Tag: scott dixon

Dixon ekes out fuel to land dramatic Long Beach GP victory

Scott Dixon delivered one of his fuel-saving masterclasses to triumph in the 49th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, his second around the 1.968-mile street course, and the 57th of his career. Despite running an alternate strategy and making his last …

Scott Dixon delivered one of his fuel-saving masterclasses to triumph in the 49th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, his second around the 1.968-mile street course, and the 57th of his career. Despite running an alternate strategy and making his last stop 10 laps before Colton Herta and Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing’s six-time champion was able to stave off his attackers – first Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, then Herta’s fellow Honda-powered Andretti Global entry – and clinched a brilliant win.

Will Power, Kyle Kirkwood and Alex Rossi were the only drivers in the top 17 on the 27-car grid to select Firestone alternates with the green guayule sidewalls to start the race, with front-row starter Power’s mission very clearly to get ahead of polesitter Felix Rosenqvist as soon as possible.

Rosenqvist made a strong start, but in protecting the inside line he allowed Power to go around the outside, and by the end of lap one his lead was 1.1s, with Rosenqvist pursued by Newgarden, Marcus Ericsson, Herta and Palou. Dixon got around Christian Lundgaard for seventh, while Kirkwood on his softer rubber got Marcus Armstrong into Turn 8.

Newgarden and Ericsson passed Rosenqvist on successive laps, and soon the polesitter was under pressure from Herta, while Kirkwood got another place on lap five, deposing Lundgaard. Meanwhile, there was some internal strife at Arrow McLaren, when Pato O’Ward ran into Alex Rossi’s sister machine at the fountain turn, sending the latter to the pits with a punctured tire, and O’Ward to the pits for a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.

Herta and Palou got around Rosenqvist on laps seven and eight respectively, leaving him as prey for Dixon.

Up front, on lap 12, Power held a 6.3s lead over teammate Newgarden, with Ericsson, Herta, Palou and Rosenqvist running 1.3s apart behind.

The first and only yellow flew on lap 15 when Christian Rasmussen spun his Ed Carpenter Racing car out of Turn 4 due to a broken toe link sustained in a wall-brush at Turn 11. While he was crashing, poor Jack Harvey of Dale Coyne Racing tried to squeeze between the ECR car and the wall but sustained significant damage on both sides.

When the pits opened on lap 16, Power chose to stop, as did Dixon, Kirkwood, Lundgaard and Scott McLaughlin. Lundgaard was sent into the path of Kirkwood but no harm done. Power, Dixon, Lundgaard, Kirkwood and McLaughlin led the alternative strategy cars in 12th-16th, but Power and Lundgaard had chosen this stint to go for primaries, while Dixon, Kirkwood and McLaughlin elected to take alternates.

The restart was clean, although Newgarden couldn’t extend his lead over Ericsson until he put the repaired car of Harvey between them. Further back, Dixon used his alternates to pass Power by cannoning out of the hairpin and getting him into Turn 1. Meanwhile, Lundgaard’s unsafe release on pitlane had elicited a penalty from race control, whereby the Dane had to give up five places.

Rosenqvist, who had been struggling with brake issues since the start, was the first of the “regular strategy” cars to stop, pitting on lap 29. Newgarden and Ericsson pitted next time around, with Palou stopping and re-emerging between them. Ericsson tried hard to remedy that situation but finally ceded the track position at Turn 8. Herta stopped last of the leaders, emerging behind Newgarden but ahead of Palou and Ericsson.

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Up front, the alternative-strategy cars were now to the fore. On lap 40, Dixon was leading Power by 6s, with Kirkwood 1.5s further back and McLaughlin another 2.7s in arrears.

Newgarden was cutting through slower cars to rise to sixth by lap 49. And crucially, he was staying within 20s of the fuel saving Dixon up front. Rahal pulled into the pits from fifth, but there was a refueling issue with the No. 15 RLL car.

Dixon and Power pitted on lap 51, the Kiwi taking more alternates, the Aussie taking more primaries, while Kirkwood went one lap longer and emerged still ahead of McLaughlin.

Thus Newgarden was back up front on the normal strategy, leading Herta by 3.7s, with Palou another 2.2s back and being chased hard by former teammate Ericsson. Newgarden set some scintillating times, pitting on lap 57 and coming out in the gap between Dixon and Power. Herta went for scrubbed alternates when he stopped, as did Palou. The latter emerged behind the pace-crippled Power, but soon demoted him to fifth to resume his chase of Herta. Up front, Dixon’s lead over Newgarden was down to 3.6s by lap 65 with 20 to go.

Ericsson was the next to pass Power, taking fifth on lap 66, while McLaughlin also struck misfortune, limping the No. 3 to the pits with a mechanical issue.

Dixon was doing a fine job up front, using just enough push-to-pass to squirt away from Newgarden out of the hairpin, but the overall pace was backing Newgarden up toward the Herta vs. Palou battle, an issue exacerbated by backmarkers. The top four were covered by just 2.15s.

