Kiwi driver sets sights on Foyt’s record
Scott Dixon wants to chase down AJ Foyt’s seven titles to become the greatest IndyCar driver.
‘‘That’s the goal,’’ Kiwi Dixon told Autoweek a day after claiming his fifth championship to move into sole charge of second place on the all-time list behind the legendary American Foyt.
‘‘We’ll be going for our sixth championship next year. We’ll be getting after it and hopefully getting No 6 next year.’’
Time might be the biggest obstacle to 38-year-old Dixon who has taken 18 years to accumulate his handful of titles, coming in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015 and last Monday at the Sonoma Raceway in California.
Dixon has just signed a new deal with Chip Ganassi Racing where he has won all his crowns and also picked up the Indy 500 in 2008, one of his 44 race They’re lapping up Scott Dixon in Indianapolis where one local pundit rates him second only to swimming sensation Michael Phelps among contemporary superstars including Tiger Woods, Serena Williams and Roger Federer.
Craig Collins is a producer at the local ESPN radio station and hosts a regular podcast. He used his latest episode of Crash Course, to try to put some perspective on Dixon’s deed.
wins that rank him third on the all-time list behind only Foyt’s 67 and Mario Andretti’s 52.
He suggested a new breed of young drivers headed by Alexander Rossi, his main rival this season, would make next year’s quest for success even
Collins wanted to compare Dixon to athletes ‘‘from our era’’ and decided upon the lofty company of Phelps, who has won 23 Olympic gold medals in the pool, golfer Woods with his 14 titles at majors, and tennis stars Williams (23 grand slams) and Federer (20 grand slams).
Collins felt Dixon was certainly ‘‘top two, top three for me’’. In the end his order of merit was Phelps, Dixon, Woods, Williams and Federer.
harder, but he was up for that challenge.
‘‘He’s a huge talent.
‘‘He has an extremely bright future, and we’ll have to race him extremely hard to try to win another championship,’’ Dixon said.