Pitting to replace the nose assembly of the No. 27 Canadian Club car wasn't an option for Dario Franchitti and race strategist John Anderson. Not with 11 laps left. Not with critical IndyCar Series championship points on the table. source: indycar.com / Dave Lewandowski So the points leader -- after making contact with the race-leading No. 26 NYSE car of his teammate, Marco Andretti, in Turn 2 -- remained on the 2.26-mile, 12-turn circuit, hoping to salvage a top-five finish. He did, but for the first time since early June relinquished the points lead. Scott Dixon overtook Franchitti's damaged car in Turn 3 on the restart and then held off Team Penske's Helio Castroneves to win the Motorola Indy 300 presented by Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel by 0.5449 of a second (the closest margin in three years of IndyCar Series road/street racing). Franchitti soldiered on to third place, but the swing allowed Dixon to take a four-point lead into the penultimate race of the season. Tony Kanaan finished fourth and Sam Hornish Jr. fifth. Danica Patrick started on the front row for the second consecutive road race and was consistently running in the top five, but the No. 7 Motorola car stalled on a Lap 63 pit stop and she finished sixth. "We had a pretty fast car, but races like this are all about track position," Patrick said. "We lost so much time in the pits and there is just no need for that. It just seemed like there was something on every pit stop. You can't win races when you have problems on every stop." Franchitti, who tested at the facility 10 days earlier, appeared to have the setup edge on the physically demanding course. He started from the pole and led a race-high 62 laps. But as he was attempting to overtake Andretti, who had just exited the pits, the cars came together and Andretti's wound up against the tire barrier. "It was a pretty perfect day right up until Marco and I got together," Franchitti said. "He was out there on cold tires going a good bit slower. Tony and I had a similar situation earlier in the race. Tony had given me the space. Hell, even Dixon did it on cold tires. But Marco was out there trying to win the race, and we were out there trying to win a championship. "A case of, I guess, he had his priorities, I had mine. I really want to look at it and talk to Marco. We're teammates. We look after each other and that shouldn't happen." Team co-owner Michael Andretti said Franchitti should have been more patient with his son's car, which Marco agreed. "I gave racing room, and I was hoping he would race me clean," said Andretti, who won the race in 2006. "I hate to think he'd do anything intentional. I was saving so much fuel, and that was the win right there. If we would have played fair, that would have happened."
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