IndyCar visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the final time of the season, completing the second race around the interior road course of the year.
Graham Rahal led the way from pole, but was quickly overtaken by Devlin DeFrancesco, who dove into the lead with a brave move around the outside into Turn 1.
The first-time leader was able to stay up front for eight laps, mostly on account of an early caution that took a while for safety crews to clean up.
READ MORE: IndyCar IMS road course – Full Race Results
On the opening lap, there was a miniature pile-up in Turn 7 that brought out the yellow. It started when Alex Palou turned Marcus Armstrong around, and then a few other drivers were collected.
Romain Grosjean and Josef Newgarden were collected, the latter getting beached on top of Armstrong’s wheel. Scott Dixon was also forced into a spin through the grass.
Dixon restarted in 23rd on lap eight, and worked his way through the field from there. His early stop worked in his favor, and he stayed on the softer red-walled tires for the majority of the race.
His stints included two ultra-long fuel runs, and he was just able to hold off a charging Graham Rahal in the final laps.
Dixon’s victory is the first of the year, and continues his streak of winning at least one race for an incredible 18 consecutive seasons.
His win also comes on the weekend that he takes sole possession of IndyCar’s ironman award, as he overtook Tony Kanaan by starting his 319th consecutive race.
The old saying that Dixon always has a chance to win, no matter what adversity he comes across during the race, proved true this once again this weekend.
Rahal crossed the line in second place, almost completing a redemption run for the veteran who did everything he could to make up for a horrendous Indy 500 the last time the series visited the venue.
He was closing in on Dixon in the final laps, and was within half of a second when the checkered flags flew.
Pato O’Ward rounded out the podium, and felt that he did everything he could given the pace of those that were at the head of the field.
Christian Lundgaard crossed the line in fourth, and bemoaned a pit stop strategy that moved him back a couple places at a critical portion of the race.
Alex Palou finished his day in seventh, nearly matching his worst result of the year. His closest rival in the championship Newgarden never was able to fully recover from the first-lap incident, and Palou now sits 101 points ahead with three races remaining.
The one caution at the beginning of the race was the only slowdown the 85-lap race, with pit strategy dictating the remainder of the event.
The only retirement of the day was Felix Rosenqvist, who had been running in the top 10 before a gearbox problem ultimately led to him pulling into the pits and climbing from his car.
IndyCar has one weekend off before the next race, which takes place at World Wide Technology Raceway for the final oval event of the season.
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