Tag: scott dixon

Scott Dixon after his record-breaking 234 mph Indy 500 pole win: ‘You just want to keep going faster’

Scott Dixon was blazing fast during Indy 500 qualifying, but he’s got steep competition for Sunday’s 106th running.

If qualifying for the 2022 Indianapolis 500 offered a glimpse into Sunday’s 106th running, it’s going to be an awfully fast race.

After two days of qualifying at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Scott Dixon came out on top, winning his fifth career and second consecutive Indy 500 pole.

Not only did Dixon set the record for fastest pole speed in Indy 500 history — it’s the fastest four-lap average for the race at 234.046 miles per hour — but he also, along with Alex Palou and Rinus VeeKay, combined for the fastest front row ever in Indy 500 history with an average speed of 233.643 miles per hour. Both records had been standing since 1996.

MORE 2022 INDY 500: Every driver’s choice of celebratory milk — and who wants (but won’t get) chocolate or buttermilk

“Honestly, nobody goes that fast, right, unless you’re on a plane,” 41-year-old Dixon told For The Win on Monday, struggling to compare the feeling with something regular people can do. “For drivers, you always just want to go faster, right? So it’s something that one, we’re used to, but two, it becomes an addiction, right? That you just want to keep going faster.

“And sometimes, the sport allows for that to happen, or some years, they come back and it’s a rule reset or the engines have changed or something like that where you don’t see the speed. For a long period of time, we were setting poles in the mid 220s, so it’s kind of cool to see the evolution of this car, even though the rules package has stayed very similar.”

Even fellow drivers, who race at high speeds all the time, were blown away.

Of course, the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda driver’s record-breaking speed is a four-lap average, meaning he hit higher speeds down the mammoth speedway’s long straightaways. Even driving faster than 200 miles an hour, Dixon said he definitely can feel a difference when he picks it up.

“Our prep laps that we do before we start, you’re kind of around the 200-mile an hour mark, and it feels extremely slow,” he explained. “And then when you get to the 230s, 240s — a lot of us, we’re going 243, 244 on the straights the last few days — you do even feel that 40-mile an hour difference.”

Hoping to win his second Indy 500 — Dixon also won in 2008 from the pole position — some of his biggest competition for the crown will come from his own Chip Ganassi Racing teammates.

All five Ganassi drivers advanced to Sunday’s second day of qualifying, and Palou will start second, Marcus Ericsson and Tony Kanaan will start fifth and sixth, respectively, and Indy 500 rookie Jimmie Johnson will start 12th.

In addition to fast teammates, the 33-car field also features eight previous Indy 500 champions: Hélio Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021), Juan Pablo Montoya (2000, 2015), Takuma Sato (2017, 2020), Tony Kanaan (2013), Alexander Rossi (2016), Will Power (2018) and Simon Pagenaud (2019), along with Dixon.

So, like it so often does, it will likely take a completely flawless race — “and you need Lady Luck on your side” — to have a chance at becoming the milk-covered victor. And Dixon knows starting first can only get him so far through the 500-mile race.

“The tough part these days is that because of [the fast qualifying speeds] and because the group is so tight, the competition level is just through the roof,” Dixon said. “It just puts a massive emphasis on making sure you have no mistakes, because if you have one mistake, there’s literally 32 others that will be in front of you. Gone are the days where maybe you could pick out five, seven, eight cars that had a legitimate shot at winning. …

“For the pole sitters and the front-row drivers, that’s the frustrating part — is that you’ve done a hell of a job as a team and our efforts and put a lot on the line. But it guarantees you absolutely nothing, but that’s what makes this race so special.”

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IndyCar champ Alex Palou breaks down the lessons he learned from Jimmie Johnson, Scott Dixon about how to win a title

Alex Palou’s teammates have multiple championships on their resumes. And the young IndyCar driver took notes.

Alex Palou knows he didn’t become a first-time IndyCar Series champion by himself.

In addition to his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates who work to make his No. 10 Honda as fast as possible, Palou was guided through only his second IndyCar season by several multi-time champions, like teammates Scott Dixon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Kanaan — plus Dario Franchitti, who’s been working as a mentor-coach in the Ganassi organization.

When listing them all off, Palou joked he had no idea just how many total championships that group has put together. (Altogether, they have 18 championships: Dixon with six, Franchitti has four, Kanaan adds one and Johnson amassed seven in NASCAR.)

