Scott Dixon ready to claim elusive St. Petersburg win

By Mar 8, 2019, 6:27 PM EST
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Scott Dixon has achieved legendary status in IndyCar history with five NTT IndyCar Series championships, a win in the 2008 Indianapolis 500 and 44 total victories in his career to rank him third on the all-time list.

But he has never won the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

It’s hard to believe that a race driver that has been so good for so long has never won on the streets of St. Petersburg in the annual season-opening race.

That is one of Dixon’s motivations as he enters his 19thseason of IndyCar (18th with Chip Ganassi Racing).

“We’re trying to win here at St. Pete,” Dixon told NBC Sports.com. “It’s one of the tracks we haven’t been able to nail down as a win yet. We’re excited to be here. It’s a great place to kick off the season. The city really embraces the race. I can’t think of a better place to start off the year.”

Ironically, Dixon has some good runs at St. Pete, including three second-place finishes, a third-place finish in 2017, a fourth-place finish in 2014 and a fifth in 2013.

Last year, he started ninth and finished sixth in a race that had a wild finish with Sebastien Bourdais, the surprise winner for the second year in a row.

So, why hasn’t Dixon broken into victory lane at the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course?

“It hasn’t been bad luck,” Dixon said. “There have been years where we had the speed to do it and years I’ve been leading, or we crashed or missed on strategy. You have tracks like that. For many years, Long Beach was like that for me, too. We led a lot of laps, came up short and finally got to that top step. It’s like that here.

“We’re here this year, and the goal is to finally get on that top step.”

Dixon has several major objectives he wants to achieve in 2019. Of his five career championships, he has never won the title in back-to-back seasons. There is also another Indianapolis 500 victory to chase. That would put him in an elite category of drivers who have won the Indy 500 more than once.

“You always dream big and hope to win these championships,” Dixon said. “We’re in the business of winning races. If you are not doing that, you are probably doing something wrong and should probably look at something else.

“The reason I got into this sport was to win races and win championships. But it takes a lot. It takes partnerships. It takes the team you are with. I’ve been very lucky to be with the best in the business.”

Dixon understands how to win championships, and that is to completely understand the car in any given race. If he can win the race, Dixon will take full advantage. But if the car isn’t the best on the track, he will get the best possible finish out of it without risking a poor result.

“It’s part of Chip Ganassi’s pep talk,” Dixon said. “We are here to win the race, but if you can’t win the race, finish second. Or, if you can’t finish second, finish third. When you finish fifth or sixth, it might have been a great comeback. Consistency is a key and a lot of that is due to the team. It’s the mindset that we have.

“The grip that Chip Ganassi has on the team is very unique. It’s a never-give-up lifestyle and that spreads to everybody.”

At 38, Dixon still has the burning desire to win that he did when he was a teenager arriving in the United States from New Zealand in the late 1990s. In many ways, the driver that has been so good, for so long is still in the prime of his career.

But there are some eager young drivers from the United States ready to take over the series including 27-year-old Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport and 28-year-old Josef Newgarden of Team Penske.

Rossi has won the 100thIndianapolis 500 in 2016. Newgarden won the NTT IndyCar Series championship in 2017.

“Rossi and Newgarden are very strong, Dixon said. “They are great competitors. They are fierce competitors on fantastic teams. But each year, it has changed a little bit. When Simon Pagenaud went to Penske, he dominated. Will Power, too. You could name off 10 names that can win championships and I don’t single out one or two people.”

It’s time for another season of the NTT IndyCar Series, and the five-time championship can’t wait to get it started.

“There is a lot of built up emotion over the offseason and we see that on the track,” Dixon said. “St. Pete is one of the most exciting races. It’s a fantastic layout for some great racing, but you also see cars getting together here and there, a couple of crashes and people testing the limit.

“Everyone is pumped, man. We’re getting the season kicked off.”

Will Power says IndyCar field toughest in world: ‘F1’s a joke as far as competition’

By Jun 4, 2023, 1:46 PM EDT
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DETROIT – With the 2023 Formula One season turning into a Red Bull runaway, Will Power believes the NTT IndyCar Series deserves respect as the world’s most difficult single-seater racing series.

“It’s so tough, an amazing field, the toughest field in the world, and people need to know it, especially compared to Formula One,” the defending IndyCar champion told NBC Sports during a media luncheon a few days ahead of Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. “Formula One’s a joke as far as competition, but not as far as drivers. They have amazing drivers. And I feel sorry for them that they don’t get to experience the satisfaction we do with our racing because that is the top level of open-wheel motorsport.

“I think Formula One would be so much better if they had a formula like IndyCar. I love the technology and the manufacturer side of it. I think that’s awesome. But from a spectator watching, man, how cool would it be if everyone had a Red Bull (car)?”

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

It probably would look a lot different than this season, which has been dominated by two-time defending F1 champion Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman won Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix from the pole position by 24 seconds over seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. It’s the fifth victory in seven races for Verstappen, whose 40 career wins are one shy of tying late three-time champion Aryton Senna.

Along with being a virtual lock to tie Senna’s mark for titles, Verstappen is poised to break his own record for single-season victories (15) that he set last year.

