Scott Dixon celebrates his Indycar win in Detroit Photo: Indycar
Scott Dixon has won the latest Indycar race in Detroit to go to the top of the championship.
Fellow New Zealander Marcus Armstrong was third, his first top-three finish of his Indycar career.
Dixon a six-time Indycar championship winner again put on a master class of tactical driving and saving fuel to win a caution-strewn street race.
It is Dixon's 58th career victory, putting him within nine wins of AJ Foyt's record of 67 career wins.
The first three-quarters of the race were chaos, with eight caution periods and 47 caution laps in the first 73 laps.
The longest stretch of green-flag racing during that span was 13 laps, making strategists' heads spin as they mulled options on the fly while on the radio with drivers.
"At about lap 50 I said I think we can make it on no more stops if we do one now ... we didn't go that risky but the team called it perfectly and we were on the right strategy," Dixon said.
The arrival of a passing rain shower on lap 34, caused strategists and pit crews to scramble up and down pit road as drivers and teams decided whether to pit for rain tyres or stay out and gamble that the rain.
Dixon was one of eight drivers in the 27-car field who never stopped for rain tyres, a strategy that ultimately paid off.
The win gives Dixon an 18-point championship lead over teammate Alex Palou with his second victory of the season, joining his win in April at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Asked if he's focusing on tying Foyt's record of seven series championships, "For sure; I think it always is ... until you're out of it, you're going to keep chasing it. It's a team effort."
The next Indycar round is in a week in Wisconsin.