“It’s insane,” Palou told For The Win. “The opportunity that I got to learn from all them and to lean on them and to tell them how I feel or what’s my issue — it’s been great.”

And Palou has taken notes, particularly from Dixon and Johnson. He said learning from these past racing champions “100 percent” helped him earn his first title.

The 24-year-old newly crowned champion from Barcelona began competing in open-wheeled racing in the Euroformula Open Championship in 2014 before starting in the Formula 3 Series and competing at the All-Japan Formula 3 championship. But, as he told The Athletic earlier this year, his “biggest target” was making it to IndyCar. And win a title.

His rookie IndyCar season was with Dale Coyne Racing, but he made the jump to Chip Ganassi Racing, the now-14-time IndyCar championship team, for his second season, surrounded by champions.

MORE INDYCAR: New IndyCar champ Alex Palou on his favorite celebratory meal: ‘I’ve had loads of fried chicken’

Palou said while Dixon — who was the defending IndyCar champ — is “relentless” on the track, he’s also poised and calculated. And Palou has tried to learn from Dixon’s approach and composure.

“It was not about learning how to be quick; it’s more about learning how to be consistent, how to manage the races,” Palou explained. “The way he thinks about the races, and the way he tries to put himself in the best position — that’s what I learned.”

Consistency is one way to describe Palou’s second IndyCar season. After finishing 16th in the standings as a rookie in 2020, Palou won the first race of 2021 at Barber Motorsports Park, and then went on to win two more at Road America and Portland International Raceway, plus one pole, eight podiums and 10 top-5 finishes in 16 races.

Even on IndyCar’s biggest stage at the Indianapolis 500 in May, Palou got loose during qualifying and slammed into the outside wall. His team repaired the car, Palou remained composed and he qualified sixth before finishing as the runner-up behind four-time Indy 500 champ Hélio Castroneves.

“[Dixon is] always is able to get 100 percent out of the car, and he always maximizes the opportunity he has,” Palou continued. “So if he has a bad day, instead of making it even worse — trying to go for a crazy overtake or crazy strategy — he just tries to make it just a normal day.”

There’s plenty for Palou to learn from 41-year-old and 21-season veteran Dixon. But in IndyCar, Palou has one more year of experience on Johnson, so he said they leaned on each other.

“It was weird just because sometimes [Johnson] was asking me questions, right?” Palou said. “And I was like, ‘Jimmie, you’re the champion here. I am the guy asking you questions.’ But no, he was working super, super hard this year, and he was getting up to speed. I think next year, he’s gonna turn around lots of faces.”

So what could Palou have learned from Johnson, a 46-year-old IndyCar rookie who faced a steep learning curve in a new racing discipline? A champion’s mindset and an “amazing” worth ethic, he said.

Palou said he learned how Johnson thinks and operates and then tried to mimic it, which sometimes included being woken up at the crack of dawn by the former NASCAR driver.

“If I was a seven-time NASCAR champion now, I wouldn’t be working that hard,” Palou said. “He’s able to text me at five in the morning, thinking about the setup of the car or something about the simulator or or something to improve. So I learned the work ethic.”

Palou added that Johnson also advised him about what to expect through the final weeks of the season. Palou was clearly a championship contender, and in addition to any internal or team pressure, he said Johnson warned him about more weight from the media reciting stats, odds and points scenarios to him.

And Johnson helped him “forget about all that” and focus on the job, Palou said.

“It’s been awesome to being able to ask somebody how to deal with that or how to think about that,” he said.

“It was my first time, and [Johnson] did it for a long, long time. So yeah, I’ve been extremely lucky to get lots of tips from these two guys.”

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New IndyCar champ Alex Palou on his favorite celebratory meal: ‘I’ve had loads of fried chicken’

IndyCar champion Alex Palou on his title race, his nerves beforehand and a week of fried chicken.

Before the IndyCar Series season finale, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, ended on Sunday in Southern California, Alex Palou was already a first-time champion.

The 24-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing driver didn’t need to win the last race of the season to claim his championship; he just needed an 11th-place finish or better to edge out the two other title contenders, Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward. But late in the race and after O’Ward was knocked out of contention after being rear-ended, Palou clinched his first title on his way to a fourth-place finish.

In just his second IndyCar season, Palou became the first Spaniard to win the championship, and he’s the seventh-youngest champ and the first younger than 25 years old since his now-teammate Scott Dixon won back in 2003.

