Dixon Capitalizes As Briscoe Stumbles

By Andrew Cutler
September 19 2009

Ryan Briscoe headed into last night's Indy Japan 300 with the mathematical possibility of wrapping up the 2009 IndyCar Series championship; provided that he had a flawless night & the Ganassi duo of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti each suffered some sort of setback. In the end, however, things worked out exactly in reverse, and the Aussie fell back to third in the points by the checkered flag.

The race began with Dixon leading from pole and teammate Franchitti clearing KVRT's Mario Moraes to follow behind in second for most of the early going: Briscoe hung back in the 4th-6th place range, biding his time and keeping the leaders in sight. Cycling through the pit stops at just past the half-way mark in the race, Briscoe was leading when he came in on lap 106.

Just as he pulled into the pit lane, rookie driver Mike Conway crashed, bringing out a yellow flag & freezing the field order. This meant that the Team Penske driver was under no threat of losing his place at the point while making his stop. Nonetheless, Briscoe punched the accelerator and lit up the tires as he left his pit stall. This action unfortunately resulted in the back end of his Dallara/Honda stepping out on him, sending him hard into the interior pit lane exit wall. The resulting brake & suspension damage would require several laps to repair, dropping Ryan down to the back of the running order.

Dixon and Franchitti would take full advantage of this "gift", and run unchallenged to a one-two finish. The Newman-Haas-Lanigan duo of Graham Rahal and Oriol Seriva would make a strong showing by finishing in 3rd & 4th, respectively.

As a result of their respective results, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti now find themselves in 1st and 2nd place in the championship points chase, with Briscoe close behind in 3rd. The 2009 season finale will take place on evening of Saturday, October 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

As with the past two years, the 2009 IndyCar Series championship looks to come down to the closing laps of season!

Here are the complete results for the Indy Japan 300: 

http://www.indycar.com/stats/boxscores/2009/motegi_09192009.pdf