Scott Dixon wins 92nd Indianapolis 500

Scott Dixon won the 92nd Indianapolis 500 on Sunday from pole in an eventful race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Vitor Meira finished second, 1.7498 seconds behind Dixon. Marco Andretti finished third. It is Dixon's first win after coming in second last year.

"It's such a strange feeling, and for me, I don't show emotions too much," said Dixon, hence the nickname Iceman. "It's almost like you're in a dreamland. It feels so special. I think the parade lap and seeing everybody still out there yelling your name was something that I wish I had witnessed previous to now. But it makes you want to go and win this race once again."

Dixon might have started from the pole position and led a field-high 115 laps (the most since Juan Pablo Montoya's 167 in 2000), but it was anything but a clear path to his first trip to Victory Circle in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." There were 18 lead changes over the 200 laps and enough potential pot holes on the way to Victory Circle to swallow the Honda-powered Dallara whole.

During the race, there were eight caution periods, and it was during a Lap 171 final pit stop under caution that Dixon was able to move in front for good when the over-the-wall crew changed four tires and added 22 gallons of 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol in less than 9 seconds. He exited pit lane ahead of all challengers.

"I was trying to save fuel, and I was trying to see how the car was in traffic," said Dixon, who presented team owner Chip Ganassi his third 500-Mile Race victory. "We were trying to work on it the whole time. I think we had a little too much drag in it. But coming toward the end, as long as we got a good jump on those guys, I don't think anyone was going to get past us. The Target guys did a fantastic job."

Marco Andretti, who finished second as a rookie in 2006, checked in third in the No. 26 Indiana Jones car for Andretti Green Racing. Two-time winner Helio Castroneves finished fourth, and Ed Carpenter advanced five spots for a career-high fifth in the "500." Rahal Letterman Racing's Ryan Hunter-Reay was sixth and another rookie, Hideki Mutoh, finished seventh.

"Fourth place, definitely not what we expected," said Castroneves, who started in the fourth position in the No. 3 Team Penske car and claimed his seventh top-10 finish in eight starts. "We tried everything we could. We had a little issue with the debris. I was trying to avoid a slow car; I slammed on the brakes instead of hitting him. I pulled away and a piece of the debris hit my front wing so we had to stop to change that.

"Now let's think about the championship. Scott did an excellent job. Ganassi seems to be the favorite team right now, but, hey, the championship is still a long way, and we're going to continue working hard."

Dixon's main competition early on came from teammate Dan Wheldon, who started in the middle of Row 1. Wheldon, the 2005 Indianapolis 500 winner, and Dixon exchanged the lead three times. Together, the Ganassi cars led 145 laps. After Wheldon's car started handling poorly in the middle of the race (he finished 12th), Andretti and Meira rose up to challenge Dixon.

Andretti led twice for 15 laps, and Meira took the lead on Lap 160 on a restart when he sliced between Dixon and Carpenter heading into Turn 1.

There were six crashes during the race involving seven drivers (no injuries), with the most celebrated being contact on pit lane between the Nos. 6 and 7 cars of Ryan Briscoe and Danica Patrick. On the Lap 171 pit rounds, Briscoe's right-rear tire touched Patrick's left-rear as they neared the warm-up lane. Briscoe, who started on the outside of the front row, and Patrick were running in the top eight.

The complete results are here: http://www.indy500.com/images/pdf/20080525-indy.pdf