In the fourth-closest finish in IndyCar Series history - or 28½ inches with his 211.362 mph final lap on the 1.5-mile oval. It was the fifth runner-up finish at Chicagoland Speedway -- the fourth in a row -- for Dixon. "I've seen this movie before," said Dixon.
In this title chase, Briscoe picked up maximum points - 50 for his third victory of the season, 1 for earning the pole and 2 for leading the most laps (71) - to increase his lead from four to 25 over Dario Franchitti, who finished fourth, with two races remaining. Dixon is 33 points back. Castroneves, whose No. 3 Team Penske car sustained a suspension failure and made moderate contact with the Turn 4 SAFER Barrier on Lap 185, was eliminated from contention.
"We've got to stay focused," said Briscoe, who had dropped to 12th after a elongated pit stop under caution on Lap 113. "The Target cars are going to be there in Motegi and Homestead, so we just have to stay focused. We've had good cars on all the mile-and-half ovals this year. We've just got to keep it together. We had a couple of mistakes tonight, but were able to come back. We've just have to try to avoid those situations."
It was the Lap 191 restart after clearing the debris from Castroneves' car that produced the late-race drama as Briscoe and Dixon swapped the point four times over the final nine laps - never separated by more than 0.0834 of a second. Briscoe edged ahead for good on Lap 199 (by 0.0063 of a second) and rode the right side of Dixon's No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car.
"As soon as I was able to get beside him it slowed both of our cars down a lot and evened things out," Briscoe said. "That gave me the chance to beat him across the line. It wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. But I had a very good car, it was fast, it was consistent."
Said Dixon, who has finished in the top five in three of the four 1.5-mile ovals so far this season: "The whole night, I think we drove a better race. The guys on the team did a fantastic job. The pit stops were flawless. We launched out there a few times but we just didn't have the speed. Our mile-and-half dominance that we seemed to have last year on the Target team has just really been affected. We need to play catch up with Penske. They clearly are a lot faster than us. That's all I had."
The restart also bunched up the field, which produced more slicing and dicing than a Ron Popeil kitchen gadget. Mario Moraes, driving the No. 5 Azul Tequila/Votorantim/KV Racing Technology car, finished a career-high third (0.0609 of a second back) after running sixth on Lap 198, while Luczo Dragon Racing rookie Raphael Matos - running fourth on Lap 198 - fell to ninth. The top 12 (Danica Patrick) cars were separated by 0.5840 of a second (another blink of an eye).
"It's amazing," said Moraes, who started eighth. "The team did a great job in the pits. Our mechanics did a great job and we had really great pit stops. The team has been working really hard for this all season and I'm really pleased with a third-place finish."
Graham Rahal finished fifth in the No. 02 McDonald's car for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, another of the cars shuffled in the final two laps (from third).
Ed Carpenter, runner-up to Briscoe at Kentucky Speedway (the last 1.5-mile oval race), finished sixth - advancing six positions in the No. 20 Menard's/Vision Racing car. Oriol Servia gave Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing two cars in the top 10, and Tomas Scheckter flirted with the top five throughout the second half of the race before settling for eighth in the No. 43 MonaVie entry for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
"It was pretty close," said Carpenter of the white flag lap. "I was deciding whether or not I was going to lift ahead of the line if guys started touching, but it all worked out. It's a good thing we have timing and scoring, because in the old days they did the scoring by hand and if that was still the case, we would be trying to decide that finish a couple of days later."
Justin Wilson's 10th place in the No. 18 Z-Line Designs car was Dale Coyne Racing's best IndyCar Series finish on a 1.5-mile oval. Marco Andretti, who brought out a caution flag on Lap 109 when the No. 26 Meijer entry for Andretti Green Racing brushed the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier, recovered with fresh Firehawks to place 11th.
"I'm obviously not happy with the race result," he said. "We were fourth going into the last restart after fighting our way up back through the field. I couldn't get up to speed in time; we got caught out and lost position. It was a struggle all night. A lot of ups and downs, but the Meijer boys did a great job hanging in there. I'm looking forward to some down time and hopefully strong results in Motegi in a couple weeks."
