Scott Dixon and his new race engineer Ross Bunnell have been immensely successful during the opening nine races of their relationship at Chip Ganassi Racing. The six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion and Bunnell, who joined the No. 9 Honda program during the offseason after learning his craft at Dale Coyne Racing, hold second in the championship as a result of the great consistency they’ve achieved.
“I think it’s been a pretty smooth transition with Ross so far,” Dixon told RACER. “The background is, it’s been a little up and down with three engineers for the 9 car in three years, so to get that continuity is not always super-easy. But it’s been really good with him; he’s just super-motivated, very eager to dive into things, but he also has a confidence in how he does things.
“I think the toughest part, which a lot of people don’t understand, is the 9 car team is a bit of a tough one to be on. You’ve got [Ganassi performance director and Dixon’s former race engineer] Chris Simmons there, you’ve got Chip [Ganassi], you’ve got [managing director and race strategist] Mike [Hull], and there’s already a lot of confident people there. So if you start to speak up, you better be confident in what your view is. And I think he’s really done a good job at understanding how to fit in there.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
Having stood on the right and the left side of the podium, the last milestone for the duo to achieve is their first victory, and they’re days away from landing in one of Dixon’s favorite playgrounds — the streets of Toronto — to get the job done.
Dixon owns four of Ganassi’s eight wins on the Canadian street circuit, and as the defending winner of the Honda Indy Toronto event, he heads to the 1.8-mile, 11-turn track with an excellent chance to repeat and welcome Bunnell to victory lane in the process.
“Toronto was our first win last year, too, so going back-to-back obviously would be huge,” Dixon said. “We’ve been close already, but you always talk about the missed opportunities as opposed to the ones that you get right. I feel like we’ve had a lot more to show, even more than what we have shown, because the car has been really good.
“But we’re just getting over the peak of the mountain, and then hopefully, we can get onto a bit of a roll. Any year in IndyCar is super tough, apart from [teammate and runaway championship leader] Alex [Palou], who’s been doing a hell of a job. But it will come. Toronto, it’s been a good track for us in the past, and I was impressed with the tests that we had at Iowa. I’m much happier with the car than what we’ve had there, so it’s a lot of progress and I like the direction that we’re moving.”
Dixon has rallied to win IndyCar titles after being well behind in the championship, which makes the job of catching Palou with his 116-point advantage feel like less of an impossible task. The odds are certainly stacked in Palou’s favor, but Dixon isn’t ready to raise the white flag and surrender.
“I feel like I’ve seen this movie several times before, and that’s what’s fun about IndyCar racing,” he said. “Even going to Le Mans and talking to people there, they all say, ‘I just love IndyCar racing because you never really know who the hell’s going to win.’ I think that’s true for a lot of our seasons.
“Last year, Will [Power] just had a hell of a smooth year and really nailed it and did a hell of a job, but I’ve had it where I won and then the next year came around and it all went flat. So it is fun in that aspect because there are so many strong driver and team combinations now and even across that it’s really hard to predict who’s going to win. That’s why all of us love it so much, because it’s that damn hard to get right.
“I saw [Josef] Newgarden was commenting about Palou and how he hasn’t really had a problem this season, but some people just have those years where everything clicks. It’s the timing of things, too. Say your engine blows up in practice, opposed to qualifying or the race, and that almost feels like good luck because otherwise, if the timing was off, it can change how the whole year really rolls. And Palou’s group have just done a tremendous job. It’s good to see them in their stride. But I’d say everybody else chasing them is feeling a bit scrappy.”