Ganassi’s Dixon beats a pack of Penskes
Scott Dixon spoiled Team Penske’s party at Road America.
First, his Chip Ganassi Racing team had to fix a faulty fuel cell on the No. 9 Honda that provided nervous moments during warm-ups Sunday.
The payoff came a few hours later when Dixon held off Josef Newgarden after a restart with eight laps to go to win the Kohler Grand Prix IndyCar race on the road course at Elkhart Lake, Wis. “Toward the end, I thought it was a straight-up battle,” Dixon said. “I thought it was going to be tough.”
He edged Newgarden by 0.57 seconds, posting an average speed of 123.431 mph. Dixon’s first victory since Watkins Glen in September was his 41st career win, moving him within one of tying Michael Andretti for third on the list of drivers with the most IndyCar wins.
Ganassi had a chance for a weekend sweep with NASCAR points leader Kyle Larson on the pole to start the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma, but Kevin Harvick won that race.
Going into Sunday’s race, the Chevrolet-powered Penske team was the talk of the track after dominating through practice and qualifying.
Penske still had a pretty good day, with pole-sitter Helio Castroneves following teammate Newgarden in third place. They were followed by two more Penske drivers, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power. Formula One: As Daniel Ricciardo celebrated winning a hectic Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel clashed in a bitter incident that could shape the rest of an intriguing Formula One season.
Hamilton accused Vettel of “disrespectful” driving after the four-time champion pulled alongside Hamilton and appeared to deliberately swerve into him when they were behind the safety car approaching the midway point of a stop-start race.
“Ultimately what happened today was disrespectful. It’s not deserving of that reaction from someone you have respect for,” Hamilton said. “A multi-world champion should behave better than that. It’s what you expect in go karts. That’s not how you drive.”
Vettel, who is chasing a fifth world title to stop Hamilton winning a fourth, was given a 10-second time penalty for the incident.
After eight races of a see-saw season, Vettel’s Ferrari leads second-placed Hamilton’s Mercedes by 14 points — 153 vs. 139. They have won three each over the first seven races.
Ricciardo secured his fifth career win, while Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas overtook 18-year-old Canadian Lance Stroll’s Williams in the closing meters to take second place.
Vettel finished fourth, while Hamilton was fifth. Briefly: Valentino Rossi held off Danilo Petrucci to win the TT Assen MotoGP in a thrilling race in Assen, Netherlands, as championship leader Maverick Vinales crashed out and slipped to second in the standings. Andrea Dovizioso (fifth place) went top in the championship . ... Steve Torrence raced to his fourth Top Fuel victory of the season, beating Doug Kalitta in the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. Torrence had a 3.743second pass at 331.45 mph to edge Kalitta on a holeshot. Kalitta finished at 3.736 at 331.36.