INDYCAR SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
· Scott Dixon takes the point lead with his win at Twin Ring Motegi, the 14th change at the top of the point standings in 16 races.
· The eight points separating first place Scott Dixon from third-place Ryan Briscoe is the second-closest spread between in series history. Only the 2003 season had a closer margin between first and third.
· The five points separating first place Scott Dixon from second-place Dario Franchitti is the fourth-closest spread between first and second. There was a tie in 2003, 1 pt margin in 2006 and 3 points in 2007.
INDY JAPAN 300 POST-RACE QUOTES:
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, winner Indy Japan 300): “A fantastic day for Team Target. A 1-2. For me it’s tremendous. It’s a track I’ve always wanted to win in. I kind of put Motegi just below the Indy 500. It’s a very difficult circuit. I remember coming here in the early years and competing for different engine manufacturers and how much emphasis is put on this race. If you have a fast car, you can still get to the front. Put on a good show. Over the moon. Definitely a good day for points and very happy.”
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Lifelock, finished second): I think we could see the Target cars were very strong. Both cars were very equally matched. Probably my car more so in traffic, and Scott maybe a little bit in clean air. But both cars, whichever one was in front was going to win. I managed to go longer than Scott in the first run. It was looking good. We came out of the pits after the second stop having pulled a pretty substantial gap. I was coming up to lap the No. 2 car, and I went to go on the inside and he came down, so I moved up, he moved up. He kept moving up until I hit a bump and ended up in the marbles. I managed to gather it back up, by which point Scott had a massive run and passed me. It was unfortunate to lose the lead that way, but we’ve seen that all year from him, to be honest. After that, it’s just trying to pass Scott. We tried on the pits, on the restarts. We were so equal today, I needed traffic in front of us to slow Scott so I could get a run on him, and there wasn’t any. “
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 02 McDonald’s Racing Team, finished third): “The McDonald’s boys have been working awfully hard this entire time, and we’ve had the pace and it’s nice to get our first podium on a superspeedway and second of the season on an oval. It’s such an interesting track and a change from what we’re used to with the classic superspeedway shape. The McDonald’s boys did a great job in the pits today and we saved a lot of fuel which put us in that position.”
ORIOL SERVIA (No. 06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing, finished fourth): “It was a very good race. I’m extremely happy for the team to finish just behind Ganassi is very good. I’m very pleased, but obviously, I would have preferred to be on the podium but Graham had a run on me there at the end and he got the best out of it. I’m happy with the performance. I’m happy that the team gave me the opportunity. We had a good four races and definitely gained momentum, and I hope we can continue the momentum next year. I think we can be contenders for the championship if we start together from Day 1. That’s what I really hope will happen. I’m happy how things have gone. I want to thank Carl and Bernadette Haas, Mike Lanigan and McDonald’s for the opportunity.”
