Dixon’s Texas hold’em wins hands down

Kiwi Indycar driver Scott Dixon has made it two wins in as many weekends and shot to the top of the series standings, after producing a dominant win at the DXC Technology 600 in Texas yesterday.

Under lights on the oval track at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Dixon started his No 9 Honda from seventh on the grid, then took the lead with 119 laps left in the 248-lap race, and never looked back.

With 14 laps to go he doubled his lead over Simon Pagenaud, then cruised to victory, by 4.2943 seconds, which sees him jump from second on the standings, five points behind Will Power, to now hold a 23-point championship lead over Alexander Rossi.

His win is the second in the past three Indycar races, having just last Sunday taken out the first of a double-header weekend in Detroit, and the four-time series champion has now moved into outright third on the overall career wins list, on 43, moving past Michael Andretti, and now only behind AJ Foyt (67) and Mario Andretti (52).

It was Dixon’s third win at the Texas event, having also prevailed there in 2008 and 2015.

‘‘I love winning in Texas, man, this place is awesome,’’ he said. ‘‘Whatever we did, the car was just nailed. It was a bit loose at times but I can’t thank the team enough, the pit stops were fantastic.

‘‘I think we kind of just bought our time a little bit, we wanted to make sure that the Firestone tyres were looked after as much as possible, they did a good job tonight. We honestly went all the way to the end of the fuel stint, which we haven’t done for a long time. So super proud of the effort of the whole team. We conserved a little bit at the start, made sure that the balance was good, and then put the hammer down.’’

Dixon is in his 17th season with Chip Ganassi Racing, the longest tenure for a driver in team history and he said they were owed a lot for the new personal mark he has achieved in getting to third outright in the wins column.

‘‘It means a lot but more for the team, we celebrate together, we win and lose together, and 42 of those wins have been with this great team.’’