WEST ALLIS, Wis. -- The IndyCar Series drivers put on a competitive and exciting race Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile. Scott Dixon passed Ryan Briscoe in traffic with 25 laps to go and pulled away to an uncontested victory in the ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225, taking the IndyCar Series championship lead in the process.
The largest crowd in years for a Milwaukee open-wheel race roared its approval as Dixon claimed his second win of the season for Target Chip Ganassi Racing.
Defending Milwaukee champion Briscoe led more than two-thirds of the laps Sunday (154 of 225) but a momentary lift while trying to lap Tomas Scheckter cost him first place.
The IndyCar Series put on a better than fair show at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds on Sunday.
"I was just trying to get the flow of traffic the whole day," Dixon said. "I think from the start our car was better and we could run quick times when we needed to. We were good in traffic and I had many runs on Briscoe, but he kind of blocked a lot. That was kind of frustrating.
"Finally he got hung up; he tried to take [Scheckter] on the bottom and I got a great run on the high side and chased him on the inside into [Turn] 3. It just worked out perfect."
The win was sweet for Dixon because it came at a track where the two-time series champion suffered perhaps the lowest moment of his IndyCar career. He failed to make the 2004 race at the Mile after a pair of practice crashes.
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The mood in the Milwaukee paddock was one of uncertainty, thanks to reports last week of Tony George's changing role within the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation.
Just a year into the "unified" era of open-wheel racing, IndyCar Series team owners are once again worried about the long-term future of the sport.
Although they refused individually to speak on the record, they issued a group statement Saturday evening under the banner of the IndyCar Series owners advisory group.
"We, the IndyCar team owners, want to express our full support to Tony. As an innovator and leader of our sport, he continually strives to help and improve IndyCar racing, and for that we are exceptionally grateful."
Left unsaid is that George -- and by extension, IMS -- is the primary source of funding for the Indy Racing League, the series George formed in 1996 as a direct competitor to the CART Indy Car World Series.
It's ironic that the team owners who -- collectively as CART -- fought George so bitterly in the past are now publicly embracing him.
But as individual business owners, they need him. And George needs them in what is shaping up as a power struggle within the Hulman-George family.
In the wake of the May 27 report that he had been ousted as the CEO of IMS, public statements issued by George and his mother, Mari Hulman-George, seemed to confirm that Tony is under pressure to make the IRL more profitable.
George has spent hundreds of millions of dollars creating and supporting the IRL, including purses and payouts to individual teams, including his own team, Vision Racing.
Although the three annual events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway remain profitable, the IMS board -- consisting of George, his mother, his three sisters and Indianapolis attorney Jack Snyder -- appears to be at the point of demanding a return on its investment in the IRL.
Whether that can happen in a timely enough fashion to satisfy the IMS board remains to be seen. But it's obvious that a sport that has been starved of strong leadership for the past 30 years needs Tony George to step up in a big way.
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A gold old-fashioned racing story unfolded at Milwaukee as well. Tony Kanaan, battered and bruised from a vicious accident a week before during the Indianapolis 500, eased himself into a replacement car and put it third on the grid for Sunday's race.
Kanaan has long been known as one of American open-wheel racing's toughest characters. He proved it again six days after what he called the biggest wreck of his career.
"It turns out I didn't break any ribs, but I have broken seven ribs before and it feels pretty similar," Kanaan said Saturday after averaging 167.793 mph for his four-lap qualifying run. "It feels like somebody is kicking me in the side every time I go into a corner but I only have to do it for 225 laps.
"Honestly, it only hurts when I laugh, talk or turn left."
I suggested to Kanaan that it was a good thing he was coping with his injuries at the start of a string of four consecutive ovals instead of a series of road courses. But he said few tracks could be worse than Milwaukee. The injuries he sustained at Indy are on his right side, which receives a lot of g-loads on the short oval with little banking.
"A road course would be better for me because there's some time to rest my right side, but the best case scenario would be a super speedway," he said. "The pain isn't going to go away but I can deal with it. I'm just happy to be walking after the hit I took and I'm thankful for the SAFER walls and all the work the series has done with the cars.
"Plus, my mom called me today and told me to suck it up and go. So that's what I intend to do."
Kanaan made an aggressive start to lead the first 25 laps in Sunday's race, but he battled handling problems and faded to 10th place.
Ultimately, TK never had to endure the full 225 laps because he caused the second and final full-course caution of the race when his car caught fire on the 133rd lap.
John Oreovicz covers motorsports for ESPN.com and has reported on Indy car racing for 17 years. He is a longtime contributor to National Speed Sport News and many other automotive and racing publications around the world. He is also the author of "A Winning Adventure," a detailed look into Honda's American open-wheel racing exploits.
"Oreo" attended the Indianapolis 500 for the first time at age 13 in 1978 and has been on the scene for more than 350 Indy car races under USAC, CART, IRL and Champ Car sanction as a reporter, PR man or fan. He joined ESPN.com in 2004.
John lives in west-central Indiana and can be reached at indyoreo@earthlink.net.
John Oreovicz
