Dixon Expects Fine for Criticizing IndyCar

If it were NASCAR, Dixon would be suspended for a year for what he said about IndyCar, and then after the year his car would fail inspection repeatedly for another 2 to 3 years. But before that he would be brought into the NASCAR red trailer, sat down and told "boy if you ever open your mouth again and criticize our product, you will be banned from this sport for life. Got that boy?"

Scott Dixon expects to be fined by IndyCar for calling for race director Beaux Barfield to be fired following a second consecutive frustrating race that affected his championship chances.

Dixon told The Associated Press on Wednesday after a few days to cool off, he realized he probably deserves a penalty for his frank comments after crashing out of Sunday's race at Baltimore.

"Reflecting on it, I shouldn't have been so outspoken and I probably will be fined for it and I respect that," Dixon said. "It was just frustration of a two-week period. For me, I love the sport, I want to see it better and what I did didn't help. My concern is not making things look bad for the series. I love my job and don't want to be doing anything else, and I don't want it to be perceived otherwise. I want to learn from the mistakes we've made."

Dixon has been outspoken before in his desire for consistency from race control, but the New Zealander has amped up his criticism after back-to-back races cost him valuable ground in his race with Helio Castroneves for the IndyCar championship.

Dixon was penalized in Sonoma two weeks ago when his car made contact with a crew member for Will Power, Castroneves' teammate, on the final pit stop. Barfield said Dixon had driven into the Penske Racing work space, but Dixon alleged the crew member walked into his car. The penalty cost Dixon a chance to race for the win, and opinion was split through the paddock as to who was at fault and if race control perhaps should have not penalized anyone.

At Baltimore, Dixon was angered when officials ignored a Chip Ganassi Racing request to tow his car back to pit lane so his team could attempt to repair it following an accident with Will Power with 22 laps remaining.

Dixon finished 19th and lost more ground to Castroneves in the championship race. Dixon is 49 points behind Castroneves with three races remaining.

"For me, it's just about consistency, that's the only thing," Dixon said. "The actual accident with Power, it got me fired up. Then we were trying to get the car back, and that is what set me off and I used words I shouldn't have used. It was a chain of events."

Both Dixon and Ganassi team manager Mike Hull have had several conversations with IndyCar President of competition Derrick Walker since Sunday about the car not being towed back to pit lane.

"Derrick gave us an answer that they (race control) didn't receive communication for it to happen, and he doesn't know why and it's never going to happen again," Hull said Wednesday. "I don't like the answer, but I am going to accept the answer. That's how our team chooses to operate. I think we are in a transitionary phase with Derrick and the position he's in. I'm willing to be patient while Derrick builds a product."

Dixon is also satisfied that Walker, who joined IndyCar in May after the Indianapolis 500, is investigating various incidents over the last few months, adjusting to his new role and can be a positive addition to the series.

"The hard thing for me to swallow is it's going to take time, and you don't always have years you are going to be fighting for a championship," he said. "For them, they've got work they want to do on procedures and they know they want to enforce some things differently going forward. After this season, things will be hopefully be for the better." ABC News