“You simply know Max is going to win every race if something doesn’t go wrong,” Power said. “Imagine being a guy coming out as a rookie, and you probably could win a race. It would be really cool to see. But you know that would never happen with the politics over there.”

Verstappen’s F1 dominance has been a stark contrast to IndyCar, where Josef Newgarden just became the first repeat winner through six races this season with his Indy 500 victory.

Team Penske (with Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin), Chip Ganassi Racing (with Palou and Marcus Ericsson) and Andretti Autosport (with Kyle Kirkwood) each have visited victory lane in 2023. Arrow McLaren (which has past winners Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist) is certain to join them at some point.

Meanwhile, Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez (two wins) have won every F1 race this season with the two Red Bull cars combining to lead more than 95% of the laps.

The primary differences are in the rulesets for each series.

While F1 teams virtually have complete autonomy to build their high-tech cars from scratch, IndyCar has what is known as a spec series in which the cars have a large degree of standardization.

IndyCar teams all use the Dallara DW12 chassis, which is in its 12th season. The development of the car largely has been maximized, helping put a greater emphasis on driver skill as a differentiator (as well as other human resources such as whip-smart strategists and engineers).

Alex Palou, who will start from the pole position at Detroit, harbors F1 aspirations as a McLaren test driver, but the Spaniard prefers IndyCar for competitiveness because talent can be such a determinant in results.

“Racing-wise, that’s the best you can get,” Palou said a few days before winning the pole for the 107th Indy 500 last month. “That’s pure racing, having chances to win each weekend.”

Of course, F1 is the world’s most popular series, and the 2021 IndyCar champion believes its appeal doesn’t necessarily stem from being competitive.

Though the ’21 championship battle between Hamilton and Verstappen was epic, F1 has grown its audience in recent years with the help of the “Drive To Survive” docuseries on Netflix that has showcased their stars’ personalities along with the cutthroat decisions of its team principals (IndyCar started its own docuseries this year).

“I don’t think the beauty of F1 is the race itself,” Palou said. “I’d say the beauty is more the development that they have and everything around the races, and that they go different places. But when we talk about pure spectacle, you cannot get better than (IndyCar).

“You can feel it as a driver here when you first come and jump in a car. When I was in Dale Coyne (Racing), we got a podium my rookie year. It wasn’t the best team, but we were able to achieve one of the best cars at Road America (where he finished third in 2020). It’s not that I was driving a slow car. I was driving a really fast car. I think we can see that across all the teams and the drivers.”

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who will start second at Detroit, is in his third season of IndyCar after winning three championships in Supercars.

The New Zealander said recently that IndyCar has been “the most enjoyment I’ve ever had in my career. I had a lot of fun in Supercars, but there were still things like different uprights, engines, all that stuff. (IndyCar) is spec. Really the only things you can change are dampers and the engine differences between Honda and Chevy.

“I have a blast,” McLaughlin said. “Trying to extract pace and winning in this series is better than I’ve ever felt ever. I’m surprised by how satisfied it feels to win an IndyCar race. It’s better than how it ever has felt in my career. I’ve always liked winning, but it’s so satisfying to win here. That’s why it’s so cool. There are no bad drivers. You have to have a perfect day.”

Qualifying might be the best example of the series’ competitiveness tightness. The spread for the Fast Six final round of qualifying on Detroit’s new nine-turn, 1.645-mile downtown layout was nearly eight 10ths of a second – which qualifies as an eternity these days.

Last month, the GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course produced a spread of 0.2971 seconds from first to sixth – the fourth-closest Fast Six in IndyCar history since the format was adopted in 2008. Three of the seven closest Fast Six fields have happened this season (with the Grand Prix of Long Beach ranking sixth and the Alabama Grand Prix in seventh).

While the technical ingenuity and innovation might be limited when compared to F1, there’s no arguing that more IndyCar drivers and teams have a chance to win.

“The parity’s great, and no one has an advantage, basically,” Power said. “The two engine manufacturers (Honda and Chevrolet) are always flipping back and forth as they develop, but we’re talking like tenths of a second over a lap. There’s not a bad driver in the field, and there are 20 people all capable of being in the Fast Six every week. Maybe more. It’s incredibly competitive. There isn’t a more competitive series in the world. I’m sure of that.

“If you want the ultimate driver’s series, this is it I’m from a big team that would benefit massively from opening the rules up, but I don’t think (IndyCar officials) should. I think this should always be about the team and driver getting the most out of a piece of equipment that everyone has a chance to do so. That’s the ultimate driver series. Who wants to win a championship when you’re just given the best car? It’s just ridiculous.”

Power believes the talented Verstappen still would be the F1 champion if the equipment were spec, but he also thinks there would be more challengers.

“There’s got to be a bunch of those guys that must just be frustrated,” Power said. “Think about Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Lando Norris, (Fernando) Alonso. Those are some great drivers that don’t get a chance to even win. They’re just extracting the most out of the piece of equipment they have.

“All I can say is if everyone had a Red Bull car, there’s no way that Max would win every race. There are so many guys who would be winning races. It’d just be similar to (IndyCar) and different every week, which it should be that way for the top level of the sport.”