At the end of lap 77, Herta struck the back of Newgarden’s car, apparently triggering the anti-stall on the No. 2 Penske machine. As Newgarden struggled for pace off the corner, Herta and Palou shot past to become Dixon’s leading pursuers.

Herta, like Newgarden, could not make it happen, and Dixon chalked up his second Long Beach win, and the 57th of his career by 0.9798s, with Herta just 0.7866s adrift.

Newgarden held off Ericsson, while Power trickled home just ahead of Kirkwood to claim sixth. Romain Grosjean clinched eighth for Juncos Hollinger Racing ahead of the disappointed Rosenqvist and Rossi. Rossi’s new teammate, IndyCar debutant Theo Pourchaire claimed an impressive 11th.

RESULTS

Rolex 24, Hour 2: Ganassi Cadillac takes lead before more yellow

It didn’t take long for Ricky Taylor to get his No. 10 Acura dispatched from the lead, and after a raft of driver changes in green-flag pit stops Scott Dixon took over the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R from Sebastien Bourdais after Bourdais put …

It didn’t take long for Ricky Taylor to get his No. 10 Acura dispatched from the lead, and after a raft of driver changes in green-flag pit stops Scott Dixon took over the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R from Sebastien Bourdais after Bourdais put it into the lead early in the hour. Dane Cameron is running second in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, followed by Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing.

“We knew we were going to have a fight in our hand and we do,” said Bourdais after his opening stint. “I think the car shows that it’s got plenty of pace, which we’ve never been in doubt of that. But when it comes down to interacting with the other cars, we really have to outbrake ourselves to get by because we are barely keeping up in the straights. It’s good we’re leading and we can definitely put on a fight, but it’s the hard way. It is what it is. We knew we had a strong package as far as optimizing the performance level we have at our disposal, but it won’t be easy if it comes down to a drag race in the last 30 minutes.”

The hour ended under caution after Steven Thomas made heavy impact with the wall exiting the Le Mans Chicane in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 car. The car suffered a lot of damage, but Thomas walked under his own power to the waiting response vehicle. He was evaluated and released from the care center.

 

Marvin Kirchöfer has pushed the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo into the GTD PRO lead, followed by the two Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.Rs. GTD leader Parker Thompson in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 is separating the Corvettes and the McLaren.

Many teams are double-stinting tires in the early part of the race in order to have fresh sets at the end; the challenge is that the temperatures are as high as they will likely see in the race.

“It’s bad. It’s hard to [single-stint] at the moment, a set of tires,” said Nick Tandy, freshly out of the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. “I think even after the first stop there were cars obviously on a double. The No. 10 stayed out, and you see what happens – it’s not tenths, its seconds in the end. Whether you do two tires or four tires, you’ve got to start doubling tires because, simply, if we have 30, 35 stints, we have 21 sets of tires. So if you want to have three nice sets for the end, or even more, it has to be done. Looking at the forecast, it doesn’t look like it’s going cool down particularly much at night, if the cloud comes over and keeps the temp in the track. It’s tough, but I mean, the good thing is that Michelin has opened up the window for when we can use the medium and the soft tire so it’s more up to the teams. If the conditions are hot, then you can perhaps get away with a little bit more.”

HOUR 2 STANDINGS

Dixon puts Cadillac first in opening Rolex 24 practice

Scott Dixon put the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R on top in the first official practice for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the season opener for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Dixon set his 1m36.012s lap late in the 90-minute session to …

Scott Dixon put the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R on top in the first official practice for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the season opener for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Dixon set his 1m36.012s lap late in the 90-minute session to lead Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 by 0.127s.

Kevin Estre posted the third-best time, a 1m36.281s lap in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 BMW and Dane Cameron in the No. 7 PPM Porsche made up the rest of the top five.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti spent much of the session in the garage working on a brake issue, but managed 18 laps compared to the sister car’s 49. Outside the No. 40, all the GTP cars were well within a second.

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Toby Sowery posted the best time in LMP2 in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, a 1m39.407s lap. Ben Hanley was 0.122s off Sowery’s best in the No. 2 United Autosports Acura, ahead of Charles Milesi’s 1m39.965s in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, Ryan Dalziel in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA and Tom Dillman in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA.

GTD and GTD PRO cars alternated in top times, led by Katherine Legge in the GTD-class No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 at 1m46.585s. Jack Hawksworth led GTD PRO with a 1m46.783s lap in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Robby Foley was third among the GTs in the GTD No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, his 1m46.860s bettering the GTD PRO Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S Evo of Marvin Kirchöfer by 0.074s. Alberto Costa Balboa was fifth in the GTs, turning a 1m47.038s in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (GTD) and the GTD PRO Ferrari from Risi Competizione was right behind in the hands of James Calado.

