Scott Dixon and Takuma Sato repeated their 20-lap shootout from the Indianapolis 500 a week ago but on Saturday the New Zealander reversed the finishing order to claim an IndyCar race win for the 50th time.

At Gateway, Dixon took the lead by first beating Pato O’Ward out of the pits and then cycled to the front when Sato made his stop with 25 laps remaining.

Sato returned to the track in third, quickly passed O’Ward and set his sights on Dixon.

Dixon had 20 laps to navigate lapped traffic while holding off Sato.

“Sato was coming strong at the end and I didn’t realize how strong he was coming,” Dixon said.

“We were kind of going into reserve mode a little to look after the engine and then he was coming fast.”

Dixon beat Sato by 0.1404 seconds for his fourth win of the season for Chip Ganassi Racing team.

He moved within two victories of Mario Andretti on IndyCar’s victory list. Andretti is second with 52; A.J. Foyt is the leader at 67.

Dixon holds a 117-point lead in the IndyCar championship standings as he chases a fifth title.

Sato finished second for a 1-2 sweep for Honda.

O’Ward was third for Chevrolet.

The race got off to a rocky start with a multi-car accident when the green flag waved. Alex Palou and Oliver Askew, both rookies, were penalsed by IndyCar for triggering a crash that knocked out three cars from Andretti Autosport.

Alexander Rossi, still seeking his first win of the season in a horrible year for the perennial title contender, was collected with teammates Marco Andretti and Zach Veach.

It also ended the race for Ed Carpenter and Simon Pagenaud eventually had to retire with damage to his car.

“I was driving straight. I don’t know what you want me to say,” said Rossi, who likened the incident to an iRacing race.