For The Win spoke with Palou on Wednesday about his championship race, why he’s happy he didn’t know he won before the race ended and his famous celebratory meal, fried chicken.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

We asked Jimmie Johnson’s IndyCar teammates to grade the rookie’s season so far

Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson evaluated Jimmie Johnson’s rookie IndyCar season.

Jimmie Johnson is still working through the sharp learning curve that comes with switching from one highly competitive racing discipline after two decades to a totally different one.

With a record-tying seven NASCAR Cup Series championships on his resume, Johnson retired from NASCAR and kicked off the 2021 IndyCar Series season as a 45-year-old rookie living out his childhood dream. This season, Johnson is competing in 13 road and street courses behind the wheel of the No. 48 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, while IndyCar veteran Tony Kanaan is racing on the ovals.

But jumping from stock cars to open-wheeled ones is no easy task. For Johnson’s first IndyCar race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, he was thrilled to not qualify last and satisfied just to have finished the race.

Johnson finished 19th of 24 drivers at Barber in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, he was 22nd in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and 24th in the GMR Grand Prix on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

“I had fun. I can’t hide from the fact that I’m a rookie. I can’t overstate enough just how different IndyCar is from NASCAR,” Johnson told the Detroit Free Press. “From car to procedures, race format, across the board tracks, everything is new. I really do feel like I’m starting over.”

After Kanaan took over for the Indianapolis 500 while Johnson was part of NBC Sports’ broadcast team, Johnson will return to the track for the Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader Saturday and Sunday.

Though it’s still early in Johnson’s rookie season, For The Win asked his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates — Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson — to evaluate his performance so far and offer a letter grade.

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IndyCar champ Scott Dixon on winning Indy 500 pole, driving at 240 mph and his celebratory milk choice

IndyCar star Scott Dixon will start Sunday’s Indy 500 on the pole after qualifying with an incredible 231.685 mph average.

With a blazing 231.685 miles per hour four-lap average, reigning IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon won the coveted pole for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 and will lead the 33-car field to green at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He won by just .03 miles per hour at the end of the two-day qualifying process.

It’s his fourth Indy 500 pole after also winning it in 2017, 2015 and 2008 — when he won the iconic race from his No. 1 starting spot. And although the 40-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing driver said winning the Indy 500 pole is one of the most challenging things to do, he knows it promises nothing about the race itself.

“It’s obviously the best starting position,” Dixon told For The Win. “But unfortunately, it doesn’t guarantee you anything. It doesn’t even guarantee going into the first corner first.”

Ahead of the 2021 Indy 500, For The Win spoke with the six-time IndyCar champ about his pole win, the magic of the Indy 500 itself and what kind of milk he hopes he’s celebrating with Sunday afternoon.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Most of us can’t fathom what it’s like to drive at 231 miles an hour. Can you describe what that genuinely feels like?

The hardest part for us is the is the fact that you did it the day before [in Saturday’s qualifying round], but you had 24 hours to sit on it, and you never actually go out in the car until that happens again. And the process is now that you’re holding the car off on your out lap, so your first lap out is kind of slow. You don’t really feel the car until you turn the boost up, you go around, down the backstraight [into] Turns 3 into 4, and then you’re going in to Turn 1 at 240-plus miles now.

And your mind is telling your foot to stay flat and to keep it flat through the corner, but you have human instincts, right? Like, this could be a pretty big crash or a big moment, and whether you come out the other side in one piece, So, mentally, it’s very tough.

It’s a crazy lead up to this race. The race for pole is such an event in itself that, you know, it’s something that the team wants to do. … It’s really nerve-racking. Emotionally, it’s crazy. It’s one of the toughest things. And I think unfortunately, being a veteran of the sport, having done it for so long, it hasn’t got any better.  I was so nervous on Saturday, and then on Sunday, I was so nervous.

In the moment right before the Indy 500 is about to go green, what’s going through your mind in that moment?

Typically, after that long week of just talking about the race, you have these slight premonitions like, “We’re gonna do this, that person’s gonna do that.” For me, it’s actually really nice to get in the car. You kind of by yourself, you kind of feel at home. That hype is right there, and I think for all of us, you’re just wanting to get into that race and get it over and done with, to be honest.

The start is tricky. It can be tricky. But if you start near the front, it should be pretty calm. So you’re just wanting to get into the cycle of the race. And it’s never won in the first corner, so you want to be somewhat cautious but also aggressive at the same time.

