Dixon wins Indy Japan to take series lead

MOTEGI, Japan — Scott Dixon’s IndyCar series championship hopes got a huge boost at the Indy Japan 300, while Ryan Briscoe’s took a hit from a pylon at the end of pit lane.

Dixon won the next-to-last race of the season to move into first place in the standings ahead of Target Chip Ganassi teammate Dario Franchitti and Briscoe.

Dixon recorded his fifth win of the season by finishing 1.4475 seconds ahead of Franchitti at the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval. He led 139 of 200 laps after starting from the pole, taking the lead for good on the 164th lap.

Briscoe went into Saturday’s race with a 25-point lead over Franchitti and a 32-point lead over Dixon, but saw his chances to win in Japan — and perhaps take his first championship — dashed by a miscue midway through the race.

After a slow start, Briscoe took the lead for the first time on lap 103 when Dixon and Franchitti pitted. Briscoe pitted on lap 106 just before a yellow flag came out after Mike Conway hit the wall at turn 4.

Leaving the pit, Briscoe was in a hurry to get back on the track and lost control of his car. He swerved to the left, ran over the large cone marking the end of pit lane and sideswiped the inside wall, with the pylon getting stuck under his car’s left front.

Because he was leading when the yellow came out, the field slowed to allow Briscoe to keep the lead. But he pitted twice, once to have the pylon removed and another time for repairs, meaning Dixon was back in the lead when the race restarted on lap 118.

Briscoe finished 18th, picking up only 12 points.

“I was really struggling in the beginning,” said Briscoe, who has three wins this season for Team Penske. “But I was making progress and looking forward to the second half of the race.”

Briscoe admitted to being a little too eager to get back into the race when he hit the cone exiting pit lane.

“The accident leaving the pit was huge,” Briscoe said. “I had the opportunity to get the lead and I gassed it too much. The team did a great job getting the car back, but my day was pretty much done.”

Dixon now leads the standings with 570 points followed by Franchitti, who has 565.

“We needed to get maximum points today and we did,” Dixon said. “Dario and I are 1-2 for the championship race and that’s how you want it.”

Briscoe fell into third place with 562 points heading to the final race of the season on Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The eight-point difference between first and third is the second closest in series history, behind 2003 when seven points separated the top three.

Graham Rahal finished third, while Danica Patrick, who won here last year, was sixth.

Dixon and Franchitti pitted on lap 160, briefly giving Rahal the lead.

The second yellow flag of the day came out when Ryan Hunter-Reay hit the wall at turn 4 and Dixon inherited the lead for good on 164 when Rahal went into the pit.

The last 36 laps of the race were a sprint between Dixon and Franchitti, with the 2008 champion holding on to win.

“After our second pit stop it was just a matter of trying to catch Scott,” Franchitti said. “I needed traffic in front of us to catch Scott and there wasn’t any.”

Despite the disappointing result, Briscoe isn’t about to give up on the championship.

“The good news is it’s only eight points,” Briscoe said. “It’s going to be a tough race. All of us are capable of winning at that track and I will be as motivated as ever.”