Aside from the No. 40 Acura’s brake problem, other issues included the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 rolled into the pits with an open door, Richard Westbrook discovering his should was nudging the latch, and the No. 3 Corvette visited the garage to check a connector.

UP NEXT: A 1h45m split session beginning at 2:10pm ET.

RESULTS

IndyCar Laguna Seca victory lap with winner Scott Dixon

It’s our final victory lap of the IndyCar season, and it’s spent yet again with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who shares a beer with RACER’s Marshall Pruett after conquering Monterey and taking his third win of the year. Or click HERE to watch …

It’s our final victory lap of the IndyCar season, and it’s spent yet again with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who shares a beer with RACER’s Marshall Pruett after conquering Monterey and taking his third win of the year.

Or click HERE to watch on YouTube.

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‘It’s chaos anyway’ – Dixon muses about topsy turvy day at Laguna

Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series season-finale at Laguna Seca was just a handful of laps old, and Scott Dixon had already had to deal with a six-place grid penalty, a lap one accident and a contentious drive-through penalty for his role in aforementioned …

Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series season-finale at Laguna Seca was just a handful of laps old, and Scott Dixon had already had to deal with a six-place grid penalty, a lap one accident and a contentious drive-through penalty for his role in aforementioned lap one accident.

That he and his No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing team were able to turn such an inauspicious start into the Kiwi’s 56th career win is entirely in keeping with any number of other entries on his resume, but Dixon still rates Laguna among his busiest.

“It was a tough race,” said Dixon, who’d committed early to a two-stop strategy as opposed to the three-stopper favored by some of the other frontrunners. “But it worked out for us. Strategy; we just tried to keep it simple, kind of working from the back end of the race. I was definitely shocked to see the No. 5 (Pato O’Ward) and the No. 28 (Romain Grosjean) pit when they did [ED: during the eighth caution]. I knew after that we had a really fast car, even with some of the damage we kind of had from the contact with the No. 21 (Rinus VeeKay) on the start.

“All in all, great day. It’s nice to rebound like we did. Definitely some heated moments throughout the race. Pretty [angry] at times. It’s always nice to finish the year like that.”

Dixon’s most heated moment came in response to being issued a drive-through for avoidable contact during the aforementioned multi-car incident on the opening lap.

“I have no idea what goes on up there (in race control), seriously,” he said when asked about the penalty. “I don’t know what to say.

“It’s chaos anyway. The starts… I feel like we normally get a little more room. I was trying to accelerate. The No. 26 was right beside me. The No. 21 was maybe off track, coming back on track, then we connected. I haven’t really seen a replay to really understand what happened.

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“Some races, for that, you’ve got to give up one spot. Today was a drive-through for several people. I really don’t know, man.”

Callum Ilott, who spent the afternoon climbing from 20th to fifth, highlighted congestion at the final corner during restarts as one of the primary culprits behind the succession of yellows. Dixon concurred, and pointed to his own restart after the final caution – when he took off earlier, and the race remained green – as evidence.

“I went a lot earlier. There was no caution. Yeah, that’s what the guys need to do,” Dixon grinned.

“I don’t know. I feel like when you go out of Turn 10, then just the congestion… some people are on bad tires, they can’t stop as well. You kind of get this whole pack-up, this rubber band effect. Ultimately if you kind of go out of Turn 9 like I did, before [Turn 10], it kind of strings it out a little bit more.

“The restarts have been interesting this year. Sometimes it’s the only advantage you can get, right? You try to jump it. We’ve seen a lot of that throughout the year.

“I think in the off-season we have to try and figure out a way to do that a bit better. Even if we need to maybe go to no passing until the start/finish line or something. You don’t want to make it boring, either. It’s a fine balance. It’s very difficult for race control to call it.”

Dixon’s win capped off a memorable weekend for Chip Ganassi Racing, which also saw Marcus Armstrong secure rookie of the year honors and Alex Palou earn a podium finish at an event that was essentially an extended victory lap for the 2023 championship that he wrapped up a week ago in Portland.

“It’s a good year,” Dixon said. “We’ve had years like this [before]. It’s been a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a situation where you come into the last race and you can’t fight really much for anything in the championship. We were locked into second. Alex was locked obviously for the championship, which was quite bizarre. Everybody’s stress level was a lot lower. You could all just kind of fight for the win. Huge, huge year for the team.”

Dixon rallies from early issues to win chaotic IndyCar finale at Laguna Seca

Scott Dixon came back from a grid penalty, a lap one collision and a drive-through penalty to score his third win in four races, to round out his 2023 in style, in a race repeatedly turned on its head by eight caution flags. Polesitter Felix …

Scott Dixon came back from a grid penalty, a lap one collision and a drive-through penalty to score his third win in four races, to round out his 2023 in style, in a race repeatedly turned on its head by eight caution flags.

