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INDIANAPOLIS – Strategy was almost as important as speed Saturday as Scott Dixon won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 with a big gamble by his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team.

Dixon and teammate Dan Wheldon, who took the second spot, both took advantage of Indy’s unique qualifying format, which allows each entry up to three tries on each of the four days of time trials.

Dixon, who has three pole positions in five tries in the IRL IndyCar Series this season, got the biggest benefit of the team strategy, canceling out a four-lap average of 225.178 mph earlier in the day and making it pay off with four laps at 226.366 that held up for Ganassi’s third Indy pole.

“I was part of that decision, so it wasn’t really a surprise,”Dixon said. “We had been out testing, so we were confident we could go much faster. The tough part came later in the day, knowing whether or not we should do a third attempt (if we got knocked off the pole).

“One thing that was great out there, even on an average lap for us, we still had the field covered as a team. That just goes to show how strong we are this year.”

Busch pulls out win

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Kyle Busch won the battle of attrition as NASCAR’s least popular driver overcame a pit-road penalty and several scrapes with the wall to win at Darlington Raceway.

Busch’s third Sprint Cup Series victory of the season hardly thrilled the crowd, which viciously booed him in prerace introductions and hadn’t softened by the time he took the checkered flag.

His win at Darlington was his eighth of the season spanning NASCAR’s top three series.

Compiled from Advocate Wire Reports