By Jeff Olson




Scott Dixon took the lead early, caught a break on a controversial pit stop by Ryan Briscoe, and went on to win a windblown RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300 on Sunday evening at Kansas Speedway.

The victory ended a brief season-opening slump for Dixon, the defending IndyCar Series champion who finished 15th in the 2009 opener at St. Petersburg., Fla., then struggled last week and finished 16th at Long Beach. He came into Sunday’s race 17th in the standings, but left in fourth place.

“It's been a tough couple of weeks,” Dixon said. “We made a few changes to the car and trimmed it out. We were trimmed to win today, and it definitely worked.”

Dixon's Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda took the lead from pole winner Graham Rahal early in the race and held it until the 99th lap, when Briscoe took control during a pit stop. However, Briscoe caught a bad break when entered the pits just as Dario Franchitti crashed on the 152nd lap, letting Dixon pit under caution and retain the lead while Briscoe settled for a fourth-place finish.

Helio Castroneves, who ran into the back of Vitor Meira’s car on the 17th lap, recovered to finish second. Tony Kanaan was third, Briscoe fourth and Danica Patrick fifth. Marco Andretti finished sixth, followed by Rahal and Hideki Mutoh.

A complete report will follow shortly.
RESULTS:
Pos  Driver             Team                  Time
 1.  Scott Dixon        Target Ganassi        200 laps
 2.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               + 0.7104s
 3.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       + 1.5022s
 4.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               + 1.8872s
 5.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       + 2.6502s
 6.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       + 3.8013s
 7.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  + 7.8233s
 8.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       + 8.5430s
 9.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               + 8.9871s
10.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              + 9.7681s
11.  Mario Moraes       KV                   +20.9048s
12.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan  +   1 lap
13.  Sarah Fisher       Fisher               +   1 lap
14.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                +   1 lap
15.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Vision               +  4 laps
16.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    +  5 laps

Retirements:

     Stanton Barrett    3G                  181 laps
     Dario Franchitti   Target Ganassi      151 laps
     Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold   109 laps
     Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon        95 laps
     EJ Viso            HVM                 37 laps
     Vitor Meira        Foyt                14 laps