Dixon leads Ganassi 1-2 at Nashville

The sweep, the first by Ganassi since he moved his team to the IRL full-time in 2003, significantly changed the IRL standings with five races remaining.

"It's always been nothing but looking toward the championship," Dixon said. "Nothing's changed since, but this definitely helps the situation a lot. Now we just have to make sure that both cars race competitive and maybe we can win a few more races."

Penske's Sam Hornish Jr., who crashed out on the 130th lap of the 200-lap race, still leads the standings, but Dixon is now within five points, Helio Castroneves is within six points, and Wheldon is within 16.

Coming into the race, Hornish led Castroneves by 20 points, and both Ganassi cars appeared to be sliding further from championship contention.

"Every race the goal you go in with is to finish 1-2, but it's unique that you finish in that situation," Dixon said. "There's usually one car that's just not quick enough, or someone will cycle out or something else will happen. It's very hard to have an outcome like that."

Dixon took the lead from Vitor Meira three laps before Hornish's crash. However, Dixon pitted on the next lap, giving the lead to Kosuke Matsuura, but he regained the lead after the leaders cycled through their pit stops during the caution period after Hornish's crash.

Dixon then managed to conserve enough fuel to reach the finish 0.1176 seconds ahead of Wheldon. "A lot of the difference was that we saved fuel," Dixon said. "After the second stop, we went about six laps longer than Dan. That's what got us to the front and what allowed us to run quick at the end."

Dixon turned up the wick and held the lead to the finish despite a late rush from his teammate, who couldn't get close enough to pass. "I definitely had a faster car, but Vitor drove me down on the apron and I lost a lot of ground," Wheldon said. "When I got near Scott, I had to kind of rush to get by him. That somewhat cost me."

Meira finished third, while Danica Patrick finished fourth, her best effort since the 2005 Indianapolis 500, after a controversial conclusion with Dario Franchitti, who complained that he had been blocked and faded to sixth behind Castroneves.

"They talk about the black-flag rule all the time in the drivers' meeting," Franchitti said. "Brian (Barnhart) specifically said it before this race, but during the race, it doesn't seem to happen. It's very disappointing. We need to do something about it."

Patrick said she was trying to hold the bottom line to force Franchitti around the outside. "I was protecting," Patrick said. "There's nothing illegal about staying inside. As soon as he was behind me, I protected the inside and I kept it."

Meira, also accused of a rough move by Wheldon in the late moments, posted his third consecutive podium finish and fourth in the last five races, helping him hold steady at fifth in the standings, 54 points behind Hornish.

Hornish was attempting to chase down Meira for position when his car washed out, slid up into the marbles and stuck the wall on the exit of Turn 2, the most dramatic and costly of the three cautions during the race.

"I was trying to get a run on Vitor, but the car pushed up into the marbles," Hornish said. "At that point, there really wasn't anything I could do. I'm really angry with myself because I've been saying that you can't get up into the marbles here, and that's exactly what I did. We were so strong up until that point."

Following Franchitti's sixth-place showing was Jeff Simmons, who posted his best IndyCar finish; Ryan Briscoe, in his first oval race since a bad crash last year at Chicagoland Speedway; and Ed Carpenter.

In the end, though, a red-and-white team - a different red-and-white team - found itself celebrating a fast finish and a suddenly changed future.

"We've closed the gap somewhat on Marlboro Team Penske," Wheldon said. "I was a little disappointed to see Sam go out. We've had a couple of one-on-ones recently and he's gotten me, so I was hoping to be able to get him back. Nonetheless, it was a good result for us."

Pos  Driver             Team               Time
 1.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi            1:36:46.2751
 2.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi            +     0.1176 
 3.  Vitor Meira        Panther            +     1.2756 
 4.  Danica Patrick     Rahal-Letterman    +     2.5019 
 5.  Helio Castroneves  Penske             +     3.5647 
 6.  Dario Franchitti   Andretti-Green     +    11.9449 
 7.  Jeff Simmons       Rahal-Letterman    +     1 lap  
 8.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green     +     1 lap  
 9.  Ryan Briscoe       Dreyer & Reinbold  +     1 lap  
10.  Ed Carpenter       Vision             +     2 laps 
11.  Bryan Herta        Andretti-Green     +     2 laps
12.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green     +    30 laps 
13.  Kosuke Matsuura    Aguri Fernandez    +    38 laps 
14.  Sam Hornish Jr     Penske             +    72 laps 
15.  Tomas Scheckter    Vision             +    79 laps 
16.  Buddy Rice         Rahal-Letterman    +   139 laps 
17.  Scott Sharp        Aguri Fernandez    +   142 laps 
18.  Jeff Bucknum       Foyt               +   164 laps