KEY POINTS:
I remember watching Scott Dixon win his 2003 IRL IndyCar title as a rookie and being on the edge of my seat. There were five drivers in with a chance to nab the title. He won three races that year to win the championship so you'd have thought
that with a record-equalling six race wins in the 2008 season, he'd be a shoe-in for his second title. Not so.
Just like last year it all came down to the same last race. However, unlike 2007 when he ran out of gas and watched Dario Franchitti sail past to win the series, Dixon was 30 points up on Helio Castroneves. The Penske driver was the only bloke who could conceivably beat him and he'd only won one race all year.
To make Dixon's win yesterday even more bizarre, back in 2003 the series also came down to the last race. Not only was Castroneves in the hunt for the title back then, but Dixon finished second in Texas to win the championship. It must have been ordained he'd do it again.
This year Dixon really seemed to have the bit between his teeth and a single-minded focus to win. His car broke at St Petersburg but as that was only the second race of the season, who cared, it's better to have a failure early, rather than later in the season.
I didn't mind him losing to a girl when Danica Patrick won in Japan, as the consensus was she drove so slowly, she had plenty of fuel left and didn't have to pit when all the others did.
I did have a bit of a faith speed-wobble after Castroneves chomped 48 points out Dixon's 78-point series lead in the two races before the finale in Chicago.
However, I kept the faith and sure enough in Chicago, the race for the title appeared to be over before it had begun. Castroneves was pinged for dropping below the white line during qualifying and relegated to the back of the grid while Dixon sat on the front row.
Dixon settled into third early on and there was no sign of Castroneves. It wasn't long, though, before Dixon began dropping down the field, as far as 10th at one stage.
And low-and-behold, Castroneves drove through the pack like Ben Johnson on a double dose of steroids to eventually lead with Dixon back in eighth at the halfway stage, good enough for him to win the title though.
But then Dixon serenely worked his way, with some good help from his pit, to lead with 10 laps to go.
After a sprint to the end Castroneves took the win by the second-closest finish in IndyCar history, 0.0033 seconds.
What with last year's nail-biting finish, the Indy500 win this year and the close run home, the boy from Auckland eventually gets his title win after 17 rounds of hard and fast racing.
Take a bow, Dixon the Dominator.