This race was not setting up for either Dixon or Sato. This race was Patricio O'Ward's until the final pit stops. We have seen it a hundred times before. Dixon knows how to place himself in a race. He doesn't have to get the position on track. He will make sure to stay on the heels of the driver ahead because he knows when it comes to pit stops, his crew cannot only make up that half a second but can make get him another second.
O'Ward led into the pit lane, Dixon on his rear. On exit, Dixon left O'Ward in his dust. O'Ward didn't do anything wrong. O'Ward's pit crew was spotless. Dixon is Dixon and that Chip Ganassi Racing crew is the best around.
After the pit stops, the game over, right? Dixon is out in front, he will have the lead and cruise to victory, right? Wrong!
I am not sure how Takuma Sato went longer than the rest of the field before that final stop and still came out in striking of Dixon with 25 laps to go, but he did, and that 13 laps of fresher tires were in Sato's favor. Dixon had to work and the two drivers ran a blistering pace in the closing laps. They left O'Ward behind. Sato completed another breath-taking pass on O'Ward in his hunt of Dixon. That move was only going to work once.
Sato could stay on Dixon's heels but the muscle was not there to wrestle the top spot away.
This was going to be a classic Dixon victory before the battle with Sato. The Hagler-Hearns finish took it to another level. A younger driver might have folded with a charging Sato in his mirrors. Dixon showed he was not going to be beat. He learned from last week. With rolls reversed from a week ago, Dixon capitalized on the advantage of clean air and extended his place in IndyCar history.
Prepare for an early coronation ceremony because Scott Dixon does not plan on waiting for an indefinite season finale to claim his sixth IndyCar championship. We haven't had to shoot the confetti early in 15 years. That is going to change. Whether it occurs in September at Mid-Ohio or October at the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Dixon is doing all he can to ensure the rescheduled trip to St. Petersburg will be a dead rubber.
It seems like this happens once a year on an oval in IndyCar and it should not be the case. Another pile-up before the green flag and we saw this at Pocono. There are too many games played on the starts with the leaders speeding up and then slowing down before finally hitting the gas when the green flag is shown. It's garbage, not there are no innocent parties. Every driver does it. Will Power does it. Alexander Rossi has done it. IndyCar allows it so everyone does it.
I said after the 2018 Pocono incident to spread the field out. Why are all 23 cars covered by a blanket at the start? There is no room for error on these starts. It happened when Graham Rahal got into Spencer Pigot. If you spread the rows out, you at least decrease the likelihood of this happening.
I know many will not like hearing spread the field out, but it is the easiest solution. Look at how much space there was between each row at Indianapolis last week. You might not be able to get that much space prior for Gateway, but there is plenty of room and if you have the leader taking the green and the final three rows in turn four, then fine. That is what has to be done and that is incentive to make sure you qualify better.
This is something IndyCar should have handled years ago. You cannot have four or five cars taken out before even seeing the green flag let alone completing a lap. IndyCar could fix this before tomorrow's race. It won't! Rossi joked it reminded him of a start of an iRacing event at Michigan. IndyCar could have used that simulation as a warning for reality and worked on a solution. One is more than necessary now.
2. How did Takuma Sato pull off that strategy?
I am serious. Sato was good today. Not great, but a top ten car, and when going through the pit cycle, you expect Sato to pit and come out in ninth or tenth and maybe gains a few spots because of tires.
I did not realize the gap he opened up on that final stint. It was incredible, was unexpected. We were set for O'Ward's first career victory or Dixon pulling this out. We did not have Sato in contention for a second consecutive Gateway victory. Kudos to the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team. Sato deserved that runner-up finish.
3. Patricio O'Ward did nothing wrong, led the most laps and ended third.
That final pit stop was not botched. O'Ward did nothing wrong. Dixon was just better in that situation. O'Ward drove a flawless race, unfortunately for the second time in 2020, O'Ward drove a flawless race and a Ganassi car took the victory. It first happened at Road America when Felix Rosenqvist had the legs in the closing laps. Today, Dixon showed O'Ward how you end up with 50 career victories.
O'Ward is knocking on the door and a first career victory this year would not be a surprise. It could come tomorrow! His second bite at the apple comes in 24 hours.
4. Colton Herta was fourth, but again, this is a race where Herta was in the top five but not a contender. It is still an encouraging day, and Herta was the only Andretti car in the fight, but he was not stiffing a victory. O'Ward fell to Herta and Herta pushed for a podium finish, but Herta did not deserve to finish ahead of O'Ward today and Dixon and Sato ended up in another zip code when the race was over.
This is a good day for Herta, but this is different from last year. Last year, when Herta was in the top five, he was a threat for victory. One year later, the results are better, Herta is not running into as many issues, but he is just off the top guys.
5. Marcus Ericsson rebounds after 32nd at Indianapolis with a fifth-place finish and his sixth top ten finish in the last seven races.
This is good for Ericsson and Chip Ganassi Racing should be happy. Ericsson could not join Ganassi and have the same results that he had at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. This is a great year for Ericsson. He is proving his worth and I think he could be a contender for a race victory. Similar to Herta, Ericsson is just off the top guys.
