A fifth placing in the Firestone Indy 400 moved New Zealand driver Scott Dixon to a one-point lead in the Indy Racing League.
Brazil's Tony Kanaan had led the standings on 303 points but after engine problems forced him to quit at the Michigan International Speedway yesterday, it left the door
open for fellow Brazilian Gil de Ferran, who was second on the table with 289, and Dixon, a point back.
Dixon started second on the grid behind his South African-born team-mate Tomas Scheckter in the 200-lap, 643.7km race.
He was always mixing it in the top five throughout but his Toyota-powered car didn't look to have the power to take the lead outright.
However, Dixon still managed to finish two places ahead of de Ferran to grab enough points to give him the series lead in his rookie year of IRL racing.
"It feels great to get the points lead heading into this week off," Dixon said.
"It was a lot of fun out there. I really enjoyed racing with all of those guys.
"It was good clean racing and obviously we wanted to win the race, but we got a lot of points and had a strong finish."
The race was won by American Alex Barron, who snatched victory right on the finishing line from Sam Hornish jun in the fourth closest finish in IRL history. Scheckter was third.
* Dixon's next race is the Emerson Indy 250 in St Louis on August 10.
- NZPA
