Kanaan duly reeled off the remaining laps without incident, opening out a five-second gap to Castroneves who, in turn, had shaken off the attentions of Wheldon. Dixon moved up to fourth by passing the quietly impressive Oriol Servia, but both men had their share of 'nearly' moments as wearing tyres and a cold track combined to make handling tricky. Patrick separated Servia from former Champ Car rival Wilson, who had moved up from 23rd on the grid to occupy seventh, ahead of Bell, the luckless Andretti and Viso, who had dropped a lap or two off the pace as his challenge faded.

Dixon, despite not having led a lap for the past two races, received a late boost when he passed Ganassi team-mate Wheldon on the run to the flag, claiming an unlikely third, but that could not distract from Kanaan's first win since Detroit last season, and his first on an oval since Kentucky before that.

With Castroneves and Dixon following him across the line, however, the result doesn't do a great deal for Kanaan's title bid, and the Brazilian trails the Kiwi by 43 points as the field heads for the altogether different challenge of the Watkins Glen road course - a race that Dixon has won for the past three years - next weekend.