But this is Scott Dixon. He has made his living popping out from behind the eight-ball and stunning us all. Dixon did it again. He stretched every stint to get himself in position to make it on three stops while gaining ground in the process. His final pit stop came on lap 59, 26 laps from the finish, not impossible, but not easy when Graham Rahal would be charging with plenty of fuel to make it to the finish.
Rahal lost the lead at the initial start, but soon made it back to the lead and this race appeared to be his... until Scott Dixon did what Scott Dixon does.
It wasn't easy. Dixon's lead evaporated from just over seven seconds when Rahal emerged from his final pit stop on lap 63 to fractions when the checkered flag waved.
Traffic benefitted each and hindered both over those final 22 laps. Dixon hit his marks while Rahal gave chase. On the final lap, Dixon had enough and in his record 319th consecutive start, Dixon wins his 54th race, extending his streak to 19 consecutive seasons with a victory and extending his record to 21 years with a victory.
Before today, there wasn't a race where you felt Dixon should have won through the first 13 races of this season. Even today, this was never Dixon's race until he made his final pit stop. Once he made it to lap 59, Dixon was in control. He could make it to the finish and the pressure would be on Rahal to chase.
Dixon drove the perfect 85-lap race. If it was 86, he probably does not win. If it was 87, he likely definitely doesn't win. This Chip Ganassi Racing crew was put in a corner before a lap was completed and it pinpointed a route to victory. In the hands of one of the greatest drivers to ever set foot on this planet, Dixon carried this group to the top of the podium.
This was rightfully Dixon's day. On top of becoming IndyCar's ironman with his 319th consecutive start, Dixon took an outstanding victory, which is not only his 54th victory, but doubles as his 200th top five finish, a milestone nobody in IndyCar had ever reached. Looking back at what transpired, this should have been seen as inevitable. After all, this is Scott Dixon we are talking about, a genius behind the steering wheel.
2. A glorious finish means a glorious defeat for Graham Rahal. Rahal was flawless, and trying to find any error he made is a pointless exercise. Rahal did not lose this race. It was won by one of his greatest competitors.
This hurts to think about because this should have been Rahal's day. He was untouched for the first two-thirds. The race was lining up for him, and then, you know, Scott Dixon.
Rahal did nothing wrong. The crew did nothing wrong. If there is one critique to make is the team made Rahal's final pit stop about four laps too early on lap 63. If he stops at lap 67 or even lap 68, Rahal can make a shorter pit stop and he can go harder for the final 17-18 laps.
The gap between Dixon and Rahal would not have been larger than it was if Rahal stopped four laps later. If anything, it might have been closer as Dixon could not run blistering lap times. That is the only critique you could make, and even then it doesn't hold up considering Rahal was only 0.4779 seconds short of victory on the strategy they played.
If lapped traffic moved out of the way quicker, perhaps that would have also been the difference, but Rahal drove brilliantly. Considering how his season has gone, the crushing low of missing the Indianapolis 500, to be in control of a race, clearly the best driver today, this is a significant swing upward for him and this team. The team has been making the strides in the right direction. Today did not end in victory, but it should boost Rahal's confidence.
3. It was really a race for first and second, as Patricio O'Ward was over eight seconds back in third. It was a good day for O'Ward. He spent much of the race in the top five. He leapfrogged ahead of Christian Lundgaard during a pit cycle and that battle went to the checkered flag, but O'Ward didn't quite have it for Rahal, and that is a little bit of a surprise. Not many would take Rahal in a head-to-head matchup versus O'Ward. Credit to the RLLR guys.
4. One long pit stop cost Christian Lundgaard a podium finish. That penultimate stop saw Lundgaard's crew have a delay on the fuel and it allowed O'Ward to slip ahead. I don't think Lundgaard would have been able to maintain pace with Rahal, but if he gets out ahead of O'Ward, Lundgaard is likely finishing third. It is still a great day for RLLR.
5. Alexander Rossi's issues with the less ideal tire compound have been well documented. This was another case. This time it was the primary tire, and on Rossi's second stint, after staying in Rahal's tire tracks for much of the opening stanza, Rossi lost ground on the primary tire, and he went from sniffing the lead to hanging onto the top five.I don't think Rossi cannot escape this. This has been a problem for really his entire IndyCar career. If he hasn't been able to correct his flaw of having one guaranteed bad stint every race, he isn't going to do it now, which means victories will be rare and we should get used to that.
6. How did Will Power finish sixth? At one point, Power was about eighth or ninth, just a good day. Nothing special. He finished sixth, and we were all distracted from seeing how Power got there. This is Power's issue though in 2023. He has having quiet drives to finish sixth, but if you aren't winning or at worst finishing on the podium more times than not, then a quiet sixth is another forgotten finish. When results are scattered, it is not good enough.
7. With a seventh-place finish and Josef Newgarden being caught in an opening lap accident that trapped Newgarden two laps down for the entire race, Álex Palou is on the verge of clinching the championship at GATEWAY! Forget one race early, we could be handing over the Astor Cup with two races to spare.
Newgarden's misfortune combined with Dixon's triumphant means Palou is 101 points ahead of Dixon and 104 points clear of Newgarden.
Once Newgarden was effectively out of it, all Palou and to do was keep it on the road, and he was between fifth and eighth for most of this race. Palou caused the opening lap mess when he nudged Marcus Armstrong. It was interesting that nothing was mentioned about Palou being under investigation for that contact. I was kind of ready for Palou to get sent to the back, not that it would have mattered as Newgarden was trapped a lap down, but Palou got away with one a little bit.
