Jeff Ward scored the first victory of his Indy Racing League career in one of US motorsport's closest-ever finishes.

The Target/Chip Ganassi Racing driver pipped Al Unser Jr at the finishing line to win Saturday's Boomtown 500.

His .0111-second victory margin at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth is the closest finish in Indy car history.

Ward only led on the final lap, and the nose of his car was just 12 inches ahead of Unser's as they took the flag in front of 83,476 spectators.

"That was great," said the jubilant winner afterwards.

Scheckter heartbreak

"We knew we had to make that last pit stop a good one. We were in and out and we did it.

"This is a turnaround and now we can look forward. I've waited a long time for this victory - 51 career starts and now I'm a winner."

Brazil's Airton Dare was third, followed by two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and Felipe Giaffone.

Tomas Scheckter dominated the race, leading 108 of the first 160 laps before dropping out with clutch failure.

It was another heartbreaking finish for the 21-year-old South African who also led for 85 laps in the Indy 500 before crashing out 27 laps from an apparent victory.

An incident-filled race also saw Scheckter's car struck by a wheel which flew off Sam Hornish's Dallara-Chevrolet.

Results of the 200-lap Indy Racing League Boomtown 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (USA unless noted):

1 Jeff Ward G-Force-Chevrolet 200 laps in one hour 43 minutes, average speed 164.984mph
2 Al Unser Jr Dallara-Chevrolet 200 laps
3 Airton Dare (Bra) Dallara-Chevrolet 200
4 Helio Castroneves (Bra) Dallara-Chevrolet 200
5 Felipe Giaffone (Bra) G-Force-Chevrolet 200
6 Shigeaki Hattori (Jap) Dallara-Infiniti 200
7 Billy Boat Dallara-Chrevolet 200
8 Buddy Lazier Dallara-Chrevolet 200
9 Richie Hearn Dallara-Chrevolet 200
10 Alex Barron Dallara-Chrevolet 199 Selected others: 12 Greg Ray Dallara-Chrevolet 195
16 Gil de Ferran (Bra) Dallara-Chrevolet 161 laps running
18 Sam Hornish Jr Dallara-Chrevolet 126 accident

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