Scott Dixon wins Indy 500 (+pics)

$NZ3.22 million pay day

Reuters

MILKING IT: New Zealand's Scott Dixon celebrates his Indianapolis 500 win by pouring the traditional race winner's drink - milk - over himself.

Reuters

Reuters

Reuters

Reuters

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New Zealander Scott Dixon's motor racing career scaled new heights today when he won the Indy 500 motor race, the marquee event on the IndyCar circuit in the United States.

Dixon, who started the 805km race at Indianapolis on pole, gave a dominant display and was in or near the lead for the entire 200 laps.

The 27-year-old is the first New Zealander to win what is considered to be the most prestigious race in north America.

He also became the 19th driver to win the race from pole position in 92 editions of the event.

Brazilian Vitor Meira was second with American Marco Andretti third.

"What a day, man, I just couldn't believe it," an ecstatic Dixon said.

Dixon said his tactics in the latter stages of the marathon race centred on fuel conservation.

"I was trying to save fuel and just see how the car was in traffic," he said.

"We were trying to work on it all the time. I think the car had a little too much drag in it but coming towards the end as long as we got a bit of a jump on those guys I didn't think they were going to get past us."

The New Zealander finished second in the same race last year to Scotland's Dario Franchitti, who also edged Dixon for the IndyCar series title in 2007.

Danica Patrick, who last month became the first woman to win an IndyCar race, failed to finish after she was brushed in the pit lane by another car.

Dixon's winning margin over Meira was 1.75 seconds.

Meira appeared ready to take the win, but Dixon beat him out of the pits on the last stop for fuel and stayed in front for the final 29 laps.

It was the first Indy 500 win for Dixon, who led for most of the race despite an early challenge by team-mate Dan Wheldon and a late pass by Meira.

Dixon stands to profit enormously from his potentially career-defining result, with the winner due to receive $US2.5 million ($NZ3.22 million).

As well, the buoyant corporate support for motor racing in north America means he will surely be swamped by suitors offering sponsorship and product endorsement deals.

The total Indy 500 purse totalled $US13.4m, to be split among the 33 drivers.

The secret behind his success today was Dixon's ability to steer clear of trouble.

Patrick failed to finish for the first time in four trips to Indianapolis.

She was hit on pit road by Ryan Briscoe with 29 laps to go, breaking the left rear suspension on a car that had run in the top 10 most of the race but never seriously challenged for the lead. She finished 22nd.

Patrick's mishap was one of numerous crashes and mechanical failures that kept the race under yellow much of the day.

But Dixon, who started from the pole, clearly had the strongest car on the track.

"There were so many yellows," said Dixon, the eighth foreign-born driver in the past 10 years to win north America's premier motor race.

"It was really hard to get into a rhythm."

Meira, driving for the one-car, low-budget Panther Racing team, has never won an IndyCar race but finished runnerup in the series' biggest race for the second time in four years.

Andretti, 21, appeared to knock team-mate Tony Kanaan out of the race with an aggressive move just past the midway point, but settled for third and left his family with one victory – by his grandfather Mario in 1969 – in 57 tries.

-NZPA