Infineon Raceway - Ganassi - Race source: irl.racing-live.com It was a picturesque day and setting at the hillside track as Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Ryan Briscoe took his place in the pole position at Infineon Raceway for the inaugural Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix. Teammates Scott Dixon and newcomer Giorgio Pantano did not fair quite as well in qualifying after both had small piloting errors, setting them back on the grid in ninth and 13th spots respectively. As soon as the green flag waved, Briscoe took command, leading his way through the 12 turn, 2.26 mile narrow road course, and by the sixth lap had begun to open up a gap on the field. The young Aussie had led 16 laps when, under a yellow caution due to a spin by car no.20, Briscoe, followed by much of the cars atop the leader board, headed to the pits for the first round of stops for fresh tires and fuel. Target teammates Dixon and Pantano, meanwhile, remained on track to try their hand at a different race strategy and found themselves in second and third place. Two laps later, on the restart, Briscoe's over exuberance had a high cost. Following contact with Danica Patrick that collected Helio Castroneves, damage done to the no.33 Target Toyota meant that after posted the fastest times on both Friday and Saturday, there would be no perfect ending to Briscoe's race weekend. Target's fuel strategy did not quite pay the dividends they had hoped laps were quickly counting down and passing opportunities were extremely difficult to come by even in close proximity which often resulted in contact between impatient competitors. Dixon battled his way to a top ten finish but was disappointed with the results. Pantano was directly behind Dixon and on his way to an eighth place finish with two laps to go in the 80 lap race, when Vitor Meira tried to sneak in on the inside, making contact and putting the young Italian driver and his no.33 Target Toyota out of the race.
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