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.

Dixon held off Vitor Meira, second, and Marco Andretti, third, late in the 200-lap race.

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

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 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 after she and Ryan Briscoe made contact coming out of pit lane. It marked the first time in her four trips to the Indy 500 that Patrick failed to finish the race.

A furious Patrick got out of her car and purposefully strode 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.

Other drivers were also sidelined 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.

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.