6. Rinus VeeKay ran a different strategy, pretty much splitting this race into thirds and stopping after 50 laps each stint. It worked for VeeKay and he finished sixth. This has not been a good year for VeeKay. I think the qualifying run at Indianapolis covered a lot of the poor days. Of course, the Indianapolis 500 was one of those bad days. VeeKay needed to bounce back and he did Ed Carpenter Racing proud.
7. Right around halfway, about half the field made pit stops and then it started sprinkling, bringing out a caution. That hurt half the field, many who were in the top ten and one of those was Ryan Hunter-Reay. The good news is Hunter-Reay ended up the best finisher of those drivers. He was seventh, which is probably as good as Hunter-Reay was going to be any way. Maybe he gets into the top five. This is good, but Hunter-Reay is another Andretti driver that is just not 100% this year.
8. Felix Rosenqvist had a moment and went from fourth to the back of the top ten on one restart. Rosenqvist held on for an eighth-place finish. He needed a good day, because his only top ten finish was his Road America victory. The results have not been consistent and have not been entirely fair for Rosenqvist. Fairness aside, he needed to get results and today was a big boost for him.
9. Tony Kanaan was ninth! That is all! He did not pit before the rain in the middle of the race and it got him a few more spots. I am happy for Kanaan.
10. Conor Daly was quick in practice yesterday and that pace did not entirely carry over. Yesterday, I was thinking Daly would be close to what we saw at Iowa. He ended up having a top ten car, but Carlin needs to find a little speed before tomorrow.
11. Jack Harvey could have been on the podium if it was not for that caution for the brief shower. Harvey was better than 11th today. It is still a good oval result. This is nothing to hang his head on.
12. This is one of Josef Newgarden's worst races on a short track in a long time. It was a top ten car. He stopped before the rain and couldn't work his way to the front afterward, ending up 12th.
13. Quickly through the rest of the field, Charlie Kimball was 13th and that is it. Oliver Askew escaped damage from the accident before the start and was 14th. We will go over the start soon. Álex Palou was wrongly scapegoated for that start crash and got a penalty but finished 15th. Santino Ferrucci had another slow stop cost him. Ferrucci might have gotten a top five, but the rain was not in his favor. He was better than 16th, but a top five would have been too generous. I think he could have been around ninth or tenth.
14. Will Power had to stop early before the final pit window for a tire puncture. This was an odd race for Power, because he held the lead, looked strong and then lost two spots in the pit cycle. This is an odd year for Power.
15. Graham Rahal had a rag cause a gearbox problem and drop him out after 124 laps.
16. Oh... another mess of a start. Let's take the pieces one-by-one.
Alex Palou steps out from his spot in the grid as the field stacks up on the front straightaway. Simon Pagenaud does the same. Oliver Askew is carrying momentum, hits Pagenaud, sends Pagenaud into Alexander Rossi, Rossi spins, Zach Veach commits to going for broke from 23rd on the grid and collides into Marco Andretti and Ed Carpenter and four cars behind the pit wall before even taking the green flag.
It seems like this happens once a year on an oval in IndyCar and it should not be the case. Another pile-up before the green flag and we saw this at Pocono. There are too many games played on the starts with the leaders speeding up and then slowing down before finally hitting the gas when the green flag is shown. It's garbage, not there are no innocent parties. Every driver does it. Will Power does it. Alexander Rossi has done it. IndyCar allows it so everyone does it.
I said after the 2018 Pocono incident to spread the field out. Why are all 23 cars covered by a blanket at the start? There is no room for error on these starts. It happened when Graham Rahal got into Spencer Pigot. If you spread the rows out, you at least decrease the likelihood of this happening.
I know many will not like hearing spread the field out, but it is the easiest solution. Look at how much space there was between each row at Indianapolis last week. You might not be able to get that much space prior for Gateway, but there is plenty of room and if you have the leader taking the green and the final three rows in turn four, then fine. That is what has to be done and that is incentive to make sure you qualify better.
This is something IndyCar should have handled years ago. You cannot have four or five cars taken out before even seeing the green flag let alone completing a lap. IndyCar could fix this before tomorrow's race. It won't! Rossi joked it reminded him of a start of an iRacing event at Michigan. IndyCar could have used that simulation as a warning for reality and worked on a solution. One is more than necessary now.
17. Quick notes on each driver taken out...
Simon Pagenaud had finished 37 consecutive races entering today. That is over. This was another day Ed Carpenter was on the wrong side of Zach Veach's mistake. Where was Veach going? I don't understand how Andretti Autosport brings him back next year. If you are Andretti, you step in and get Gainbridge to support another driver. You have J.R. Hildebrand, Spencer Pigot, Gabby Chaves, Carlos Muñoz, James Davison and James Hinchcliffe all on the sidelines. I think all would do better full-time than Veach.
Alexander Rossi is going through a year from hell. We all are, but Rossi's is happening at work. Can't he at least have things go well at work? Rossi might have been done from the contact from Pagenaud, but Veach took out Marco Andretti and Andretti was an innocent bystander in this one.
18. We get to it all again tomorrow! I thought the 250-mile race distance is good. It is a three-stop race no matter what. It is still difficult to pass, though the track had more rubber in it than previous years. I am not sure if the track will be better tomorrow or if the dirty air is too strong. We ended up with another exciting finish despite all that. Tomorrow could play out the same way.
