Scott Dixon Takes IndyCars Lead

New Zealand's Scott Dixon has taken the lead in the IndyCars championship after finishing third in yesterday's race at Watkins Glen.

Dixon started the day trailing his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Dario Franchitti by one point, but now leads Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske) by 19 points.

"It was definitely pretty tough. We lost a spot at the start when I didn't shift down enough gears and Mario Moraes got by us," Dixon said.

"It was a tough first stint. We had about 8-10 laps on the tyres from qualifying and they wore out pretty quick.

"We got caught out on strategy and we didn't have enough.

"Ryan Briscoe and I had a great race at the end and thanks to the Target boys we had a good day."

Briscoe was second today behind Justin Wilson who scored the first open-wheel victory for team owner Dayle Coyne.

Wilson was 4.9 seconds ahead of Briscoe with the victory seen as one for the championship's little guys with Penske and Ganassi drivers winning every race since Wilson won last year in Detroit while driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

Racintoday.com reported that Coyne has been involved in open-wheel racing as a driver and team owner for 25 years and that has been how long it has taken him to visit Victory Lane.

Asked his thoughts about his first victory, Coyne said, "It took too long".

Wilson said that on his white-flag lap, he "grinned from ear to ear" about the fact that he was about to secure a victory for Coyne.

Results:

1. Justin Wilson (ENG) 60 laps in 1hr 48mins 24.1947secs at 111.915mph

2. Ryan Briscoe (AUS) at 4.9906secs

3. Scott Dixon (NZL) same lap

4. Helio Castroneves (BRA) s.l.

5. Marco Andretti (USA) s.l.

6. Mike Conway (ENG) s.l.

7. EJ Viso (VEN) s.l.

8. Tony Kanaan (BRA) s.l.

9. Robert Doornbos (NED) s.l.

10. Dan Wheldon (ENG) s.l.

Season points: