Texas IndyCar: Scott Dixon dominates in Ganassi one-two

The New Zealander took the lead from team-mate Tony Kanaan during the third round of stops, and as the race progressed it became increasingly clear that he was going to be hard to match on equal terms.

To that end, a small cluster of drivers including Marco Andretti, Carlos Munoz, James Jakes and Simon Pagenaud made their final stop early and gambled on a late yellow. That got Andretti and Munoz up to the front towards the end, but they were desperately lean on fuel.

With 10 laps to go they were running a full 10mph slower than the cars around them, and were rapidly swallowed up.

Kanaan, meanwhile, had run closely with Dixon during the middle portion of the race, but lost touch over the final couple of stints.

He was over eight seconds behind Dixon over the final laps, and eventually crossed the line 7.8s down on his team-mate.

"Big credit to the team," said Dixon. "We were not sure what downforce to run towards the end and were struggling with that.

"We made some big changes after the first stop. We knew we had a good car, just needed to get it dialled in."

Team Penske had looked strong early on, and while it had no answer for Ganassi over the final stints, it still managed to get Helio Castroneves across the line in third ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya, whose finishing position belied the fact that he'd had a slow stop and spent most of the night battling poor handling.

Indeed, Dixon's dominance aside, tyre wear and handling problems were the story of the race.

Polesitter Will Power spent the evening marching steadily backwards to 13th, four laps down on the leaders, while Ryan Hunter-Reay's miserable season continued with the 2012 champion crossing the line seven laps down.

Unusually, the evening was interrupted by just one brief caution for debris, and the small handful of retirees - which included both CFH cars dropping out within two laps - were victims of assorted mechanical problems.

RESULTS - 248 LAPS:

LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: