Scott Dixon on target for IndyCar win on wild day at Belle Isle

Scott Dixon led all 60 laps of the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix on Sunday.

Scott Dixon got through the shortened Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by shopautoweek.com in one piece, remarkable given all the pieces flying around.

In between the start and the finish was a two-hour delay for a track coming apart, several crashes and light rain.

The finish was a reverse of last week's Indianapolis 500, with Dixon holding off 500 winner Dario Franchitti for his 28th victory in the Izod IndyCar Series.

Franchitti held off Simon Pagenaud for second. Will Power finished fourth, and Oriol Servia was fifth in the 60-lap race. The race was scheduled for 90 laps.

The delay came as a result of track sealant coming up in several parts of the 14-turn, 2.07-mile street circuit on Detroit's Belle Isle.

Drivers began complaining about the track as early as lap five, but the race continued without incident--for a while. Then, on lap 39, everything changed.

James Hinchcliffe was following a group of cars through turn six when a large piece of track sealant laying on the track struck his front wing. The debris got under the car and lifted it in the air, breaking traction with the asphalt.

Unable to control the No. 27 machine, Hinchcliffe soared into the large tire barrier, which engulfed him.

Takuma Sato crashed at almost the same point, although his incident was caused by running over the curb.

Hinchcliffe described the sealant debris as “giant pieces” that he and the other competitors had to dodge.

“It was like playing Russian roulette,” he said.

Several pieces landed in the corporate chalets that line parts of the track.

The craters left in the track were described as two inches deep by six inches wide.

“A mess,” Hinchcliffe said.

A piece of the sealant broke part of Power's front wing; another broke Tony Kanaan's mirror.

Dixon said there were several areas of the track with the problem. Kanaan estimated that there was damage “in seven corners around the track.”

Franchitti said the situation causes a driver to “lose steering, and off you go.”

Up until that point, the focal point of the race was Dixon as he drove away from Power and the rest of the field, and E.J. Viso.

Viso started fourth and was third when a gaggle of cars stacked up behind him. As the leaders pulled away, Viso's car was loose to the point of twice sliding, which slowed others behind him. He trailed Dixon by as much as 15 seconds before he pulled off the track to pit.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was the car immediately behind Viso, and he clearly was frustrated by the slowness of the KV Racing Technology car that went way wide at one point and slapped the wall in another. Hunter-Reay's first big try to pass came on lap 20, but he couldn't make it stick.

Viso made wall contact on lap 26; he pitted two laps later.

Hunter-Reay wasn't just busy with Viso; he had Ryan Briscoe stalking from behind. That was a problem, too, as Briscoe got a run on him, but Hunter-Reay moved over to block. They touched briefly, sending a puff of smoke in the air. Hunter-Reay drew a warning from race control; Briscoe slowed briefly but was able to regain pursuit.

Justin Wilson was one of the race favorites, having won the most recent IndyCar race held on Belle Isle, in 2008. But he was out after only a couple of corners after banging the wall when the rear of his car got loose. The contact, while light, was enough to damage a suspension piece.

The real action was after the delay and a shortening of the race by 30 laps. Helio Castroneves spun into the wall and was clipped by the trailing Ed Carpenter. Josef Newgarden, a rookie, also got into a mess that included several cars spinning.

Viso even got knocked off line by Marco Andretti, causing yet another caution. But Dixon held on through all of it.