Polesitter Felix Rosenqvist elected to take a set of Firestone primary tires, with Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske alongside on alternates. Behind them, Christian Lundgaard and Josef Newgarden also went in different directions, primary and alternate respectively. Alex Palou and Rinus VeeKay elected for primaries, Will Power for alternates, and Romain Grosjean primaries.

At the drop of the green flag, Rosenqvist got away well enough to stave off McLaughlin into Turn 2, but Lundgaard tagged the left-rear wheel of McLaughlin at the apex, pushing him into the sand, with Newgarden ushered that way as well. In the middle of the pack behind them, Marcus Armstrong’s Chip Ganassi Racing Honda made contact with Graham Rahal’s RLL car and pushed him out and into Newgarden. Rahal went into teammate Juri Vips. On the exit of the corner, Scott Dixon – who had started six places back from his fifth place grid position due to a late engine change – got sideways as he applied the power and knocked VeeKay off the track and into a spin.

So the restart saw Rosenqvist leading Palou, Power, O’Ward, Dixon, fast-starting Colton Herta, Rossi, Grosjean, Santino Ferrucci and Agustin Canapino.

Following the restart, Palou crowded Rosenqvist out on the exit of Turn 11 and Rosenqvist lost traction on the curbs, thus Power was able to outdrag him down the front straight to claim second.

Then out came the second yellow of the race — Newgarden, way behind the field after getting repairs from the lap one incident, spun going into Turn 4 and stalled. Lundgaard, Marcus Ericsson and VeeKay took this opportunity to pit.

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On the restart at the end of lap 11, Power wheelspun into Turn 11 and Rosenqvist was all over him along the front straight and dived down the inside of the No. 12 Penske to take third, nudging the two-time champion wide. That cost Power momentum and Rosenqvist’s teammate O’Ward easily followed him through into third.

Meanwhile, Lundgaard and Dixon were made to serve drive-through penalties for avoidable contact.

By lap 15, Palou had pulled 3s on Rosenqvist who had 2s on O’Ward. Power was either saving fuel or was struggling to get his alternates up to temp, for he had gone 2.5s down, although he was holding off Herta and Grosjean. The most startling drive so far was from Argentine rookie Canapino, who had started 19th (after a six-place grid penalty), but had avoided the melee and had now charged up to seventh after Rossi was handed a “cede one position” order from race control after blocking his surprise challenger.

On lap 17, Dixon pitted for fuel and tires to go off strategy and took on a set of alternates. It took him a notably long time to get them up to temp – and still he was slower than the primary-tired driver up front, the only driver to break into the 68s so far. By lap 20, he was 7.5s up the road. Having pulled out a nine second lead by lap 25, his one scary moment was thanks to Helio Castroneves who spun out of Turn 2, then got knocked off by Benjamin Pedersen at Turn 3 and rejoined the track right in front of Ganassi’s leader.

On lap 26 Herta demoted Power to fifth but was 16s behind Palou. The next lap Rosenqvist pitted for alternates while O’Ward ducked into the pitlane on lap 28.

Palou ducked into the pits just in time before the pits closed for a caution flag – Rosenqvist and Ericsson had collided at Turn 2. The Swedish Ganassi driver spun and stalled on the spot; the Swedish McLaren driver made it to Turn 3 and then spun due to a deflated left rear tire. Both needed rescuing.

Palou, of course, rejoined in the lead ahead of Power who had been planning to run a tad longer and was now left in no-man’s land. Herta pitted for emergency service during the yellow so had to pit again for a proper fuel load. When the pits opened, Rossi and Ericsson both suffered bad stops – Rossi’s air jack failed; Ericsson stalled trying to leave his pitbox.

Rossi, Herta, Vips and Rosenqvist were ordered to the back of the field before the restart for taking emergency service in a closed pitlane

The order at the restart was Palou, O’Ward, Lundgaard (after four pitstops!), Grosjean, the remarkable Canapino, Marcus Armstrong, Ferrucci, Scott McLaughlin, Devlin De Francesco and David Malukas. Those who had been caught outside the pits by the yellow were deep in the pack — Power was now 16th.

The race restarted at the end of lap 36…kind of. Power nerfed AJ Foyt Racing’s Pedersen into a spin at Turn 11, while further up the racetrack, their respective teammates collided too, McLaughlin thumping into the back of Ferrucci as they approached Turn 2, sending the Foyt driver on a wild ride across the gravel. He survived, but dropped from seventh to 11th.

Under yellow, Lundgaard pitted leaving Grosjean third, Canapino fourth, McLaughlin fifth and Malukas sixth. Not for long – race control told McLaughlin and Power they would have to restart from the back of the field, with McLaughlin also pitting for a new front wing. Then they were ordered to pitlane yet again for pitting after being put to the back.

Ganassi’s Armstrong and Dixon also pitted under yellow, topping off and aiming to take only one more stop in the 95-lap race.

