Video: Dixon First to Win in Unified IndyCar Series

Jim Haines / IRL

The road to this year’s Indy 500 began at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a fashion very similar to that of years past, with a driver from Target Chip Ganassi Racing pulling into Victory Lane. But this year was different—despite a strong charge from Ganassi driver and three-time Homestead winner Dan Wheldon, it was teammate Scott Dixon who finished first in this year’s race, the Gainsco Insurance 300. Andretti Green Racing driver Marco Andretti, the victim of some horrendous luck at Homestead in previous years finished second, and Wheldon finished third after starting the race from last place. Andretti teammate Tony Kanaan led the race with just seven laps to go, but was forced out after making contact with the spinning car of Ernesto Viso.

Scott Dixon had this to say about his first-place finish:

“It was one of those races where we didn’t exactly have the speed all the time, or things weren’t really going our way, but we still came out on top. If you can have races like that, where you have a bad day, or a day where you don’t think you’re at your best, and you still come out on top, that’s a great way to take some points away from others and hopefully it works for the rest of the season.”

“We had a couple of stints there where it was nearly nonstop without a yellow. I thought there were going to be a ton early on. In our team meeting, we were sort of scheduling for quite a few stops early on, but that just didn’t come. I think everybody was really using their heads. The guys who came in from Champ Car were fantastic. They were giving everybody room and they drove a great clean race.”

This video produced by the Indy Racing League shows highlights of the race, with announcers from the IMS Radio Network.

The Ganassi cars have historically run strong at the start of the season and tend to follow that up with strong runs at Indy in May. After a taking to the streets of St. Petersburg on April 6 (2:30pm EDT - ESPN), just two oval races at Twin Ring Motegi Japan (April 19 Noon EDT - ESPN) and Kansas Speedway (April 27 5:00pm - ESPN2) stand between the IndyCar Series teams and the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500.

Official Results

IndyCar Series GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300

Results Saturday of the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 IndyCar Series event March 29 at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
2. (4) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
3. (22) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
4. (5) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
5. (24) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
6. (2) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
7. (9) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
8. (6) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
9. (25) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
10. (10) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
11. (11) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 196, Running
12. (14) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 195, Running
13. (12) Darren Manning, Dallara-Honda, 194, Running
14. (13) Franck Perera, Dallara-Honda, 194, Running
15. (15) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 193, Running
16. (21) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 187, Running
17. (18) Ernesto Viso, Dallara-Honda, 183, Contact
18. (17) Enrique Bernoldi, Dallara-Honda, 149, Handling
19. (3) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 126, Contact
20. (16) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 122, Contact
21. (8) Marty Roth, Dallara-Honda, 53, Handling
22. (23) Jay Howard, Dallara-Honda, 50, Handling
23. (20) Bruno Junqueira, Dallara-Honda, 40, Handling
24. (7) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 32, Mechanical
25. (19) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 24, Mechanical

Race Statistics

Winner’s average speed: 171.248 mph

Time of race: 1:44:03.5914

Margin of victory: 0.5828 of a second

Cautions: 3 caution flags for 24 laps

Lead changes: 12 among 5 drivers

Lap leaders: Dixon 1-12, Kanaan 13-20, Dixon 21-71, Wheldon 72-73, Andretti 74-117, Wheldon 118-121, Andretti 122-160, Kanaan 161-172, Andretti 173-174, Wheldon 175-177, Castroneves 178-181, Kanaan 182-196, Dixon 197-200.

Point standings: Dixon 50, Andretti 43, Wheldon 35, Castroneves 32, Carpenter 30, Patrick 28, Hunter-Reay 26, Kanaan 24, Foyt IV 22, Meira 20.