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Dixon champion in Chicago

The final points race of the 2008 IndyCar World Series could not have been more exciting. After a thrilling 200-lap affair, Team Penske's Helio Castroneves came from the back of the grid to hold off Target Chip Ganassi's Scott Dixon by a mere 0.0033 seconds, in what is the second-closest IndyCar finish in history.

Dixon was first shown as the winner by 0.001 seconds, but the finish photo clearly showed Castroneves’ nose crossed the line first. Dixon's second place was more than enough to secure his second IndyCar title, after claiming the championship in 2003 on his first attempt.

However, things didn't always look that bright for the New Zealander. After a spectacular charge through the field, Castroneves – who was put to the back of the field after illegaly crossing the white line at the bottom of the track in qualifying - found himself in first position after 77 of the 200 laps, at a time Dixon had a difficult stint and dropped down to ninth.

That position would not be enough to take the title in case of a Castroneves win. However, Dixon had a strong recovery in the second half of the race to get back into contention for the lead.

Behind the leading pair, Ryan Briscoe took third after being in the top-five the entire race, as did AGR's Tony Kanaan who finished fourth. KV's Will Power made the most of the many accidents to sneak into fifth position, beating Dan Wheldon who long looked like one of the main contenders for the win.

Darren Manning scored a strong seventh position for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, while Americans Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Danica Patrick complete the top ten. Patrick was another driver to have a strong run and challenge for victory, but a green flag pit stop made her drop down the order. Justin Wilson's eleventh spot was not enough to unsettle a struggling Hideki Mutoh (22nd) for the title of rookie of the year, as the Japanese driver stays six points ahead in the standings.

Scott Dixon was far from the only driver to be in a position to keep Castroneves from the victory. Up to eight drivers challenged for the lead at one time as the racing got as close and exciting as ever before.

While Castroneves, Briscoe and Wheldon fought out a sensational three wide battle for over three laps long, E.J. Viso, Tomas Scheckter, A.J. Foyt IV, Graham Rahal, Vitor Meira and Mario Moraes all had strong runs into the top-eight, but all of them hit trouble at some part of the race and failed to finish.

For Vitor Meira this means a disappointing end to his career at Panther Racing. Earlier, also Ed Carpenter saw a great result end in the wall. Tomas Scheckter retired with a damaged floor plate after collecting debris and E.J. Viso went off in turn four after running as high as seventh after starting down in 26th. Mario Moraes was on for a strong result before he spun and got into the wall backwards.

One of the other incidents to cause one of the seven full-course yellows was Sarah Fisher's contact with the wall, right after Buddy Rice got hit by Graham Rahal on pit road, resulting in a retirement for Rice and a penalty for Rahal, who was to end up in the wall as well. Finally, A.J. Foyt spun onto the grass on the last lap coming onto the front straight, throwing away a good top-ten result.

Eventually, Scott Dixon clinches a well-deserved championship for Target Chip Ganassi with six race wins and keeps an advantage of 17 points over Helio Castroneves, whose impressive late-season run came a little too late. Nevertheless the Brazilian had a very consistent season with two wins and eight runner-up positions.

And thus the IndyCar series got a season finale it could only have dreamed of, with some of the best racing the series has ever seen and the two championship protagonists fighting it out for the second-closest finish of all time.

Full results on the official website.

Filip Cleeren

Written: Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:06:55