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Hey 19: Dixon ties IndyCar win record at Richmond

Sat 27th, June 2009

Richmond, VA (Sports Network) - Scott Dixon tied Sam Hornish Jr.'s record for most career IndyCar Series victories with 19 by winning Saturday's SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway.

Dixon, the defending series champion, capitalized on a pit stop midway through the race when he and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti were prepared to make their stops but aborted at the last second when the caution flag waved for an incident involving rookie Mike Conway. Graham Rahal also did not pit before the caution.

Franchitti held the lead at the time, with Dixon in the second spot. Both drivers made their stops during the caution, but Franchitti had to pit again for fuel, which allowed Dixon to take over the lead.

Dixon, Franchitti and Rahal also benefited from a late-race caution. All three drivers had yet to pit before Helio Castroneves got too high up the track and scraped the wall along the backstretch, forcing the yellow flag to be displayed with 52 laps remaining.

"Today was about patience," Dixon said after leading the final 161 laps. "I got to hand it to Dario. He was making it exciting on those first few stints. We saved more fuel than him, and he got caught up on that yellow, and that's when we jumped him."

Dixon's 19th victory came in his 104th start - one less than Hornish, who made 116 career starts in the series before moving over to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series after the 2007 season.

Franchitti finished second, giving Ganassi its first one-two finish since July 2008 at Nashville. Dixon won the rain-shortened event there, with his then teammate Dan Wheldon coming in second.

"We had to come in for fuel, and it was such a track position race that no one could pass you," Franchitti said. "I really apologize to the fans, because that was a dreadful race."

Rahal ended up with a third-place finish, while Hideki Mutoh came in fourth. Danica Patrick's fifth place run marked her fifth top-five finish in the last eight races.

Franchitti captured the lead in the championship standings with only a one- point advantage over Dixon.

"We were one-two here, and it was huge points day for us since both Penske cars didn't finish," Dixon said.

Ryan Briscoe entered the race as the points leader, but Briscoe spun coming out of turn two and backed it into the wall in the early stages. He ended up with a 19th-place finish.

"It was totally unexpected," Briscoe said. "The car just snapped on me and caught me by surprise."

Castroneves wound up in 17th place. The last time both Penske cars failed to finish a race occurred in 2007 at Michigan.