All the Right Moves

Dixon Navigates Trouble For Indianapolis 500 Victory

INDIANAPOLIS, May 25 -- Over the final laps of Sunday's crash-filled Indianapolis 500, Scott Dixon showed exactly why he's known as the "The Iceman."

Dixon remained cool under the most extreme pressure, deftly navigating lapped traffic and holding off a hard-charging Vitor Meira for his breakthrough victory at the Brickyard in the race's 92nd running, the first since open-wheel racing's reunification in February.

Meira, driving for under-funded Panther Racing, finished a surprising second, 1.7 seconds behind Dixon, and a fraction of a second in front of third-place finisher Marco Andretti in a disjointed race slowed by eight cautions for a total of 69 laps.

"I was worried going into the race because we had such a smooth month," said Dixon, who led the most laps (115) and became the 19th driver to win from the pole. "I was just sort of waiting for something to go wrong . . . a bad pit stop or a problem of some sort mechanically that's going to take you out of it."

The problem Dixon feared, however, never materialized.

The 27-year-old pulled out ahead of Meira on the final round of pit stops and held on to score the first victory for a driver from New Zealand. The race featured only one position change in the top five over the final 24 laps. But that's not to say it was easy.

"With about four or five laps to go, the traffic was definitely going through my mind," Dixon said. "Because as soon as you lose momentum around here, those guys are breathing down your neck."

Sunday, though, was as much about who didn't win as who did. Tony Kanaan, one of the prerace favorites, was critical of Andretti, his teammate, for an impatient move that contributed to knocking him out of the race near the midpoint.

Fan favorite Danica Patrick also experienced a major disappointment, failing to finish here for the first time in four career starts. She started in the middle of the second row and placed 22nd after battling a poor-handling car for the entire afternoon, then was knocked out of the race by a pit road accident. At one point midway, Patrick chastised her team over the radio, exclaiming, "I am sloooooow."

Her day ended prematurely when Ryan Briscoe swerved out of his pit stall and clipped Patrick's passing car on the left rear wheel. Patrick's car suffered damage to the suspension with 29 laps remaining. Patrick climbed out of her wrecked car, then stalked angrily down pit road toward Briscoe, who was still sitting in his car as it was repaired. Patrick, though, was headed off by Indy Racing League security before she reached Briscoe.

"From what I know, it looked like it was pretty obvious what happened," said Patrick, who was then asked what she had in mind when she walked toward Briscoe. "It's probably best I didn't get down there anyway, isn't it? . . .

"You don't just come out of your pit box and swing three lanes out. That's why there is a 'get up to speed lane' and an 'at speed lane'. I was at speed."