Scott Dixon, like the rest of the IndyCar Series will head north of the border this week for the IndyCar Series first ever race in Canada. But, one thing Dixon will take with him that none of his competitors enjoy is a 58 point lead in the championship with just five point's races remaining.

Dixon knows he just needs to be careful as the season winds down and he will add the 2008 IndyCar Series title to the championship he won in 2003. Yet, he cannot afford to be too careful.

In 2007, Dixon had whittled down Franchitti's lead over the final races of the year, giving himself a shot at the title which fell just short as he ran out of fuel on the final turn of the final race at the Chicagoland Speedway. This year, it is Dixon as the front runner, with Helio Castroneves, second in the points. Castroneves, who is winless this year, was able to take five points from Dixon last weekend at Mid-Ohio, but will need much larger gains if he really wants the title.

Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner is hoping to become the third driver in a row to win the Indy 500 and the series title. A feat accomplished by Sam Hornish, Jr., in 2006, and Dario Franchitti in 2007.

A byproduct of the merger between the IndyCar Series and the ChampCar World Series, the Indy Racing League's first Canadian adventure will take place on the runways of the Edmonton City Centre airport. This is the final race of a six week straight run for the IndyCar Series, with practice starting on Thursday, just four days after the Mid-Ohio event.

The course in Edmonton is a 1.96mile, 14-turn “street” circuit that has previously hosted three ChampCar World Series events, but is one of just three tracks that got added to the IndyCar Series calendar in the merger. The other events added were also street circuits at Long Beach, California and Surfers Paradise, Australia.

The Surfers Paradise race will not pay 2008 points though, and the Long Beach was run using ChampCar equipment. That makes this weekend's Edmonton race unique in that it will truly be the first post-merger race held with IndyCar Series gear on a former ChampCar Series circuit.

Helping to add interest for this weekend's event is Paul Tracy's return to the race track. Unemployed so far in 2008 as his long-time team Forsythe Racing elected not to move to the IndyCar Series this year; Tracy has been picked up by Vision Racing for the Edmonton race.

Tracy will drive a Subway sandwich shop sponsored car owned by Tony George's Vision Racing, but prepared and operated by the Walker Racing team. The combination of Tony George and Paul Tracy is somewhat odd as it was George, the owner of the IRL and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, who denied Tracy's appeal of the controversial 2002 Indy 500 won by Helio Castroneves.

The action at Edmonton will start on Thursday afternoon with practice, followed by qualifying on Friday with the race actually running on Saturday. The race is running Saturday in order to avoid a conflict with NASCAR's Brickyard 400, which will take place on Sunday at George's Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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