Scott Dixon called it one of his toughest wins, but that didn’t stop the 43-year-old from dialing in the perfect strategy to pick up his 57th career win. Dixon dedicated the win to his benefactor, Sir Colin Giltrap, who was a huge help to Scott when he was just starting out. Giltrap passed away last week. Chip Ganassi Racing, as a whole, had a fantastic weekend, securing wins at IMSA and Indy at Long Beach.
Dixon took over on lap 62 and never looked back, leaving other drivers baffled as to how he was able to save fuel and be as fast as he was. A little bit of controversy during the race involved Colton Herta hitting the back of Josef Newgarden. The points leader went into anti-stall, allowing Herta and Ericsson to go around him. Newgarden would eventually finish in fourth but was frustrated that there was no race control penalty issued to Herta. Newgarden said he didn’t know if he would have caught Dixon but said Race control needs to do a better job of looking into those situations.
There were two very distinct strategies in the race, as Dixon led one and Newgarden led the other. Dixon was mostly in fuel-save mode, while Newgarden was flat out. In the end, Dixon and Newgarden both wondered if the Penske driver would have been able to catch up to him.
TV Attendance
The race was on USA and got 307,000 viewers, while last year’s race on NBC got 1.026 million. Indycar is currently in negotiations with multiple Networks about next year’s broadcasts
The rise of Pourchaire
Theo Pourchaire had a great race. Stepping in for David Malukas, who is still out injured (Hand), Pourchaire won the Josten’s biggest mover award, gaining 11 positions and finishing 11th. Pourchaire says he was exhausted after the race: “The races are really tough physically. I feel okay. It was difficult because it was the first one, but in the end, I’m quite happy about my physical performance as well.” Pourchaire was so well-loved for his driving on Sunday that Arrow McLaren is letting him drive the #6 car again at Barber.
Other Notes
Pato O’Ward got into the back of teammate Alexander Rossi early in the race (Lap 10) and had to serve a drive-thru penalty. For his mistake, O’Ward apologized on Twitter, saying, “Caught off guard with the stack up on the start, and I take full responsibility for destroying Alex’s race along with mine. Unacceptable from my side. I owe you all a beer.” O’Ward would finish 16th, and Rossi would finish 10th.
Christian Lundgaard had to drop 5 spots for unsafe release and making contact with Kyle Kirkwood. He would finish 23rd. “It was a long day today. Our race became even more challenging early on with taking that caution to pit and then having the penalty. In hindsight, maybe it was the wrong decision to pit with the first set of alternates (tires) at the beginning of the race. I think that hurt us quite a bit. It was a straight fuel-save race from there, and we weren’t able to save fuel enough fuel because I think we were one of the cars that weren’t trimmed, so it was a long and tough day.”
Graham Rahal had fueling issues, which cost him about 12-14 seconds in the pits. Ultimately, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver finished 17th.
Christian Rasmussen contacted the wall on turn four during lap 15. He would finish in last.
Top 5 Finishers
- 1-Scott Dixon
- 2-Colton Herta
- 3-Alex Palou
- 4-Josef Newgarden
- 5-Marcus Ericsson
Top Ten Point Standings
- Josef Newgarden (87)
- Scott Dixon -12
- Colton Herta -15
- Alex Palou -24
- Will Power -26
- Pato O’ Ward -33
- Felix Rosenqvist-37
- Kyle Kirkwood -42
- Alex Rossi -43
- Scott McLaughlin -47
Fast Facts
The race was 1 hour and 42 minutes, with an average speed of 98.35 mph. There were 8 lead changes and four cautions. Ericsson had the fastest lap at 104.543 on lap 71, and Josef Newgarden had the fastest leader lap at 104.496 on lap 57. Scott Dixon led the most laps with 42. Newgarden, Power, Herta, Kirkwood, and Rosenqvist all led laps as well.
Up Next-Barber
The Indycar circuit heads to Birmingham, Alabama, for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on April 28th at 1 PM Eastern at Barber Motorsports Park.
Image: Joe Skibinski
