Just eight points separate IndyCar Series championship leaders Scott Dixon (570 points), Dario Franchitti (565) and Ryan Briscoe (562) entering the season-ending Firestone Indy 300 on Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It will be the 10th time in 14 IndyCar Series seasons that the title will be decided at the final race. This is the fifth of a six-part series looking back at some of the classic championship races in IndyCar Series history. Today 2007: One Final Turn for Dario, Dixon
When:
2007
Who:
Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon
Where:
Chicagoland Speedway (Sept. 9, 2007)
The story:
Dario Franchitti was in control of the IndyCar Series after nine of 17 races in 2007, with three victories, including the Indianapolis 500. Franchitti held a 65-point lead - more than a one-race gap - over Scott Dixon after winning the SunTrust Indy Challenge on June 30 at Richmond International Raceway.
It appeared Franchitti was on cruise control for his first championship after 12 years at the top level of North American open-wheel racing. But Dixon had other ideas.
2003 series champion Dixon and his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team found an ideal groove in the second half of the season, winning four of the next seven races after Richmond.
Dixon won the Motorola Indy 300 on Aug. 26 at Infineon Raceway to finally catch and replace Franchitti atop the standings, holding a four-point edge, 560-556. Franchitti regained the top spot by three points, 587-584, by finishing sixth in the penultimate race of the season, the Detroit Indy Grand Prix on Sept. 2. Dixon finished eighth after spinning while battling for the lead late in the race and nearly taking out his championship rival while his stalled car blocked the track.
The final chapter in this thrilling season was set for the PEAK Antifreeze Indy 300 on Sept. 9 at Chicagoland Speedway. Sixteen previous races featuring 2,733 laps of competition had come down to one 200-lap duel between Franchitti and Dixon.
Franchitti won the pole in his Andretti Green Racing machine but lost the lead at the green flag. Meanwhile, Dixon had moved up after starting sixth and led 32 laps between Laps 135-190.
Dixon lost the lead to his teammate, Dan Wheldon, on Lap 191 but regained it on Lap 194 when Wheldon slowed on the backstretch. Franchitti’s teammate Danica Patrick then spun entering pit road on the same lap, triggering the third and final caution period of the race.
In a moment of nearly perfect drama, Dixon and Franchitti lined up one-two on the restart at the end of Lap 197 as the only cars on the lead lap. Franchitti, who had worked the entire race to save fuel, then moved to the high groove to size up Dixon on Lap 198 but could not pass.
Dixon led Franchitti by .060 of a second at the white flag and needed to stay out front for just 1.5 more miles to claim his second IndyCar Series title.
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