August 28, 2008

IndyCar Championship battle heads to Belle Isle

Tampa Bay Sports Net

Last year, Scott Dixon came into the inaugural IndyCar Series event at Belle Isle with a four-point lead in the championship. He was running third with two laps to go when the car ahead of him spun. Dixon spun and made contact with the wall, finishing eighth and dropping into second place in the standings.

The 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner doesn’t dwell on events such as that or his 12th-place finish Aug. 24 at Infineon Raceway where his points lead this year was cut from 78 to 43.

“No, not at all,” said Dixon, who will be attempting a record-setting seventh victory this season in the Detroit Indy Grand Prix presented by Firestone on Aug. 31. “You’ve got to take it race by race. There’s no point dwelling on what happenend. I think the weekend was just frustrating in the fact that the decisions we made were the wrong ones. I guess after such a successful season so far we probably deserve one that didn’t go our way.

“We’re still very confident. We’ve still got a big lead. Forty-three points in two races is pretty hard to soak up, but I’m sure they’re going to do the best they can to try and take over that. All in all, we’re pretty motivated.”

Chasing Dixon is Helio Castroneves, who has fond memories of racing at Belle Isle despite being knocked out of last year’s race after starting from the pole.

“This track is great, a lot of great memories,” Castroneves said. “I got my first win here (in 2000).”

After seven runner-up finishes in 2008, Castroneves earned his first win of the season at Infineon. He hopes to build on that in the chase for his first championship.

“Momentum is what we have now,” Castroneves said. “We’re going to carry this great positive attitude from the team, great momentum that we’re carrying and translate that onto the racetrack all weekend.

“This place is very difficult, not much of a straightaway and very bumpy, as well. The good news is the guy who figures out how to get through the bumps is going to be in good shape. Certainly we’ll be looking to find that setup, and we think we have. Starting position is going to be very important. Saturday, we’re going to try and put it on the front row, and Sunday we’re going to try and bring it home.”

---INDYCAR---