and 11th respectively.

RESULTS - 250 LAPS

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	1h49m38.3855s
2	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Dallara/Chevrolet	0.6825s
3	Will Power	Team Penske	Dallara/Chevrolet	1.7264s
4	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	1.9589s
5	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Dallara/Honda	2.5272s
6	Josef Newgarden	Ed Carpenter Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	2.7457s
7	Max Chilton	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	2.9914s
8	Sebastien Bourdais	KVSH Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	3.9491s
9	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Dallara/Chevrolet	4.4548s
10	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Dallara/Honda	5.2143s
11	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara/Chevrolet	8.0324s
12	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	9.3366s
13	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Dallara/Honda	10.0918s
14	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Herta	Dallara/Honda	13.0555s
15	Takuma Sato	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara/Honda	1 Lap
16	Conor Daly	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara/Honda	1 Lap
17	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara/Honda	2 Laps
18	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara/Honda	2 Laps
19	Jack Hawksworth	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara/Honda	4 Laps
20	Luca Filippi	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara/Honda	7 Laps
21	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	Contact
22	Carlos Munoz	Andretti Autosport	Dallara/Honda	Contact

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Simon Pagenaud	83
2	Scott Dixon	79
3	Juan Pablo Montoya	74
4	Ryan Hunter-Reay	56
5	Tony Kanaan	54
6	Helio Castroneves	53
7	Graham Rahal	44
8	Mikhail Aleshin	43
9	Takuma Sato	43
10	Max Chilton	39
11	Charlie Kimball	38
12	Will Power	36
13	Josef Newgarden	36
14	Alexander Rossi	34
15	Sebastien Bourdais	33
16	Carlos Munoz	32
17	Marco Andretti	32
18	Conor Daly	32
19	Jack Hawksworth	30
20	James Hinchcliffe	23
21	Luca Filippi	20
22	Spencer Pigot	16
23	Oriol Servia	12
24	Ed Carpenter	9