AVONDALE, Ariz. — The Verizon IndyCar Series has work to do before it returns to Phoenix International Raceway, but make no mistake about it: IndyCar will be returning to this fabulous short track in the desert.

Who says? PIR president Bryan Sperber.

Standing a few feet from where race winner Scott Dixon was being honored in victory lane, Sperber said open-wheel racing’s first race here since 2005 was a success. And best of all, it exceeded expectations.

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Sperber said he would have been satisfied with a crowd numbering in the 13,000-to-15,000 range.

“An NBA crowd,” he said. “We would have been really thrilled with that.”

PIR got more than that, “vastly more than that,” Sperber said.

His estimate: “20,000.”

“Really, really happy,” Sperber said. “We signed this agreement (with IndyCar) pretty late, later that I would have liked in a perfect world. I think we announced in October, and that is not a lot of time (to promote) when you factor in the holidays.”

PIR also signed a title sponsor — the new Desert Diamond West Valley Casino & Resort about 10 minutes northeast of the track — and had strong suite sales.

All of that is a far cry from that 2005 race when a former media personality joked about having more people at her wedding. Sperber didn’t deny there were only a few thousand paying customers that day.

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“That was a tough race,” he said. “There were a lot of circumstances that we had to deal with. There was rain all over the valley, the date (March 19) did us no favors. It was tough sledding, but that’s in the past. We’re looking ahead to the future.”

This date might be difficult for PIR since Phoenix will be hosting the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four that weekend. Sperber said it’s one thing for the Final Four to be on the same weekend — it had the national semifinals Saturday night in Houston — but another to ask the community for a second event on such an important weekend.

Whatever the weekend, IndyCar will hope to bring a more exciting show. Overtaking was so impossible that Will Power admitted preserving his tire wear “because we knew you couldn’t pass.”

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The action was confined to whatever bold moves Ryan Hunter-Reay made — he passed five cars on the opening lap, three more on another restart — and a handful of NASCAR-like beating and banging. Charlie Kimball’s on Josef Newgarden was the most memorable, although IndyCar’s officiating team flagged Kimball for avoidable contact.

Tony Kanaan mixed it up with a couple folk as he’s want to do. One moment with Newgarden was so close to the line that Kanaan, upon seeing the video replay, said he needed to find Newgarden to apologize.

Oh, there was some passing, but Scott Dixon got the lead when Team Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya had cut tires and were forced to pit. Once in the lead, Dixon was gone, and he knew it. He led the final 155 laps.

“I think we can definitely make a better show,” Dixon said.

But after talking at length about how IndyCar and the manufacturers which chose the aerodynamic package did the best they could for the extended time away, Dixon described how action-packed it was to drive in this race when qualifying speeds were in the 192 mph bracket — about 19.3 seconds to complete a lap — and G-forces were north of 5 and sometimes as high as 6.

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“You also know that when you’re going into Turn 1 at nearly 200 miles per hour, your margin of error is very small,” he said. “It’s not like you’re out there cruising around, especially when you’re in traffic, it’s very tough.

“You’re waiting for the moment when you go (into a corner) maybe too fast and washed up. When you wash up you’re into the grey (part of the track) and struggling a lot and probably getting freight-trained by two, three, four cars.

“It was very mentally (challenging) tonight.”

Honda also has work to do after getting blown away in qualifying, scoring none of the top-10 starting positions. Rahal (fifth) and Hunter-Reay (10th) were the only two Honda drivers in the top 10. Marco Andretti (13th) and rookie Alexander Rossi (14th) were at the tail end of the lead lap at the finish.

But it was a good start to a welcome return. IndyCar will certainly be back and probably better the next time.

Cavin writes for The Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK