FORT WORTH, Texas -- Scott Dixon is too strong. No, wait, it's Will Power in the lead. OK, Graham Rahal looks to be in control coming to the finish. What? Justin Wilson? Where did he come from?
From 17th on the starting grid actually, and the driver of the No. 18 Sonny's BBQ car for Dale Coyne Racing charged to the front -- overtaking Rahal's mishandling car on Lap 226 of 228 -- to win the Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway.
It was the first IZOD IndyCar Series oval victory for Wilson, who led Rahal across the start-finish line by 3.9202 seconds. Ryan Briscoe finished third and James Hinchcliffe was fourth. All four led multiple laps in the fast and furious race.
Click it: Firestone 550 box score
"It's just fantastic," said Wilson, who previous best IZOD IndyCar Series oval finish was seventh. "Dale has put so much into making us competitive, so this one is for him and (wife) Gail and the team. I just can’t believe we managed to pull this off. The car was fantastic, and on the long runs it just got better and better."
Rahal appeared to be on his way to his first oval victory, but the No. 38 Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing car brushed the Turn 4 wall as he was fighting understeer.
"I saw him sliding more and more every lap, and I didn’t think there was a chance," Wilson said. "But when I saw him hit the wall, I thought, 'OK, now it’s time to go.' It was four-wheel drifting all the way into Turn 3 and all the way out of Turn 4. You were having to hang on out there."
Said Rahal: "I just made a mistake. This will haunt me until I win."
Earlier in the weekend, IZOD IndyCar Series drivers lobbied sanctioning body officials to put the race in their steely hands on the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval instead of relying on an aerodynamic package that has produced the pack racing ("fake racing," as Dixon labeled it) everyone was attempting to avoid following the devastating accident in October on a similar configured oval.
Maybe it was a case of be careful what you wish as some drivers discovered, but it produced excitement throughout the field for the two-hour festival for competitors and spectators.
"I have to say this is the best racing I’ve ever had on an oval," said Power, who also appeared to be on the way to strengthening his championship points lead until he was assessed a drive-through penalty for blocking on a Lap 184 restart. "You had to lift, you had to look after your tires, you had to really drive the thing, it was moving around. That is just the sort of racing that we need at these sort of tracks."
Power's No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car jutted to the left as Tony Kanaan was closing to challenge for the lead. Briscoe was on Power's right in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske car.
"I feel bad for my guys. I feel as though we could have quite easily won this race," said Power, who finished eighth.
Dixon, who led a field-high 133 laps, had similar sentiments as he held a 1.4-second advantage over Power on Lap 165. Six laps later, Power grabbed the point as Dixon's car developed understeer as the tires wore. On Lap 173, the rear end of the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car snapped around and made contact with the Turn 4 SAFER Barrier.
"We had been getting loose at the end of stints," said Dixon, who incurred his first DNF since Toronto in 2010. "For the last 10 laps of that last stint I was just really fighting to hold on. That time there I kind of got into the middle of few people we were trying to lap and I was trying to get back up to Power. I turned in and the rear just started to slide and I kind of dipped down onto the apron and shut around again."
JR Hildebrand jumped from 23 on the starting grid to claim his second top-five finish of the season, and rookie Simon Pagenaud was sixth. Power's teammate and a three-time winner at Texas, Helio Castroneves, also was in contention mid-race and settled for seventh. Pole sitter Alex Tagliani led the first 20 laps and wound up ninth.
Wilson's teammate, James Jakes, gained 11 positions to post his first top 10 of the season.