Dixon is piston better than rest

The IRL driver is running away with the points lead.

SPARTA, Ky. (AP) — Helio Castroneves has a theory on why nobody can seem to catch IndyCar Series leader Scott Dixon.

“Scott seems to have a V12 engine,” Castroneves said after watching Dixon grab the pole for the Meijer Indy 300 today at Kentucky Speedway.

Dixon easily earned his fifth pole of the season, averaging 218.968 mph during his four-lap turn around the 1.5-mile oval, his Target Chip Ganassi car snapping Team Penske’s streak of three consecutive poles at the track. Vitor Meira will start outside the front row with a four-lap average of 218.409.

“It’s been pretty tough the last couple of weekends,” said Dixon, tied for second on the career IndyCar Series pole list with 13 . “We’ve missed a little bit on qualifying, hopefully it looks like the car is pretty strong this week.”

Dixon saying his team “missed” during qualifying recently shows just how dominant his car has been all season. The Indy 300 marks the 12th straight race Dixon will start in the top 10.

The pole will only make it that much harder for the field to catch him. Dixon has won four times this year when he’s started from the front, including the Indy 500.

While he has a considerable points lead on Castroneves, the perfectionist in Dixon can’t help but think about how much closer he could be to a championship. It comes with the territory when you lose the points title on the last lap of the last race of the season, as Dixon did to Dario Franchitti in 2007.

“We probably should have a lot bigger lead than we’ve got right now,” Dixon said. “We’ve to do what we’re capable of and hopefully the last four races we can string out that lead a little bit more.”

Castroneves, qualified sixth, is hardly ceding the title.

“We’re not giving up at all,” Castroneves said. “It’s still like 60 points. It’s still 200 points in the game and what we need to do is just keep pushing as hard as we can.”

Even if that includes taking some chances now that he might not have earlier in the year.

“Now it’s not about being consistent,” he said. “Now it’s about going out there, taking chances and trying to make some gains.”

Meira has no hopes of winning the title, though he thinks he’s due for a breakthrough after a roller coaster season.

Today’s race will be the 90th start of his IndyCar career, and he’s still searching for his first victory. Meira’s best finish this season is a second-place finish to Dixon at Indy.