Out came the green flag at the end of lap 41. Grosjean trying to hang on the outside of O’Ward at Turn 2 didn’t work and he dropped two places to Canapino and Malukas. By the time they reached the Corkscrew, Grosjean was back ahead of Malukas, while Ferrucci was up into sixth ahead of DeFrancesco, Ryan Hunter-Reay (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Meyer Shank’s Tom Blomqvist.

Herta ran into the back of Rossi, crumpling his nose and shoving the McLaren off track on lap 45.

At this point, Palou was setting 68.7s laps, O’Ward was working hard to cling on but losing 0.5s a lap, and everyone else seemed bunched up behind Canapino who was running his set of alternates.

Grosjean pitted on lap 48, and a lap later Blomqvist passed Hunter-Reay for seventh. Malukas stopped on lap 52 and was passed by Grosjean. Blomqvist pitted on lap 53.

With 40 laps to go, Palou’s lead was 5s, with Canapino a further 7s back, Ferrucci another 5s in arrears and Hunter-Reay 6s behind that until pitting on lap 56. Armstrong and Dixon, running reduced pace and trying to save fuel, were 27s back – enough time for Palou to pit and emerge without losing the laps.

He didn’t, though, while O’Ward did – and as bad luck would have it for the Ganassi team, that’s when the yellow flew. DeFrancesco, driving one of the best IndyCar races of his career, lost his car under braking for Turn 3 as he tried to retaliate against a pass by Malukas.

That meant Palou, Canapino, Ferrucci et al were shuffled down to 15th thru 17th. Callum Ilott spun on pitlane and disrupted Kyle Kirkwood who gave him a sarcastic thumbs-up as he waited for the JHR car to move.

Up front, O’Ward would lead the field to the green ahead of Armstrong and Dixon, who, like O’Ward, would be trying to make it on one more stop. Herta ran fourth ahead of Castroneves, Lundgaard, Rossi, Grosjean, McLaughlin and Power.

The next restart lasted a few seconds before Blomqvist and Ferrucci got together down at the hairpin. The subsequent yellow created an ideal opportunity for drivers to make their final stop, and, in the course of these pitstops, Dixon jumped Armstrong and emerged in ninth, the pair leading Herta, Lundgaard, Castroneves, McLaughlin and Power. Up front, O’Ward would have to stop again because he still hadn’t run on the alternates, while Rossi was short of fuel in second ahead of Grosjean, Hunter-Reay, DeFrancesco, Canapino, Palou and Ilott.

At the drop of the green, out came the seventh caution of the day – the Honda Civic Type R pace car needed a refuel, believe it or not – as Ericsson and Armstrong collided at Turn 11, after the Kiwi rookie spun by himself. Grosjean had already passed Rossi, but Hunter-Reay took advantage of their exchange to pass Rossi. Under this latest caution, Hunter-Reay and Rossi pitted, as did Malukas, Pedersen, and Ericsson.

O’Ward now led Grosjean, DeFrancesco, the Juncos Hollinger pair of Canapino and Ilott, Palou, Dixon, Herta, McLaughlin and Power.

Grosjean outdragged O’Ward along the front straight to snatch the lead, while Ilott passed Canapino around the outside. Meanwhile, both Dixon and McLaughlin got around Palou and into third and fourth and got ahead of the squabbling JHR pair and DeFrancesco, who was struggling with a faulty gearbox.

There was barely a lap more in the books before Castroneves cannoned into the gearbox-troubled Herta after running on the dirt out of Turn 2. Under this eighth caution, O’Ward and Grosjean pitted, rejoining 13th and 14th.

Surprisingly – or unsurprisingly – Dixon now led the pack ahead of McLaughlin, with Ilott third ahead of Palou and Canapino. Then came Lundgaard, Power, Rossi, Armstrong and Hunter-Reay.

On the restart at the end of lap 78, the green waved again and the two Kiwis behaved themselves, as did Ilott and Palou. Power slipped up the inside of Lundgaard at Turn 2 to gain sixth and, next time by, Power and Rossi passed Canapino.

Up front, Dixon was 1.3s ahead on lap 80, while McLaughlin’s mirrors were full of Ilott and Palou. Canapino, with a droopy front wing, lost a position to Lundgaard and then had to work hard to hold off the lapped Ericsson, and Armstrong.

Lap 83 saw Palou find good traction out of Turn 11 and take third from Ilott along the front straight. He was now 1.9s behind McLaughlin who was 3s behind Dixon. Palou couldn’t close on McLaughlin, nor was he striding away from Ilott.

Armstrong and O’Ward demoted the struggling Canapino on lap 87, and the following lap the unlucky Argentine lost out to Hunter-Reay, then Grosjean too as he ran off track at the entry of the Corkscrew.

JHR’s hopes took a further knock when Ilott ran wide out of Turn 9, ceding fourth to Power, but regaining the track in time to hold off Rossi and Lundgaard.