Palou had no reason to push the envelope. Seventh is plenty today, and will likely be plenty at Gateway as well.
8. Eighth was the best Scott McLaughlin was going to do today. That's all I can say. McLaughlin didn't really run that much better than that at any point. He didn't run worse. Eighth it is.
9. The same can be said for Kyle Kirkwood in ninth. At one point it looked like Kirkwood was going to be challenging for a top five, but he went the wrong direction over his middle two stints and ended up ninth.
10. When you are starting 17th, tenth is the first goal. Marcus Ericsson achieved that. This is Ericsson's biggest flaw. He can constantly finish in the top ten, but it is frequently in the back half of the top ten. It is good, but it isn't going to win championships. But he hasn't had a top five on a permanent road course since Road America last year. This is now nine consecutive permanent road courses without a top five finish.
Ericsson is making it hard for Chip Ganassi not to bring him back, but he is also leaving room for Ganassi to search for someone just a little better.
11. Let's run through the rest of the field by teams. Rinus VeeKay had a strong drive to finish 11th, and he was flirting with a top ten before Ericsson got him late. It isn't stellar, but it is better for this group.
It is better than Ryan Hunter-Reay a lap down in 20th. Ed Carpenter Racing's issues have always been deeper than the drivers. Hunter-Reay hasn't looked better than Conor Daly, and Hunter-Reay held Rahal up a lap longer than he should have. That is also on the team. The team should have said the top two are right behind you and once Dixon was through, Rahal should have been let through on the next straightaway.
12. Linus Lundqvist had another great day, finishing where he started in 12th. He didn't quite have it to fight for a top ten, but he didn't go backward. Lundqvist has boosted his stock in these two starts. Hélio Castroneves also went forward from 18th to 15th. Nothing Meyer Shank Racing will be popping champagne over, but this was been better than most other races this season for MSR.
13. Colton Herta suffered a puncture in that opening lap incident. That was a tough set back. It was a good recovery to finish 13th, but another lackluster result for the #26 Gainbridge Honda group.
Romain Grosjean got into the back of Scott Dixon at the start after Dixon was stacked up behind the spinning Marcus Armstrong. So I guess Grosjean gets an assist for the victory? Either way, Grosjean tried the same strategy as Dixon but bailed and made this a four-stopper, meaning Grosjean was 18th.
Remember that Iowa race, I believe it was 2014, where Sebastián Saavedra out of nowhere drove into the top five and was threatening the lead before brushing the wall or something broke that ended this race? That was Devlin DeFrancesco's race was today. There was no sign DeFrancesco was going to qualify in the top five, and then he did. And then he goes from fifth on the inside to taking the lead with a pass around Graham Rahal on the outside of turn one at the start. Nobody saw that coming. It was staggering.
Unfortunately for DeFrancesco, it was all sizzle and no steak, as Rahal quickly retook the lead and then DeFrancesco dropped like a rock and ended up finishing a lap down in 19th. But what a burst it was!
14. It has become easy to dump on Jack Harvey when the two other RLLR cars run well. Both those cars were in the top five today. Harvey started and finished 14th. It is a good day for Harvey considering his season. Not great, but not worth taking a shot at him about either.
15. David Malukas was not mentioned once, but he went from 27th to 16th. Sting Ray Robb was a lap down in 22nd. Nothing to write home about for Dale Coyne Racing.
16. Callum Ilott was 17th, the last car on the lead lap. Agustín Canapino was 21st, one lap down. Neither driver did anything stupid. Juncos Hollinger Racing has had a low damage bill this season. We don't see these drivers in many accident. We also don't see them finishing in the top ten that often either.
17. Comedy of errors for A.J. Foyt Racing today. I was actually thinking this morning that Santino Ferrucci really hasn't made an error this season... and then Ferrucci decides to leave with the air gun attached and he stripped the air hose out of the pit stand. That could fall on the crew, but we never got a clear replay of that stop. Somehow, Benjamin Pedersen was immediately four laps down and Pedersen wasn't even in the opening lap incident. I was never mentioned how he lost all those laps. There must have been some problem.
18. I am going to cover Marcus Armstrong and Josef Newgarden here because they were both caught in the opening lap incident. That was harsh for Armstrong, because he did nothing wrong. Newgarden had nowhere to go.
The tough thing to watch was seeing about a dozen safety workers just standing around. The IndyCar safety team deserves the praise it gets, but it could do a much better job getting cars restarted. It wasn't an incident that should have taken that long to clear nor that long to restart the two cars.
Newgarden was parked on Armstrong, but Newgarden just had to be slightly pushed back. The lack of urgency from the safety team decided the result for these two drivers. If they get both cars restarted quicker and they stay on the lead lap, their races are different, and it could be the difference between Newgarden keeping the championship alive into the finale or not.
This was a weekend from hell for Newgarden. The team could not find the pace. It made an engine change taking a six-spot grid penalty today to avoid a nine-spot penalty at Gateway. Everything is now on Gateway for Newgarden. He cannot lose any ground. He must gain.
19. Felix Rosenqvist suffered a mechanical issue in the final stint and it cost him a top ten finish. That was brutal because all three Arrow McLaren cars were running around each other for most of this race. At worst, this should have been a top ten for Rosenqvist.
20. And now the final off weekend of the IndyCar season. After next week, it is three consecutive weekends to close out the season. The end is here folks.
