New Zealand driver Scott Dixon held on to sixth place in the Indy Racing League standings with a top 10 finish in Sunday's Nashville 200 in Tennessee.
The defending IRL champion started from eighth on the grid and finished eighth after briefly slipping back.
Brazil's Tony Kanaan took his third victory of
the season, taking advantage of teammate Dan Wheldon's tyre problems.
American Sam Hornish Jr took second and Brazil's Helio Castroneves finished third.
"Considering some of the challenges we overcame throughout the race, I'll take the eighth place finish," said Dixon, who struggled with clutch and understeer problems.
"We took a gamble not to change our tyres on the third stop and I made up a few positions that way.
"But on the last restart, I could see that the left rear was getting down to the cords so we came in for new tyres.
"All in all we're happy with our effort.
"We'll take all the positive and get set to improve on this result in Milwaukee."
The Milwaukee round of the IRL is next Monday (NZ time).
- NZPA
