IndyCar Season Review: Scott Dixon

For the second year in a row, Scott Dixon watched his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate hoist the IZOD IndyCar Series championship trophy.

Once again playing second fiddle to Dario Franchitti, Dixon nevertheless assembled a solid season, taking three victories on his way to a third place finish in the points. It was his fifth consecutive top five finish in the standings, after a fourth place in 2006, runner-up runs in 2007 and 2009, and the 2008 championship.

It was by no means as strong as his runs in the past three seasons, and this time around Dixon wasn't directly involved in the title fight at Homestead. There weren't quite as many top five finishes, even if there were still plenty of top tens. And while Franchitti solidly ate away at Will Power's points lead over the final few races of the season, Dixon didn't do much to close the gap.

But yet again, the consistent New Zealander strung together enough decent finishes to stay ahead of most of the field and accept an award at the season-ending banquet.

Dixon's season started off with an okay road course stretch, highlighted by a second place finish in the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, but marred by a DNF at St. Petersburg. He entered the first stretch of oval races tied for fifth in points with Franchitti, 60 back of a dominant Power.

From there, he immediately asserted his usual championship force, taking his second consecutive win at Kansas, scoring top five finishes at Indianapolis and Texas, and entered the second stretch of road course races second in points, only 11 markers back of the lead. Things were looking good for Dixon, as he had finished fourth or better in 2009 at four of the next five tracks on the schedule.

But a low top-10 at Watkins Glen and a DNF at Toronto dropped him to third place and 78 points out of the lead, and even a win at Edmonton didn't help him make up too much ground. When the series said goodbye to road and street courses for the year at Sonoma, Dixon found himself 95 points out of the lead, still in third.

Dixon had some major opportunities to make up ground on points leader Power during the final four oval races of the season. In fact, Dixon had been the best oval driver of the past two IndyCar seasons, scoring 482 points on ovals in 2008 and 406 in 2009. Such luck was not on his side in 2010.

Finishes of eighth, seventh, and sixth at Chicagoland, Kentucky, and Motegi, respectively, left him 90 points out of the lead going into Homestead. To make matters worse, he had been passed for third in the standings by Helio Castroneves, whose wins at Kentucky and Motegi propelled him up two spots in the standings from where he had been after Chicago.

Dixon's job at Homestead was simple: ensure that Franchitti would win the championship over Power, while also trying to get by Castroneves for third in points. Dixon qualified directly behind his teammate and helped keep some of the other competitors at bay while Franchitti led the most laps of the race.

When Franchitti dropped back in the field in the race's late stages, Dixon assumed the point and led 32 of the race's final 33 laps to take his third and final victory of the year.

IndyCar Race Review: Road Runner Turbo Indy 300

Last year, Chip Ganassi Racing won two of the first three races of the IZOD IndyCar Series season, on its way to dominance of the series' oval races and a second consecutive championship. This year, however, Ganassi came out of the gate slowly, failing to win any of the four road course races in the first quarter of the season. Meanwhile, key rival Team Penske won three of four.

Today at Kansas, however, Ganassi began to return to form.

Scott Dixon, who would have won the series' oval championship had it been awarded last year, took his first victory of the season in the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300. Teammate Dario Franchitti contributed to a 1-2 sweep for sponsor Target and owner Chip Ganassi. Tony Kanaan passed Penske's Helio Castroneves for third.

Penske driver Ryan Briscoe won the pole and led 31 laps, but fell to sixth at the checkered flag, the last driver on the lead lap. Dixon dominated the majority of the race, leading 167 laps after starting alongside Briscoe on Row 1. Franchitti, the only other driver to lead in the 200-lap event, led the remaining two laps.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, the winner at Long Beach and looking to sponsorship to help him complete the season, made yet another strong case for continued employment. He finished 5th after starting all the way back in 22nd.

Among the drivers with surprising top-ten runs are seventh place Mario Moraes, eighth place Alex Tagliani, and ninth place John Andretti. Moraes, picking up where he left off last season, passed Tagliani on the last lap. Andretti ran his first open-wheel race other than the Indianapolis 500 in nearly two decades, and improved eight spots from his qualifying position.

IndyCar Race Preview: Road Runner Turbo Indy 300

With the first road course segment of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season in the books, its stars and cars will begin a segment of oval runs that runs into the early summer. Kansas Speedway serves as the lone oval tune-up for the Indianapolis 500, and the lone information gathering weekend for the race.

Of course, what little we do know came when the weather cooperated, as rain sabotaged testing last weekend and early practice sessions this weekend. Ryan Briscoe won the pole, attempting to assert his presence on Team Penske after falling somewhat off the pace of his teammates in points. Immediately behind him, however, were his Ganassi rivals, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

Qualifying fourth is Hideki Mutoh, as Newman/Haas Racing returns to a track at which it won a pole with Graham Rahal last year. Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, was Alex Tagliani's fifth place run, further asserting FAZZT Race Team as a legitimate contender in the series.

Three drivers will be making their oval track debuts on Saturday. Takuma Sato will start 11th, Simona de Silvestro will line up 18th, and Bertrand Baguette will begin in the 19th spot.