In the 2017, Indy 500, you were in a terrifying crash, and thankfully, you were OK. But when when something like that happens, does it impact your mindset at all when you return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for this race?

That one was definitely spectacular, for sure. You try to forget about those things, but unfortunately, they get played on the video boards continuously, and you see the crash a lot. But I think for drivers, when it’s a crash like that, it was just by chance, right?

There was a slower car, it got into trouble, I had nowhere to go, and it was big and spectacular. But for drivers, it’s more if you lose the control of the car yourself, and you spin the car out or you make a mistake. Those are the ones that linger a lot more. That was that was a big crash, and lucky to only walk away with fractured ankle at that point.

But we’re very lucky to be in this year of IndyCar racing and the safety compared to the ’50, ’60s and ’70s. It’s safer in general, but we can still see some crazy things happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QiAj5oOfz4

If you could add one track to the IndyCar schedule that’s not already on it, what what track would it be?

Oh, that’s a hard one. In North America, probably Watkins Glen [International]. I’d love to go back to upstate New York. And then internationally, I think it’d be fun as well to go back to Surfers Paradise in Australia. That was always my ideal event for IndyCar racing.

And if you were to win the Indy 500, what would be your preferred milk choice?

I think in the early days, you could actually pick strawberry, pick chocolate. I’m a big chocolate fan, so I would pick chocolate, but now they I think it’s only skim, 2 percent or full. … I’ll go for the 2 percent. I like the 2 percent. That’s what I have with my cereal.

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6-time IndyCar champ Scott Dixon talks going for No. 7, his future teammate, Jimmie Johnson

“Six sounds a lot better than five with championships,” Scott Dixon said about his latest IndyCar championship.

Scott Dixon is now a six-time IndyCar Series champion —and one title away from tying racing legend A.J. Foyt’s all-time record.

Dixon didn’t need to win Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg to claim another championship. The 40-year-old Chip Ganassi driver finished third behind race winner and fellow title-contender Joseph Newgarden, but Dixon was crowned the champion because he earned more points in the championship hunt.

A Ganassi driver throughout his career, Dixon’s first championship was in 2003, and he won again in 2008, 2013, 2015 and 2018. He won four races in the 2020 season.

For The Win sat down with Dixon, virtually, Monday morning following his championship win about the season, the giant trophy and his future — which includes being teammates with NASCAR’s seven-time champion, Jimmie Johnson, who’s retiring from full-time NASCAR at the end of the 2020 season.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Have you had a chance to get any sleep get any rest at this point?

Honestly, you know, we went later to just grab a bit of food around maybe 8:30 and then a couple of drinks. But I think we were back in the motorhome and asleep by probably 11:30 or 12. It was it was actually a really physical race [Sunday]. The temperature was pretty high. I think it was almost an all-time high for this time of year here, almost 90 degrees. But it was so humid. So I was definitely pretty worn out as far as hydration, so I shut it down pretty early [Sunday] night.

Little bit different of a celebration than when you won your first championship?

Very, very different. I kind of remember blips of that night in 2003, and it was definitely a pretty wild night. But yeah, I think recovery at the age of 23 was much easier at the age of 40.

When you look at six championships, how do you how do you view that and as you continue to establish your place in IndyCar history?

It’s a testament to the team, and obviously, been part of this team for 19 years going into my 20th season next year with them. And I think the adversities this year for everybody has been crazy. Did we even think there was going to be a season? I feel super lucky and super privileged that I get to race cars, for one, [because of] the NTT IndyCar Series, with the help of NASCAR, I think, with the protocols with COVID and things like that.

So it does feel very special to win in a season like this. Even for the first race when you’re in Victory Lane — bring a mask, and you’re celebrating by yourself. It was just the bizarre-ist scenarios that were very new situations for all of us.

But you know, six sounds a lot better than five with championships. So it feels amazing. It hasn’t really sunk in too much yet, just to really sit back and capture the season. The competition that we have nowadays — it’s just it’s through the roof, and so to do it as a team has has been phenomenal.

Chip Ganassi and Scott Dixon in 2003. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

You mentioned COVID and other complications that we’ve seen this season. When you look at it in that context, how does this championship compared to others?

It’s funny: I think championships is kind of like having kids. You love them all equally, but but they’re all very different. And their personalities are different and the achievements and how you actually enabled it.

