Dixon brings up half-century of wins
New Zealand driver Scott Dixon has extended his lead at the top of the IndyCar Series standings after powering to his 50th career victory at the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 in Madison, Illinois, yesterday.
After being forced to settle for second behind Takuma Sato at last week’s Indianapolis 500, Dixon got a revenge of sorts, with the Japanese driver ending up second behind him this time, 0.1404 seconds behind.
Pato O’Ward was third, 7.0052 seconds back from Dixon, with the Chip Ganassi racer claiming his fourth victory of the season from nine starts.
The race got off to a rocky start with a multi-car accident when the green flag waved. Alex Palou and Oliver Askew, both rookies, were penalised for triggering a crash that knocked out three cars from Andretti Autosport.
O’Ward led a race-high 94 laps, moved to the front on lap 68 and held it until he and Dixon pitted on lap 162.
Dixon took the lead by first beating
O’Ward out of the pits and then cycled to the front when Sato made his stop with 25 laps left. Sato returned to the track in third, passed O’Ward with a bold outside move then set his sights on Dixon.
The Kiwi had 20 laps to navigate lapped traffic while holding off Sato, the ex-Formula One driver, who had fresher tyres and less fuel on board.
After hanging on, Dixon was able to celebrate becoming just the third drive after AJ Foyt (67) and Mario Andretti (52) to reach the mark of 50 wins in US open wheel racing.
‘‘Fifty, it sounds awesome. We’ve got to keep on trucking and get a few more.’’
Dixon, 40 is gunning for a sixth championship crown and already had a commanding 84-point lead over second-placed Josef Newgarden going into this event.