THE CANADIAN PRESS
EDMONTON — Scott Dixon’s IndyCar year of dominance continued Saturday as he held off a hard-charging Helio Castroneves to cruise to victory at the Rexall Edmonton Indy.
And he proved once again that in motorsports you drive for show and pit for dough.
"My team did a fantastic job. We were struggling at the start of the weekend. We were at best about 11th. To come through and win here was definitely not what we expected," said the 28-year-old New Zealander with Target Chip Ganassi.
Dixon had trailed both Team Penske racers Castroneves and pole sitter Ryan Briscoe for much of the first half of the race until they all pitted under caution halfway through.
Dixon beat both Penske cars out of the pits, eventually took the lead and didn’t look back.
"I’d like to thank everybody on the Target team. You guys nailed that pit stop and we got the lead and were unstoppable."
It was fifth victory of the year for Dixon and extends his lead in the overall points race to 505 markers — 65 more than second-place Castroneves.
Castroneves was almost nose-to-tail with Dixon with just seven laps to go at the 1.9-mile airport-road course when he overdrove a corner and slid off course.
By the time he got back on track, Dixon was away to take the flag almost six seconds ahead of him.
"What am I going to say? I just have to laugh I guess. I really tried," said Castroneves, who has become the season’s frustrated bridesmaid with six second-place finishes and no wins.
"I was doing everything I could to push (Dixon) and put on the pressure, to the point that my tires just gave out. When I was at the braking point (at the turn) I just went straight.
"Man, I wanted to win that race so bad. But hey, it is what it is and we’ll move forward."
Justin Wilson, the English racer who won in Edmonton two years ago when it was part of the Champ Car Series, finished third — his best finish in his rookie year in IndyCar.
"It was a very eventful race. There was lots happening and you were never sure what strategy people were on," said Wilson.
"It was always mixing up the field and making it difficult for the guys like myself that were pushing to try and get to the podium."
Canadian driver Paul Tracy, driving in a one-off event for Vision Racing, finished fourth, jumping 12 places from his 16th place start on the 27-car grid.
"I’m extremely excited. It’s been a long time coming," said the 39-year-old Tracy, who hoped to use the race to generate some sponsorship money to springboard a ride back in the IndyCar Series with Walker Racing.
"I think it shows we deserve to be out here."
Tracy, the career wins leader in open-wheel racing with 31, just missed the podium even though he had only driven the No. 22 Dallara car for two days in practice after having been out of racing for four months. And to top that, the team radio gave out during the race forcing Tracy to communicate with hand signals.
Toronto’s Marty Roth finished 21st.
It was a physically punishing race on the 14-circuit course with the ambient temperature at 28C and the track surface at an egg-frying 41C.
Fan favourite Danica Patrick struggled to learn the new course during qualifying, starting 15th, but had run as high as ninth late in the race when her Andretti-Green teammate Marco Andretti tried to dive under her but instead clipped her rear wheel. He knocked her off course and well off the pace and Andretti into the pits with a wonky front wing.
Patrick brushed past reporters trackside but later said it was a hard day due to technical glitches.
"I lost radio communication with my crew around lap 34, which was very frustrating, so I just followed the cars in front of me.
"I am frustrated that I finished 18th because the Motorola car was capable of a top-10 finish."
It was unhappy deja vu for Andretti-Green. At the Indianapolis 500 in May, Andretti-Green driver Tony Kanaan was duelling Dixon for the lead when Andretti tried to dive under him. Kanaan was forced to the top of the track, spun out and was drilled by driver Sarah Fisher, shattering his front end.
Kanaan started last in the 27 car-field Saturday after he fried his engine in qualifying and had to replace it. He moved up 18 positions to finish ninth.
Andretti-Green rookie Hideki Mutoh lost control on a high-speed corner early in the race and plowed into the tire barrier, creating an explosion of bouncing white wheels on the track. He finished last.
Briscoe, the winner last week at Mid-Ohio, finished sixth.
This was the first race on an old Champ Car course since Champ Car folded and five of its teams joined IndyCar earlier this year to unify open-wheel racing in North America.
Oriol Servia, a Champ Car veteran who has raced before in Edmonton, finished fifth while Will Power, who won pole in Edmonton last year, hit the pits after just eight laps to fix a wonky suspension. His No. 8 Team Australia-Aussie Vineyards car made it back but finished 22nd.
It was a cruel case of what might have been for Power, who ran the fastest lap on the track all day at 114.5 m.p.h.
Graham Rahal, driving the No. 6 car with the Rexall/Edmonton Oilers car spun out onto the grass just a few turns in on the first lap, only to return later and get run off the road and into the tire barrier by rookie E.J. Viso, who was penalized for not avoiding contact.
Rahal ended up second last.
It was the 15th career win for Dixon, who won earlier this year at Nashville, Miami and Texas and at the Indianapolis 500.