That was enough to bring him home ahead of points leader Helio Castroneves, the Brazilian - and Penske - not really featuring as a contender for victory this weekend. Team-mate Ryan Briscoe was poised for sixth until the closing laps, when he was jumped by AGR rookie Hideki Mutoh, who followed team-mate Marco Andretti across the line with fourth to seventh covered by less than a second.
Like Scheckter, the two Vision Racing entries could also lay claim to having been potential Penske/AGR beaters, but both AJ Foyt and Ed Carpenter were caught out by the same yellow as accounted for Dixon, dropping them to eighth and tenth at the end. Scheckter, meanwhile, had his hopes dented, initially, by a wayward Marty Roth, who spun into the Luczo Dragon car in pit-lane, and then ended by a clash with rookie Ernesto Viso. The Venezuelan - along with Scheckter, one of the stars of the race - drifted just far enough up the track in turn four to collect the #12, causing both to spin to the infield, with a second contact breaking Scheckter's left-front suspension. Viso, meanwhile, was able to continue after a lenghty traverse of the grass in front of the pits, but dropped a lap to the leaders - Wheldon one of those to pass between the spinning machines - and eventually finished 14th.
Ahead of him, and between the two Vision cars after a late pass on Carpenter, Justin Wilson headed the 'transitioning' drivers, with Oriol Servia, Graham Rahal and rookie Jay Howard also coming in ahead of Viso.
Motegi winner Danica Patrick never capitalised on her second row starting spot, dropping down the order with an understeering car early on and eventually succumbing to a problem with the right-rear wheel on her AGR car. She joined Ryan Hunter-Reay, debutant Jaime Camara, the luckless Vitor Meira - who collected a wheel in pit-lane - Darren Manning, Enrique Bernoldi, Roth and Will Power in adding their names to the retirement list, with the Australian taking just 22 laps to find the wall in turn two.
![Target Chip Ganassi team-mates Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon [pic credit: IRL/McQueeney]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/426207.jpg)
