Hot streak might be the only way to slow Dixon
INDIANAPOLIS – With five races remaining in the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series campaign, the race for the championship is starting to intensify. Or is it? This is the time of year the title fight usually starts to heat up, but this year it might already be cooling down.
With a 60-plus points lead on the rest of the series, Scott Dixon, the driver they call the “Ice Man,” seems to have put his fifth series championship on, well, ice.
Everyone knows the perpetually calm, cool and collected Dixon isn’t the type of driver to make the kinds of mistakes that will allow someone to slip back into the chase, so it will be up to one of the contenders — Josef Newgarden (62 points back), Alexander Rossi (-70), Ryan Hunter-Reay (-91) or Will Power (-93) — to pull off something special down the series’ backstretch.
Can it be done? Crazier things have happened, but if an epic comeback is in the works, it has to start this weekend at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (3 p.m. ET, CNBC), a place Dixon has made his home away from home during his career, winning five of 11 starts there.
There are five races left this season, and three of them are at tracks where Dixon has won a combined eight times — five at Mid-Ohio, three times at Sonoma Raceway and once at Pocono Raceway. Dixon finished second at Gateway Motorsports Park last year, while Portland International Raceway is making its series debut.
Also consider that this is the time of year when Dixon traditionally flourishes. Over the past five years (2013-17), in the second halves of the seasons, the four-time champion actually has more victories (10) than he does finishes outside of the top 10 (nine).
This championship is Dixon’s to lose, and no one can tell me otherwise. Not even the man himself.
“The tracks change; the tires are different; the aero kits are new; so you can’t rely on past experiences — good or bad,” said Dixon, who will be making his 300th career start this weekend. “The season’s not over yet. … For us, personally, we just have to keep our heads down and try to make the most of (our lead).”
The truth is if Newgarden, Rossi, Hunter-Reay or Power are going to pose a serious threat, they are going to need to rattle off a series of incredible weekends and hope that Dixon falters down the stretch.
One team that could have something to say about this weekend’s results is Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
There’s little question this season has not gone quite the way RLLR had hoped.
Heading into the year, veteran driver Graham Rahal talked about competing with IndyCar’s big boys, but so far that hasn’t happened.
The team has two podium finishes this season — one for Rahal and one for teammate Takuma Sato — as Rahal sits eighth in the standings and Sato 12th. But while they haven’t broken through in the way Rahal would have liked, there’s no doubt they are trending in the right direction.
Rahal has four top-seven finishes in his past five starts. Sato, since spinning out in the Indianapolis 500, has three top-five finishes and another top-10, so there’s ample reason to think each could find himself back in the top 10 this weekend. Rahal, a native of Columbus, Ohio, scored a win at Mid-Ohio in 2015.