INDIANAPOLIS — Scott Dixon completed his own version of “Spin and Win” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
It didn’t come in the famed Indianapolis 500, where Danny Sullivan spun in turn one attempting to pass Mario Andretti and was able to continue and eventually win the 1985 Indy 500. Instead, Dixon’s spin came on the opening lap of Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Dixon masterfully used that to his advantage as the team quickly went to a fuel saving strategy that would ultimately fall into Dixon’s favor.
The result was an impressive, Scott Dixon-like win over pole winner Graham Rahal in Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix.
Dixon achieved his 54th IndyCar victory in his record 319th consecutive IndyCar start. He also extended his IndyCar record winning streak to 19-straight seasons with a victory and 21st season overall.
Dixon led 34 laps, just two short of Rahal’s race-leading 36 laps in front.
He had a big enough gap at the end that he was able to hold off a charging Rahal in the final laps to drive his No. 9 PNC Bank Honda to a 0.4779-second lead over Rahal’s No. 15 Code 3 Honda. Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren was third in the No. 5 Chevrolet. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Christian Lundgaard was fourth in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda.
Alexander Rossi of Arrow McLaren was fifth in the No. 7 Chevrolet.
Alex Palou entered the race with an 84-point lead over Josef Newgarden with four laps to go. Newgarden started 25th because of Friday’s qualifications combined with a six-grid spot penalty for an unapproved engine change.
Newgarden was also involved in the first lap crash that was triggered when Marcus Armstrong’s No. 11 Honda was turned around. Other cars involved included Colton Herta and Romain Grosjean, both with Andretti Autosport.
All drivers except for Newgarden were able to refire their engines and get back to pit lane. Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevrolet had to be restarted by the AMR Safety Team and he went down one lap. That was the only caution of the race.
Newgarden finished the race 25th, two laps down and lost second place in the standings to Dixon.
Palou finished seventh in the No. 10 American Legion Honda.
Palou now has a 101-point lead over Dixon with three races remaining. Newgarden is 105 points back.
“We talked a lot in pre-race about kind of pitting early, getting off the maybe 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,” Dixon recalled. “I was actually shocked just 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. Yeah, 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.
“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. Feels good. Feels damn good to get this win. Feel sorry for Graham. But, yeah, this is cool.”
For Rahal, it was a weekend of redemption.
Just two-and-a-half months after he was bumped out of the Indianapolis 500 field in the “Last Chance Qualifying,” named as a replacement driver two days later when Stefan Wilson was injured and could not compete, then had his car fail to start for the race, the son of team owner Bobby Rahal returned to the peak.
He won his first pole in six seasons on Friday, then led the most laps in the race Saturday with 36 and beat every car in the race except one — the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda driven by Dixon.
“Look, 19 straight years with a win doesn’t happen by luck,” Rahal said of Dixon. “There’s nobody else that’s anywhere close to that. But I certainly wanted one bad today, frankly. I think, like Pato said, on the blacks I focused really hard on getting my car balance to where it was acceptable, that I could maintain through that stint, and I did.
“To come up short, it definitely, definitely stings. He made the strategy work. He’s damn good at that.”
Rahal, however, did question why the first caution period of the race lasted eight laps.
He knew the longer that caution period lasted, the more it played into Dixon’s favor.
“I don’t know why we’re not going green,” Rahal said he told his crew on the team’s radio. “This doesn’t make any sense. I knew when Dixie pitted, I was like ‘son of a…’ You give the guy an inch, he’s going to get a mile. He’s the best at saving fuel, going fast, doing the things he does.
“I did that exact strategy two years ago, so I know it works. It was nice, though, in general just to have a smooth day. Never really felt totally under pressure. Felt that when guys did close on me, that I could respond and pull the gap when I needed to. Never had a single brake lock today. Just a very kind of straightforward day, which was very refreshing for the year that we’ve had.”
For O’Ward, it was his sixth podium finish of the season, but none of those have been the top step for winning a race.
“A fricking win would be great,” O’Ward said. “I’ve been driving my ass off every single race. There is nothing more than I want than to get wins. Obviously, there’s been little things here and there that have got us out of contention and out of being able to kind of capitalize on that.
“With like the performance of today, I’m very pleased. I’m just tired. I’m just very pleased with today, very happy with how the team and I attacked because I was playing around with Graham in the warm-up, and he was just stronger than me. I know he was. I knew it was going to be a tall ask, just from outright pace, to try and beat them.
“But I was very happy with my car balance. I was very happy with every other call. Yeah, we just got to keep pushing.”
As for the championship contenders, Palou’s grip on his second title in three seasons is firmer than ever, while Newgarden’s efforts may be slipping away.
“It was a busy day and a very busy first couple of laps,” Palou said. “We played an aggressive strategy which worked really well on the first couple of stints. Then, when we wanted to go fast on the better tire, we didn’t make it work. We had some issues with tire degradation, but it was a solid day for us on the championship side. It was an amazing day for Scott winning the race today.”
Newgarden was disappointed and exhausted as he climbed out of No. 2 Hitachi Chevrolet in a race where he was never in contention.
“Just a very unfortunate start to this race, but this weekend was quite a challenge from the start,” Newgarden said. “We came with a new package because we have struggled lately on the Indy road course, and we wanted to do everything we could to finish the season strong.
“It just seemed to be one thing after another for the Hitachi Chevy team, from the 10-minute practice penalty for me being late to weigh-in, to the engine change last night to the first lap incident. Clearly not the finish we needed for the championship, but this team knows how to fight. We are going to try and make everyone earn it over the last three races.”