Dixon relieved to turn error into win

The IRL IndyCar Series points leader assumed the race lead by error when he mistakenly stayed on the track after his Ganassi team told him to follow leader Tony Kanaan into the pits during a caution period on the 148th lap.

The race had been paused due to a rain shower, but at that point conditions were improving so most drivers decided to get their final pit visit out of the way before the yellow ended. However Dixon's error put him into the lead and the weather then unexpectedly turned in his favour - with more rain forcing the rain to be abandoned 23 laps later.

"A lot of times you have a strong car and you have a little bit of luck go your way, but tonight it just worked out that way, man," Dixon said.

"It was a tough decision. I was kind of angry after the mistake because we were getting close on fuel. Every lap we were going around, we were hoping there was going to be some rain."

Rain finally did fall, interrupting the race on the 167th lap and eventually forcing a red flag after 171 laps of the scheduled 200-lap event. Had it continued under green, Dixon and second-place finisher Dan Wheldon surely would have been forced to pit for fuel in the ensuing 10 laps and ended up a lap down on likely leaders Helio Castroneves and Kanaan.

Instead, Dixon turned the miscue into victory, with teammate Wheldon finishing second, Castroneves third and Kanaan fourth. Afterwards, Dixon admitted that he couldn't have gone much longer.

"I think we had at least another 10 or 15 laps of gas," Dixon said. "We'd been saving quite a bit. We were running quite lean because we wanted to keep fuel mileage in our back pocket. We thought it was going to be raining a lot earlier, but we still had some left, for sure. Obviously the miscommunication worked out for the best."

Wheldon said he was on a different strategy and intended to stay on the track. Both drivers had last pitted on the 102nd lap, and couldn't have gone much longer under green when rain cut the race short. Instead, rain helped them score a one-two finish for Ganassi - a result that Wheldon believes has brought him back into title contention.

"It's definitely not over yet," said Wheldon, who is third in the standings behind Dixon and Castroneves after 11 of 17 races. "There's a long way to go. The biggest thing you see this year is that if you do have a good race, you can close that point gap very quickly."

Castroneves reckoned that had the weather turned just a few minutes later, he would have been celebrating the win rather than Dixon.

"I was told that the Ganassi guys had four laps of fuel left," Castroneves said. "That's two minutes. If the rain had come two minutes later, we would have won the race. But sometimes you have to be more lucky than good."

Kanaan backed the call to pit by his Andretti Green race strategist George Klotz, saying his team didn't want to play to the weather game. Despite the shower that had caused the lap 133 to lap 148 yellow, the storm that had lingered just west of the track through much of the race didn't seem to be moving east with any urgency.

"I stand behind the decision," Kanaan said. "We couldn't make that gamble. We had to play it straight and make sure we had enough fuel to get to the end. Rain and me, me and rain. I told the guys that rain isn't my strong suit. Rain and I don't get along."