Target trio miss the boat in Texas.

Target Chip Ganassi Racing's disappointing IRL IndyCar Series campaign continued at the Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday for while all three of the team's Panoz-Toyota's made it to the chequered flag, not one of them was in the top ten.

Still lacking the grunt of many of their rivals, drivers Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Darren Manning crossed the line 11th, 12th and 17th respectively in the Bombardier Learjet 500k, the first time this year that all three Target liveried cars had made it to the finish.

From 15th on the grid, 2003 IRL Champion Dixon had the best night around the quick-quick 1.5-mile Texas oval, running with the lead pack and flirting with the top ten for much of the night. However as the contenders whittled themselves down Dixon couldn't keep up with the pace at the head of the field and the New Zealander finished some way behind winner Tomas Scheckter in 11th position.

"It wasn't too bad a race for us actually as the Target Panoz-Toyota was very decent all race long and we were able to race with the leaders and put in some really good runs," said Dixon who is still only 15th in the points table. "It was loose at first but we put in a bit of front wing and it settled down. It was another good Texas race under the lights and while we had hoped to be a bit stronger, we'll take the result and build on it."

Rookie Ryan Biscoe's initiation to the high banked Texas oval resulted in a lead lap, 12th place finish for the Australian, who was almost lost for words when asked to describe racing at the Texas track.

"This is an unreal track and racing under the lights and in front of a great crowd was really something," said Briscoe, who actually failed to improve on his previous best finishing position for the first time this year after scoring his first IRL top ten finish at Indianapolis. "It was definitely a tough race with not much time to take a breather.

"I feel like I've gained a lot of valuable experience today so I feel pretty positive about tonight's result as a whole."

Englishman Darren Manning's Texas trial was a bit more difficult for, despite qualifying ninth, he was never quite able to play catch up with the main pack and finished a lap off the pace in 17th.