Dixon wins at Nashville

The result trimmed Franchitti's lead in the IndyCar Series standings to 34 points with six races remaining.

"I like being in this position," Dixon said. "We've got nothing to lose now. We can just go as hard as we can and just go for race wins.

"That's what we struggled with in the first part of the season; we were maybe too reserved and came up with a run of second-place finishes. That hurt us. Now we've just got to go all out and get as many wins as possible."

Dixon took the lead by maneuvering the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda/Dallara low past Franchitti's No. 27 Andretti Green Racing Honda/Dallara and Dan Wheldon's No. 10 Ganassi Honda/Dallara heading into the third turn on the 89th lap of the 200-lap race.

Dixon held the lead to the finish through a cycle of green-flag pit stops for his second consecutive victory and sixth podium finish in 11 races this season.

"What I saw was a mess," Dixon said. "Going through Turns 1 and 2, everybody just got bottled up with lapped traffic. I had a good run and backed off a bit. I anticipated and saw it coming, but I didn't think they'd slow down that much, to be honest.

"I thought maybe I'd get one of them, but not both. It so happened that they split one person and I went inside both of them."

Franchitti indicated he made a decision to avoid a risky move, and instead took the conservative route.

"That's one of those points where you have to make a decision," Franchitti said. "Had I not been in the fight for the championship, I probably would have stuck the thing in the marbles and tried to see if I could make the big outside pass, but I'd would have looked pretty stupid with the car sitting in a smoking heap on the exit of Turn 2."

Franchitti, who has finished on the podium in eight of his last nine races, has watched his lead drop by 31 points in the past eight days. Still, his remarkable consistency has kept him in charge and allowed him to create a large gap over everyone but Dixon.

"Close but no guitar," Franchitti said, referring to the guitar given to the race winner.

Danica Patrick matched her career high with a third-place finish, but felt she might have had a shot at Franchitti had she not been caught behind back markers, namely Ed Carpenter, who drew Patrick's ire.

"You have to accept when you're a lap down and you're off the pace," Patrick said. "You need to let other people who are in front have their race. For me, that's what held me up the most today. Carpenter was not cooperating. We'll address that, there's no doubt about it."

Sam Hornish Jr. held on to fourth, allowing him to hang in the championship race at fifth place, 105 points behind Franchitti. "As the day went on we were able to make some tweaks that allowed the car to improve significantly," Hornish said.

"We got to the point where we could make some passes and move up in the field. We were running our fastest laps toward the end of the race."

Marco Andretti posted his second consecutive top-five finish, followed by Helio Castroneves, Scott Sharp, Wheldon, Darren Manning and Vitor Meira.

"We had a better car than where we finished, but track position is everything here," Andretti said. "Each time we came up behind somebody, it never went our way. If you want to keep somebody behind you at this track, you're certainly able to."

Perhaps the most significant event of the day was the crash of Tony Kanaan, who was third in points coming into the race. His No. 11 AGR Honda/Dallara spun and hit the wall on the exit of Turn 2 after he passed Sarah Fisher on the 37th lap.

He finished 18th in the 18-car field and dropped to fourth in the standings, 103 points off his teammate's pace.

"I just lost it," Kanaan said. "The track was still very green because of the rain last night. It's really a tough break because the car was so good. This really hurts us in the championship, for sure. It's a shame and I'm very disappointed right now. We've had a lot of accidents the last few weeks, so it's time to regroup and move forward."

With 11 laps remaining, Jeff Simmons' car slid off the pit entry lane and back onto the track, where it forced Kosuke Matsuura into the wall.

"The guys tried really hard, but unfortunately we couldn't get it where it needed to be," Simmons said. "I feel bad for the No. 55 team and I apologize for the late incident."

In the end, Dixon found himself where he was the previous week at Watkins Glen - winning, but fighting an uphill battle against a competitor who keeps finishing well.

"It's getting old," Dixon said. "We've had two bad races this season, and not that I wish any bad luck on Dario, but he's due for a bad one. It's tough, but that's how championships are won.

"I'm sure Dario is trying as hard as he possibly can, and those guys are just super consistent. If they're not winning, they're either second or third, and that's going to be very tough to beat."

The season resumes next weekend with a 1:30 p.m. ET start Sunday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

Pos  Driver             Laps
 1.  Scott Dixon         200
 2.  Dario Franchitti    200
 3.  Danica Patrick      200
 4.  Sam Hornish Jr.     200
 5.  Marco Andretti      200
 6.  Helio Castroneves   200
 7.  Scott Sharp         200
 8.  Dan Wheldon         200
 9.  Darren Manning      199
10.  Vitor Meira         199
11.  Tomas Scheckter     199
12.  A.J. Foyt IV        198
13.  Ed Carpenter        197
14.  Jeff Simmons        196
15.  Sarah Fisher        194
16.  Kosuke Matsuura     182
17.  Buddy Rice          166
18.  Tony Kanaan          35