Helio Castroneves won Sunday’s season-ending PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300, but Scott Dixon claimed the more important prize.
By virtue of finishing second, the New Zealander won the 2008 IndyCar Series championship. Dixon needed only to finish eighth or better to win his second title and first since 2003.
It was a sweet ending for Dixon, who lost both the race and the championship to Dario Franchitti last year at Chicagoland Speedway when he ran out of fuel two turns from the finish.
“I think we set our minds on having (the championship) tied up a long time before now and I think that’s what run us into a bit of trouble,” Dixon said. “That was definitely the toughest two weeks I’ve had and, even today, Team Penske and Helio wouldn’t let it go. They were pushing to make sure they got the most. You’ve got to take your hats off to them for doing all that they needed to do.”
“It was the craziest Victory Circle I’ve been involved in, where you see your car rolled into position, you get out like you won the race and they roll it off and take your hat off you and say you haven’t won,” Dixon said. “That was tough to deal with but, in the back of my mind, we all knew we’d won the championship, and that was the main goal.”
Castroneves, who earned a 3-point bonus by leading a race-high 80 laps, was excited after being told he won the race when he got out of his car.
“I knew I won it, I knew,” he said. “We try everything, everything, to win. We did everything we could.
“I feel (like) he respects me and I feel the same way, with a lot of respect. That’s why, toward the end of the race, you’re able to ride side-by-side, inches (apart), wheel-to-wheel without worry that’s he’s going to play dirty or something like that.
“I was able to go on the last lap and pull alongside and said, ‘OK, now we got to do what we got to do.’ It was fun,” the race winner added.
So by finishing second he claimed the one million-dollar bonus and his second series title, the other coming in 2003, by 17 points.
“We tried everything to win. We did everything we could,” Castroneves said. “Scott Dixon and those guys, they had a little better luck and they wound up winning the championship. Congratulations to them.”
Australian Ryan Briscoe was third followed by Brazil’s Tony Kanaan, Aussie Will Power and England’s Dan Wheldon.
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