Kiwi Scott Dixon produced a flawless drive to win the first leg of the Houston double-header and give his championship claims a major boost.
The Chip Ganassi ace Dixon landed the 90-lap race after starting from the second row following a heavily revised and rescheduled qualifying session due to emergency track modifications.
As Dixon claimed his 33rd career IndyCar victory, Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro (KV Racing) realised her maiden podium in second ahead of Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing).
Dixon led the field across the line under caution, the seventh time the race, which is run in the Reliant Stadium car park, was interrupted by yellow periods.
Series leader Helio Castroneves had a disastrous race which was ruined early on by a gearbox issue. The Brazilian lost seven laps when Team Penske performed repairs in the pit lane.
The ever bubbly Castroneves, who had finished every lap previously this season, was classified in 18th, 10 laps down on Dixon.
Dixon has now closed to within eight points of Castroneves at the top of the Indy standings.
For Dixon it was the perfect result after he was hit with a $30,000 fine from the Baltimore race last month when he called for race director Beaux Barfield to be removed from his position.
“I also dedicate this win to Beaux. It’s nice to be on the podium and back on top,” Dixon said.
“(and) I hope they (Team Penske) are worried, man. It’s a 41 point turn around today.”
Dixon toughed it out with Castroneves’ team-mate Will Power who led early after starting from the front row but the Kiwi took the lead during the first round of pit stops just under half-race distance and was never headed.
Dixon landed a break on lap 65 when his pit stop co-incided with a yellow while Power regained the lead by staying out.
“Hopefully, we can have another good race tomorrow,” Dixon said after scoring his fourth win of the year.
“The Honda engines are definitely strong, and it would be nice to go to [the season finale at] California
with a little bit of a (championship points) buffer.”
With 17 laps remaining Power pitted under caution and eventually finished 12th.
Simon Pagenaud scrambled to fourth place to keep his championship hopes alive ahead of Josef Newgarden.
James Jakes was sixth with Graham Rahal, Sebastien Bourdais, EJ Viso and Luca Filippi filling the top 10.
The second 90-lap leg at Houston is scheduled for early tomorrow morning.
See below for full results
| 1 | Scott Dixon | Dallara-Honda | 90 laps running |
| 2 | Simona De Silvestro | Dallara-Chevy | 90, running |
| 3 | Justin Wilson | Dallara-Honda | 90, running |
| 4 | Simon Pagenaud | Dallara-Honda | 90, running |
| 5 | Josef Newgarden | Dallara-Honda | 90, running |
| 6 | James Jakes | Dallara-Honda | 90, running |
| 7 | Graham Rahal | Dallara-Honda | 90, running |
| 8 | Sebastien Bourdais | Dallara-Chevy | 90, running |
| 9 | EJ Viso | Dallara-Chevy | 90, running |
| 10 | Luca Filippi | Dallara-Honda | 90, running |
| 11 | Charlie Kimball | Dallara-Honda | 90, running |
| 12 | Will Power | Dallara-Chevy | 90, running |
| 13 | Marco Andretti | Dallara-Chevy | 90, running |
| 14 | Sebastian Saavedra | Dallara-Chevy | 89, running |
| 15 | Dario Franchitti | Dallara-Honda | 89, running |
| 16 | Mike Conway | Dallara-Honda | 85, contact |
| 17 | Takuma Sato | Dallara-Honda | 82, handling |
| 18 | Helio Castroneves | Dallara-Chevy | 80, Running |
| 19 | Oriol Servia | Dallara-Chevy | 63, mechanical |
| 20 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Dallara-Chevy | 57, electrical |
| 21 | Tony Kanaan | Dallara-Chevy | 34, running |
| 22 | Tristan Vautier | Dallara-Honda | 32, running |
| 23 | Ed Carpenter | Dallara-Chevy | 30, running |
| 24 | James Hinchcliffe | Dallara-Chevy | 1, contact |
Full points standings
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