New Zealander Scott Dixon passed Helio Castroneves on the final straightaway to win the Meijer Indy 300 on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway. It was his second straight win and a record-tying sixth of the season for Dixon, who is trying to win his second IndyCar Series championship.
Dixon came from behind Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway, passing Helio Castroneves coming off the final turn on the 1.5-mile oval to win the Meijer Indy 300.
Series runner-up Castroneves, still trying for his first victory of the season and his first series title as he chases Dixon, tried to get this one with fuel strategy.
It looked as if Castroneves had it when he took the lead with six laps to go when Dixon, who had dominated most of the 200-lap race, was forced to make a fuel stop.
Dixon came out just over 6 seconds behind the Brazilian, but steadily cut into the margin. He started the final lap just six-tenths of a second behind and finally passed Castroneves as the leader slowed coming off the fourth turn, out of fuel.
Castroneves then coasted slowly across the finish line, barely holding off Marco Andretti.
“At least I only lost the race,” Castroneves said, smiling.
Dixon couldn’t believe it.
“I’m sure that’s the view Dario had when I sputtered in turn three,” he said. “Wow. I can’t believe it ended like that. What a finish.”
Dixon passed the slowing Castroneves, his closest challenger for the 2008 title, in the final hundred yards of the 200-lap race. The margin of victory was 0.5532 seconds.
Dixon, who now has 16 career wins, was Saturday’s most deserving winner, leading the most laps (151) after starting from the pole. He beat Marco Andretti, Vitor Meira and Wheldon out of the pits when most of the leaders went to pit road for a late splash of fuel.
But Castroneves didn’t pit. His team was trying to stretch the fuel mileage farther than anyone in pursuit of his first victory since April 2007. His final stop came on lap 143.
Dixon scored the maximum number of points to push his lead in the standings to 78 over Castroneves. With only three races left, Dixon can almost taste his second title. The other one came in 2003.
Milka Duno, the third woman in the 26-car field, also had an incident. She slammed the second-turn wall on the race’s 134th lap. She said a failure in the right-front of her car likely was to blame. She was not injured.
Andretti finished third after leading when he came to pit road for a quick splash of fuel on lap 189. Meira, who finished second in the 500, was in second during the final stop but he settled for fourth.
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