Rain helps Dixon

Scott Dixon took the lead on Lap 149 and had enough fuel to stay there until rain ended the Indy Racing League Firestone Indy 200 with 29 laps left Saturday night, giving him his third consecutive victory at Nashville Superspeedway and his fourth this season.

The third caution of the race came on Lap 139 when the rain finally hit. The cars kept going even as fans were asked to evacuate the grandstand immediately because of the weather. They went back to green before the fourth and final caution came on lap 167.

IRL officials kept the cars rolling until the rain came harder, and the race was red-flagged on Lap 171.

Dixon’s teammate, Dan Wheldon, finished second. Pole-sitter Helio Castroneves took advantage of a track cleaned of the rubber chunks chewed off the tires by the concrete track to pass Danica Patrick and Tony Kanaan. He finished third. Kanaan was fourth with Patrick fifth.

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Ana Beatriz became the first woman to win on the Firestone Indy Lights Series, taking the Sunbelt Rentals 100 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Beatriz is one of five women who have taken part in the series, that started in 2002, to help develop drivers for the IRL’s IndyCar series. She had finished as high as third three times this year.

She started on the front row beside pole-sitter James Davison, her Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammate.

Beatriz dipped inside Davison going into Turn 3 on Lap 33 and took the lead. She held it for the rest of the 100-mile race, winning by 1.2392 seconds ahead of Bobby Wilson.

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The NASCAR ACDelco Super Late Model 50-lap feature race at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale was postponed because of a thunderstorm.

The race will be rescheduled at a later date and fans holding tickets to the event may reuse them next Saturday.