Following on from last week’s road course victory at Watkin’s Glen it seems that the pendulum in the IRL has swung in favor of Gannasi driver Scott Dixon, who scored his second sucessive win at Nashville on Sunday afternoon.

The race had originally been scheduled for Saturday night until a sudden downpour caused it to be postponed until the following day. The rain also had the effect of washing away most of the rubber and the result was a single groove race track that made it treachorous for anyone getting off line. AGR’s Tony Kanaan was an early victim of the slippery surface as he lapped Sarah Fisher. While there were few incidents, Kanaan aside, the single groove made overtaking difficult with lapped traffic becoming a major source of iritation for many drivers.

The early part of the race was dominated by championship leader Dario Franchitti with pressure from the Ganassi duo of Dan Wheldon and Dixon. When Wheldon bravely tried a pass around the outside Dario moved up to block and opened the door on the bottom of the track. Dixon siezed the moment with a brilliant move that saw him go from third to first.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Scott Dixon
2. Dario Franchitti
3. Danica Patrick
4. Sam Hornish Jr.
5. Marco Andretti
6. Helio Castroneves
7. Scott Sharp
8. Dan Wheldon
9. Darren Manning
10. Vitor Meira

Scott Dixon once again showed his mastery of the historic Watkins Glen road course over the weekend with his third straight IndyCar Series win at the venue. Although other drivers held the lead at various points during the race, it was clear from the drop of the flag that Dixon was the man to beat.

The race’s biggest surprises were from the Penske duo, with Helio Castroneves apparently spining himself off the road and out of contention; while team mate and oval track specialist Sam Hornish Jr. came home second. Hornish’s race was marred by a wheel to sidepod banging incident with AGR’s Tony Kanaan that would have post race consequences when a pit lane brawl broke out between the Hornish and Kanaan crews.

The IRL’s current hottest driver, Dario Franchitti came in third to retain his championship leada,d head fellow AGR drivers Kanaan and Marco Andretti.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Scott Dixon (Ganassi)
2. Sam Hornish Jr. (Penske)
3. Dario Franchitti (AGR)
4. Tony Kanaan (AGR)
5. Marco Andretti (AGR)
6. Buddy Rice (BR)
7. Dan Wheldon (Ganassi)
8. Kosuke Matsuura  (Rahal)
9. Darren Manning (Foyt)
10. Jeff Simmons (Rahal)

Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. dominated this weekend’s IRL race at the high banked Texas Motor Speedway from the drop of the flag. In fact even before the green flag flew he took charge of getting the pack up to speed after pole sitter Scott Sharp recieved a warning from race control for going too slow.

The race had been heavily promoted as a continuation of the Danica Patrick / Dan Wheldon “grudge” match, but despite the two running close on occasions and an off-hand remark by Patrick over the radio about Wheldon “cutting down” in the corners, it never really materialized.

In fact Wheldon was eliminated in a six car incident sparked by A.J. Foyt IV loosing a wheel. Perhaps the most amazing move of the race, if not the year, came from last week’s winner Tony Kanaan as he threaded the needle between the errant wheel and Foyt’s out of control car at close to 200 mph!

Towards the end of the race Kanaan and Patrick (who was the fastest car on track over the last ten laps) caught up with Hornish, but just didn’t have enough to get past the defending series champion.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Sam Hornish Jr 
2.  Tony Kanaan 
3.  Danica Patrick 
4.  Dario Franchitti 
5.  Vitor Meira  
6.  Jeff Simmons  
7.  Scott Sharp  
8.  Buddy Rice 
9.  Kosuke Matsuura 
10.  Sarah Fisher  

Andretti Green Racing’s team leader Tony Kanaan (below), overcame his disappointemnt at Indy by taking victory on the historic Milwaukee Mile in this weekend’s IRL event. Indy 500 winner and AGR team mate Dario Franchitti finished second which places him in the championship lead. Third place Dan Wheldon was involved in a controversial incident with Danica Patrick earlier in the race with the annoyed Patrick finishing 8th.

Although she had qualified poorly, occupying the penultimate spot on the grid, Patrick drove through the traffic, sometimes passing two cars at once, to make her way as high as fourth, She was visibly the most agressive drive on-track and passed more cars throughout the day than any other driver. As she went three wide with Franchitti and Wheldon her right front contacted Wheldon’s left rear tipping her into a spin at 150 mph. Displaying excellent car control she recovered the car as it spun onto the infield grass and continued on, but is was soon evident that her right hand steering arm was damaged. Subsequent stops to repair the damage dropped her once more to the rear of the field, from which she drove back up to finish a hard fought 8th. After the race Patrick confronted Wheldon in the pit lane and made her views forcibly known.

The fastest car for most of the day was clearly the Penske of Helio Castroneves who lead 126 laps  when his rear wing suddenly collapsed spinning him into the inside wall (below). When Penske team mate Sam Hornish’s car started to show signs of a similar wing problem dropping him back down the field, questions were raised about the leagility of the wing mounts.

The Top 10 Finishers were:

1. Tony Kanaan
2. Dario Franchitti
3. Dan Wheldon
4. Scott Dixon
5. Vitor Meira
6. Scott Sharp
7. Ed Carpenter
8. DanicaPatrick
9. Sam Hornish Jr.
10. Jeff Simmons

Current NASCAR driver Robby Gordon during his single seater days racing in the 1994 Indy 500. Watch and wait for the pass in traffic at around the  1:04  mark. It doesn’t get much closer.