Scott Dixon finishes third in Portland, but his championship hopes are over. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
PORTLAND, Ore. – Championship No. 7 will have to wait another season for Scott Dixon after exiting Portland International Raceway 91 points behind Alex Palou.
This was not enough to keep the championship fight continuing at Laguna Seca next Sunday.
Despite that revelation happening, Dixon still gave it his all in his No. 9 PNC Bank Honda as he rounded out the podium during Sunday’s BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland.
Dixon led three times for 15 laps en route to his fifth podium of the season, three of them coming in succession.
To score the podium, the six-time champion had to fend off grueling traffic especially when the race restarted with 22 laps to go as lapped traffic. Namely, INDYCAR debutant Juri Vips put a damper on some of the lead lap cars.
Pato O’Ward, who finished fifth, was extremely vocal after the race that they’ve ruined several frontrunners’ day. Dixon explained the issue boiled down to the caution that led to the madness that ultimately helped O’Ward’s teammate Felix Rosenqvist, who scored a season-best second.
Coming into Turn 11, Agustin Canapino went straight through the grass and lost control in one the more treacherous areas to have issues at the 1.964-mile road course.
Consequently, Canapino’s car was stuck but the caution didn’t come out until the leaders made their final stops. As a result, it caused a huge ripple effect where it saw lapped cars restarting in front of lead lap cars.
Dixon had to overcome this during the final green flag run. If not for Rosenqvist being one of the paddock’s beloved racers, he would have been upset.
“(Agustin) spun off of probably the most dangerous part of the track in turn 11, and then they just let him sit there until the leaders pit,” said Dixon. “The issue there is that as soon as the leaders pit, they make it to pit lane, they go caution, so the leaders don’t have to eat the out-lap, which can be several seconds.
“It’s just they feel like they’re probably helping people, but they’re making it worse in a lot of scenarios, but I’m happy that it helped Felix. He is a good friend and a guy I like a lot. If it was somebody else, I would have been a little more pissed off.”
One thing that is certain for Dixon is that he will finish second in the INDYCAR championship as he’s 57 points ahead of third-place Josef Newgarden.
Another thing that is already secured, Chip Ganassi Racing have now won 15 American Open Wheel Racing championships as Palou becomes the fourth man to win multiple titles for Ganassi, joining Dixon, Dario Franchitti and Alex Zanardi to accomplish such feat.
“It was definitely a great milestone to have first and second totally sewn up before going into the last race. It’s very special,” said Dixon. “Congrats to Chip on his 15th Championship and Alex’s second. They had a fantastic race today.
“Obviously, I think the starting position and us starting on the tires that we did definitely helped play out the way that it did. It was a little bit frustrating with some of the traffic and some of the pit sequences that we were in and kind of lost some time during those crossovers, but it is what it is.
“Everybody probably fought with it for most of the race, and then race control kind of messed with the finish of the race a little bit. I don’t know why they keep doing it, but you know, I guess that’s the way we race under those conditions now,” Dixon continued.
“Huge weekend for the team; and, I don’t know, it’s kind of cool. I can’t really change anything in the championship. I shouldn’t say cool, but relaxing I guess going into the last one. I can only be second, so maybe go on vacation.”
