Having been denied a shot at back-to-back wins after his Indianapolis 500 success by yellow flags at Milwaukee last weekend, Scott Dixon benefited from a late-race caution to finally break his Texas Motor Speedway duck.

The Kiwi had been a factor throughout the Bombadier Learjet 550k night race in Fort Worth, but had to battle his way back to the front of the field with just a handful of laps to run after Enrique Bernoldi hit the wall. Released for a nine-lap sprint to the flag, Dixon passed Marco Andretti for the lead on lap 222 of 228, and was then handed the victory when Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay clashed at the end of the lap.

The result was payback for Milwaukee, where Dixon was denied a run at late-race leader Ryan Briscoe when Andretti, Vitor Meira and Ed Carpenter found the wall, and allowed the Target Chip Ganassi driver to end a run of near misses at TMS – just as he had at Indianapolis two weeks ago.

Dixon had started the race from pole, but was unable to break away, with Helio Castroneves and Hunter-Reay offering early opposition. Castroneves' Penske team-mate Briscoe should also have been in the mix, but a rookie mistake at the first round of pit-stops cost the Milwaukee winner dearly, as he stopped at the wrong stall, and then clipped a Ganassi tyre, requiring a drive-thru' that sent him to the back of the pack.

British hopes took a dive in the early stages, with Darren Manning retiring the AJ Foyt Enterprises entry with the only mechanical failure of the night and Justin Wilson being forced out of the action when the right-front wheel of his Newman/Haas/Lanigan car folded back after contact.

Pit-stops under the ensuing yellow allowed Dixon to reclaim the lead from Castroneves, but the Kiwi was undone at the restart as Bruno Junqueira – who had stayed out while the majority of the field pitted – proved to be the chicane he had predicted after qualifying.

Caught behind the Brazilian, Dixon ceded positions, not only to Castroneves, but also the following Hunter-Reay and Hideki Mutoh, before the field was neutralised by another caution, this time after Oriol Servia was caught out by the track's transition and spun into the outside wall exiting turn two, registering his first DNF of the campaign.

Tomas Scheckter was among those who took the opportunity to pit, and was joined, somewhat surprisingly by Briscoe, who appeared to eschew the chance to take his lap back. The Australian, however, need not have worried, for some typical strategic Penske thinking kept him in the mix, and he was soon on the rise.

Scheckter, however, was not so lucky and, almost as soon as the field had been given the green flag, was pinched against the outside wall by a wayward Mario Moraes, who spun across the infield, albeit without the same consequences as Dan Wheldon, who flipped after finding the grass in practice. Although both drivers returned after exploratory pit-stops, only the Brazilian was able to continue, as Scheckter's lack of fortune with Luczo Dragon was prolonged.