A.J. Foyt Oval Championship Trophy on the line

Dario Franchitti takes a 27-point lead over Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon into the Indy Japan 300 – the final race to determine the inaugural A.J. Foyt Oval Championship Trophy winner.

The award honoree — like the Mario Andretti Road Course Champion — was selected by fan vote on indycar.com. Team Penske's Will Power received the road/street course trophy from Andretti last month at Infineon Raceway.

Dixon won the race last year, and Franchitti was 1.4 seconds behind in second. Franchitti has accumulated 228 points from victories at Indianapolis and Chicagoland plus top-five finishes at Kansas, Texas and Kentucky. Dixon won at Kansas and had top-10 finishes at the other five ovals.

Dixon and Andretti Autosport's Tony Kanaan are the only drivers to complete all 1,278 laps on ovals this season. Panther Racing's Dan Wheldon is three shy.

The oval title-holder will be decided in Japan, but will be formally presented the trophy at Homestead-Miami Speedway in two weeks. Foyt did not make the trip to Japan for the second year in a row.

A.J. Foyt Racing team director Larry Foyt will be the race strategist for the No. 14 ABC Supply car driven by Vitor Meira.