If you believe in storybook endings then you can't hold winning the 2009 Indianapolis 500 against two past champions and Target/Chip Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. In the past year, Indy Racing League driver Helio Castroneves has won big. It started with winning ABC's Dancing With The Stars in 2008. He was then accused and acquitted of tax fraud, winning a heady court battle that threatened to put him in jail for a very long time, ostensibly ending his driving career.Arriving just in time to participate in this year's “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” Castroneves was the top qualifier, winning pole position. He and his team then won the annual pit competition where, on the Friday before the race, pit crews vie to see who has top chops in changing tires and gassing up the car. Then, of course, in a typical storybook-ending, Castroneves went on to win big on Sunday, becoming only the sixth driver in history to win three Indianapolis 500's. Castroneves has set himself up to become one of only five to win four times...Stay tuned.

So is this story about Castroneves? Heck no! That guy's not even a pilot—can you believe it?

"Oh no, not me, I'm not stupid. I leave that stuff to the professionals," blurts Castroneves, commenting on whether he would like to learn fly airplanes as he's rushed from one trackside media event to another. To be sure, Helio Castroneves is a bona fide nice guy, but nevertheless lacking in the skills of our interest.Two of Castroneves' challengers this year are also bona fide nice guys and are in fact skilled: Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. Both Indy car racers are past series champions and both have won the race itself and both just happen to be pilots. And that's where our story begins.Scott Dixon was born in Australia, but moved to New Zealand as a youngster. Like many, if not most pro drivers of today, Dixon has raced since he was pre-adolescent, and with his particular pedigree, it's no wonder. Both of Dixon’s parents were dirt track racers, providing valuable role modeling, motivation, and whatever piece of equipment he might need to win, including a booster cushion that stayed affixed to his rear end after crashing during his racing debut at the age of 13. That cushion, and all the other "good stuff" provided by his parents, gave Dixon a boost in the right direction as he went on to place second in New Zealand's Formula Ford Class II Championship. In that same year, he won his country's Formula Vee Championship after being given a special waiver to race at age 13. When you look at Dixon's pre-pro profile, there's a common thread running through the years as he progressed: championship, championship, rookie of the year, championship, rookie of the year, championship...Talk about a kid with chops! At the tender age of 20, Dixon became the youngest driver of any modern major open-wheel series to win a race (Nazareth) and went on to win Rookie of the Year for the CART series in 2001. Jumping ship from CART to the IndyCar Series with his new boss Chip Ganassi in 2003, Dixon wasted no time in making heads turn at Indianapolis.

A Little Background

But before we venture into Dixon’s first year at Indy, it's time for some American motor sports housekeeping. For those of you who have been drunk on NASCAR for the past decade, the other, arguably cooler racing style (open-wheel-not-involving-dirt) has gone through, let's just say...a change of life. This retrospective will be brief—dates are not important, but we are talking about a time since color TV and the eight-track tape. Please pay attention.< img src="images/gates/indy3.jpg" style="float:left"/> What was once a single, unified bunch of open-wheelers eventually split into two semi-unified series. (For the NASCAR crowd, open-wheel means no fenders.) CART, was led by names such as Andretti and Foyt, while IndyCar Series was led by whoever was left. For years, the two coexisted and even raced together at certain tracks on certain dates throughout the season, including the big daddy in May: The Indianapolis 500.At some point, one of the ornery CART guys said and/or did something that made the Indy guys mad. Many believe Foyt was the culprit. From that day forward, CART guys didn't or couldn't race in the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing." That made many CART drivers mad since winning the Indianapolis 500 was every open-wheel racer's dream. Imagine being the best in the NFL and not getting to play in the Super Bowl. Scandalous.

Eventually, CART became the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series became the Indy Racing League (IRL). This is how things were done before stimulus money. And just like any good stick, ball, or puck sport, some money-paying fans rooted for one series, some the other, and a few for both. But everyone agreed this sort of divided racing interest was no way to run a business and it was killing the sport, a la ABA/NBA and AFL/NFL. Some of you are old enough to remember red, white, and blue basketballs. For those of you who are younger, you can probably deduct who got eaten by whom. To the casual observer, the two series were pretty much the same. But to hardcore fans, they were quite different. The IRL schedule was almost exclusively oval-type races (resembling NASCAR-style racing), while Champ Car had many more grand prix, street and road course-style races in their schedule.The world of American open-wheel racing was divided, and if that wasn’t bad enough, along came the crazy popularity of the big, bad fender cars. When hordes of eyeballs started watching NASCAR, big TV money—and sponsors—followed the eyeballs. Things got so bad for Champ Car and IRL that the only sensible thing to do was put differences aside and join forces. Besides, the Andrettis and the Foyts had come to their senses years earlier and jumped ship back to the Brickyard so the sons of the fathers could share in that rich racing heritage, and someday win the Indianapolis 500. For the record, to date, none of them have.

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