Scott Dixon celebrates in victory lane after winning Saturday’s NTT IndyCar Series race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield road course. Photo: Penske Entertainment: Chris Owens
Scott Dixon continued two remarkable streaks Saturday on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, one at the green flag and another at the checkered.
Six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Dixon rallied from a spin into the grass after being collected in an accident on lap 1 to score the win the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Dixon, from New Zealand, extended his series record streak to 19 consecutive seasons with at least one victory on a day when he also set a series record with his 319th consecutive start.
“What a day to win on,” said Dixon as he held his 3-year-old son, Kit. “It makes it so fun, especially for this little guy. He gets to see it. It’s been a little while since I’ve had a win, probably over a year. It makes it worthwhile, and we’re going to keep trying to win on (start) No. 320.”
Pole sitter Graham Rahal finished a season-best second in the 85-lap race, as his late charge to catch Dixon fell just .4779 of a second short. It was the closest series finish ever on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile IMS road course.
Pato O’Ward finished third, with Christian Lundgaard fourth, and defending race winner Alexander Rossi in fifth.
Championship leader Alex Palou finished seventh to expand his points gap to 101 over Dixon, who leapfrogged Josef Newgarden for second. Newgarden also was caught in the melee that collected Dixon but immediately lost a lap due and finished a season-low 25th, two laps down. Newgarden is third in the standings, 105 points behind Palou with three races remaining.
“Finishing the race today was important,” Palou said. “A good result for the team with Scott winning the race today and a good result for us in the championship.”
Dixon’s “spin to win” maybe wasn’t as dramatic as Danny Sullivan’s similar maneuver in the short chute between turns 1 and 2 of the IMS oval to win the 1985 Indianapolis 500, but it was arguably just as improbable.
On the first lap, Palou nudged the rear of rookie teammate Marcus Armstrong in heavy traffic in turn 7 at the end of the back straightaway, and Armstrong spun. The concertina effect of drivers trying to avoid the incident caused Romain Grosjean to touch Dixon, spinning Dixon’s car into the grass. Then Newgarden, who started 25th, arrived at the scene with nowhere to go, and his car climbed over the nose of Armstrong’s stopped car, damaging Newgarden’s front wing.
Dixon kept his engine running in the infield grass, straightened his car and returned to the track. He pitted on lap 5 on an alternate strategy and started his march toward the front.
Meanwhile, Devlin DeFrancesco continued to hold the lead after a daring dive from his fifth starting position to the front in turn 1 on the opening lap. But Rahal dove under DeFrancesco in turn 1 on lap 9 to take the top spot.
Rahal, Lundgaard and Dixon then traded the lead through pit cycles over the next 50 laps before Dixon made his final stop on lap 59 after turning blazing laps before entering pit road.
Dixon also turned scintillating out laps after his final stop. Rahal pitted from first on lap 64 for his final stop but exited in second behind Dixon.
On lap 66, Dixon led Rahal by 6.1866 seconds, with both drivers on Firestone alternate tires. But Rahal’s fresher tires paid dividends, and he began to claw ground on Dixon.
“The only problem there toward the end I think on my out laps I pushed it too hard to kind of create that gap on Graham and unfortunately burned the tires up a little bit,” Dixon said. “It was a little sketchy at the end, but we tried to put on a show for everyone.”
Dixon’s lead dropped to 3.8448 seconds by lap 72, with Rahal pulling to within 1.6028 seconds on lap 80.
Both drivers then reached lapped traffic, and Rahal closed the gap to .5076 of a second on lap 82 after he and Dixon cleared the slower cars. The margin shrank to .2689 of a second with two laps to go, and it appeared Rahal was setting up for a final-lap showdown for the win with Dixon.
But Dixon padded his lead to .8639 of a second at the white flag and hung on during the final trip around the circuit that includes portions of the famous 2.5-mile oval and the Yard of Bricks at IMS.
“I was on overtake on the second-to-last lap. He was, too,” Rahal said. “And I just wasn’t gaining ground. I was holding dead even with him for some reason. I don’t know why. I just couldn’t make a lunge at him. I thought that was going to be a really good run at it, a really good shot.
“We have nothing to be ashamed of. We’re going against the best, the best of all time, by far. Nineteen straight seasons with a win? It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely insane.”
Palou will earn the $1 million PeopleReady Force For Good Challenge bonus if he wins the next series race on Sunday, August 27 on the World Wide Technology Raceway oval. The bonus is presented to the first driver who wins on a road course, street circuit and oval in a season. Palou already has victories this season on road course and street circuit.
The WWTR event is the final oval race of the season and starts a stretch of three consecutive race weekends to crown a series champion. Palou can clinch his second title in the last three seasons if he leads by 108 points or more after the August 27 race.
NTT IndyCar Series
Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Indianapolis, IN
Gallagher Grand Prix – August 12, 2023
1. (15) Scott Dixon, Honda, 85, Running
2. (1) Graham Rahal, Honda, 85, Running
3. (4) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 85, Running
4. (2) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 85, Running
5. (3) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 85, Running
6. (16) Will Power, Chevrolet, 85, Running
7. (8) Alex Palou, Honda, 85, Running
8. (10) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 85, Running
9. (13) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 85, Running
10. (17) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 85, Running
11. (19) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 85, Running
12. (12) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 85, Running
13. (11) Colton Herta, Honda, 85, Running
14. (14) Jack Harvey, Honda, 85, Running
15. (18) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 85, Running
16. (27) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Running
17. (24) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 85, Running
18. (6) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 84, Running
19. (5) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 84, Running
20. (21) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 84, Running
21. (22) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 84, Running
22. (23) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 84, Running
23. (20) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 84, Running
24. (7) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 83, Running
25. (25) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 83, Running
26. (26) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 79, Running
27. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 68, Mechanical
Average Speed: 111.647 mph.
Time of Race: 1:51:24.7579. Margin of Victory: 0.4779 of a second
Cautions: 1 for 6 laps
Lead Changes: 8 among 4 drivers
Lap Leaders: DeFrancesco, Devlin 1-8; Rahal, Graham 9-23; Lundgaard, Christian 24-26; Dixon, Scott 27-31; Rahal, Graham 32-47; Lundgaard, Christian 48-51; Dixon, Scott 52-58; Rahal, Graham 59-63; Dixon, Scott 64-85.
Point Standings: Palou 539, Dixon 438, Newgarden 434, McLaughlin 395, O’Ward 388, Ericsson 377, Power 365, Lundgaard 330, Kirkwood 312, Rossi 306, Herta 302, Grosjean 253, Rosenqvist 246, Rahal 241, VeeKay 218, Ilott 216, Malukas 195, Armstrong 179, Castroneves 177, Ferrucci 170, Canapino 151, Harvey 146, DeFrancesco 145, Conor Daly 120, Robb 113, Pedersen 102, Simon Pagenaud 88, Hunter-Reay 86, Takuma Sato 65, Ed Carpenter 40, Lundqvist 23, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, Tom Blomqvist 5, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.
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