Motorsport: Dixon unfulfilled after another Indy top six

Scott Dixon cut a frustrated figure after dominating for long periods before finishing fifth in the Indianapolis 500 motor race in the United States today.

The New Zealand driver led for 73 of the 200 laps at the famed Brickyard in Indiana, but his hopes of a second Indy 500 title evaporated when he encountered fuel problems.

Dixon, the 2008 champion, headed the field on lap 172 before he pitted, and he was unable to challenge again although he maintained a proud record in the race of finishing sixth or better in his last six Indy 500s.

Englishman Dan Wheldon won the famed race after American JR Hildebrand crashed while leading on the final lap.

Dixon told NZPA he was far from happy with the outcome.

"I definitely leave here thinking that I should have won my second Indianapolis 500," he said.

"We short-fuelled and why we short-fuelled, I don't know. We stopped 10 laps later than anybody else on any strategy; there's no way we should run out of fuel."

Dixon was also highly critical of race officials who prompted plenty of debate before the race by imposing Nascar-style double file restarts after each caution period.

Dixon was not a fan of the new procedure.

"The restarts were a joke," he said.

"Why do you have some back markers in that same pack? Pippa Mann was in front of me and obviously she was just trying to hold on and (Vitor) Meira was in front of me.

"She (Mann) was put in a position she didn't want to be in. They really need to sort that out. If they're going to go two wide, they need to get the back markers out of the way."

Dixon had made a clean start to the race.

From the middle of the front row, he blew by pole-sitter Alex Tagliani before they even got to the start-finish line, and dived into the first turn with the lead.

And for so long everything looked rosy until he struck fuel problems.

"To be leading and not add another a second or a half-second of fuel is bizarre. I don't really know how it happened.

"Realistically a little more fuel would have gotten us to the end."

- NZPA