Indianapolis, IN ( May 25 )…….Scott Dixon not only started from the pole , led the most laps , but also won the race , putting his name for the first time on the Borg-Warner trophy. Driving the red Target #9 for Target-Chip Ganassi Racing, the Auckland, New Zealand driver bested over Vitor Meira, Marco Andretti and Helio Castroneves.

The winner commented , “ What a day, man. I just couldn’t believe it. You just thought something was going to go wrong. I’ve got to thank my wife, for sure. She’s put up with my moods. What a day. We seemed to have a good car. We just had to hold on to it and stay ahead of those guys on restarts. You’re a sitting duck. There are so many yellows. It was so hard to get rhythm.”

In a single car effort for Panther Racing, Meira had these comments: “We really, really prepared the car and everything was according to plan. But things didn’t really happen our way. We finished second, but you know what, this is a very good result compared to the struggle we had last year and at the beginning of this season.

Pole sitter, Dixon led the first lap over his teammate Dan Wheldon. The lead car at the end of the first lap has gone on to win the race only 16 times in the 91 previous running of the 500. Wheldon would pass Dixon for the lead on lap three while Thomas Scheckter was the car advancing to the front from his fourth row starting spot.

The first caution period occurred on lap 8 for debris on the track. It was the right side mirror from the #18 of Bruno Junqueira. The whole field would take advantage of this caution to pit except for Junqueira, Buddy Rice, Justin Wilson and Sara Fisher. Junqueira, who is charged with causing the caution, leads his first lap at Indy since 2005, but would have to pit for a considerable time because Indy Racing League require the cars to have both mirrors in place. Sara Fisher would spin entering turn 3 on cold tires and comes to rest in the grass area. She was able to get refired as former race winner Buddy Rice is the official leader. Rice would pit on lap 33 along with Wilson.

The race’s second caution came out for Graham Rahal who exits turn 4 too high , trying to avoid the pitting car of Alex Lloyd, and makes moderate contact with the Safer Barrier with the car’s right side. He climbed from the car with assistance of the Delphi Safety Team and sent to the infield care center for the mandatory check up.

Rahal, the youngest driver in the field at age 19, was the first car out of the field, while Marty Roth, the oldest driver at age 49, was the second driver out when his car hit the 4^th turn wall on lap 61. The Canadian driver said, “ I just was going around ( Buddy ) Lazier on the outside of him and just got caught up in the marbles and just went for a ride.”

Rookie Jamie Camara hit the wall in the south chute and continued on hitting the 2^nd turn wall in his Sangari Racing effort on lap 80 causing another caution. Thirty-nine of the first 90 laps were run under caution.

Dixon was leading his teammate Wheldon followed by Tony Kanaan. Kanaan would pass both Target cars and take the lead on lap 94. He would then become the first driver in history to lead seven consecutive Indianapolis 500 mile races . He previous shared the record with former winner Rick Mears. Kanaan has led every Indy 500 in which he has competed.

His day would end on lap 104 however, when he briefly touched the wall in turn 3 while battling with his teammate Marco Andretti. He did a quarter-spin into the middle of the track where he was t-boned by the #67 of Sara Fisher. Both cars came to rest on the inside of the track and both drivers were able to climb out of their cars without assistance.

Fisher said , “ It was just racing. Tony was racing real hard for the lead and got high and just spun right there in front of me. I think I got him in the intrusion panel, so it’s a good thing they update these cars every year so he can walk away fine. It was just a terrible day. It just wasn’t our day. The guys worked so hard this month and put together such a good race car. It was great on the track; we just messed up the start, messed up the parade lap. It just wasn’t our day.”

Fisher was the only car not able to pull away when the engines were fired on the front stretch. The crew reported the neutral safety switch accidentally turned on. She also spun under caution on lap #13 having just pitted for fresh tires.

Another rookie driver, Justin Wilson caused a caution on lap #133 when he spun between turn 1 and 2 and made contact with the SAFER barrier with the rear wing. Almost the entire field elected to pit and Andretti won the race off pit row while Ed Carpenter experienced a long stop when the air jacks on his car failed. Mario Moraes took the lead on lap 136 to become the 56^th driver to lead the Indy 500 in his first start and became the 193^rd different driver to lead the race. On lap #139, both Andretti and Dixon pass Moreas as the cars go three wide at the start finish line.

The yellow flag comes out again on lap #153, when rookie Alex Lloyd made contact with the turn #4 outside wall then did a full spin across the track and make contact with the inside wall in pit lane. As the car slides down pit lane, it knocks down the pit entry cones before coming to rest in the middle of pit lane.

On lap # 169, Milka Duno got into the grass in turn #3 and spun bringing out the yellow flag again. She climbed from the car which only had flat tires as a result of the spin and would later rejoin the field to finish 19^th.

During the round of pit stops, Danica Patrick and Ryan Briscoe collided while exiting the pit lane. Both cars stopped and were knocked out of the race as a result of the contact. This marks the first time that Patrick has failed to finish on the lead lap in her previous four Indy 500’s. Patrick was not very happy blaming Briscoe later for taking too wide an exit from his pit area. She headed to confront the Penske driver, but was headed off by series security.

Patrick viewed the incident this way, “ I was going down the pit lane and as people pull out of their boxes, if you are in the outside lane, then they have to wait to blend in. From what I know, it looked like it was pretty obvious what happened. What are you going to do?”.

Briscoe commented, “ It’s a real shame. I just saw the replay and it confirmed by thoughts. We were both trying to win the Indy 500 today and when it’s time to go, you have to go. But from what I can see, there was still plenty of room on the right side for her to get around and there are people pointing fingers, but that’s not the way we are.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay in the 6^th position was the highest placed rookie driver.

Twenty one cars finished the race, with the car of AJ Foyt IV, the last car on the track. He experienced a car fire during a pit stop but was later able to join the field. He complete 180 laps for Vison Racing.

A large crowd was on hand for an enjoyable day , which saw the unification of open wheel racing, bringing new faces to the Brickyard track and having the return of some drivers who have not raced in the world’s greatest race since 1979.

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