Rain gives Dixon third Nashville win

When the rest of the field, including dominant leader Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green), pitted for the final time as conditions improved during a yellow for a rain shower, Dixon and Ganassi teammate Dan Wheldon stayed on track due to a miscommunication.

"My guys told me to follow Kanaan," Dixon said. "But by that time, I was way past pit lane. There was no coming back in."

But this inadvertent 'strategy' actually worked to perfection - they moved to the front of the pack, and the rain then returned shortly afterwards, giving Ganassi a one-two finish and allowing Dixon to extend his championship lead still further.

The unlucky Kanaan had to settle for fourth behind Penske's Helio Castroneves.

Pole-sitter Castroneves, Danica Patrick (AGR), Dixon and Kanaan had made an early break from the rest of the pack in the first stint, the quartet running in close company but struggling to pass on the tricky concrete track.

Dixon managed to make progress however, picking up second on lap 45 when Patrick lost momentum in a failed move on Castroneves, and then overtaking the Penske driver for the lead ten laps later - the pass putting Castroneves off his stride and costing him several places.

The first pit sequence followed almost immediately, with Kanaan enjoying the best stop and nearly snatching the lead from Dixon as the Ganassi driver rejoined following his service on the following lap.

Kanaan then stayed glued to Dixon's tail, and when the championship leader was momentarily slowed lapping Mario Moraes on lap 90, the AGR driver managed to slip ahead, remaining in front through the pit stops that ensued shortly afterwards when Watkins Glen winner Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed out of seventh and caused a full course yellow.

After the restart Kanaan pulled away, leading by as much as four seconds as the weather began to close in, with lightning appearing in the sky over the track.

The rain wasn't far behind, and on lap 133 the full course yellow came out for moisture on track. It initially looked like the precipitation might be sufficient to curtail the race, but as conditions eased, most of the field decided to take their final pit stops in the expectation that the event would run its full distance after all.

However Dixon and teammate Wheldon (who had been running a quiet seventh) stayed out - albeit by mistake. That put them first and second at the restart, with Kanaan losing third to the resurgent Castroneves just after the green.

Ganassi's hopes now depended on the weather changing for the worse before their cars had to pit again - and the rain played right into their hands by returning with a vengeance on lap 164. The yellow came out again, and this time it was followed by the red flag seven laps later, giving Dixon his Nashville hat-trick and Ganassi another one-two finish.

Behind Castroneves and Kanaan, Patrick came home fifth ahead of Vitor Meira, who charged through the field for Panther Racing and looked set for a podium before the last stops.

Buddy Rice had another strong race to seventh for Dreyer & Reinbold, with Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter taking eighth and Darren Manning scoring a respectable ninth in his AJ Foyt car.

Dale Coyne Racing also kept Moraes on track during the final yellow, allowing the improving rookie to leap ahead of the rest of the midfield and take 10th after his best oval race so far.

Having hurried from Lime Rock after driving the opening stint of the American Le Mans Series race for his Andretti Green team's sportscar arm, Marco Andretti only managed three laps before crashing. Andretti lost control in Turn 3 and collected the luckless Ryan Briscoe (Penske) on the way to the wall.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              1h30:04.6499
 2.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi                +   1.0680
 3.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                 +   5.6679
 4.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green         +   6.4612
 5.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green         +   7.8301
 6.  Vitor Meira        Panther                +   9.5615
 7.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold      +  13.2509
 8.  Ed Carpenter       Vision                 +  16.0567
 9.  Darren Manning     Foyt                   +  24.9236
10.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne             +    1 lap
11.  Will Power         KV                     +    1 lap
12.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan    +    1 lap
13.  Marty Roth         Roth                   +    1 lap
14.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green         +   2 laps
15.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne             +   2 laps
16.  Oriol Servia       KV                     +   2 laps
17.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold      +   3 laps
18.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan    +  28 laps
19.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal Letterman        +  72 laps
20.  Enrique Bernoldi   Conquest               + 105 laps
21.  Jaime Camara       Conquest               + 121 laps
22.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision                 + 126 laps
23.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske                 + 168 laps
24.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green         + 169 laps