On the very last lap, Lundgaard passed Rossi for sixth place but just failed to zap Ilott who stopped on track on his slowdown lap.

It was Dixon’s 56th win in the series, leaving him 11 behind A.J. Foyt’s record.

McLaughlin’s runner-up finish, O’Ward’s ninth place and Newgarden’s disastrous day means McLaughlin finishes the year in third in points, O’Ward fourth and Newgarden fifth.

Despite not competing in the five oval races throughout 2023, Armstrong sealed IndyCar’s Rookie of the Year honors.

RESULTS

Dixon takes grid penalty at Laguna

Scott Dixon will take a six-place grid penalty for today’s NTT IndyCar Series season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for an unapproved engine change. Dixon, who qualified the No.9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda fifth yesterday, becomes the …

Scott Dixon will take a six-place grid penalty for today’s NTT IndyCar Series season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for an unapproved engine change.

Dixon, who qualified the No.9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda fifth yesterday, becomes the fourth driver to take on a new engine in exchange for a hit to his grid position, joining Augustin Canapino (Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet), Santino Ferrucci (A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet) and Juri Vips (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda).

As with the others, Dixon’s penalty is in line with Rule 16.2.3.2, which states:

“A fifth (5th) Engine is eligible to earn Engine Manufacturer points if a Full Season Entrant has completed the Full Season Entrant Engine Mileage with its first four (4) Engines. Otherwise, a fifth (5th) or more Engine does not earn Engine Manufacturer points and will be considered an Unapproved Engine change-out.

“According to Rule 16.6.1.2, the penalty is a six-position starting grid penalty on road and street course events and nine positions at oval events and will be served at the series’ next event, which is the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey Sunday, Sept. 10 in Monterey, California.”

 

WWTR Victory Lap with Scott Dixon

Scott Dixon, winner of the WWTR IndyCar race, enjoys a retro beer with RACER’s Marshall Pruett and delves inside the amazing performance that delivered his second straight victory while lapping 25 of his 27 rivals.

Scott Dixon, winner of the WWTR IndyCar race, enjoys a retro beer with RACER’s Marshall Pruett and delves inside the amazing performance that delivered his second straight victory while lapping 25 of his 27 rivals.

‘Tense moments’ occurred en route to Dixon’s 55th win at WWTR

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon says that running a three-stop strategy on a day when others made five stops wasn’t guaranteed to work, and that he himself had doubts he could make it work. The six-time champion, who also won the previous round by …

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon says that running a three-stop strategy on a day when others made five stops wasn’t guaranteed to work, and that he himself had doubts he could make it work.

The six-time champion, who also won the previous round by taking a brave fuel gamble, finished 22s ahead of his nearest opponent, having lapped all but two cars.

Dixon said that the hard part came after the yellow flag caused by teammate Takuma Sato striking the wall and needing rescuing.

“There was definitely some tense moments,” said Dixon, who is now the only driver with a mathematical chance of beating teammate Alex Palou to the 2023 championship. “I think probably the hardest part was the restart where we were leading, having to get a pretty high fuel number. We weren’t getting it. We were a way’s off.

“I knew we could kind of stress that second-through-fifth pack, get them into a pretty vulnerable situation. I knew once we caught the backmarkers we’d be able to save and get beyond the fuel mileage that we needed to. It actually worked out perfectly. We were able to go further and beyond where we needed to.

“Huge testament obviously to Honda. I know there’s a lot of other Hondas out there, but to get the car in the zone, obviously the pace was still good, we could maintain almost a flat-out pace, but get almost, I don’t know, one mpg higher than you would regularly. It was pretty special.

“Obviously a team effort. There were definitely times, especially when we got to the red [Firestone alternate] tire as well, I [didn’t think it was] going to last. We kind of got stuck with a couple backmarkers there and lost touch with the No. 28 car [Romain Grosjean, attempting a similar strategy] at that point. [I] was feeling a little bit miserable.

“We were still the only ones that were going to the windows that we needed to. Luckily that caution helped us a little bit. It probably didn’t really matter. I don’t think it mattered if we had that or not. I think the race would have continued on fine otherwise anyway.”

Dixon made Firestone’s experimental soft compound last 60 laps in his second stint, enabling him to take advantage of his legendary ability to save fuel and go quick. However, he admitted he would like Firestone to continue running two compounds at an oval but to make them more radically different.

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“The tire was kind of interesting,” he said. “It actually had a good amount of deg. I think for next year…you’d almost want to double that deg… I know Firestone doesn’t want to do it because that’s the product they produce — they produce very good tires — but I think for fall-off like we see at Iowa where you go from an 18s lap all the way to 22s, 23s, you have good cars coming and going, people able to make changes throughout the race. I think that’s what they need to bring back here, a little bit more aggressive for next time.

