Dixon Dominates Mid-Ohio

Defending IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon drove away from the field in Sunday's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Dixon regained the series points lead by three points over second-place Ryan Briscoe, who took the checkers almost 30 seconds behind the winner.

Dixon's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Dario Franchitti, finished third, the same position he currently occupies in the season standings, 20 points behind Dixon.

The Republic was pleased to see Ryan Hunter-Reay finish fourth in A.J. Foyt's ABC Supply Co. entry. It was Hunter-Reay's best result since finishing second for Vision Racing at the season opener in St. Petersburg, Florida. Andretti Green Racing's Hideki Mutoh logged a credible fifth-place finish.

The crowd appeared to be solid if not quite as big as in recent years at Mid-Ohio. The Versus coverage was not up to its usual standard. In an event that featured few on-track passes for position, Versus seemed to switch away from the all too rare developing battle to show a car entering the pits or the leader running by himself. The announcers touted the "overtake assist option" as if it would make a difference in this race. That it did not rendered the discussion, as well as the technology itself, little more than a gimmick, if only for this particular event. We shall see.

Interesting moments came courtesy of Mike Conway, who punted Danica Patrick into the sand trap; Justin Wilson, who gallantly attacked first Briscoe and then Dixon until a poor fuel stop ruined his race; and Milka Duno, whose (slowly) moving pick, enabling Dixon to get by Wilson, would have made Bill Laimbeer proud, had he been in attendance.

Roggespierre