FUEL FIGHTER
Scott Dixon amazes his rivals with his ability to conserve fuel as he dedicates Long Beach win to Colin Giltrap
Scott Dixon used mindboggling fuel-saving strategy to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach yesterday and move closer to AJ Foyt on IndyCar’s all-time win list with his 57th career victory.
Foyt is IndyCar’s winningest driver with 67 victories — a mark the 43-yearold Dixon isn’t sure he can hit.
“Still sounds like a lot,” he said. “Some years there, you could knock out five, six or seven [wins]. If it’s a good year, you can possibly get four or five. That’s strong. We’ll just keep our head down, man. It’s one of those things that I always say hopefully when you leave the sport, you’re happy with the stats.
“Of course, these are big stats. This is a big deal. We’re still a long way away from that.”
Colton Herta and reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou were baffled by Dixon’s ability to stretch his fuel for nearly 50 of the 85 laps.
“Once he took [the lead], I was like, ‘he’s going to make it work’,” said Dixon’s teammate Palou. “Probably he’s cheating and he has an extra fuel cell that I don’t know about. Yeah, that’s it. I’m joking.”
Runner-up Herta said Dixon needed more than just fuel-saving skills to pull off his win.
“You also need a good car to do that,” Herta said. “There are a few guys in the series that are probably capable of doing it, but they need a lot of things to go right, a lot of things for their car to be able to handle saving fuel.
“Obviously seems like Dixon is the only one that goes for these things sometimes, and they always work out.”
Dixon, with a sly smile, downplayed how easy he made it look.
“I think it was definitely a bit sketchy in the fact that the pressure is coming hard and strong,” he said. “We have a light that comes on that gives you a couple of laps heads-up that you’re going to run out of fuel. I didn’t see it with two laps to go. They came on the radio saying, ‘go flat out, overtake, whatever you need’.
“That was definitely nice to hear at that point because the stress level was pretty high. To get after it for the last two laps without a concern was big.”
Dixon’s win is his second in the most prestigious street course race in the United States. He was being chased over the final 20 laps by Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden, who seemed to have the speed to run Dixon down for the victory.
But the race changed when Herta ran into the back of Newgarden as they all slowed through the hairpin with lapped traffic ahead.
It knocked Newgarden out of the way, as both Herta and Palou passed him.
As Dixon celebrated, his rivals wondered how the Kiwi had enough fuel to not only make it to the finish but also celebrate with burnouts and drive the car to victory lane.
Dixon dedicated the win to Sir Colin Giltrap, a New Zealand motorsport benefactor who died last week and was instrumental in Dixon’s career, as well as many of the top Kiwis racing around the world.
“He obviously helped start my career,” Dixon said of Giltrap. “We lost him [last] week unfortunately but a huge thank you to him.”
Felix Rosenqvist started on pole — the first in IndyCar for Meyer Shank Racing — but Will Power on alternate tyres wasted no time in blowing past Rosenqvist through the first turn.
Rosenqvist was a rock from there as rivals began to pick off the polesitter one by one and he was down to sixth by the eighth lap, ultimately finishing ninth.
The race changed for Power — and Dixon — when rookie Christian Rasmussen spun and crashed hard into the wall.
The ensuing caution led Power to make a pit stop and Dixon followed. It gave Newgarden the lead on the 18th lap, and Dixon and Power were in full fuel-saving mode for the rest of the race. Power restarted 12th but was eventually passed by Dixon, who then worked his way through the field, taking the lead on the 33rd of 85 laps.
Fellow Kiwi and Dixon’s teammate Marcus Armstrong placed 12th, while former Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin failed to finish. The IndyCar season continues this weekend in Alabama at the venue where McLaughlin won in 2023.
● Shane van Gisbergen turned in a strong run at Talladega in the first oval race of his burgeoning Nascar Cup career yesterday.
The stunning winner of the Chicago street race on his Cup debut last year, van Gisbergen showed the depth of his talent by leading laps and staying out of trouble at the harrowing 4.3km tri-oval until the very end.
The 34-year-old got caught up in a final melee and didn’t make it across the line. He finished 27th.
Tyler Reddick stole victory after front-runner Michael McDowell — swerving back and forth in a desperate bid to hold the lead — crashed with the finish line in sight.
McDowell, the pole-sitter, dominated the closing laps and was in position to give Ford a much-needed first victory of the year.
But his desperate efforts to block Brad Keselowski, another Ford driver, wound up costing them both.
McDowell spun out, Keselowski had to check up and Reddick sped by to claim his sixth career Cup victory by 0.208 seconds.
A pile of cars behind them were taken out as well, including van Gisbergen.