2007 Mid-Ohio race winner and recent Indianapolis 500 champion Scott Dixon sits atop the Series' driver point standings, 63 points ahead of Team Penske's Helio Castroneves. Dixon, last year's IndyCar Series Championship runner-up, has secured four race wins and five poles and will look to increase his lead not only over Castroneves, but also Target Chip Ganassi teammate Dan Wheldon who sits in third, and Andretti Green Racing's foursome of Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick, Hideki Mutoh and Marco Andretti.
"As always I look forward to going to road courses during the season and more so when it is a race that we won last year," said Scott Dixon. "Mid-Ohio is a very challenging track and requires a lot of emphasis on qualifying well. I hope to improve on our qualifying from last year. We tested for a few hours just recently and I believe we found a few things. So all in all I can't wait to get back this weekend and try to defend our title."
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course may be the great equalizer in the field of 27, as all of the drivers who moved to the IndyCar Series in 2008 have a strong road racing background. Both Enrique Bernoldi and Justin Wilson have experience competing in Formula One while Mario Dominguez, Bruno Junqueira, Oriol Servia, Will Power and Graham Rahal all participated in Champ Car. E.J. Viso competed in GP2 and Mario Moraes in the British Formula 3 championship. Look for the top five to be challenged up front by these experienced road racers during the 85-lap race.
The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 20. ABC HD will televise the race live beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 20, while XM Satellite Radio will air the race at 1:30 p.m. ET on XM Satellite Channel 145.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon was in second position on Sunday and eyeing Darren Manning for the lead with 10 laps to go when the Kiwi spun warming up his tires and collected Ryan Briscoe. That ended Dixon's hopes of extending his streak of three straight wins at Watkins Glen. However, by finishing with an 11th place result, Dixon extended his IndyCar Series championship lead from 43 to 48 over Helio Castroneves.
Castroneves started a career-low 26th in the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen because of a steering malfunction that prevented him from completing a qualification lap in the No. 3 Team Penske car. His weekend didn't improve much. The championship contender came home 16th.
Dan Wheldon was sideswiped on the opening lap, forced into the grass and then onto pit lane with right rear suspension damage. The No.10 team worked to get Wheldon’s car back on track to pick up as many points as possible before finishing 24th. Wheldon is now 59 points back in third.
Up next is Nashville Superspeedway Saturday, July 12th (8:00 p.m. EDT, ESPN) where Dixon is the defending winner of the event.
Dixon Not Slowing Down - Helio Not Dancing - Wheldon Crashes
Following his win at the Indianapolis 500, Scott Dixon backed up with a second place last weekend at the Milwaukee Mile and heads to the Texas Motor Speedway looking to get back to his winning ways. In finishing second at Milwaukee Dixon has now had five top-three finishes so far this season and has led 100 or more laps in four consecutive races. With stats like these, he looks good for another podium finish in Texas as he strives for his second IRL title. Dixon leads the IndyCar Series by 28 points from Helio Castroneves (206), and his Target Chip Ganassi team mate Dan Wheldon (185).
Helio Castroneves was asked about his interest in dancing with NASCAR earlier this week and responded, " I'm doing everything I can to clinch the championship and run here in open wheel. Right now we've merged and the series is in a good spot and I would say the opportunity, I don't think, is there to go to NASCAR. I would consider it in that you should always leave doors open.
Dan Wheldon had a sore right ankle after crashing during practice on Friday, but was cleared by doctors to take part in qualifying later in the day for the Bombardier Learjet 500 IndyCar race on Saturday. Wheldon, the 2005 IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500 champion, hit the outside wall coming out of the fourth turn on the high-banked Texas track. The car slid down the track, losing a rear wheel, then tumbled after bogging down in the infield grass and came to rest upside down.
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