Dixon wins at Road America, stretches IndyCar points lead
IndyCar Series points leader Scott Dixon finally earns Road America win. The New Zealander held off Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden for his first win of the season and 41st of his career. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver raced at Road America in CART but finished P4 and P17.
Twitter: Today’s win was @scottdixon9’s 41st. He is 4th on the all-time win list, 1 win behind @michaelandretti. #LEGEND (@IndyCar)
Dixon started the Kohler Grand Prix in P5 behind an all-Team Penske top-4. Led by pole sitter Helio Castroneves, then Will Power, Newgarden, and Simon Pagenaud. The Kiwi driver bid his time behind the Chevrolets slowly climbing throughout the 55-lap race.
The main challenger for Castroneves early on was team-mate Newgarden was running in P2 behind the Brazilian. The Tennessee native took the lead temporarily after Lap 12 before grabbing a solid perch on Lap 20. Newgarden would lead until Lap 31 Dixon overtook him, in what proved to be the winning pass of the day. Dixon would temporarily relinquish the lead for one lap during the last round of pit stops before cycling back in front.
Newgarden’s battle with Dixon would go to the wire, with Dixon holding off Newgarden to win by half a second. With the victory, Dixon stretches his lead over Pagenaud by 34 points heading to Iowa Speedway.
Twitter: 1 to go! Can @JosefNewgarden run down @ScottDixon9? #INDYCAR #KohlerGP https://t.co/1I2Xejdij6 https://t.co/QZatSkgjgl (@IndyCar)
While Dixon enjoyed success on Sunday the same could not be said about team-mate Tony Kanaan. The 42-year-old brushed up with Alexander Rossi and lost it cutting back and into the wall at Turn 11 on Lap 46. He would retire. The incident brought out the second caution of the day, the first was Takuma Sato also at Turn 11. Fortunately, the Indianapolis 500 champion got his car going.
Twitter: REPLAY: @TonyKanaan makes contact in turn 11. #INDYCAR #KohlerGP https://t.co/1I2Xejdij6 https://t.co/1lJcsvV63w (@IndyCar)
Kohler Grand Prix Race Notes:
– Esteban Gutierrez, in his IndyCar return with Dale Coyne Racing started P17 and finished P17. Team-mate Ed Jones finished P7.
– Marco Andretti served a drive through penalty for pit lane speeding on Lap 15.
– Newgarden set the fastest lap of the race, a 139.664 mph (103.4651 seconds) on Lap 52.
– Dixon lead the most laps with 24.