Scott Dixon Wins at Milwaukee Mile

Scott Dixon waited patiently until he saw a gap and charged to the victory in the IRL IndyCar Milwaukee Mile.
Scott Dixon Wins at Milwaukee Mile
6/1/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/milmile88084843.jpg" alt="Scott Dixon celebrates winning the IRL IndyCar Series ABC Supply/A.J.Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile. (Darrell Ingham/Getty Images)" title="Scott Dixon celebrates winning the IRL IndyCar Series ABC Supply/A.J.Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile. (Darrell Ingham/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1828070"/></a>
Scott Dixon celebrates winning the IRL IndyCar Series ABC Supply/A.J.Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile. (Darrell Ingham/Getty Images)
Series Champion Scott Dixon was content to stay in second for most of the race, conserving fuel and avoiding incidents, until the final 25 laps of the ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile. Then his crew turned him loose and he turned on the speed, winning his second race of the season

“It was tough … what a long race,” Dixon said afterwards. “I am just so stoked that we won here at the Milwaukee Mile.”

The Milwaukee Mile is one of the oldest tracks in the country; it has been hosting races since 1903. The quick, one-mile oval is challenging because the leaders hit lapped traffic early in the race, and have to negotiate slower cars throughout most of the race. Winning driver need to look far ahead and set up passes well in advance, depending on where the slower cars might be.

“That’s the problem of the whole day, “Scott Dixon explained. You’ve got to try and get a clean way through traffic.”

Scott Dixon trailed pole-sitting Penske driver Ryan Briscoe until lap 195, when Dixon’s team told him he had enough fuel to go all-out to the finish. Still, Dixon waited patiently, waiting for lapped traffic to give him an advantage. On lap 210, Dixon saw his chance when the leading pair approached Tomas Schecter, one lap down. Briscoe hesitated for a fraction of a second before dropping inside Schecter; Dixon dropped underneath both and managed to squeeze past into the lead.

“I actually had a run on him [Ryan Briscoe] several times, and he ran me to the bottom there,” Dixon explained. “That’s how I got him. He tried to go below, I got a run high and then I got him underneath him going into Three.”

Once in the lead, Dixon pulled away by a three-second margin. Ryan Briscoe, working against growing understeer, was not able to catch Dixon, but he was able to hold off Dixon’s teammate Dario Franchitti.

Graham Rahal, who started strong but had trouble managing traffic, found his stride in the final two dozen laps, and finished fourth, only a few seconds behind Franchitti.

“I can think of three or four opportunities I had to go underneath (Ryan) Briscoe and Dixie (Scott Dixon) and Dario (Franchitti), and I lifted every time just because it was early (in the race), “Rahal said. “I didn’t foresee that with six laps to go there was going to be so many lapped cars between us.

“We definitely had the pace. I don’t think there was anyone quicker than we were.”

Danica Patrick rounded out the top five, the fourth race this season in which she has finished fifth or better.

Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves crashed in qualifying and had to start last. Many thought his charge to the front would be the highlight of the race, but it was not to be. Helio battled all day with an ill-handling car, finally finishing two laps down in 11th.

“We didn’t have much, unfortunately,” he said. “This was one of those days when you ask how many laps left to go, and it’s like ‘743 left.’ ‘What!?’ It was one of those days that never ends; it was a long day for us.”

Tony Kanaan, driving with severely injured ribs after his 195 g crash at Indy, took the lead on the first lap and led until Ryan Briscoe passed him on lap 26. From there his day went downhill, as his car understeered worse with each passing lap until lap 135, when he pulled into the pits with smoke billowing from his car. He had to be helped from the cockpit while the fire crew fought the flames. His day was over.

“It was a tough day for the No. 11 team, Kanaan said after the race. “We had such a strong car, and I was confident that we would have a strong finish. We don’t know what happened to the car, it caught fire, so we need to do some research on that situation. It was a hard month, and I was hoping we would bounce back with a great race here, but unfortunately that was not the case.”

The win gave Scott Dixon a small lead in the Championship with Ryan Briscoe and Dario Franchitti tied for second. Danica Patrick moved up to fourth, while Helio Castroneves fell back to fifth position.

The next IRL IndyCar race will be the Bombardier Learjet 550 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, June 6. Please visit http://www.texasmotorspeedway.com for ticket information.

 

 

The Milwaukee Mile Race Results

Pos.

No

Driver

Team

Status

Pts

1

9

Scott Dixon

Target Chip Ganassi Racing

Running

50

2

6

Ryan Briscoe

Team Penske

Running

43

3

10

Dario Franchitti

TOM TOM

Running

35

4

02

Graham Rahal

McDonald’s Racing Team

Running

32

5

7

Danica Patrick

Boost Mobile/Motorola

Running

30

6

2

Raphael Matos

US Marines Luczo Dragon Racing

Running

28

7

26

Marco Andretti

Team Venom Energy

Running

26

8

27

Hideki Mutoh

Formula Dream

Running

24

9

5

Mario Moraes

KV Racing Technology/Votorantim

Running

22

10

4

Dan Wheldon

National Guard Panther Racing

Running

20

11

3

Helio Castroneves

Team Penske

Running

19

12

21

Ryan Hunter-Reay

IZOD/WilliamRast/Vision Racing

Running

18

13

23

Tomas Scheckter

Charter/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Running

17

14

06

Robert Doornbos

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing

Running

16

15

18

Justin Wilson

Z-Line Designs

Running

15

16

20

Ed Carpenter

Menards/Vision Racing

Running

14

17

14

Paul Tracy

ABC Supply Co. AJ Foyt Racing

Running

13

18

13

E.J. Viso

PDVSA HVM Racing

Mechanical

12

19

11

Tony Kanaan

Team 7-Eleven

Mechanical

12

20

24

Mike Conway

Roll Coater Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Contact

12

  

Championship Points

Place

Driver

Points

Gap

1

Scott Dixon

161

 

2

Dario Franchitti

157

4

3

Ryan Briscoe

157

4

4

Danica Patrick

139

22

5

Helio Castroneves

136

25

6

Dan Wheldon

126

35

7

Tony Kanaan

122

39

8

Graham Rahal

114

47

9

Marco Andretti

109

52

10

Ryan Hunter-Reay

102

59