ARLINGTON, Texas — For long-time fans of the NTT IndyCar Series, three things are certain: death, taxes and Scott Dixon using an alternate strategy to salvage an unlikely finish. It’s not always clear when Dixon will pull a quiet climb through the field out of his pocket, but it’s a guarantee at least once each season.
Such was the case during Sunday’s (March 15) Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, where Dixon started 20th and climbed his way to an eighth-place finish over the course of 70 laps around IndyCar’s newest track.
“The race was really clean for us, but it was a clean race,” Dixon told Frontstretch. “For us to excel, we needed to have some caution, especially [in the first half]. You know, still bummed about how qualifying went.”
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The weekend had indeed been a tough one for Dixon up until Sunday. During Saturday morning’s practice, the New Zealander spun at turn 4 and was quickly, albeit softly, t-boned by the Andretti Honda of Will Power.
In qualifying, Dixon found himself in the run-off area at turn 10 early in the Group 2 session, which was later interrupted by a red flag from Scott McLaughlin‘s hard crash. When the session resumed and eventually ended, Dixon was 10th in the group, just under four-tenths of a second behind Pato O’Ward, who set the cut-off time in sixth.
“We didn’t really get to run on a red tire, and, you know, the only lap we had was the out lap, so, yeah, that puts you in a hole once you go back to where we did,” Dixon said.
“We ended up with the fastest race lap. The car has the pace, so I just need to get it together, do a better job in qualifying and make sure that we don’t put ourselves at such high risk.”
Notably, Dixon was the highest-finishing driver to run a four-stop strategy, starting on Alternates, pitting for fresh, faster red Alternates on lap 4, then for fresh Primaries on laps 15 and 37 before strapping on a final pair of fresh Alternates for the final stint on lap 59. During that final stint, he set the aforementioned fastest lap on lap 66 with a time of 1:33.9902 (104.564 mph), the only driver to go below the 1-minute-34-second mark.
“I think everybody was expecting slightly more [tire] degradation,” he said on the topic of tires. “I think, especially on the red, but the red was actually a pretty solid tire, so, you know, they’ve gone to the extreme last year, the red tire, the soft tire degraded really quickly.
“Maybe five or six laps at this place, it would have been done, whereas I think some people probably got a full stint out of it today. So, maybe next year they could make it degrade a little bit more.”
Sunday’s race took place under a cloudless sky with concerns of 40-50 mph winds, which bumped the start time up by an hour. However, fans and drivers alike were overtly positive about the event and its execution; praise that doesn’t come easy for street circuits, let alone those in their inaugural running.
“The activation, obviously, the event is the new standard of IndyCar, this is what everybody needs to live up to,” Dixon said. “It’s fantastic. The partnership they have with the [Dallas] Cowboys and the [Texas] Rangers? Epic. Epic!
“Maybe if they could just smooth out the back straight a bit? That’d be nice too.”
The elephant in the room had appeared, and must be addressed. The bumpy nature of the streets was evident from the first practice session, with the back straight in particular being an area of concern. In open-wheel cars with no power steering, bumpy surfaces can spell disaster and street circuits such as Exhibition Place in Toronto have developed a reputation for their physically taxing track surfaces.
“I think my brain is still going to be jiggling tonight when I’m sleeping,” Dixon joked when asked about the physicality of the race. “Probably about 40 laps in, I’m like ‘man…’ [On] the back straight, you’re just trying to rest your head because it’s just like, I felt like a bobblehead out there.”
However, the six-time champion has high marks for the event all the same.
“All in all, fantastic event, a great one-off.”
