Scott Dixon, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, won the IRL season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday night. He took the lead for good with three laps to go when Tony Kanaan pitted with a damaged car from an earlier on track incident.

The highlights and lowdowns........

• Vision Racing's two drivers, Ed Carpenter and A.J. Foyt IV, both had to start at the rear of the field after qualifying a remarkable 2nd and 3rd. This after failing inspection on Saturday morning for undisclosed violations. Carpenter did go on to a 5th place, and AJ4 finished 9th.

•  Danica, Danica, Danica. Ms. Patrick led 0 laps, and finished 6th, one lap down.

• Marco Andretti finished 2nd, and led a race high 85 laps out of the 200 total laps run.

• Tony Kanaan looked to be heading to victory until rookie, Ernesto Viso spun in front of him late in the race. TK ended up 8th.

• Champ Car Teams just recieved their IRL cars in the last three weeks so the 12th place finish by Oriol Servia, which was the highest for the former series teams, wasn't that bad.

All in all a pretty good season opener. Now it's onward to St. Petersburg, FL for the next race. A beautiful road circuit on the Tampa Bay shoreline. If you're nearby, check it out. The ticket prices are reasonable, and the scenery is incredible.