Scott Dixon took victory in Sunday’s IndyCar race from Mid-Ohio, employing a two-stop strategy that allowed him to climb into the top spot.
He and his Chip Ganassi Racing team knew that he would need some caution laps in order to make the fuel-saving strategy work. And that is exactly what they were given on the very first lap.
Josef Newgarden spun into the gravel in the first corner of the first lap, bringing out a lengthy caution that helped Dixon’s plans from the outset.
Then the veteran used his near-mythical fuel saving abilities to pace himself for the rest of the 90-lap event, which put him in position to earn his first win of the season.
“Yeah, as soon as I saw the caution at the start, which we had been talking about, I was like, ‘Man, the two-stop is on,’” explained Dixon.
“We worked pretty hard this morning in the warmup on fuel mileage and making sure we got the car balance kind of where we needed it.
“We were hoping that we were going to clear [Palou on the final pit stop], but obviously they were super fast today and pushing really hard on the three-stopper.
“Maybe earlier on in the stint I should have pushed a little bit harder, but just wasn’t sure what was going to happen with that left front on the reds.
“On the approach to Turn 9, I saw the dust and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe that’s a lap car or something’ because there’s been some times in these sessions where the dust has actually been lingering in the air.
“I didn’t know if it was [Palou], and then obviously I see it’s a black car. He’s had multiple colors this year, so it’s always hard to figure out, and I saw that he was kind of struggling to get going.
“Hate to say it, but pleasantly surprised when I saw that he was rejoining the track.”
Dixon extended his already record-holding streak of winning at least one race in consecutive seasons out to 21 years, well ahead of any other driver in the history of the series.
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