JOLIET, Ill. (AP) -Helio Castroneves won the race in the second closest finish in the history of the IndyCar Series, but it wasn't enough to stop Scott Dixon from taking his second championship.
Castroneves came from last place Sunday to win the PEAK Indy 300, but Dixon, who knew coming in he only had to finish eighth or better to win the title, took the lead with a perfect pit stop late in the race and nearly held off Castroneves for the victory, crossing the finish line inches behind the winner.
After nearly 30 minutes, official timing and scoring called the margin of victory 0.0033 seconds - slightly more than the 0.0024 margin Sam Hornish Jr. had over Al Unser Jr. on the 1.5-mile Joliet track in 2002.
It was sweet redemption for Dixon, who lost both the race and the championship to Dario Franchitti last year at Chicagoland Speedway when he ran out of fuel two turns from the finish.
Dixon, who came into the race with a 30-point lead, wound up winning the title and the $1 million bonus that goes with it by 17 points.
It was hardly a perfect race for Dixon, who didn't lead until 15 laps from the end and fell as far back as 11th in the middle of the 200-lap race. But he came on strong when he had to and was able to celebrate the title, hugging team owner Chip Ganassi and getting pounded on by his crew.
"It's been an amazing year, starting with marrying my beautiful wife, Emma, and just a great race season," Dixon said.
"It was tough, especially when you're racing around 10th. You've got people in front of you, people behind you and they're all trying to do crazy things and it's really tough to keep yourself calm and know that you've got the car to get to the front and just wait for a green-flag run to make it happen was happen was probably the hardest part."
His pit stops were not great most of the day, including one in which a tire briefly got away from one of his crewmen, but Dixon said the last stop was perfect.
"The crew guys, they might have had one problem there, but look what they did at the end," he said. "They brought us through."
Castroneves, who earned a 3-point bonus by leading a race-high 80 laps, was excited after being told he won the race after getting out of his car.
"I knew I won it, I knew," he said. "We try everything, everything, to win. We did everything we could. Scott Dixon and those guys they had a little better luck and they wound up winning the championship. Congratulations to them."
Dixon became the fourth straight Indianapolis 500 winner to go on to earn the series championship, following Dan Wheldon, Hornish and Franchitti.
