Scott Dixon believes that in recent years the smaller teams competing in the IndyCar series have been making gains in areas that the larger teams were frequently overlooking.
The five-time IndyCar series champion has raced for Chip Ganassi Racing since 2002 and knows what kinds of advantages an established team, with its larger resources and better funding, can carry throughout a season.
He also acknowledges that sometimes the larger teams can miss out on key areas of development and have begun looking to the smaller teams for inspiration.
“There are some things that they spend money on that we would never think of, because that’s way too expensive,” said Dixon.
“It’s been really interesting to see that twist. The level that these small teams, or so-called small teams are at. They’re not small.
“Their budgets are pretty big, pretty healthy, and you’ve got a lot of smart people working at them. Some big areas we were missing for sure.”
In particular, Dixon is hoping a focused effort by his team will lead to some extra pace when he competes in his 18th Indianapolis 500 this May.
The 2008 Indy 500 winner was only able to qualify 18th last year and was never really in contention for the top spots, eventually finishing as the last car on the lead lap in 17th position.
“Last year was quite frustrating,” Dixon recounted. “We just didn’t have the speed.
“There’s some insight that we’ve had in the offseason that hopefully will – I think the focus has really shifted to that race which we kind of needed to do.”
Dixon had a productive offseason, winning the overall victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the following weekend competing in his first Bathurst 12 Hour half a world away in New South Wales, Australia.
With the IndyCar season just around the corner, however, Dixon’s focus will soon return to attempting to add to his record of five championships.
The 2020 NTT IndyCar season gets started in less than two weeks with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 15.
