It was all going according to plan for Scott Dixon on the last lap of Sunday’s Detroit Indy Grand Prix.
Dixon was cruising along in third place on the last lap behind leader Tony Kanaan and the second-place car driven by Buddy Rice.
More importantly, he was one position ahead of Dario Franchitti and about to add to his four-point lead in the battle for the IndyCar title heading into the final race of the season at Chicagoland Speedway next week.
Then, in an instant, Dixon’s day took a dramatic turn.
Rice’s car ran out of fuel and slowed down. Dixon, trying to avoid him, went underneath while Rice’s car sailed into the tire barrier. Dixon’s car then spun right in front of Franchitti, who was ready to “thread the needle” and make it through.
But at the last moment, Dixon’s car lazily drifted across the track and blocked Franchitti from getting by.
That enraged Franchitti’s team owners, Michael Andretti and Kevin Savoree, who claimed Dixon intentionally blocked the track to keep Franchitti from getting past.  They charged Dixon’s team owner, Chip Ganassi, to voice their displeasure.
According to an eyewitness, Savoree was doing his best to get Ganassi to take a swing at him.
“I think Michael Andretti and Kevin Savoree overreacted to what they saw on television, which happens,” said Mike Hull, managing director of Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. “What I thought was a classless act, was the way they treated Mr. Ganassi. I won’t repeat what they said.
“I think they should probably understand that Buddy Rice ran out of fuel and Scott had nowhere to go. They accused Chip that we tried to take Dario out. We don’t race like that. It’s too bad they react the way they do. I think that’s a pretty classless way to act. Kevin Savoree was trying to get Chip to swing at him but Chip wouldn’t bite.”
Ganassi defended his driver after the Andretti Green Racing team owners confronted him.
“‘Why would he do that?’ is right,” Ganassi said. “I don’t understand why he would possibly do that. He had two guys in front of him that were running out of gas, OK...That’s typical of a comment from that team.”
Of course, Andretti had a far different viewpoint of what happened.
“Poor sportsmanship is what I saw,” Andretti said. “He (Dixon) clearly took Dario out on purpose. He was rolling and going fine and then he saw Dario was going to the outside of him, let off his brake and took Dario out. It was totally on purpose.
“That’s not the way to do it. I’m really disappointed in Scott.”
Franchitti kept his engine fired and finished sixth. Dixon was credited with eighth, giving Franchitti a three-point lead over Dixon heading into the finale.
“I don’t think Scott did anything on purpose,” Franchitti said. “He went for a gap when Buddy ran out of fuel, he spun, was going left and going right. I chose the wrong way and he rolled back as I was going that way.
“Sometimes you can’t do right for doing wrong.”
Again at the center of controversy was Dixon, the quiet New Zealander who was able to endure last weekend’s AGR “team tactics” at Infineon Raceway and score his fourth season victory.
“I can’t really say it was unsportsmanlike, I had no control of the car, it spun out,” Dixon said. “It’s just unfortunate what happened. I don’t know what Buddy was doing; maybe he was out of fuel. I tried to get on the inside, and it looked like he sped up again, so I tried to brake and he came down a little bit. My rear hit him and then I spun.
“How was it intentional? I was better off; I would have made five points on the guy if I kept going.”
Rice, who triggered the amazing end-of-the race events by running out of fuel, apologized to both Andretti and Ganassi for the incident.