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Helio Wins Race, Dixon Wins Championship

AP photo
By Andrew Cutler
September 8 2008
Helio Castroneves shrugged off his last place starting spot at Chicagoland, the result of a penalty for a rules infraction during qualifying. After the green flag fell he marched his car up to the front of the pack, lead the most laps & captured the win in the closest finish in IndyCar Series history.

The only thing that kept it from being the perfect day is that the man whom Helio beat to the finish line by a mere 0.0033 of a second was Scott Dixon, who only needed to finish eighth or better to clinch his second IndyCar Series championship (his first came in 2003).

In fact, the finish was so close that the IRL initially called it wrong, crediting Dixon with the win. The New Zealander was already in victory lane being interviewed when the new broke that the Brazilian had actually nosed ahead for him at the line.

"I'm kind of like speechless, to be honest," said Castroneves. "I found out when I was walking to the podium to receive the second-place finish. "I actually thought I really won it, but sometimes when you're going 215 mph it's hard for me to see in the blink of an eye."

While Scott would have liked to win the race, the $1 million dollar prize for claiming the championship should make a nice consolation. After the mistake was sorted out, he characteristically remained cordial and professional, thanking his team for a wonderful season. "The year on a whole has been amazing, an unforgettable year. I think any year where you win the 500 is going to be like that. But when you top it off with a championship, I still can't believe it. Getting married, winning the 500, winning a championship in one year … not too many people can probably say they've done that."

Here are the complete race results: http://www.indycar.com/stats/boxscores/2008/chicago_09072008.pdf

Here is a link to video footage of the finish:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1456296417/bclid1460782805/bctid1778582970

While the regular season is now over, the IndyCar Series will hold an exhibition race on October 26 at Surfers Paradise, Australia.

 

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Helio Wins Race, Dixon Wins Championship
Posted by: Indy Racing League (IP Logged)
Date: 08/09/2008 03:42

Helio Wins Race, Dixon Wins Championship

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