This week's Classic Rewind is the Indy car race that only counted for national pride. The 2008 Nikon Indy 300 from Surfers Paradise, Australia.

To some race fans, the racing season starts this weekend with a race Down Under. 

Here at Classic Rewind HQ, we don't believe that, but we just smile and give the Wayback Machine a Vegemite sandwich to see what race it will give us. The result was Indy car's last visit to Australia.

The 2008 Nikon Indy 300 was a non-championship event as it was held about a month after Scott Dixon had won his second series championship. It marked the first race for Dario Franchitti with Chip Ganassi Racing (that worked out nicely) as well as the first races for popular drivers Dan Wheldon (Panther Racing) and Vitor Meira (AJ Foyt Racing) with new teams.

Will Power won a popular pole for what was his home race, but he made a mistake while leading and crashed out. Power's exit set the race on its ear and another Australian, Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe took control.

Briscoe, who started third in the No. 6 Team Penske car, took the lead for the final time on Lap 43 after the final round of pit stops and held off the Australian-born, but New Zealand bred Dixon as he dealt with traffic in the late stages of the race.

Dixon would come up short, finishing 0.5019 of a second behind Briscoe, who took home a popular win in front of his countrymen.