‘I just messed up’: Indy 500 win eludes Dixon
INDIANAPOLIS: Scott Dixon answered a few questions and started to trudge down pit road when he realised he forgot something: His wife.
Dixon turned around, grabbed Emma’s hand and took off on what had to be one of the most agonising walks of his IndyCar career. Disappointment. Disgust. Discomfort. Dixon had to be feeling them all.
The 41yearold New Zealander had the car to beat for much of the Indy 500 yesterday until a late speeding penalty cost him a chance to kiss the bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time since 2008.
Dixon was trying to make what should have been his final pit stop, with 23 laps remaining, when he locked up the rear tyres while braking and wiggled.
IndyCar’s sophisticated timingandscoring system flagged his speed, and officials handed down a passthrough penalty that cost him valuable seconds and a significant number of spots.
He essentially had no chance down the stretch.
‘‘It’s just heartbreaking, to be honest,’’ Dixon said.
‘‘It must have been very close. . . . I think it was like a mile an hour over or something. It’s just frustrating.
‘‘The car was really good all day. We had really good speed. The team did an amazing job on strategy. I just messed up.’’
He owned it, too.
Dixon climbed out his No. 9 Honda, apologised to each crew member he could track down and even went next door to do the same to everyone working in Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou’s box.
It was a bittersweet ending for sure.
Another Ganassi teammate, Marcus Ericsson, won the Indy 500 after Dixon’s error, and close friend and teammate Tony Kanaan crossed the finish line in third.
Dixon was 21st, his fourthworst finish at IndyCar’s signature event.
Dixon got plenty of sympathy and support as he walked the grid. Fans cheered his name. Crewmen from other teams offered condolences.
Indianapolis native Ed Carpenter stopped Dixon and asked what happened.
Kanaan and Dixon embraced. Graham Rahal patted him on the back.
Emma DaviesDixon asked both of them the same question: Why did IndyCar throw a red flag with five laps to go?
It was just two years ago that race control was in a similar position — with Dixon running second to Takuma Sato — when IndyCar let the race finish under yellow.
‘‘Because they’re no consistency,’’ Rahal responded.
‘‘They do what they want.’’ Kanaan had a different take, saying IndyCar made the right call for one main reason.
‘‘I believe we’re here for the fans,’’ Kanaan said.
‘‘We hear the fans. Yeah, a lot of people are going to have different opinions about it . . . . They came here to see a race, greenflag and checkeredflag race. That was the right call . . . .
‘‘That’s what people wanted to do. I’m in full support . . . . If I was in the stands, I want to see a race finish under the green.’’
Dixon refused to weigh in on the different raceending approaches.
‘‘I don’t know. We were out of it then by then so it didn’t really matter for us,’’ he said.
But what about 2020?
‘‘Coulda, shoulda, woulda, right?’’ he said.
‘‘That’s why it’s so tough to win at this place.’’
Dixon has experienced his share of angst at Indy. The sixtime IndyCar champion and widely considered the greatest driver of his generation, finished twice in the 500 since his lone victory at the Brickyard 14 years.
He started from the pole for the fourth time in the last eight years and led a racehigh 95 laps, more than twice as many as Palou and 82 more than Ericsson.
‘‘It definitely was superfast, had good speed all day,’’ he said.
‘‘I think if things went smoother, we would been in the fight at the end. But obviously not.’’
The race of Kiwi Scott McLaughlin ended on lap 150 when he found the wall in his Team Penske Chevvy.
He was running 11th when he struck trouble at turn three, hit the wall and slid into the barriers at turn four as a race caution was called.
McLaughlin was uninjured.— AP/The