Dixon wins as Ganassi dominates

With Penske's Ryan Briscoe - the erstwhile championship leader - and Helio Castroneves both crashing out, the result thrust Franchitti and Dixon into a clear first and second in the standings, one point apart.

It also allowed Dixon to equal Sam Hornish Jr's record of 19 wins in Indy Racing League sanctioned races.

Graham Rahal took his best ever oval finish - and his first podium since last year's St Petersburg win - in third for Newman/Haas/Lanigan, while Andretti Green's Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick had to settle for fourth and fifth after the timing of cautions denied them a shot at victory.

The Ganassi duo dominated from the outset, after a brief yellow for Jaques Lazier's first lap crash.

Only Briscoe was able to stay close to Franchitti and Dixon - and the Penske driver lasted just 27 laps before spinning into the Turn 2 wall, ending his run of second places.

Everyone pitted during the yellow for Briscoe's crash except Mutoh and Patrick, who duly moved to first and second.

Patrick attacked her team-mate at the restart but without success, and was passed by Franchitti. Mutoh was able to resist the former champion though, and led until finally making his first pitstop on lap 105.

AGR had been hoping to get its drivers in under yellow, but with no caution forthcoming had to pit Mutoh and Patrick under green, putting them two laps down.

But they maintained a very strong pace on fresh tyres and were able to rejoin the front group when the leaders stopped 30 laps later, emerging in fourth and fifth.

It was at these stops that Dixon got ahead of Franchitti. Both Ganassi drivers were yet to pit when Mike Conway understeered into the wall at Turn 4 and caused another yellow. As permitted under the rules, Franchitti dived straight in for a fuel top-up to ensure he would not run dry before the pits were fully open.

But Dixon did not have to make this additional stop and therefore led from Franchitti at the restart, with Rahal - a top six contender all night - moving up to third having also managed to stay out until the yellow.

This trio and Mutoh then pulled away from Patrick and the rest of the field, with the Conway yellow long enough to ensure that everyone now just needed one more pitstop to make the finish.

The out of sequence AGR pair again reeled off a string of very quick laps following their last stops and looked like they would pose a strong threat for victory.

But once again the cautions fell perfectly for Ganassi, as Castroneves slid into the wall in traffic while on course for sixth, just as Dixon, Franchitti and Rahal were preparing to become the last people to make their third stops.

That allowed them to retain the top three positions, with Dixon remaining in front of Franchitti in the pits and then getting a clear jump on his team-mate at the final restart. He escaped a few scares in traffic to stay ahead over the closing laps and claim his third win of 2009.

Stuck among the lapped cars when racing resumed, Mutoh and Patrick could not do anything about Rahal and had to battle each other for fourth over the final stint.

Their AGR team-mates Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti were next up, Kanaan unfortunate to drop a lap down during the second pit sequence having earlier made rapid progress from his unhappy 17th place on the grid.

Raphael Matos (Luczo Dragon) lost ground at the final stops and finished eighth, ahead of rookie rival Robert Doornbos, who came throughly strongly from a midfield start in Newman/Haas/Lanigan's second car.

Dan Wheldon completed the top ten for Panther, while Tomas Scheckter (Dreyer & Reinbold) and EJ Viso (HVM) fell back to 11th and 12th after their strong qualifying efforts.

Pos  Driver             Team                      Time/Gap
 1.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              1h48m02.4703s
 2.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi                 +  0.3109s
 3.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan     +  2.4085s
 4.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green          + 13.5302s
 5.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green          + 14.1111s
 6.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green          +    1 lap
 7.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green          +    1 lap
 8.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon            +    1 lap
 9.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan     +    1 lap
10.  Dan Wheldon        Panther                 +    1 lap
11.  Tomas Scheckter    Dreyer & Reinbold       +    1 lap
12.  EJ Viso            HVM                     +    1 lap
13.  Ed Carpenter       Vision                  +    1 lap
14.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                   +   2 laps
15.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Foyt                    +   2 laps
16.  Mario Moraes       KV                      +   3 laps

Retirements:

     Helio Castroneves  Penske               245 laps
     Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    135 laps
     Ryan Briscoe       Penske               26 laps
     Jaques Lazier      3G                   0 laps