DARREN Manning finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It was the North Yorkshiremans best finish in four starts.

Driving the No. 14 ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing entry, Manning started the race from the middle of the fifth row, and had worked his way through the field to sixth when he made contact with another car while exiting a pit stop.

"I'm a bit frustrated with myself for making a mistake on the pit stop," Manning said. "Larry (Foyt, team manager) was telling me to stop but I was going. I wanted to go because we were in sixth place and running comfortably up there.

"We just knocked the front wing off and had to borrow Anthony (Foyt)'s front wing because (team-mate) Jeff (Simmons) had already broken one of our spares. So, at least it's good to have another Foyt out there in the race."

The mistake set the Englishman back to 24th, but he was able to make his way back through traffic for his first top-ten finish at Indianapolis.

"I was good at the end of the runs," he said. "I could always see the leaders coming back to us.

"I was running faster laps than the leaders as we got down to about eight laps to go on fuel. I was a bit frustrated with all the yellows that kept happening because my car was good at the end there.

"We were able to work our way back up, but 500 miles just aren't enough, you know.

"I was putting in some fast laps at the end of the race there. I probably just needed another stint to get back up to where we were running. We probably should have (finished) fifth or sixth."

Fellow Briton Dan Wheldon, finished 12th, and compatriots Alex Lloyd, 25th, and Justin Wilson, 27th. Both Lloyd and Wilson crashed out of the race.

New Zealand's Scott Dixon dominated Sunday's race, following up his first Indy pole by leading the most laps and earning his first Indy 500 victory in six starts.

Vitor Meira of Brazil finished 1.7 seconds behind to take second for the second time since 2005. American Marco Andretti, who led 15 laps, was third.