Dixon wins again in Texas

The victory was Dixon's third of the season and sixth podium finish in seven races this season, increasing his IndyCar Series lead over runner-up Helio Castroneves to 35 points.

Dixon trailed Andretti on a restart with nine laps remaining in the 228-lap race but passed him for the lead with six laps left.

A lap later, as Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay battled for second, their cars crashed hard and hit the wall. Hunter-Reay was OK, but Andretti sustained minor injuries to his right foot. X-rays were negative, but Andretti was limping noticeably after the race.

Following Dixon and Castroneves to the finish line was Ryan Briscoe, who lost a lap earlier in the race when he missed his pit box and was penalized, and Dixon's teammate, Dan Wheldon, who finished fourth despite an ankle injury to his right foot sustained Friday during practice.

The win was anticlimactic proof that Dixon and his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team are the class of the series so far this year. He has led 633 of 1,327 laps in the first seven races, and, with Wheldon's win at Kansas, Ganassi's team has won four of the first seven races of 2008.

"We're riding a wave at the moment," Dixon said. "We're just trying to keep it going. From the middle part of last year until now, we've won a serious amount of races.

"Over the winter, these guys spent a lot of time making these cars super fast. You've got to put this down to the many people back at the shop who have worked on these cars non-stop."

But the guy behind the wheel deserves a fair share of the credit, too. Dixon was flawless again Saturday, keeping the No. 9 Ganassi Honda/Dallara in or near the lead for most of the race, leading 58 laps and making the move when he needed it most.

"At the end, he left it wide open," Dixon said of Andretti's move up the track that gave Dixon space to move underneath. "I don't know what he was doing. Marco's car was good on the high line, so maybe he couldn't sit on the bottom. If it was me, I wouldn't have given up that much room.

Tony Kanaan finished fifth, Hideki Mutoh was sixth, and Vitor Meira, who led a stint until he was forced to pit with 21 laps remaining, finished seventh. Buddy Rice, Ed Carpenter and Danica Patrick rounded out the top 10.

The key moment of the race forced a second consecutive race to end under caution and left one driver hobbling and another fuming. After Dixon passed Andretti for the lead, Ryan Hunter-Reay began to pressure Andretti for position.

As Hunter-Reay moved inside Andretti in the entry to Turn 3 with five laps remaining, Hunter-Reay was forced down onto the apron and lost control, sending both cars into the wall.

"He came down on me," Hunter-Reay said. "I went low to try to avoid him and got down on the white line. That upset both cars and took us out. ... This was going to be our breakout night and we didn't get it.

"I can't tell you how disappointed I am. We did what we had to do out there tonight, and it was going to be our night. Unbelievable."

Andretti was seen favouring his right foot as he walked. It was the second time in six days that an IndyCar race ended under caution because of a crash involving Andretti.

At Milwaukee on Sunday, Andretti apologized after his car slid into Ed Carpenter's and caused a three-car crash that led to Briscoe winning under caution. This time, Andretti wasn't apologizing.

"There are some guys you can run close with and some guys you can't," Andretti said. "He clearly hit the white line, and that is that. We ran well today, but to me, that doesn't matter. We need to bring home results. It's very disappointing."

The crash was a break for Castroneves, who moved up two positions and saved some ground in his championship battle with Dixon and rescuing himself from an early pit speed penalty.

"We had a great car, a winning car," Castroneves said. "I'm upset because I feel like we had a great chance, but that's just the moment right now. Second place is a great finish. It's great points, and that's what we need to focus on."

Briscoe also kept pace in the championship, holding fifth place with a podium finish that, a few laps before, wouldn't have been expected. Briscoe missed his pit box on his first stop, pulling into Dan Wheldon's stall instead.

The ensuing drive-through penalty under green dropped the No. 6 Team Penske Honda/Dallara a lap behind the leaders, but Briscoe and his team battled back with the help of a wave-around.

"It was tough, let me tell you, but it was also fun coming through the field," Briscoe said. "It's always a little frustrating to get yourself into those situations. We really shouldn't have had to been in that situation to have to go to the back and then work your way back up.

"We might have had a car that could have won. It definitely wasn't a picture-perfect race."

Meira also was strong through the prime-time laps of the race, holding the No. 4 Panther Racing Honda/Dallara steadily in the lead from the 169th lap to the 207th after he stayed on track while the leaders pitted. Eventually, he was forced to surrender the lead with 21 laps remaining, only to watch the caution flag fly six laps later.

"Everybody saw how good we were once we got to the front," Meira said. "I was pulling away. This is another good race for us and another step forward. The confidence level at Panther is really, really high right now."

The race tied the Texas record for cautions in an IndyCar race - eight for 52 laps. The yellow-flag ending also renewed the debate about the series going to green-white checkered restarts to prevent races from ending under caution.

"I saw some of the fans walking out before the checkered fell," said Ganassi, an advocate of a green-white-checkered rule. "It's just disappointing. They come to see a show and they deserve to see a good finish.

"They deserve to see an exciting finish. I understand the differences between IndyCars and NASCAR and why some people think you can't do it here, but I think we need to sit down and figure out a way to do it so it's fair for everybody."

The series takes a week off before resuming June 22 at Iowa Speedway, kicking off a stretch of six races over six consecutive weekends.

Pos  Driver              Team                 Laps
 1.  Scott Dixon         Chip Ganassi          228
 2.  Helio Castroneves   Penske                228
 3.  Ryan Briscoe        Penske                228
 4.  Dan Wheldon         Chip Ganassi          228
 5.  Tony Kanaan         Andretti Green        228
 6.  Hideki Mutoh        Andretti Green        228
 7.  Vitor Meira         Panther               227
 8.  Buddy Rice          Dreyer & Reinbold     227
 9.  Ed Carpenter        Vision                227
10.  Danica Patrick      Andretti Green        227
11.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan   227
12.  AJ Foyt IV          Vision                226
13.  Will Power          KV                    226
14.  EJ Viso             HVM                   226
15.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne            226
16.  John Andretti       Roth                  226
17.  Milka Duno          Dreyer & Reinbold     226
18.  Mario Moraes        Dale Coyne            223
19.  Marco Andretti      Andretti Green        222
20.  Ryan Hunter-Reay    Rahal Letterman       222
21.  Mario Dominguez     PCM                   222
22.  Marty Roth          Roth                  221
23.  Enrique Bernoldi    Conquest              210
24.  Jaime Camara        Conquest              210
25.  Tomas Scheckter     Luczo Dragon           56
26.  Oriol Servia        KV                     47
27.  Justin Wilson       Newman/Haas/Lanigan    39
28.  Darren Manning      Foyt                   19