Briscoe hails 'special' home victory

The win was the Australian's first major victory on home soil and the first time he has raced in his native country since 2006, when he entered the Champ Car race at Surfers and the V8 Supercar rounds at Bathurst and Sandown.

"It means almost a million points so it's very special," he said. "It's an amazing event - the fans, the location, everything that's going on.

"It's a very exciting place to have an IndyCar race and it's not often in my career that I've had the opportunity to race in my home country. I have had a lot of friends and family watch me race here and it means a lot to win this weekend."

Briscoe ran second to countryman Will Power early in the race, but was left to hold off IndyCar champion Scott Dixon for victory after Power crashed out of the lead.

"Once I got the lead I was able to put down some fast laps and pull away from Scott a little bit," he said. "We had some good restarts, some good pit stops and kept it clean. I didn't make any mistakes and that was the key thing today. It was pretty hot out there and I won't deny it, it was very hard work."

Briscoe added that although he profited from Power's crash, he sympathised with his countryman who crashed out of the race after qualifying on pole for the third year in a row.

"I felt bad when I saw him hit the wall and go out because he'd been nothing less than dominant all weekend," Briscoe added. "It looked like he was doing it pretty easy but I guess it wasn't too easy. It's a shame for him because he was hands down the quickest guy here."