IndyCar

Stunning Dixon win from 16th keeps IndyCar title battle alive

by Jack Benyon
5 min read

Scott Dixon’s second IndyCar win in a row means he’s the only driver who could deny Alex Palou the 2023 title in the last two races, following a stunning fuel-saving victory almost beyond belief at the Gateway oval.

The first half of the race was a fascinating affair as Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward took their usual places as IndyCar’s oval dominators, but Dixon managed to stretch both of his first stints to give himself a chance of doing a three-stopper, equating to at least one fewer stop than everyone else.

A caution for Dixon’s team-mate Takuma Sato crashing on lap 122 – after spending most of the race in incidents with other cars – meant all drivers could make the end of the race on two more stops, seemingly eliminating Dixon’s strategy advantage to that point.

It still meant that he cycled to the lead even after pitting because most of the drivers who stopped had gone a lap down and the ones that didn’t pitted behind him.

Dixon led following the restart and on lap 163 his rivals began to come to pit road to stop early, ensuring they needed the two stops, while Dixon extended his stints trying to go to the end on one more stop with another strategy masterstroke.

He did a gargantuan stint to pit with 65 laps remaining and emerged in 10th, waiting for everyone ahead to pit.

Pato O’Ward had undercut Newgarden – who led most of the first 100 laps of the race – in the penultimate stop, and Newgarden returned the favour at the last stop but got caught in traffic and then smashed the wall with 49 laps to go, managing to avoid causing a caution.

It puts Indy 500 winner Newgarden out of the championship hunt with two races remaining.

That incident was followed by O’Ward coming into the pits, and after the final stops, Dixon took a 26-second lead with just over 40 laps remaining.

O’Ward did erode the lead but not significantly enough as Dixon limped home for his second IndyCar win in a row,  by 22 seconds thanks to the strategy and his unbelievable pace, fuel-saving and tyre management while doing it.

At the last race on the Indianapolis road course, he pulled off a similar strategy as the only driver who could turn an early stop under caution into one fewer stop than his rivals.

He achieved all of this from 16th – having started 15th last week to win – after a penalty for taking his fifth engine of the year.

O’Ward bagged his seventh podium and fourth second place of the year while an all-important win continues to elude him, as David Malukas repeated his Gateway heroics from last year for Dale Coyne, finishing one place lower than last year – in third.

Alexander Rossi took fourth for McLaren, with should-have-been-polesitter Scott McLaughlin – taking a nine-place grid penalty for an extra engine – rounding out the top five after a battling race that included being bumped up the track in an aggressive exchange with Malukas.

Colton Herta was the top Andretti in sixth from second on the grid, with Palou finishing seventh to make his championship lead 74 – with 108 still up for grabs in the last two races – in a bid to take his second title and stop Dixon getting his seventh.

Felix Rosenqvist, Will Power – who mirrored Dixon’s late strategy but made his stop slightly earlier and had to pit again – and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top 10.

Conor Daly – the replacement for Jack Harvey – was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan car on his debut, taking 16th.

Linus Lundqvist was the top rookie in 18th, but still finished ahead of his four-time Indy 500-winning team-mate Helio Castroneves.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 260 123 2h10m09.404s 25.91s 3 53
2 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 260 18 +22.226s 25.95s 5 41
3 David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing/HMD Motorsports Dallara DW12-Honda 260 0 +22.728s 26.095s 5 35
4 Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 259 4 +1 lap 26.132s 5 33
5 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 259 0 +1 lap 26.205s 5 31
6 Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 259 13 +1 lap 26.019s 5 29
7 Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 259 0 +1 lap 26.095s 5 26
8 Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 259 0 +1 lap 25.831s 5 24
9 Will Power Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 259 4 +1 lap 26.142s 5 23
10 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 259 0 +1 lap 26.053s 6 20
11 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 259 0 +1 lap 26.193s 4 19
12 Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 259 0 +1 lap 26.024s 4 18
13 Santino Ferrucci AJ Foyt Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 259 0 +1 lap 26.435s 5 17
14 Ryan Hunter-Reay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 259 0 +1 lap 26.183s 5 16
15 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 259 0 +1 lap 26.32s 5 15
16 Conor Daly Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 259 0 +1 lap 26.042s 5 14
17 Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 259 0 +1 lap 26.244s 5 13
18 Linus Lundqvist Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 258 0 +2 laps 25.678s 5 12
19 Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 258 0 +2 laps 26.445s 5 11
20 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 258 0 +2 laps 26.318s 5 10
21 Sting Ray Robb Dale Coyne Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 258 0 +2 laps 26.154s 4 9
22 Agustín Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 258 0 +2 laps 26.195s 7 8
23 Hélio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 257 0 +3 laps 26.166s 5 7
24 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 254 0 +6 laps 26.528s 6 6
Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 210 98 DNF 26.028s 5 6
Takuma Sato Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 119 0 DNF 26.441s 2 5
Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 58 0 DNF 26.331s 1 5
Benjamin Pedersen AJ Foyt Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 0 0 DNF 0s 0 5
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