This year's Firestone 600 was a battle of downforce, with the field split on whether to run a high downforce or low downforce package for the race. In the end, the high downforce package proved the correct call. Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan seized control in the second half of the race, and Dixon eventually gained the upper-hand through green flag stops and cruised home to take his second win of 2015. "A lot of credit goes to the Team Target engineering group for the option that we went with which was on the high downforce level," said Dixon in victory lane. "Another big thanks needs to go to Team Chevy for giving us so many good options to run with and the power they've given us as well."

Kanaan battled hard with Helio Castroneves in the final laps to take second, while Castroneves settled for third. Juan Montoya had an up and down night as the struggled with balance, but ultimately finished fourth. Marco Andretti used fuel strategy to take fifth at race's end.[/kop]Polesitter Will Power managed to hold the lead on the initial start while Pagenaud, Dixon, and Kanaan made aggressive moves to climb up the order, even running three-wide briefly during the open laps. Pagenaud eventually grabbed the lead on lap eight, and actually dominated the first 100 laps, leading through a set of green flag stops and holding off a fast Kanaan. However, on lap 68, Kanaan used lapped traffic to close and rocket into the lead.

The race's only caution flew on lap 85 with debris on the track. The subsequent pitstops saw Pagenaud's night begin to unravel, as he he had a slow stop and then stalled trying to leave. The problems dropped him to ninth, and with low downforce setting on the car, he was unable to work through traffic and was not a factor the rest of ninth, eventually finishing 11th. Pagenaud detailed the numerous problems he faced after the race. "The car was really good out front with the downforce setup we had on the car. Unfortunately we had an electrical issue with our weigh jacker, which through the balance of the car off until we got a chance to reset the system under the caution. But when we did that the engine shut down all the way into the pit stall and we lost several spots. An unfortunate situation for sure, but the guys continued to work on the car to make it better, but with our downforce setup it was just not the best in traffic."

Juan Montoya won the race off pit road ahead of Castroneves, Kanaan, Dixon, and Power. However, lacked the balance in the following stint, and both Kanaan and Dixon rocketed around him shortly after the race restarted on lap 97. The Chip Ganassi teammates battle side-by-side for several laps before Kanaan settled into the lead, and both drivers quickly drew away from the field.

Behind them, the biggest mover was Ryan Briscoe, who had charged from 19th on the grid into fifth place by the halfway point. He and Charlie Kimball would stage fierce for much of the race, spending several laps running side-by-side in the second half.

Up front, the order remained unchanged until the next round of stops. Just after all stops were completed, Dixon pounced on Kanaan for the lead, taking the top spot just after the round of stops finished on lap 144. While Kanaan fought back on the outside, Dixon eventually cleared him, and they ran 1-2 for much of the night.

The running order then stabilized for the rest of the stint until another round of green flag stops. Dixon, Kanaan, Castroneves, Montoya, Briscoe, Kimball, and other leaders stopped between laps 185 and 191. However, Marco Andretti and Carloz Munoz were the last drivers to stop, Munoz pitting on lap 193 and Andretti doing so on lap 195. Their late stops gave them a chance to stretch the fuel to end without another pit stop.

The pit exchange saw Dixon gap Kanaan significantly, leaving his teammate to battle Castroneves over the final 60 laps. Dixon, meanwhile, had lapped the entire field except the top four cars. Because of the gap, he managed to retain the lead when the leaders pitted for the final time, even though Andretti and Munoz stayed out and stretched the fuel.

The win was never in doubt for Dixon at that point and he cruised home after leading most of the race's second half to take his second victory of the season. "Once we got the balance right and we got some front wing in the car with some tire pressure changes, the car was basically on rails," Dixon added. "That allowed us to run up there with TK and really push him along. After that pit stop exchange, we were able to take the lead and the car was just fantastic in traffic. I think that was the key to winning this race."

Kanaan charged around both Munoz and Andretti and held off Castroneves for second. "That was definitely a tough race, but it always is here at Texas Motor Speedway," said Kanaan, who was happy to lead laps and contend for the win. "We saw the setups the Penske guys were running and they saw ours and I think both sides were so different that we were just thinking that someone definitely got it right and someone didn't. We decided to run more downforce and it worked in our favor. It was really close, good racing here tonight and in my opinion at least, I thought it was a lot of fun."

Castroneves settled for third and echoed Kanaan's sentiments about the race. ""Mentally, physically it was incredible tonight. One of the toughest ones - especially because we have to control the car, plus at the end with the temperature, the front end of my car was getting a lot nervous," said the Penske driver. "The AAA car was actually strong. We chose in the middle of the downforce (level). We knew that the Ganassis had more downforce than us and in the end they ended up getting the best way. A good day for the championship and points, we're still fourth, but at least we're closer to Juan Pablo (Montoya) and we'll keep going."

Montoya ended up fourth, while Andretti nursed his car home in fifth, the best of the Honda runners. Andretti expressed relief in finishing so high, his third top five in a row. "We were sort of just hanging on to it tonight," he quipped. "Seemingly lacking a bit of grip and pace to the front runners, so we had to get the top five the way we did it. It was an awesome job by my Snapple guys. We just need to keep hanging in there, that’s all we can do."

Montoya increased his point lead over Power to 35, while Dixon sits 43 points out of the lead in third. Castroneves maintains fourth ahead of Graham Rahal. The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Canada next week for the Honda Indy Toronto.

Texas Motor Speedway