Scott Dixon wins at Watkins Glen while Simon Pagenaud extends IndyCar Series lead

Watkins Glen International is a special place for Scott Dixon. He showed why again Sunday.

Fastest in every practice and fastest in qualifying, Dixon won the IndyCar Grand Prix at the Glen with a dominant drive, leading all but 10 of the 60 laps around the 11-turn, 3.37-mile natural terrain layout.

It’s his 40th victory overall, moving the New Zealander into fourth place on the career list. He also won for the second time this season, and fourth time at The Glen. When the series returned to the historic road course in upstate New York’s wine country in 2005, Dixon won the first three races, his victory that first year snapping a 40-race winless streak.

Josef Newgarden was second, followed by Helio Castroneves, Conor Daly, and Sebastien Bourdais fifth.

Simon Pagenaud finished seventh and increased his lead over Will Power to 43 points standings with one race remaining in the season. Pagenaud was running fifth with 10 laps left, but had to back off to save fuel in the closing laps.

Power crashed just past the midpoint of the race and finished 20th. He was not permitted to return to the race because of concussion symptoms.

The two Penske drivers are the only ones still in contention for the title.

It was the first IndyCar race at The Glen since Power won from the pole in 2010.

Dixon won the pole Saturday with a speed of over 147 mph and a record-shattering time that eclipsed the previous record by nearly six seconds on the track’s new pavement.

In Sunday morning’s 30-minute warmup, Dixon practiced his starts and nearly lost it once.

Once the green flag dropped, he was flawless, consistently opening big leads and saving enough fuel over the final laps to win by 16.5 seconds. Dixon announced after the race on pit road that he was donating his winnings to the family of the late Justin Wilson, who died last August after being struck in the head by debris from a crash in an IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway.

Power’s drive toward the championship suffered a damaging blow when his No. 12 Team Penske Chevy made contact with Charlie Kimball on lap 39 coming out of the high-speed esses. Kimball hit the left rear tire of Power’s No. 12 in the narrow section of the track at the top of the hill. He got a huge run on the outside and made contact, sending Power hard into the barrier and bringing out a caution as debris scattered all over the track.