Dixon plays fuel game right
Scott Dixon earned his second NTT IndyCar Series victory in a row Sunday, and the 55th of his career, getting the most from his fuel mileage at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois.
Dixon, who started 16th because of a nine-place grid penalty for changing his engine for the fifth time this season, made his final fuel load last 65 laps. That enabled him to beat runner-up Pato O’Ward by 22 seconds.
Dixon is the only driver with a chance to catch Alex Palou in the points championship with two races remaining: Portland next weekend, and Laguna Seca on Sept. 10. Palou, Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, finished seventh and holds a 74-point edge.
“We’ll keep pushing him,” Dixon said. “We’ll make it a little tense within the team.”
Josef Newgarden, trying to sweep the season’s ovals and win at this track for the fourth consecutive year, crashed out on lap 211, leaving him in 25th place and ending his slim title hopes.
“I was trying to catch up,” Newgarden said. “I was just trying to get through cars as quickly as I could and it didn’t work out.”
O’Ward, still winless in 2023, finished second for the fourth time this season.
“Scott Dixon was Scott Dixon today,” O’Ward said. “Another second place in the books for 2023. There’s two to go, so hopefully we’ll get that elusive No. 1.”
David Malukas finished third, followed by Alexander Rossi and Scott McLaughlin.
IndyCar ironman Dixon capitalized on needing to make only three pit stops in winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500.
The victory came in Dixon’s record-extending 320th consecutive start. He set the record two weeks ago at the Gallagher Grand Prix in Indianapolis.
“They’re all special, right?” Dixon said. “These last few races I think have been good on all fronts, right? We’ve had to cover all bases whether it was speed, strategy, consistency throughout, great pit stops.”
Dixon held the lead for 82 laps before making his final pit stop on lap 196. With all the cars on the lead lap having to pit after he made his final stop, the 43-year-old took the checkered flag, finishing more than 22 seconds ahead of O’Ward.
“He’s just Scott Dixon,” O’Ward said. “I feel like that’s what he’s best known for. He knows how to do it better than anybody with a great combination that he has with his team and car and everything. It’s a bummer that we weren’t even close to kind of even race him.”
The 22-second margin of victory broke Juan Pablo Montoya’s 23-year-old track record when he finished almost 12 seconds ahead of Patrick Carpentier at the Motorola 300 in 2000.
“Ross (Bunnell), the engineer, did an amazing job … and had a car that enabled me to kind of save the fuel that we needed,” Dixon said. “When I had 10 to go, I asked him, ‘How much heat are we getting from behind?’
“They’re like, ‘It’s over 20 seconds, so just cruise it.’
“I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty sweet.’
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had the race like that.”
Newgarden started in the top spot with pole-sitter McLaughlin serving a nine-position grid penalty and led 101 of the first 104 laps.
Newgarden’s quest to become the first IndyCar driver to win six consecutive races on ovals since A.J. Foyt in 1964 came to an end when his No. 2 Honda made contact with the wall in turn two on the 211th lap.
Newgarden had won three consecutive races at World Wide Technology Raceway and four overall at the track.
McLaughlin earned his fifth career IndyCar pole ahead of the race but started in the No. 10 position due to his penalty.
McLaughlin is one of six drivers who were penalized for unapproved use of a fifth engine this season.
Qualifying was pushed back to Sunday morning after rain kept drivers off the track until 6 p.m. Saturday night.