Scott Dixon wins at Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix IndyCar race

Watkins Glen, NY (Sports Network) - Scott Dixon captured Sunday's Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix IndyCar race on the Watkins Glen International road course for the third consecutive year. The No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver crossed the finish line 6.2591 seconds ahead of Sam Hornish Jr.
The victory was Dixon's first of the season and seventh of his IndyCar career.
"Our car was bloody fast," said Dixon.
Helio Castroneves led Dixon to the green flag for the first of 60 scheduled laps. Dixon tried to go to the inside at the first turn, but couldn't get it done. In fact, Dario Franchitti got even with Dixon and almost completed a move around the outside of the No.9 Target Chip Ganassi car.
Castroneves quickly built his lead to almost half-a-second in the opening laps. By lap 10 the gap had increased to 1.0611 seconds. Franchitti was hanging close, but fourth-place Tony Kanaan had fallen more than six seconds off the pace.
The top-three stayed in close proximity and all three pitted together on lap 16. They returned to the track in the same order they entered. Marco Andretti inherited the lead, but he had yet to make his first stop.
After the stop, Dixon seemed to be a little quicker than Castroneves as he closed the gap to just a few car lengths. On the other hand, Franchitti dropped back almost three seconds from the leaders.
They were coming out of turn 11 and heading to the start/finish line to begin lap 21 when Castroneves got loose and slammed the outside wall. Dixon avoided the incident, ducking to the inside and assumed the race lead.
Castroneves got out of the car, unhurt, but frustrated. It was his third DNF this season compared to 2006 when the Brazilian had one for the entire season.