KEY POINTS:
It's a moment that has haunted Scott Dixon for 12 months. Leading into the last lap of the final race of the season, the 28-year-old ran out of fuel with the chequered flag in sight to hand the IndyCar Series title to Dario Franchitti.
But for a
few drops of petrol, Dixon would have added a second title to the one he claimed in his rookie year in 2003.
He would also have claimed the US$1 million bonus for winning the series and, tomorrow morning (NZT), Dixon returns to the 1.5 mile-long (2.4km) Chicagoland Speedway for the final race of the 2008 season and a similarly tense finale.
Memories of his last race there aren't fond but they have driven the Kiwi since.
"I think it was the majority of it, to be honest," Dixon said when asked during a teleconference how much of a motivating factor that incident was for this season.
"I think it was more in the way that we lost it. We had a fast car on the day and it came down to strategy a little bit, running out of fuel because we basically used too much.
"That was a tough way to deal with it after such a long season and the success that we had coming down and closing that gap, to have it finish with having maybe a cupful of gas was pretty tough.
"It was a big motivational thing for everybody, I think, this year."
The scene is different this time.
Unlike last season when Dixon was playing catch-up throughout and went into the final race three points behind Franchitti, he's led the pack from day one in 2008 after his win in the opening race in Miami.
He had hoped to wrap up the title last weekend in Detroit but was left to regret a failed pit strategy that allowed closest rival Helio Castroneves to reduce the lead from 78 to 30 points.
The permutations, while somewhat confusing, are still heavily weighted in Dixon's favour.
Castroneves was a Dancing With The Stars champion in the United States and he will have to produce some fancy footwork to pull this one off or hope Dixon fails to finish.
Among the myriad calculations (extra points are awarded for leading the most laps), the most important is that Dixon will win the title if he finishes eighth or better.
He refutes, though, any suggestion he might drive conservatively to get the job done at Chicagoland.
"I think we've got to just keep doing what we've been doing all season and that's trying to go out and win races," Dixon says.
"I want to try to qualify on pole and I want to try to win the race. If you do that, you're definitely going to win the championship. So obviously we want to beat one person, that's Helio. We want to do it in style.
"If we're able to go for a record seven victories in a single season, that's definitely what we're going to try to do. It won't be anything conservative from us."
He couldn't be accused of that in 2008. Dixon has won six of the 16 races to date, including the prestigious Indy 500, and has equalled the record set by Target Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Dan Wheldon in 2005 for the most number of wins in a season. He's also achieved six poles and 13 top-five finishes.
Castroneves, on the other hand, has won only once but the Brazilian has remained in the fight in large part due to eight second-place finishes.
"I still think we've got a sizeable lead," Dixon says. "It's definitely a lot better than last year's situation [but] I think Chicago's going to be very tough. It's a tough circuit.
"It's one of those ones that provides great racing and definitely nailbiting for a championship race, which is exactly what the fans want and everybody that's watching. I guess they'll definitely get that."
The thriller finish to the season has tended to cloud the driver moves which will see Dixon's Chip Ganassi team become even harder to beat when Franchitti replaces Wheldon next year.
Ganassi attempted to sign AGR free agent Tony Kanaan to replace Wheldon - overshadowed by Dixon and who is not so suited to the road and street courses which will make up nearly half of the IRL schedule next year.
While Ganassi's overtures to Kanaan apparently upset Wheldon - who is now moving back to the Panther team who gave the Englishman his start in IRL racing - Dixon wasn't buying into any controversy, saying only that Franchitti's arrival was "fantastic" and they would be a force to be reckoned with next year.
But first he has to win the series this year - at a course where neither he nor Castroneves has ever won.
Surely Dixon's team will add a few more drops of fuel in the car to avoid a repeat of last year.
