INDIANAPOLIS -- Scott Dixon finished the 92nd Indy 500 on Sunday in the same spot that he started it -- in first.

Dixon, the pole winner, topped the 33-driver field to win the 500-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sunday marked the 27-year-old from New Zealand's first Indy 500 crown. The Ganassi Racing team member won four races last year and was the series runner-up to last year's Indy 500 winner, Dario Franchitti, by 13 points. Entering Sunday's race, Dixon was second in this year's series rankings.

It was the 19th time a polesitter has gone on to win the race. Dixon held off a late challenge from Vitor Meira, who was closing on Dixon in late laps but was slowed by traffic.

"What a day, man. I just couldn't believe it," Dixon said. "We seemed to have a good car. We just had to hold onto it."

Dixon said he slowed a bit at the end of the race in an effort to save fuel but had to put the hammer down to keep Meira from challenging. Marco Andretti finished third.

A couple of the pre-race favorites -- Danica Patrick and Tony Kanaan -- were knocked out of the race after crashes.

Rookie Graham Rahal, the son of 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, hit the wall on the 37th lap, knocking both right-side tires loose.

A.J. Foyt IV, the grandson of four-time winner A.J. Foyt, had to scramble out of his car in pit lane after it caught fire.

Tony Kanaan led the race at the halfway point, before being involved in a crash with Sarah Fisher on lap No. 106.

After the crash Kanaan said he was upset with his teammate Marco Andretti for not giving him enough room on the track.

Informed that Andretti had said he was sorry over his in-car radio, Kanaan said, "He better be. It was a very stupid move."

Patrick also had her race day cut short and she and Ryan Briscoe made contact coming out of pit lane.

A furious Patrick got out of her car and purposefully strided toward Briscoe's pit for what was shaping up as a confrontation with his crew, but track security personnel directed her back to her own pit area.

Before the green flag was dropped Sunday, Jim Nabors -- a singer and actor who played Gomer Pyle -- sang "Back Home in Indiana." His regular appearance at the race was interrupted last year when he suffered from heart trouble.

Nabors wasn't the only celebrity at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Actresses Jenna Elfman and Marlee Matlin were among those who also made an appearance.