“Ultimately it worked out. It was a tough tire to manage. Probably 15, 20 laps into my stint, I thought we were going to have to bail. We actually saw the No. 12 car [Will Power] bail off it very quickly. There were a few others you could see were really struggling with it and ultimately had to bail, as well.

“You really had to manage it, which is nice to have another kind of dimension to the race, something you really had to kind of look out for. Yeah, I think they could be more aggressive next year.”

Saturday’s terrible weather that precluded all but 70 minutes of practice time before qualifying on Sunday morning, had also caused some trepidation in Dixon’s camp.

“I think the biggest thing was going into the race with an unknown,” he said. “I think it was our second full stint we went to the alternate tire. I probably would have chose to go maybe later with that just so we could see what deg other people had. Maybe that would have altered our decision, too, not playing it out, running that tire all the way through.”

“To have the possibility, as we saw this weekend, to bring an alternate to a short track oval, played out well to start with. As I said earlier, I think they can definitely get more aggressive, which will spice it up next year.”

Dixon paid tribute to those on the pitwall in standing their ground when he started to question their decisions on strategy.

“The thing for us is that we could just maintain the pace with everybody in the group, go 10 laps longer. Once we saw everyone was peeling off, even teammates… I know the No. 8 car [teammate Marcus Ericsson] went aggressive and did the undercut. It played out pretty well for them because they gained maybe five or six spots. At some point you’re going to have to pay for that.

“There were probably a couple of points where I was almost arguing a little bit to bail off what we were doing. Good job by Mike [Hull] and Chip [Ganassi], everybody on the No. 9 car stand, [Chris] Simmons as well, to sticking to their guns on the strategy side. It worked.”

Dixon crushes fuel strategy to win WWTR as Newgarden finds wall

Scott Dixon humbled his IndyCar rivals for the second straight race with another brilliant fuel-saving run to glory, this time at World Wide Technology Raceway, making only three stops to his rivals’ five, and lapping everyone except his fellow …

Scott Dixon humbled his IndyCar rivals for the second straight race with another brilliant fuel-saving run to glory, this time at World Wide Technology Raceway, making only three stops to his rivals’ five, and lapping everyone except his fellow podium finishers, Pato O’Ward and David Malukas.

Also for the second straight race, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden suffered a shunt, after leading 98 laps, so he is now out of title contention, as runaway points leader Alex Palou came home seventh.

Following the grid penalties for early engine changes, pole-winner Scott McLaughlin started 10th, while the four Chip Ganassi Racing Hondas of Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon and Takuma Sato were clustered from 14th through 17th.

That left Penske’s Josef Newgarden – recent oval dominator – leading the field with Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta in a surprising second place, ahead of a pair of Arrow McLaren Chevrolets – Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist – with Romain Grosjean of Andretti Autosport, David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing, Alexander Rossi (McLaren) and Will Power (Penske) following. Alongside McLaughlin would be Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing.

One of the big questions of the race would be when Firestone’s alternates – on their oval debut – would come into play. The series had ruled out any driver starting on the softer rubber.

At the drop of the green flag, Newgarden led confidently away chased by Herta, while Malukas jumped both the McLarens that started ahead of him. At the back, Ed Carpenter thumped into the rear of Benjamin Pedersen, spinning the AJ Foyt Racing car into the wall. Out came the yellow, and race control looked at the order crossing the most recent timing loop before the yellow and ordered Malukas to drop back behind O’Ward, while Power was up ahead of the slow-starting Grosjean. Under caution, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Augustin Canapino and Santino Ferrucci pitted, the latter taking on the alternates. Carpenter also stopped for a new nose cone following his contact with Pedersen. Soon after, he had to serve a 30s stop and hold penalty.

The restart on lap 11 saw Newgarden maintain his lead ahead of Herta, while Malukas repassed O’Ward for third, with Rosenqvist also demoting his teammate ahead of the third McLaren of Rossi sixth. Grosjean got back around Power. Behind the No. 12 Penske, Palou and McLaughlin re-entered the top 10 after rookie Linus Lundqvist, in the Meyer Shank Racing Honda, fell back after a bold restart.

Up front, Newgarden appeared to have everything in hand, gently easing to 0.9s clear of Herta by lap 30, and not until lap 41 would he push his lead to over 1s before hitting the dirty air of Carpenter. That said, Herta was eager not to cook his tires, too, so hung back from the lead and kept a wary eye on Malukas and the McLarens behind him.

Takuma Sato made the first of the scheduled stops, choosing not to run the alternates yet. He came out and couldn’t get up to speed on his cold tires and held up Herta. That allowed Malukas and the McLarens to swiftly zap past the Andretti driver, thus Herta made his first pitstop. He was swiftly followed by Palou, who did take on the reds, which were showing encouraging durability on Ferrucci’s car (54 laps) although the Foyt driver did stop under this round of stops to take on primaries.

