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Dixon First-Time Winner In Long Beach

Top 3 on podium with Juan Pablo Montoya on left, winner Scott Dixon in middle and Helio Castroneves on right. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Top 3 on podium with Juan Pablo Montoya on left, winner Scott Dixon in middle and Helio Castroneves on right. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Long Beach, Calif. – It took Scott Dixon nine tries to be successful but the wait was worth it as he powered to victory today in the 41st running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Driving the Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, the New Zealand native took over the lead on the 34th lap and held the premier position for 44 of the final 47 laps.

Dixon’s fortune was aided during a pit stop on lap 29 when early leader Helio Castroneves was momentarily held up due to pit congestion. At the time, Jack Hawksworth was in the front due to ongoing fuel stops.
Castroneves ended up second 2.2221 seconds behind Dixon.

The win by Dixon is the 36th of his Indy car career, breaking a tie with Bobby Unser for fifth on the all-time list. Al Unser holds down fourth with 39 wins.

Today’s win is the 98th in Indy cars for the Ganassi team.

Said the smiling winner, “It feels spectacular to win, and it feels amazing to be on top here as we have had bad luck in the past. Today we got the job done properly. This team has had great success in the past. It was nice to start the weekend properly as the car and race conditions were great.

“At the start, Juan (Montoya) crowded me on the left, which gave me an opportunity to go around him on the outside going into turn 1 and was a key move. And on the first pit stop exchange with Tony Kanaan and Helio (Castroneves) opened up a position for me to pass Helio. Obviously, TK didn’t do it on purpose and that’s just the way it happens, and it helped out our scenario. Helio’s car and ours were very close speed-wise, depending on what fuel strategies were being followed.”

Castroneves took second in the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet owned by Team Penske. And he finished runner-up for the 37th time in his career, which ties him for second place with Bobby Rahal. Mario Andretti holds down first place with 56 second places.

“On this warm day, the track was constantly changing,” Castroneves said. “My car was awesome and we were pretty good all the way. The lap times were all real close. It is a chess game today and the circumstance that happened for us was a little bit of bad luck. But it is better to be safe than sorry.”

St. Petersburg winner Juan Pablo Montoya took third and was in the hunt throughout.

Simon Pagenaud in another Team Penske entry ended up fourth after challenging Montoya in the final stages of the race.

Tony Kanaan earned fifth place.

Rounding out the top-10 finishers was Sebastien Bourdais, Josef Newgarden, teammates Marco Andretti and Carlos Munoz and Sebastian Saavedra.

Will Power ended up 20th after causing the race’s only caution flag when he stalled at the pit entrance.

Super-sub Conor Daly finished a creditable 17th after taking over the Dale Coyne car after Rocky Moran, Jr. broke his thumb in a practice crash on Friday.

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