West Allis, WI (My Sportsbook) - Ryan Briscoe captured Sunday's ABC Supply/AJ Foyt Indy 225 at The Milwaukee Mile. The No.6 Team Penske driver crossed the finish line under caution ahead of Scott Dixon.
The victory was Briscoe's first career win the IndyCar Series.
Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon and Helio Castroneves completed the top-five.
Dixon was dominating the race when he led Castroneves, Briscoe, Wheldon and Kanaan to the restart with 85 laps to go.
Dixon had a great restart and a few laps later had a comfortable lead, something he was used up to this point the race. It seemed like it would take a miracle for someone to pass last week's Indianapolis 500 winner.
Then with 65 laps remaining, Briscoe passed his Penske teammate Castroneves to take over second place and started to make things a little interesting. Castroneves lost another spot when Wheldon got past him for third.
Briscoe ran the same or faster lap times then the leader and slowly cut into Dixon's margin. Dixon saw Briscoe pass him on the inside with 49 laps to go. This was going to be a two-man race as they opened up a seven-second gap over third place.
Briscoe started the cycle of green flag stops with 31 laps to go when he made his way down pit road. He needed a great stop, but the opposite happened. He had a slow one due to problems with the left-rear tire. Dixon came down pit road with 21 laps left. The No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver didn't have a great stop either, but it was four seconds faster than Briscoe's stop.
It was Briscoe's lucky day as Dixon came off pit road and still settled behind him. Now it was a matter of holding off a charging Dixon.
Once the green flag stops were complete there were 17 laps to go and the margin for Briscoe was 0.6587. Dixon continuously tried to pass Briscoe over the remaining laps, but Briscoe fought back each attempt.
Briscoe finally was able to relax with three laps to go when a multi-car crash involving Ed Carpenter, Vitor Meira, Hideki Mutoh and Marco Andretti brought out the caution flag, allowing Briscoe to cruise to the victory behind the pace car.
Pole winner Andretti had led the 26-car field to the green flag for 225 laps of racing. Andretti led the field through an early caution flag for Oriol Servia. When the race went back to green it was Dixon and Kanaan who made their way past Graham Rahal for second and third, respectively. Castroneves held onto the fifth spot.
The No.26 AGR driver maintained a half-a-second margin until on lap 40 when Dixon made his way around Andretti for the first place. Dixon pulled away to a three-second lead.
Meanwhile, Andretti slowed considerably and fell out of the top-five. Kanaan also fell back as Graham Rahal took over second.
The second caution flag of the race flew on lap 63 for debris. Dixon led Rahal, Castroneves, Wheldon and Kanaan down pit road for their first stops of the afternoon. Castroneves and Rahal switched spots after the stops, this was the only change the top-five.
Dixon had the fastest car and was still dominating the race at the halfway point. The only times Dixon's lead diminished was when he approached lap traffic.
Behind Dixon, the car on the move was Briscoe. After 130 laps, he found himself fourth after starting the afternoon 11th. Wheldon and Kanaan fell back to fifth and sixth as Briscoe continued moving up through the field.
The 19-year-old Rahal made the first big mistake of the race on lap 130 when he got into wall turn four. Rahal was running a solid race third before the crash. The leaders made pit stops during the caution period. It seemed like the race was Dixon's control, but it didn't turn out that way.
Briscoe moved into second place and the race was on. Too bad the race finished under caution flag, it could have been a very exciting finish between the veteran and the young rising star.
The next race the series is set for Saturday, June 7th at the Texas Motor Speedway.