Scott Dixon Wins 92nd Indianapolis 500-mile Race
Written by Allan Brewer · May 25, 2008
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon won the 2008 Indianapolis 500 on Sunday (May 25th) capping a month-long demonstration of speed that eventually overwhelmed every challenger.
Dixon’s win was a career first for him at Indy, in his sixth ‘500′ start.
“The whole month has been good,” said Dixon. “A lot of people have worked hard on these cars to make them fast. It’s hard work and the team has been unstoppable because of it.”
“There were so many yellows (eight) it was hard to get a rhythm. Toward the end I didn’t think anyone could pass me. The team did a fantastic job.”
The win is the third Indianapolis 500 victory for team owner Chip Ganassi. “That milk tasted mighty good!” said Ganassi from the dais in the press room afterwards.
Second-place Vitor Meira of Panther Racing celebrated his finish as a triumph for his team which has struggled over the last year to compete with the ‘Big 3′ teams on the grid: Ganassi, Andretti Green Racing and Team Penske.
“This is the right place for everything to come back together,” said tiny Vitor, who owns a second-place finish in the race from 2005 to Dan Wheldon.
“My crew put me in front (of third-place finisher Marco Andretti) with the pit stops. Everbody did their best and focused on the race this year.”
Andretti took a familiar stance on his finish, claiming he and the team will mull the results and “find out why we lost this race.”
“With all the downforce we were running I wasn’t going to beat (Dixon) anyway,” he continued. “If we made a mistake we need to fix it, and try again.”
Andretti was the instigator of one incident in-race with teammate Tony Kanaan, sliding under the Brazilian in Turn 3 and forcing him high onto the marbles to crash.
“I had a run on Tony and I went for it,” said Andretti in rebuttal to Kanaan’s on-air complaints that the move was “stupid.”
Penske’s Helio Castroneves was fourth, and Vision Racing’s Ed Carpenter finished the race in fifth place.
Ryan Hunter-Reay of Rahal Letterman Racing finished best among the eleven rookies, bringing home a sixth-place finish in his first Indianapolis 500-mile race.
Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe fueled outrage from Danica Patrick when he pulled into the Motegi race-winner as both left the pits late in the race. Patrick was still in contention for the win, while Briscoe had fallen a lap behind at the time.
Patrick climbed out of her car after an attempt by the AGR team to put her back on-track, and stalked down the pitlane toward Briscoe’s pit (approximately ten pitboxes south of her own) intent on ‘discussing’ the incident with the Australian driver. IndyCar security personnel diverted her back to her own stall to consider her options out of the public eye.
Scott Dixon owns the lead in the IndyCar championship chase with a fifteen point cushion over Helio Castroneves. Dixon has 191 points, Castroneves 176 and Dan Wheldon is third, with 153 points.
The IndyCar Series hits the road destined for the Milwaukee Mile next weekend. The one-mile oval hosts the teams and drivers for three days, culminating in the A J Foyt 225 race on Sunday (June 1st).
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