Dixon stamps legacy with 5th IndyCar title
SONOMA, California: Scott Dixon won his fifth IndyCar championship last Sunday (Monday in Manila) at Grand Prix of Sonoma, sealing his legacy as one of the greatest of drivers in the series.
After winning his fifth IndyCar championship, Dixon gave tribute to team owner Chip Ganassi.
“When I look back at the first time I ever met Chip to where it is today and what his team has achieved, I’m a very small piece in that whole wheelhouse of what’s going on at Chip Ganassi Racing,” Dixon said. “I feel very lucky to work with the people that I do. Chip goes out there and gets the people that get the job done. There have been years where we’ve struggled and haven’t had the results that we’ve had, but Chip’s got a big heart. He can come across harsh and brash, but he’s always been a good friend of mine.”
Dixon finished second in Sunday’s race, five positions ahead of his closest challenger, Alexander Rossi, who roared back from contact and an unexpected pit stop early in the race. Dixon’s final total was 57 points ahead of Rossi and 98 points ahead of Will Power, who finished third in both the race and point standings.
The result was another championship to go with those won in 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2015, breaking a tie with Dario Franchitti, Mario Andretti and Sebastien Bourdais and putting Dixon alone in second, trailing only AJ Foyt’s seven championships.
Even near the end of Sunday’s race, Dixon wasn’t certain about his chances to nail down the championship.
“It’s so weird,” Dixon said. “You kind of always doubt the situation that you’re in, or at least I have, and there have been years when we’ve lost championships to sometimes silly things or sometimes where we just haven’t executed well. The whole race I was just thinking about things that were out of our control or cautions that were going to flip the field, and none of that happened.”
As Dixon and Ganassi celebrated, Franchitti spoke of Dixon’s ability to adjust to changes around him and a yearning to constantly improve his craft.
“He’s a chameleon,” said Franchitti, Dixon’s former teammate and a team adviser with Chip Ganassi Racing. “He adapts to different styles of cars and different styles of tires. He learns from every teammate he’s got. He uses every resource he can get, and he’ll ask questions of them. You see the results.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won the race ahead of Dixon, Power, Simon Pagenaud and Marco Andretti, praised Dixon afterward.
“To do that in this era of racing with reliability the way it is, the evenness and competitiveness of teams, is unbelievable,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s unthinkable what he’s accomplished. It’s amazing to think of what he’s accomplished. It’s great to share the track with him. Even better to beat him at times.”
Dixon benefitted from his closest competitor’s early trouble. Rossi tangled with teammate Andretti on the first lap, forcing his Andretti Autosport Honda to the pits to replace a flat right front tire and front wing.
“You have to be able to make lemonade out of lemons sometimes,” Rossi said. “To win a championship, you’ve got to have excellent days all the time. I’m sure Scott is more than capable of doing the same thing. Fortunately for him, he was never in the position that he needed to. Now he’s won five championships. Yeah, pretty hard to beat.”
THE TIMES
The post Dixon stamps legacy with 5th IndyCar title appeared first on The Manila Times Online.