IndyCar: Dixon beats Rahal to win the Gallagher Grand Prix

Scott Dixon used good strategy and held off a charging Graham Rahal to win today’s Gallagher Grand Prix IndyCar race at IMS.

Dixon won by just 0.4779s over a fast-closing Rahal before a sparse crowd.  The six-time champion has now won a race in every race season for 19 years in a row, something no other driver has ever accomplished.

Dixon captured the win in what was his 319th consecutive start, setting a new all-time mark as INDYCAR’s Iron Man. It marked the 54th career victory for Dixon, which ranks second on the all-time wins list behind only A.J. Foyt.

“This one was very special, especially breaking the Iron Man record of 319 straight races. This was the way to do it. The competition in this series is tough, and this is a testament to the team and what they bring to the table. We’ve had a very successful year, and to get one with the No. 9 PNC Bank team feels very good.”

Dixon and the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda team faced early adversity after finding themselves in the grass on lap one as a result of a multi-car incident. The team rallied to gain 14 positions over the course of the race on an alternate strategy, taking the checkered flag as the “Biggest Movers” on the day.

“We recovered and Scott did his job. He drives so well and understands in the cockpit what we’re doing from the timing stand,” said CGR Managing Director and No. 9 Strategist Mike Hull. “It’s been a pleasure to be with him all these years, win all these races and guess what, he just keeps on winning.”

With the win, Chip Ganassi Racing secured a sweep of the IMS Road Course races and secured their sixth victory of the season. It also marked the team’s 252nd overall victory and their 130th in the INDYCAR SERIES.

Pato O’Ward finished third in his No 5 Arrow McLaren Chevy, 8.09s behind.

Rahal’s teammate Christian Lundgaard finished fourth and Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi finished fifth.

With his 7th place finish, Alex Palou extended his championship lead 539 to 438 for teammate Scott Dixon.  A 101 point lead and the 2023 IndyCar title is just about done and dusted.

“It was a busy day and a very busy first couple of laps. We played an aggressive strategy which worked really well on the first couple of stints. Then, when we wanted to go fast on the better tire, we didn’t make it work. We had some issues with tire degradation, but it was a solid day for us on the championship side. It was an amazing day for Scott winning the race today.”

Pato O’Ward

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was disappointed with his podium finish today.  The young Mexican was frustrated with the fact that he could not keep up with Rahal and he knew that it was not going to be a easy job.

“That was a physical race.  Every lap was a push lap for me today.  Reminded me a lot of Mid-Ohio this year.”

“But very pleased with today. I thought the team did a phenomenal job on my strategy, in the pits. I was very happy with my car balance. We obviously got some catching up to do in an area.”

“Midway through the race,  they were telling me we were third. Scott and Graham, they
were really quick. I mean, I struggled keeping Christian behind me.”

“I’ve been driving my ass off every single race. Like, there is nothing more than I want than to get wins. Obviously there’s been little things here and there that have got us out of contention and out of being able to kind of capitalize on that.”

“With like the performance of today, I’m very pleased. I’m just tired. I’m just very pleased with today, very happy with how the team and I attacked because I was playing around
with Graham in the warm-up, and he was just stronger than me. I know he was. I knew it was going to be a tall ask, just from outright pace, to try and beat him.”

“But I was very happy with my car balance. I was very happy with every other call. Yeah, we just got to keep pushing.”

Graham Rahal

Graham was catching up with Scott Dixon in the last 20 laps of the race.  He used as much push to pass as he could, but he could not get around the six time champion.

“I thought we did all right today.  But that’s the way racing goes. I was worried a little last
night that we didn’t have three sets of reds to use. We had a blister on the left front qualifying set. Not really sure why. It wasn’t a flat spot or anything. Unfortunately it made it so that set wasn’t usable for us today.”

“I knew that the two middle stints on black, I was going to have to drive the wheels off of it just to maintain my gap. We were able to do that and actually pull a little bit more of
a gap.”

“Again, Dixie, through that middle stint, all the stints had reds, just blacks to reds, chasing down the best ever to do this, it’s not an easy thing.”

“We got that last stint, and I knew we were going to have to make a lot of time. Catching him about 7/10ths a lap. Traffic came into play. ”

“At the end of the day we have nothing to be ashamed of. I thought we laid it all on the line, did a great job as an organization this weekend. To get a podium in a year like this obviously feels good. To get a win would have been better, but that’s the way this goes.”

Race Results

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 111.647 mph
Time of Race: 1:51:24.7579
Margin of victory: 0.4779 of a second
Cautions: 1 for 6 laps
Lead changes: 8 among 4 drivers

Lap Leaders:
DeFrancesco, Devlin 1 – 8
Rahal, Graham 9 – 23
Lundgaard, Christian 24 – 26
Dixon, Scott 27 – 31
Rahal, Graham 32 – 47
Lundgaard, Christian 48 – 51
Dixon, Scott 52 – 58
Rahal, Graham 59 – 63
Dixon, Scott 64 – 85