IndyCar: Dixon wins Laguna Seca crashfest

The Laguna Seca finale of the NTT IndyCar Series was a such a crashfest even the pace car ran out of fuel. Through it all, Scott Dixon found a way to win.

Dixon was involved in a couple of incidents early, was penalized for punting off another driver, but with so many drivers spinning and crashing, the wily Dixon came through all the dust and flying pea gravel to win again.

In the final sprint to the finish after the 8th caution flag for 35 laps, 43-year-old Dixon took fellow Kiwi to school and beat Scott McLaughlin by 7.3s for his 56th IndyCar career win.

Dixon finished 2nd in the championship behind his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou.

Palou, who led the most laps but had to nurse worn tires at the end, took the final podium position.

Will Power came home 4th for Team Penske and Callum Ilott rounded out the top-5.

Chevy nipped Honda to win the 2023 Engine Manufacturers title despite winning only 6 of 17 races.

Scott Dixon

Another win for Dixon due to fuel saving and strategy for Scott Dixon, who finished the Championship in second place.

“Yeah, it was a wild day. I think as McLaughlin was commenting, I think he had
Drive-through penalty as well. Race control was drive-through penalty, pretty happy today.”

“I think the morning kind of was tough, just to start off with a bit of a engine failure, then obviously getting a grip penalty wasn’t the way you wanted to start the day”

“I think we had done a good job in qualifying, which would have put us in a good spot to obviously fight for the lead on more of a straightforward race.”

“As we had seen in the last kind of two or three days, even in the practice sessions, it’s been a lot of cars falling offtrack. I figured that the race was either going to go green
to checkered or have a bunch of yellows.  We had the yellows.”

“The restarts were very tough. Kind of between 10 and 11 the way they would check up was difficult to get your space tight. There were a lot of crashes in the last corner unfortunately with some restarts. I remember even being three-wide with Pedersen and Armstrong. I think that’s when Armstrong spun as well when he was on the outside.”

“It was a tough race. But worked out for us. Strategy, we just tried to keep it simple, kind of working from the back end of the race. I was definitely shocked to see the 5 and the 28 pit when they did. I knew after that we had a really fast car, even with some of the damage we kind of had from the contact with the 21 on the start.”
“All in all, great day. It’s nice to rebound like we did.  Definitely some heated moments throughout the race.”

Scott McLaughlin

McLaughlin                                   Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment: Chris JonesTeam Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was surprised to have a podium for this race.  Plagued with an early lap one tangle, he managed to fight his way back to finished finish second in the race and third in the Championship points.

“Yeah, I think I hit everything but the pace car today.  Certainly one of those crazy days, peak INDYCAR days.”

“Yeah, super pumped. Things that didn’t go my way, things I probably shouldn’t have done either, but we just kept our heads down and kept working. Yeah, took the fuel when we needed, pitted when we needed to. Just slightly came back through.”

“I think I had one really good restart where I picked off sort of six or seven cars. I was just hauling. So much fun. Thought I maybe might be able to have a crack at Scottie (Dixon)
at the end. He was just too fast.”

“I knew if I finished second, I was most likely going to be top three in the championship. That ultimately was my goal coming into this weekend.”

Lucille Dust reporting live from WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway

Race Results

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 92.645 mph
Time of Race: 02:17:41.6400
Margin of victory: 7.3180 seconds
Cautions: 8 for 35 laps
Lead changes: 6 among 7 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Rosenqvist, Felix 1 – 6
Palou, Alex 7 – 28
Herta, Colton 29
Palou, Alex 30 – 58
O’Ward, Pato 59 – 73
Grosjean, Romain 74 – 75
Dixon, Scott 76 – 95

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Palou 656, Dixon 578, McLaughlin 488, O’Ward 484, Newgarden 479, Ericsson 438, Power 425, Lundgaard 390, Rossi 375, Herta 356, Kirkwood 352, Rosenqvist 324, Grosjean 296, VeeKay 277, Rahal 276, Ilott 266, Malukas 265, Castroneves 217, Armstrong 214, Ferrucci 214, Canapino 180, DeFrancesco 177, Robb 147, Jack Harvey 146, Conor Daly 134, Hunter-Reay 131, Pedersen 129, Simon Pagenaud 88, Takuma Sato 70, Ed Carpenter 46, Linus Lundqvist 35, Tony Kanaan 18, Vips 18, Blomqvist 16, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5