Alexander Rossi enters Sunday’s Kohler Grand Prix at Road America 23 points behind Scott Dixon for the championship lead. While Dixon missing the Firestone Fast Six should prove promising for Rossi, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 champion is taking nothing for granted.
Rossi will start P4, having been knocked off of a potential front row start by the Team Penske teammates of Josef Newgarden and Will Power. While Dixon’s starting position of P8 bodes well for Rossi, Dixon’s reputation precedes him.
“I think even if Scott [Dixon] was starting 23rd, he'd still be at the front at the end,” Rossi said in a post-qualifying press conference. “Doesn’t matter. Yeah, we'll just have to try and maximize what we have, but by no means is that any consolation.”
Dixon won the 2017 Kohler Grand Prix from P5, leading 24 laps and extending his championship lead over Simon Pagenaud in his first victory at Road America. With his two victories in 2018, including at Texas in the series’ previous race weekend, Dixon is back in his favoured position of running strong in the latter half of the season.
Rossi has scored one win in 2018, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. He finished P12 after leading the majority of Detroit Race 2 as a costly mistake late in the race handed the victory over to Ryan Hunter-Reay a day after Dixon’s own win.
While these missed opportunities have hurt Rossi in the championship battle, consistent improvements over the weekend make him a driver to watch as he hopes to best his top Road America finish of P13 and cut into Dixon’s points lead.
“We were really struggling yesterday afternoon,” Rossi admitted Saturday, “really all day yesterday, so a huge hats off to the whole NAPA know-how team for the decisions they made overnight and gave me a car that I was a lot more comfortable with this morning, and again made an improvement this afternoon.”
