Wheldon happy for good team results

Target Chip Ganassi Racing posted a second and third place finish at Richmond International Raceway, with Scott Dixon leading the charge for his fourth runner-up finish of the season while Dan Wheldon finished third for his fifth top-five finish this year.

After rain washed out qualifying, starting spots were determined by championship points giving the no.9 Target Honda the 3rd spot on the grid and the no.10 Target Honda a fourth-place start, with points leader Dario Franchitti on the pole and his teammate Tony Kanaan in second.

The leaderboard remained the same for much of the first half of the race until Dixon's Target pit crew put him ahead of Kanaan on the second round of pit stops, while Wheldon passed Kanaan cleanly soon after to take the third spot. With his finish, Dixon tied Kanaan's record of 25 consecutive race finishes.

Following the ninth race of the IndyCar season, Scott Dixon moves into second place in the IndyCar Series Championship standings with 294 points, 65 points behind race winner and leader Dario Franchitti (359 points) Dan Wheldon (287 points) moves into a tie for third with Tony Kanaan (297 points), trailing Target teammate Dixon by 7 points. Sam Hornish Jr. rounds out the top five with 242 points.

Scott Dixon
"I think we had the better car, but it was just track position all night. (Toward the end of the race) Dario (Franchitti) needed to save fuel and you could tell he was using Sam (Hornish Jr.) as a buffer. That was the time we needed to get him. I'm feeling good about these short tracks because we've been struggling on them as a team for the past few years. It's good to run strong on them, and I'm looking forward to Watkins Glen."

Dan Wheldon
"It was a very difficult race and very much unlike past races here. When you're in the lead it's good but when you were trying to get to the leader and pass it was really difficult. To win around here you have to be deserving and we did have a good car and a chance to challenge. Dario (Franchitti) deserved the win but at the end of the day for us that was the wrong person to win when you are trying to make up points in the championship. From the Target team point of view this was a good result especially after our last few races."

The next IndyCar Series race is the Camping World Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix at 3:30 p.m. (ET) on July 8 at Watkins Glen International.

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source Ganassi Racing