A 3-man battle for IRL title drawing to a close

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Scott Dixon has this unshakable feeling, that the three remaining contenders for the IndyCar championship will enter the final turn of the season having decided nothing.

An epic, three-car, fight-to-the-finish for the IRL title and a $1 million bonus?

Don’t be surprised to see that happen at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, Dixon says.

“With no doubt, I think it’s going to be exciting,” he said.

They’re three different guys with three different stories, and when the checkered flag falls on the Indy 300, only one of them will collect what he came to Homestead to get. Upstart Ryan Briscoe, 2007 IRL king Dario Franchitti, and defending champion Dixon are separated by only eight points heading into the finale, one of the closest races in IndyCar history.

Dixon enters as the leader, four points ahead of teammate Franchitti — who gained a point by winning the pole in Friday qualifying — and eight ahead of Briscoe. It’s the 32nd straight top-10 start for Dixon, matching the IRL record.

“It would be great to be in a position to go to the last race and just know that by completing the first lap you would win the championship,” said Mike Hull, the managing director for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, which has both Dixon and Franchitti in its stable. “But based on the way we have raced all year, that wouldn’t be fair.”

There’s many newsy aspects surrounding Saturday’s race: Helio Castroneves putting an end to his emotional year that started in a courtroom amid tax evasion charges that he ultimately defeated, Danica Patrick’s still-unconfirmed future with Andretti Green Racing or NASCAR or both, and the first time Homestead hosts the IRL finale.

They all pale when compared to the conclusion of the back-and-forth that Dixon, Franchitti and Briscoe have waged all season.

“I think all three of us are fairly confident,” Franchitti said. “We’ve had a good season. And it’s just whoever does the best on Saturday night.”

For Dixon and Franchitti, the scenario is simple: Win the race, and win the IRL title. Briscoe — part of Penske Racing’s powerhouse program — would probably take the seasonlong championship if he wins the race, although bonus points could theoretically keep Dixon on top.

Each of the three say they’re not worrying about the math. To them, it’s just another week, another race they’re trying to win.

“It’s great to have won it once in 2007,” Franchitti said. “But my focus is really just on this championship. Whatever has happened before, it’s great to look back on sometimes, but right now’s not the time for doing that. My focus is on what’s going to happen this weekend, and what I have to do to make it, to come back with the trophy. And it’s going to be tough.”

Unless, of course, he gets lucky.

Which tends to happen in situations like this.

Franchitti held an overwhelming lead in the IRL standings at one point in 2007, before a series of late-season crashes gave Dixon the sliver of hope he needed to get back into contention. With two turns remaining in that year’s finale at Chicagoland, Dixon was on the lead, poised to beat Franchitti in the race and cap an amazing comeback for what would have been his second IRL title.

He ran out of gas, and ran out of luck.

Franchitti whizzed past, Dixon coasted across the finish line with a sputtered-out engine, and that last-lap twist decided the championship.

“The competition level’s really high in this series,” Franchitti said. “But we’ve managed to monopolize the wins between the two teams. It makes this easier because you know you’ve got to win. If you don’t, one of those guys will.”

If anyone’s particularly thrilled that the finale is at Homestead, it’s got to be Dixon. He has two wins and a second in his six races at Homestead.

Only once have the IRL standings been closer in terms of the points gap between first and third with one race to go, and that was in 2003 — the year Dixon held a seven-point lead over Castroneves and Tony Kanaan and made it hold up for the championship.

“We’re still going for three as far as championships,” Dixon said. “But three in a row would have definitely been key.”

Briscoe will happily take No. 1.

He was the series leader entering the penultimate race in Japan last month, then finished 18th. It was the longest day of his life — literally — since not only did he lose the series lead, he flew to the United States immediately afterward and kept picking up time. He raced in Japan on Saturday, lost in Japan on Saturday, and was in Utah, technically, on the same day.

“A real long day, but I’ve put it behind me,” Briscoe said. “We’re ready to put everything on the line here. It’s what we’ll have to do to win it.”