Dixon Never Threatened

Scott Dixon put on the most dominant performance in IRL history, leading all 206 laps before rain washed out the finish of the SunTrust Indy Challenge on Saturday night at Richmond, Va.

“This is an awesome place to race,” he said after posting his third victory in seven races in the series.

Dixon, who moved over from the CART series this year, became the first driver in IRL to lead from start to finish. The race ended 44 laps short of the scheduled 250 when lightning arrived with the showers.

“We had the fastest car all weekend,” Dixon said. “We didn’t even have to work on it.”

With radar showing a storm approaching, the IRL decided to shorten a race because of weather for only the second time in its history. The other time was in 1997, when Eddie Cheever won at Walt Disney World.

Helio Castroneves finished second, followed by Gil de Ferran and two-time series champion and defending race champion Sam Hornish Jr.

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Brendan Gaughan overcame a mistake on the next-to-last lap and became the ninth different winner in nine NASCAR truck series races at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis.

Gaughan, whose four-length lead over Jason Leffler hardly could have been considered comfortable, overdrove the third turn and nearly lost control of his Dodge.

“This is the toughest track we race on, and you can easily mess yourself up,” Gaughan said.

Leffler, also in a Dodge, cut the margin to a length, but couldn’t close any further as Gaughan recovered to win the GNC Live Well 200.

The margin of victory was about 10 lengths. Gaughan, who won $48,560, averaged a track-record 109.671 mph in a race slowed only once by caution.

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Johnny Sauter got the pole for today’s Busch Series race at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis., when rain washed out qualifying.

The field for today’s GNC Live Well 250 was set by car owner points. It was the fourth time owner points were used to set the lineup .

David Green, who leads the drivers’ standings, will start from the second position and Scott Riggs will start third in the 43-car field.

Rain also forced the cancellation of practice, giving drivers little opportunity to test the 1.032-mile oval.

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Kenny Bernstein moved into the top qualifying position in the NHRA in the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.

Bernstein was the fastest top-fuel qualifier with a 4.596-second run at 323.12 mph.

Gary Densham, Warren Johnson and Shawn Gann led their divisions.

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Kimi Raikkonen gained the first pole position of his career during qualifying for the European Grand Prix at Nuerburgring, Germany.

Brothers Michael and Ralf Schumacher hold the next two spots in the lineup for today’s Formula One race.