Motorsport: Dixon still a hot Indy 500 tip despite poor grid slot

Scott Dixon may be starting from the second row on the Brickyard's grid for Monday morning's (NZt) Indy 500 race at Indianapolis, but for American and New Zealand bookies, the in-form New Zealander driver is a strong chance to be slurping from the winner's milk bottle at the end of the race.

Returning to ovals for the first time this season, Dixon won at Kansas, routing the opposition by leading for 167 laps of the 200 lap-race.

The May 1 win saw him surging three spots up the Indycar standings to be second, 26 points behind Australian Will Power.

The previous four rounds were on road and street circuits where Dixon had a best finish of second in the third round at Alabama.

Significantly, he has finished higher than his grid position this season with the exception of the second round at St Petersburg, Florida, when he started third and finished 18th.

Other statistics heavily back the ultra-consistent "Iceman", whose 22 wins in 112 career starts is the best ratio among active Indycar drivers.

He has recorded 30 consecutive top-10 finishes on oval tracks since 2007 and won 12 of those, including the 2008 Indy 500.

Dixon's Indy 500 record from seven starts is perhaps not as impressive. Aside from the 2008 win, his only other top five finish was second in 2007.

He finished sixth last year after leading for 73 laps. A slow final pit stop robbed him of the chance of catching canny Brazilian Helio Castroneves who passed him for the lead on the 142nd lap.

"Success (at Kansas) for us has been fantastic," Dixon told FoxSports recently. "I hope we can carry this momentum for another 30 days."

And forget Dixon's grid position - he looked strong when running with race-level aerodynamic downforce through the practice days.

Dixon isn't too worried about qualifying sixth fastest.

"We didn't get the pole. The pole is not the end-all to the race. You've had cars win from rows four or five. For us, we're here to finish first on race day."

Various US bookies, as has the New Zealand TAB, have installed Castroneves favourite to win for the second year running but Dixon is not far behind with Australians Ryan Briscoe and Power as well as Target Ganassi teammate Dario Franchitti amongst the leading favourites.

The TAB has Castroneves, also a winner in 2001 and 2002, at $3.75, Dixon $4.25, Franchitti $5.50 and Briscoe $6.50.

Dixon said winning the Indy 500 will be due to taking care of the "small things".

"I know our big deal this year is... making the car as slick as possible in the air, which is a huge push for Indy," Dixon told AP.

"It's not five big things.

"It's 20 small things that make up those five big things. It's definitely attention to detail that I believe that's gotten these teams to where they're at."

While Dixon will be relying on error-free pitstops from his crew, he will have control on the road with his boost button for overtaking.

Drivers get 15 hits of the button that will last 18 seconds each time, and it will take 10 seconds off-boost before it can be used again.

With the length of the straights at the Indianapolis oval, when a driver chooses to use it can make a huge difference to the outcome.

For the race, Dixon appears to be leaning towards running lighter downforce than previously planned.

"We started out with a set-up that we thought might be quite good, but it wasn't very good to drive.

"We ended pretty decent - we were on the lighter side of downforce, but that's where we need to be to race at the front of the pack."

Dixon's plan will be simple - make a charge to the front from the start and then control the race from there.

With luck, it could just end with a drink from the winner's milk bottle and the magnificent Borg-Warner Trophy for a second time.

Indy 500 factbox

Some facts about Monday morning's (NZt) Indy 500 motor race at Indianapolis:

* Scott Dixon's Indycar record this season: 5 starts, 1 win 3 top 5s 4 top 10s.

* Career statistics (CART and Indycars): 157 starts, 23 wins, 17 poles, 72 top 5s, 108 top 10s.

* Indycar series champion 2003 and 2008. Indy 500 winner 2008.

Indy 500 champions since 2000

2009 - Helio Castroneves (Brazil); 2008 - Scott Dixon (New Zealand); 2007 - Dario Franchitti (Britain); 2006 - Sam Hornish Jr (US); 2005 - Dan Wheldon (Britain); 2004 Buddy Rice (US); 2003 - Gil de Ferran (Brazil); 2002 - Castroneves; 2001 - Castroneves; 2000 - Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia).

The 2010 Indy 500 grid

Row 1 - Helio Castroneves; Will Power; Dario Franchitti
Row 2 - Ryan Briscoe; Alex Tagliani; Scott Dixon
Row 3 - Graham Rahal; Ed Carpenter; Hideki Mutoh
Row 4 - Townsend Bell; Justin Wilson; Raphael Matos
Row 5 - Mario Moraes; Davey Hamilton; Mike Conway
Row 6 - Marco Andretti; Ryan Hunter-Reay; Dan Wheldon
Row 7 - E.J. Viso; Tomas Scheckter; Ana Beatriz
Row 8 - Simona De Silvestro; Danica Patrick; Bertrand Baguette
Row 9 - Bruno Junqueira; Alex Lloyd; Mario Romancini.
Row 10 - John Andretti; Sarah Fisher; Vitor Meira
Row 11 - Takuma Sato; Sebastian Saavedra; Tony Kanaan.

- NZPA

- NZPA