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Scott Dixon took the IndyCar Series points lead, passing Dario Franchitti with seven laps to go and holding off Helio Castroneves to win the Motorola Indy 300 Presented by Jackson Rancheria Casino and Hotel at Infineon Raceway.
Franchitti, after making contact with the race-leading No. 26 NYSE car of his teammate, Marco Andretti, in Turn 2, remained on the 2.26-mile, 12-turn circuit with a damaged front wing, hoping to salvage a top-five finish. He did, but for the first time since early June relinquished the points lead.
Scott Dixon overtook Franchitti in Turn 3 on the restart and then held off Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves to win the Motorola Indy 300 by 0.5449 of a second (the closest margin in three years of IndyCar Series road/street racing).
Franchitti soldiered on to third place, but the swing allowed Dixon to take a four-point lead into the penultimate race of the season. Tony Kanaan finished fourth and Sam Hornish Jr. fifth.
Also on Aug. 26, Richard Antinucci claimed his second road course win in the last three starts, advancing six positions to win the Valley of the Moon 100 Indy Pro Series event.
Antinucci overtook leader Ryan Justice at the top of Turn 11 on Lap 19 for the first-year driver’s second victory in nine road/street course events. Andrew Prendeville in the No. 5 RLR/Andersen Racing car finished third and Logan Gomez, driving the No. 23 Isilon Systems/Flacondos.net/SSM car, was fourth.
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, winner Motorola Indy 300): “This is exactly what we needed. It was a tough day and a tough weekend to be honest. We’re still having problem with the Dallara car. It’s the first year we’ve used it (on road courses) and it’s been tough, especially in qualifying where we qualified fifth. AGR played it tough today. We had to deal with TK (Tony Kanaan) holding us up a lot and trying to build a gap for Dario (Franchitti). It’s fantastic for us with the points and it’s another race win this year is what we wanted.” (About passing Franchitti for the lead): “What goes around comes around. They were playing tactics and it seemed ironic that both of their cars got in an accident. It ended up ruining (Dario’s) day. I think our car was better on restarts, so we may have had the upper hand there. I don’t think his front wing would have mattered in that. But it doesn’t matter now. We won the race. That’s what matters.”
