Champion Dixon’s crazy year
When the racing stopped, the endless round of interviews started for Scott Dixon.
The 40-year-old Kiwi won his sixth IndyCar championship last week to move just one behind US record-holder A J Foyt.
It’s been a crazy year for Dixon – especially considering a pandemic which affected him professionally and personally when he wasn’t able to visit his sick father, Ron.
Dixon wrapped up this year’s championship with a third place finish in St Petersburg, Florida. but he has barely had a moment to relax since.
When he spoke to the Sunday Star-Times on Thursday, it was his third straight media day.
‘‘In previous championships you normally go on a pretty big tour,’’ Dixon said.
‘‘You do wherever the last race finishes, then you do New York, Los Angeles and Texas. But this year it’s been extremely busy and I’m doing more, but a ton of it has been on Zoom, which makes it nice, because I can do it wherever.’’
The hectic media schedule is
in stark contrast to the celebrations with his Chip Ganassi team, which were mainly restricted to after the race and were a fairly quiet affair.
‘‘ We didn’t celebrate too big this year. Once you get your first [ interview] schedule, you get done with media and I think this year we finished around 9pm.
‘‘We then went to a friend’s house in St Pete, had a couple of glasses of wine and some Taco Bell, then was in bed by midnight.
‘‘ So it was nice to wake up without a hangover, but I knew my next day started at 8am, so that does always put a bit of a damper on it. But I enjoyed it, I got to hang with my lovely wife and kids, so it was definitely special.’’
When Scott McLaughlin won his first Supercars title in 2018, he famously celebrated with a latenight visit to a McDonald’s in Newcastle and filled up his trophy with 40 chicken McNuggets.
Even though Dixon’s celebrations this year involved a fast food restaurant, he couldn’t emulate his compatriot.
‘‘With the Astor Cup and the Indy 500 (Borg-Warner) trophies, they’re extremely careful and don’t really let you have them in your possession at any moment,’’ Dixon said.
‘‘So you get mini ones, which they always delay until the banquet. So I haven’t even got this year’s one. But I wish we did it more like the Stanley Cup or Supercars does, because it adds to the story of the trophy and the things it has been through.
‘‘But it was nothing like that. There was still alcohol, but no nuggets in the cup.’’
This year’s IndyCar season was heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with eight events cancelled and many going ahead without spectators.
‘‘ It’s been a pretty insane
‘‘So it was nice to wake up without a hangover . . . But I enjoyed it, I got to hang with my lovely wife and kids, so it was definitely special.’’ Scott Dixon
year,’’ Dixon said. ‘‘For us, if you look at the whole season, we made it all the way to the first race (in St Petersburg in March), we’d done all of the pre- season testing and preparation on Thursday of race week.
‘‘Then you wake up on Friday morning and it looks like we’re done. The NBA had cancelled, Universal and Disneyland just down the road had closed, so it was weird to build yourself up and get ready for battle and then you find yourself on a plane heading home.
‘‘So emotionally it was a tough year and the excitement of getting going again was big. The protocols were really tight, our travel was tight, you had to wear masks basically all the time, except for when you’re sleeping.
‘‘So they did it right, but once we kicked off, that was strange.
‘‘We were lucky enough to win the first race in Texas, but we were celebrating in Victory Lane with nobody and I was rushing to put a mask on before I did interviews. It was definitely a year none of us will forget and we were very lucky and privileged to get the season done.’’
Despite suggestions from President Donald Trump that
America has turned the corner with the coronavirus, the number of new cases continues to rise, while the country remains divided ahead of this week’s election.
It’s a state of affairs that makes Dixon think often of home.
‘‘I’m always envious of New Zealand,’’ he said.
‘‘I love New Zealand to bits and miss not being able to get home. My dad had some pretty big health problems this year and I couldn’t get down there.
‘‘That was the first time I’d been in a situation like that, where it wasn’t possible to go home and it still really isn’t, because our windows aren’t big enough to take the quarantine.
‘‘Normally, we come down once or twice a year to New Zealand.
‘‘ Over here, it’s interesting. Because from state to state it’s extremely different.
‘‘I think people forget the size of this country and unfortunately right now, how political it is.
‘‘So I miss New Zealand, it’s such a great place anyway. But it’s not until you travel away from New Zealand and visit different countries that you realise how great the place is.’’