LONG POND - Chip Ganassi Racing likely was not on many people's lists of teams that could potentially dominate Sunday afternoon at Pocono Raceway.
But with Scott Dixon leading the way, the team swept the podium in the Pocono IndyCar 400 Fueled by Sunoco.
Dixon led the final 28 laps to take the checkered flag in the IZOD IndyCar Series race. Teammates Charlie Kimball and Dario Franchitti finished second and third, respectively, as open-wheel racing made its return to the 2.5-mile triangular track after a 23-year absence.
It is the 30th career IndyCar victory for Dixon, moving him into sole possession of 10th place on the all-time win list. It also is the 100th win for his sponsor, Target, in motor sports and the 200th victory for Honda in North American open-wheel racing.
"The milestones are great," Dixon said, "but I think the first person I saw when I got out of the car (in Victory Lane) was Chip. I said to him, 'You know, this morning, I didn't think we would be sitting here.'
"To say the least, it was a little bit of a shock."
Most figured if any team
swept the podium Sunday, it would be Andretti Autosport. It dominated much of the weekend at Long Pond and took the top three spots in qualifying.
However, James Hinchcliffe crashed on the opening lap. Ryan Hunter-Reay was involved in a pit-road accident with Takuma Sato. And pole-sitter Marco Andretti faded at the end after being forced to save fuel and finished 10th despite leading 88 of the first 121 laps.
"Obviously, it didn't work out the way we wanted it to," team owner Michael Andretti said.
Fuel mileage was the difference.
All three of the Ganassi cars started outside the top 10. Kimball was 12th, Dixon 17th after being penalized 10 spots for an unapproved engine change and Franchitti 20th.
They were able to work their way to the front, though, because they were able to run a few extra laps on a tank of fuel.
"It became apparent when they started pitting," Franchitti said. "I looked down at how much fuel I had left and I was like, 'OK, leaders are starting to pit.' Maybe it was because they were out front and we were in the draft.
"Next stop, leaders are pitting and I thought, we've definitely got something here. So we just kept pushing and each time we would come out of the pit, we would be further up."
At first, Dixon said he thought Mike Hull, Ganassi Racing managing director, was being coy on the radio when he said they could run a few more laps before having to pit.
"Then I looked down at my actual tank number and I'm like, 'Wow, we can go another seven laps,' " Dixon said. "So I think we were beating the majority of them. And I think it kind of hit them a little bit late to make corrections. It's a lot easier to save fuel over 150 laps than try to save it all about 30 (laps to go)."
After making his final pit stop of the race on Lap 131, Dixon claimed the lead on Lap 133 after Kimball and Franchitti made their last stops. He stayed there the rest of the way and wound up beating Kimball to the finish line by 0.4572 seconds - the second-closest margin of victory in Pocono history. The closest is .2700 by Danny Sullivan over Rick Mears in 1984.
"Scott had stopped a lap earlier and just had a little bit more momentum than I did when I came out of pit lane," Kimble said. "I knew that meant he was going to be the race leader. That was my shot and he was just able to get a little more momentum on me into (Turn) 3. And once he had the spot - we all were doing everything we could."
Still, Kimble's second-place finish matched his career best from last season at Toronto.
Coming into Pocono, Dixon had led one lap all season. Sunday's win provided a bright moment in an otherwise rough year.
"We have had sort of small parts of goodness, but not the consistency that we have been used to," Dixon said. "When we have had good cars, we've maybe had an engine problem and when we've had good engines, we've had a bit of a car problem.
"So it's nice to get back."