Scott Dixon Victorious In IndyCar Season Opener

[PressRoom-GFN]

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (March 29,2008) – With the unification of American open-wheel racing under the IndyCar Series banner, a new era began in the sport with the season opener Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but the results resembled the previous year with Scott Dixon in victory lane for the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300.

In gaining the victory, the Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver held off Andretti Green Racing's Marco Andretti after a lap 197 restart to win the event on the 1.5-mile oval by 0.5828 second.

"It was one of those races where we didn't exactly have the speed all the time, or things weren't really going our way, but we still came out on top," said Dixon, the runner-up in the 2007 IndyCar Series championship battle. "If you can have races like that, where you have a bad day, or a day where you don't think you're at your best, and you still come out on top, that's a great way to take some points away from others and hopefully, it works for the rest of the season."

Dixon's teammate, Dan Wheldon, who had won the previous three season openers on the South Florida track, advanced from the 22nd starting position to finish third. Team Penske's Helio Castroneves placed fourth. Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter, who had to start 24th due to his car failing post-qualifying inspection, finished fifth.

"It was a good recovery for the team after having to start in the back," said Carpenter, whose teammate, A.J. Foyt IV, finished ninth after having to start 25th due to his car also failing post-qualifying inspection. "All things considered, to come out of here with a top-five finish is a great start for the team."

Tony Kanaan ended the event probably the most unsatisfied in the 25-car field. The Andretti Green Racing driver appeared en route to his first victory at his "home" track until being involved in a lap 192 accident. Kanaan's Team 7-Eleven car led Dixon by 2.113 seconds, two laps before the No. 33 HVM Racing car of Ernesto Viso's HVM Racing car hit the turn 4 SAFER Barrier. Kanaan, unable to avoid the car sliding down the banking, tagged it. That left his car's right-front tire useless.

Kanaan was able to keep pace with the Honda Accord Safety car under caution, but Dixon shot past him on the restart.

"I've been around a long time and the race is not finished until the checkered flag," said Kanaan, who was credited with eighth. "This was a misfortune – yes. But, how many times have I won races because some other guy was unlucky? With 10 laps to go, I was looking around and I was thinking, 'This looks too easy.'

"When somebody spins and he's doing 230 miles an hour, you're like, 'Where should I go?' I slowed down, he was on the bottom, so I went to the top. Then, all of a sudden he started to go to the top and I was trying to go to the bottom, so there was nothing I could do about it. The way I look at it, this is right where I finished here in 2004 and we know the way that year turned out."

Oriol Servia, with 27 previous oval starts, paced the transition drivers with a 12th-place finish in his KV Racing Technology car.

"It was a long day in the office, but that means we achieved our first goal, which was to finish the race with no damage to the car," he said.

Danica Patrick, who was within striking range until pitting for the final time on lap 185, finished sixth. Rahal Letterman Racing's Ryan Hunter-Reay posted his best IndyCar Series oval finish, taking seventh. Vitor Meira in his Delphi National Guard car finished 10th, and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's Buddy Rice placed 11th.

"We had a fifth-place finish in the bag and got robbed on the last restart," Hunter-Reay lamented. "We went through this in the drivers' meeting and I don't know exactly how it happened, but it killed our race. We really had a good rhythm going today and the car was strong, but we didn't get the points we deserved for it."

The only other incident came on lap 127, when Milka Duno's CITGO car spun and hit the second-turn SAFER Barrier. Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe attempted to squeeze by the car sliding down the banking, but didn't have enough room and was clipped in the rear wing. Neither driver was injured.

"I saw that Milka got her air taken off of her and she slowed out there," said Briscoe, who took over for Sam Hornish Jr. this season when Hornish moved to NASCAR full time. "Unfortunately, I was already up the track and I had nowhere to go, so she collected me. Tonight, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

The IndyCar Series now travels to St. Petersburg, Fla., for the April 6 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

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Courtesy of the IndyCar Series