USA TODAY International Edition
Dixon wins 6th IndyCar crown
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A race season defined by utter chaos and survival of the fittest could only end one way, as it returned to the origin of all the madness.
Rain. Ten cars into the wall in an onslaught of incidents both midrace and toward the finish. And a pace car that ran out of fuel. Somehow, the NTT IndyCar Series’ 40- year- old veteran withstood it all.
That’s what champions do, and now Scott Dixon is a sixtimer, holding off a furious run by Josef Newgarden, who did almost all he needed to do this weekend in hopes of completing his near- epic comeback on the 40- year- old veteran. The Team Penske driver won Sunday for the second consecutive year in St. Pete, leading the final 21 laps after landing the move of the race on a restart on Lap 80.
But it proved too little, too late for the 2019 series champion, who trailed Dixon by 16 points for the title as he took the checkered flag Sunday. Much of that deficit came from Dixon's three consecutive wins to start 2020 at Texas, Indianapolis and Elkart Lake, along with a runner- up finish in the Indy 500 and his fourth win of the year at WWT Raceway. He now stands just one title behind seven- time champion and IndyCar legend A. J. Foyt.
“It’s all the team. I can’t thank them enough,” Dixon said on the post- race broadcast. “It’s never one thing or person. It’s about the team. We made a lot of changes in the offseason.”
All of a sudden, his team owner Chip Ganassi broke into the picture and swallowed his longtime driver in an embrace.
“But credit to Josef,” he continued. “He and Team Penske drove the last part of the season flawlessly. I know they’ll do the same next year. But for now, six ( championships) is good. Seven sounds even better, that’s the goal.”
All week leading up to Sunday’s IndyCar championship showdown between Dixon and Newgarden, the veteran driver of the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda repeated again and again that his team would “run their own race.”
But shadowing their challenger, who entered Sunday 32 points back and needed a win and some help in hopes of defending his 2019 series title, helped salvage Dixon’s sixth championship.