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Scott Dixon in action - Source: Photosport -
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New Zealander Scott Dixon continued a dreadful start to his
IndyCar motor racing title defence with a 15th-place finish in the
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Monday (NZT).
Two weeks ago, Dixon crashed out late in the Honda Grand Prix of St
Petersburg in Florida.
Scotland's Dario Franchitti, a former Indianapolis 500 winner
returning to IndyCar after spending part of last year in the
popular NASCAR stock car racing series, took the win.
He started second in the Target Chip Ganassi Racing car and held
off pole sitter Will Power by 3.3182 seconds in the 85-lap race on
the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit.
It was Franchitti's first road/street victory in the IndyCar Series
and his ninth overall.
Andretti Green Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick
followed. Dan Wheldon, driving the No 4 National Guard Panther car,
was fifth. Marco Andretti finished sixth.
Dixon told ESPN afterwards that his luck just didn't seem to be in
on Monday.
"The first pit stop we made a bit of a bobble there and a few guys
short-filled and popped ahead of us," he said.
"Then we had that deal where some of those guys jumped in under the
yellow, including Dario..... they were lucky on that break, but a
bad day just tumbled into more bad things."
Dixon said although he enjoyed the Long Beach road circuit, he was
looking forward to racing on the Kansas oval track on April
26.
"I love the road courses, we just had a really rough time..... I'm
looking forward to Kansas - when you've got a fast car you
can definitely make it to the front on an oval circuit and
hoepfully we can get some good points in."