But for me, this year was way more stressful than others. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever led a championship from start to finish. We had a 117-point lead at one stage, and that dwindled to under 20. Obviously, there was there was almost a period of trying to stop the bleeding.

It’s a year that none of us are going to forget. But for me, this championship, I think, is really special for a lot of those scenarios.

Are you already eyeing AJ Foyt’s record seven IndyCar championships?

Seven sounds a lot better than six. So yeah, absolutely. You try to soak up situations like this a little bit. But we start testing again this week at the speedway and then the following week in Alabama. It just kicks off quite quickly. So we’ll need a little bit of time to analyze the season, obviously dig deep through what we need to make better.

But, yeah, goal No. 1 next year — or two goals, as always: First, win the Indianapolis 500, and secondly, try to win a championship. So we’ll definitely be trying hard to pull both of those off.

Is that trophy heavy? Is it hard to pick it up?

It’s very heavy. I don’t know what it weighs. It’s gotta be 50, 60 pounds. And when you’re done after a two hour race of mayhem and heat exhaustion and things like that, and they’re trying to tell you to lift it over your head, you’re like, ‘OK, you know, get it, get the picture quickly.’

But it’s so amazing, the Astor Cup, and how they brought that back into the cycle of IndyCar racing. There’s this long history and long story there. But yeah, I think I prefer just sitting there and giving it a good kiss. That’s, that’s the best situation for me.

I don’t think you can take the top off. You need to be able to take that off, so you can pour some champagne in there or some beers and drink out of it. But it’s definitely a pretty sweet trophy.

Next season, you’re getting a new teammate in Jimmie Johnson, and you have 13 championships between the two of you. He’ll be learning from you quite a bit, but are there things that you can teach each other next year from one champion to another?

First of all, it’s fantastic. I can’t believe Jimmie, with all that he’s done, and he still has the drive. I think [it’s] not necessarily an age thing, but after all his accomplishments to take on such a big battle — it’s going to be a very steep mountain.

But already I can see just how competitive the guy is. You can see why he’s a seven-time champion. The intensity is insane. We haven’t even done a test together yet. I’ve gone to one of his tests, and he’s done some simulators. But the way he’s trying to kick out his training level to reaction stuff and everything involved, he tries to cover all the bases, and that’s why he’s been so good and so competitive. It’s really big for for IndyCar. I can’t wait to spend more time with him.

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Sitting down with 6-time IndyCar champ Scott Dixon

After winning his sixth IndyCar championship, Scott Dixon chatted with our Michelle Martinelli about the win, lifting the 50-pound trophy and his future teammate, Jimmie Johnson.

After winning his sixth IndyCar championship, Scott Dixon chatted with our Michelle Martinelli about the win, lifting the 50-pound trophy and his future teammate, Jimmie Johnson.

See videos from Jimmie Johnson’s IndyCar test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The seven-time NASCAR champ went for an open-wheeled ride at IMS.

Jimmie Johnson has been ready to get behind the wheel for an IndyCar test for months, and Tuesday, he was able to make it happen finally at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is retiring from full-time racing at the end of the 2020 season, and he’s repeatedly expressed interest in trying out other types of racing, including IndyCar. So he teamed up with NASCAR-IndyCar team Chip Ganassi Racing to test one of its open-wheelers on Indy’s road course, rather than the oval.

Johnson was originally supposed to have an IndyCar test in April at Barber Motorsports Park, and he even brought an iRacing rig to “prepare for ’21 and ’22 for the different bucket list races” he has in mind. But the coronavirus outbreak led to that test being canceled.

Then he had another test planned for the iconic Indy track in early July after, for the first time, NASCAR and IndyCar raced at the same venue over the same weekend. But his positive COVID-19 test nixed that too.

So, “Third time’s a charm” for the 44-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver, who also made his IndyCar iRacing debut at Watkins Glen International in March when real-life racing was still on hold.

And as Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull tweeted, Johnson was having a great time:

Johnson’s Twitter account also shared the first look at him driving an IndyCar machine, one of Ganassi’s regular rotation cars set up for when IndyCar took on Indy’s road course on July 4, Hull tweeted last week.

And Johnson got an extra hand from five-time IndyCar Series champion and longtime Ganassi driver Scott Dixon.

More from Johnson’s Instagram stories Tuesday:

In 2018, Johnson tried out another open-wheeled car when he and two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso swapped rides at Bahrain International Circuit.

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