Dixon cruises to victory in IRL

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Kan.

Waiting for the final green flag out of a caution, a few laps from the finish, Scott Dixon jokingly asked his crew if he could save some horsepower boosts for the Indianapolis 500 later this month.

Obviously, the answer was no.

The way Dixon kicked off IndyCar’s oval season, he might not need them anyway.

Making few changes to a fast-off-the-truck car, Dixon cruised to his second straight IndyCar Series victory at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, firmly placing himself atop the list of favorites for the big race on the bricks.

“Success for us here has been fantastic and I just hope we can carry this momentum for another 30 days,” Dixon said after his 22nd career IndyCar victory.

Loose early and fast the rest of the way, Dixon barely used his push-to-pass button. He led the final 150 of the 200 laps on the 1.5-mile oval and finished more than three seconds ahead of runner-up Dario Franchitti.

Dixon takes the early lead in IndyCar’s new oval championship and becomes a front-runner for the Indy 500, a race he won in 2008. He’s also the second straight repeat winner at Kansas, giving Target Chip Ganassi Racing four straight wins following Dan Wheldon’s 2008 defense.

“He was just fast,” said Tony Kanaan, who finished third despite a miserable day of qualifying that had him breaking stuff at the team trailer on Friday. “I wish I had some of it.”

Dixon got the season off to a decent start on the road courses. All that was missing was a victory.

Back on the comfortable Kansas oval — he’s finished in the top four each of the past five races there — Dixon was an uncatchable force.

The two-time IndyCar Series champ was fastest in the lone practice session Friday and lost a little speed in qualifying, though was still fast enough to start on the front row with pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe.

Dixon was strong from the opening green, escaping an early bobble to pass Briscoe on Lap 33, then holding his position through two pit stops, one on a green flag and another on a caution midway through the race. A final pit with 22 laps left went smoothly and had the added luck of being just before a caution after Jay Howard folded up the right side of his car with a slide into the wall.