Chip Ganassi Racing legend Scott Dixon, who won Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix, said he was surprised by not only the consistent pace of his car but also by how “easy” it was to save enough fuel to run only two scheduled stops.
Having been knocked into a spin on the opening lap at Turn 7, the six-time IndyCar champion was able to pit on lap five to get off the unfavored primary tires and run alternates the rest of the way, and also top off with fuel so that he could make two more scheduled stops when the front runners needed three.
He went on to claim the lead when the Rahal Letterman Lanigan and Arrow McLaren drivers made their third stops, and fended off polesitter Graham Rahal to the checkered lag.
“I felt like I had a fantastic start,” said Dixon, who started from 15th. “I think I picked up maybe five or six spots, then got to Turn 7 and there was a bit of a backup there. Just got spun around.
“We talked a lot in pre-race about pitting early, getting off the not-so-good tire for us, which was the black, doing it around lap four or six — trying to get the fuel mileage to get it done.
“I was actually shocked [at] the pace that we had. The car just kept doing the same lap times, mid 73s to 74 flats. The fuel mileage — huge credit to Honda and HPD, it was remarkably easy to get. I think the pace and obviously the tire deg that we didn’t really witness too much was fantastic. I think the only downfall for me was pushing too hard on the last stint on the first three or four laps, killed the tire a bit. The rest of the race we just kind of maintained a pace. It wasn’t that difficult to get.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
“[Had] some big laps early on in that last stint because I knew I was getting a fresh set of tires. Didn’t have to go that long; kind of hurt it. I guess made it a bit of a show and a bit of a race…
“It was just my mistake for pushing so hard at the start of that stint and kind of hurt the tire, otherwise I think it wouldn’t have been too difficult. Even in the second-to-last stint, we were on used reds. We were able to maintain the gap to Graham or actually pull away, so I figured once we get to the new tires, we can really go. That was not the right thing to do.
“We made a show of it. He was coming fast, man. It would have been interesting. I think once he got to us, it was going to be very tough to pass. We had similar overtake. The No. 9 car would have been very wide!”
Dixon said it was way past the mid-point of the race when he started to believe the team’s strategy would pay off.
“Probably halfway through the second-to-last stint on used tires where we were maintaining a gap [to Rahal],” he said. “He was behind me, where it pops up on my dash that he’s the next car. We had a like a 6s lead. I kept looking at it, running the lap times. He wasn’t gaining on us. ‘This is crazy, this might actually work out.’
“For me, the pace was not too difficult to get, but I think we were kind of in a happy spot of having to get fuel mileage and also looking after the tires where maybe some of those guys pushed quite hard early on like I did on my last stint.
“That was my first ‘Ah ha!’ moment where I’m [thinking], ‘We’re definitely in a strong position here to pull that off.’”