Newgarden pitted on lap 62, leaving Power and Dixon up front until they pitted on lap 66 — Power grabbing primaries, Dixon taking alternates. The overcut had not worked for them, however, since Power was now down in 10th and Dixon in 13th.

Up front, Newgarden, on alternates, was leading, and while Herta did resume second after his stop, he couldn’t hold off O’Ward’s alternate-tired car. Behind Herta was Malukas, Rosenqvist, early stopper Ericsson, Rossi and Palou on alternates, and McLaughlin and Power on primaries. Power then lost 10th to Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing).

The softer rubber allowed Newgarden and O’Ward to break away up front, 6s clear of Herta who was clearly holding up Malukas and Rosenqvist. NBC broadcast the No. 5 team telling O’Ward to keep the pressure on the leader, to ensure he couldn’t save fuel and therefore commit him to three more stops.

Grosjean made his second stop, from 12th, on lap 95 to get off his alternate tires, and Lundqvist did the same.

Newgarden and O’Ward were coming back toward Herta when they elected to come in, two laps and one lap, respectively, after Power, who had stopped early to take on alternates. As Newgarden and O’Ward resumed, they came out behind those who had yet to make their second stops, and briefly the McLaren driver was a strong threat to Newgarden.

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However, it was the long-running Dixon who led – by a lap – when the caution flag flew for Sato crashing on lap 120 after several alarming moves earlier on.

Several top runners took this opportunity to stop again, including Newgarden, O’Ward, Rossi, McLaughlin, Malukas, Canapino and Ericsson. Unfortunately, Ericsson suffered a pit incident, sliding into Power’s pitbox ahead with a loose left-rear and getting heavily delayed.

Dixon thus resumed in front and was clearly going to go for a three-stop race, emulating his fuel-saving effort that won him the Indianapolis road course two weeks ago. Behind O’Ward were Rossi, McLaughlin, Malukas, and Canapino. Power, Palou and Herta waited several laps under yellow to make their third stops and dropped to 12th, 14th and 13th respectively.

Meanwhile, IndyCar had been sweeping the track clear of marbles before the restart came on lap 135. Dixon held off Newgarden, O’Ward and Rossi, while McLaughlin and Malukas swapped back and forth and back again, Malukas eventually keeping fifth.

Newgarden and O’Ward touched to the chagrin of the McLaren driver, as he tried to pass the Penske ace. Further back, a less fortunate Penske driver was Power, who dropped to 12th when Herta and Palou got around him. On lap 145, he lost 12th to Rosenqvist, too, who was running reds. Canapino, meanwhile, had to serve a drive-through for striking personnel during his pitstop, so was now a lap down.

McLaughlin passed Malukas for fifth on lap 151, with 109 laps to go, while Palou demoted Herta for 10th on lap 153 after running side-by-side for more than a lap.

O’Ward pitted from third on lap 164, and Rosenqvist also stopped to get off his alternates and onto primaries. Then Newgarden, Malukas, McLaughlin, Rossi and Palou pitted. Significantly, Newgarden emerged behind O’Ward.

This left Dixon up front, 9s ahead of teammate Ericsson who had 4.5s on a battle between Herta and Power, with Grosjean and Kirkwood a further seven seconds down. Ericsson stopped on lap 177 of the 260, with Herta stopping next time by.

Power stayed out, trying to pare down his deficit to Dixon despite being trapped in traffic. Kirkwood pitted from third on lap 188, while Power stopped on lap 189 having trimmed the gap to Dixon down to 7s. Dixon pitted on 195, Grosjean on 196, and thus O’Ward hit the front, 0.5s ahead of Newgarden. Rossi, McLaughlin and Malukas ran 4s behind. All would have to stop one more time, and both Malukas and Rosenqvist elected to take that stop early — pretty much forcing all those on the same strategy to do the same, including Newgarden.

The No. 2 emerged in traffic, and after a couple of laps on his final set of tires, he drifted high into the wall exiting Turn 2, clouting it with both right-side tires. Almost simultaneously, McLaughlin got high after rubbing wheels with Malukas, and fell down the order.

O’Ward, after running fast laps in the lead, pulled in after seeing one of his main foes, Newgarden, fall out of contention.

Once Herta pitted for the final time, that left Dixon leading Power by 0.5s. Dixon, who had stopped on lap 196, could make it to the end; Power, having pitted six laps earlier, would surely need to pit again unless there was a late caution. The pair ran 16s clear of Kirkwood (another one needing a caution) while O’Ward was fourth, 20s behind Dixon. Malukas, Rossi, McLaughlin and Herta were a lap down.

Kirkwood acknowledged the inevitable, pitting from third on lap 243, while Power pitted on lap 247, easing the pressure on Dixon, who allowed Malukas to unlap himself. The Coyne driver homed in on O’Ward but came up 0.5s short, but the pair were 22s behind the winner.

Rossi was a lapped fourth, ahead of McLaughlin, Herta, Palou, Rosenqvist, Power and Ericsson.

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