Kiwi Scott Dixon has continued a late-season run at his seventh Indycar championship, taking out the St Louis 500 for back-to-back wins within the past three weeks.
Employing a fuel strategy that saw him pit twice less than his opposition, Dixon closed more ground on season leader and teammate Alex Palou, with just two more races remaining on the schedule.
Trailling by 101 points before the race and starting 16th on the grid, he hacked that deficit to 74, as Palou finished seventh. Dixon would still need some misfortune to befall his rival over the next two outings and may have left his run too late.
The 55th victory of his career sees him close within 10 of AJ Foyt's alltime Indycar record and has his rivals shaking their heads over the inevitability of his win, as he finished most of a lap clear.
"We took a pretty good grid penalty with one of those changes, but we had to go the alternate route and it worked out perfectly," he said. "Definitely with the tyres, it was hard to keep them on.
"The team were perfect - they gave me the number I needed to be getting.
"To be one-two in the championship right now... it's a shame our wins came so late in the season, but we'll keep pushing here and see what we can come up with."
Dixon created history at Indianapolis this month, when he won an Indycar race for a 19th consecutive season, despite spinning out on the opening lap.
Meanwhile, fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin capped an eventful 24 hours with fifth placing to consolidate fifth on the championship standings.
McLaughlin actually won pole position in qualifying - his first on an oval track - but was relegated to 10th on the grid, after he was penalised for an unapproved engine change.
When he switched from Australian Supercars to the US motorsport competition, he had never raced on an oval track and has taken some time to make that adjustment.
"Pretty decent day for us," tweeted McLaughlin. "A pole, started P10 after the engine change and worked our way to P5.
"Good points! Press on!"
The last two races of the season are at Portland (September 4) and Monterey (September 10).