MOORESVILLE, N.C. — There was one month left in the NTT IndyCar Series season and six-time champion Scott Dixon had yet to win a race.
The 43-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing driver was among the leading contenders throughout the season, but the emergence of another generational talent in teammate Alex Palou and the oval dominance of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden had kept Dixon out of victory lane.
His streak of winning at least one race every season since 2005 was in jeopardy. Then, Dixon won three of the final four races.
In all three of those victories, Dixon proved why he is the master of going faster with less fuel in the tank of his Honda-powered Indy car.
He started 15th in the Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and was involved in a first lap, five-car tangle in turn seven that proved to be a godsend.
The incident allowed Dixon to pit, putting him off strategy. When the green flag waved on lap seven, the remainder of the 85-lap contest ran non-stop to the checkered flag.
Dixon led 34 laps and his streak of seasons with at least one victory improved to 19 in a row. Dixon has also won at least one race in 21 of his 22 seasons. The only year he did not win a race was in 2004 when Chip Ganassi Racing endured a miserable season with Toyota.
Dixon, the second-winningest driver in IndyCar Series history, wasn’t finished.
In the very next race, he started 16th because of a grid-spot penalty for an unapproved engine change.
Once again, Dixon was the master of going fast enough in the lead to keep fuel in his tank.
The team went to the fuel-saving strategy that cycled him to the front of the field during his first fuel run at the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Once in front, Dixon had control of the race, leading three times for a race-high 123 laps.
He defeated Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward by 22.2256 seconds for his 55th IndyCar triumph.
It also moved him into second in the standings, behind Palou with two races remaining.
“You’ve seen the last couple of races he’s served up a master class in Indy car racing and how it’s supposed to be done,” team owner Chip Ganassi said prior to the season finale at California’s WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
At Portland Int’l Raceway, Dixon started fourth and finished third as Palou clinched his second IndyCar Series championship in three seasons. Dixon locked up second in the standings, keeping another remarkable streak intact.
During a 21-year IndyCar career, Dixon has finished in the top two in the standings nine times. Six times, he has placed third in the standings, meaning in 15 seasons, he has finished in the top three in the championship.
It becomes even more impressive when his three fourth-place championship finishes are factored in, giving him 18 out of 21 seasons that he has finished fourth or better in the IndyCar Series title chase.
The last time Dixon finished lower than fourth in points was a sixth-place effort in 2016.
The Auckland, New Zealand, driver ended the 2023 season on a resounding note. Once again, his team was forced to change engines before the race, incurring another grid position penalty for an unapproved engine change.
Dixon lined up 11th, was once again involved in an incident at the start of the race and had to serve a drive-through penalty.
But it allowed Dixon to get out of sequence on pit-stop strategy and wait for the race to cycle back to his advantage.
Dixon led the final 20 laps to defeat Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin by 5.435 seconds.
It was also his first victory at the legendary 11-turn, 2.238-mile Laguna Seca road course — one of the few tracks where the six-time champion had never won a race.
“That’s very special,” Dixon said. “It’s a special track. It’s an iconic circuit that I’ve loved to watch in the late 1990s when I first came to America and when I got to race on it for the first time in 1999 in Indy Lights.
“First win here. Man, what a place.”
Palou was the champion, but Dixon remains the most successful Indy car driver of his era.
His 56th career victory is second to A.J. Foyt’s all-time record of 67. His six IndyCar Series titles are second to Foyt’s seven.
“It’s cool to end the season with three wins in the last four and have some momentum heading into next year,” Dixon said. “But it’s second in the championship.”
Can Dixon make it to victory No. 60 in 2024?
“For sure,” he said with a smile. “We are going to try.”
This story appeared in the Sept 20, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
