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Jeff Roberson / AP
Scott Dixon had to settle for eleventh place in the final IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio.
Kiwi championship leader Scott Dixon has gone for the shortened race format of the IndyCar Series this year, following his disappointing 10th place finish at Mid-Ohio on Sunday (New Zealand time).
The Chip Ganassi rider is on his way to his sixth career title, however, still unknown, after he had to settle for his second-lowest result of the season in the Honda Indy 200.
In the first race of a double-headed weekend at the venue, Dixon saw his lead eaten away by defending series champion Josef Newgarden, who finished second behind teammate Will Power by more than seven seconds.
Phil Long / ap
Will Power, left, is congratulated by teammate Josef Newgarden, after the pair finished 1-2 at Mid-Ohio.
Going into the race, Dixon had a 96-point lead over defending champion Newgarden in the overall standings, but has now dropped to 76.
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There are four more races left in the season, with the second at Mid-Ohio at 5am Monday (New Zealand time).
Despite being the series’ most victorious driver at the road course with six victories, Dixon struggled in qualifying and was forced to start from 17th place. While the 40-year-old was able to make some early strides, he never could threaten much more.
Phil Long / ap
Scott Dixon has had his championship lead devoured by Josef Newgarden.
But, since Covid-19 wreaked havoc on the schedule and races were shortened to accommodate same-day qualifying, Dixon felt like he would always face it.
“Tough day with this qualifying and the way it is,” he said in a post-race television interview. “Really difficult, especially with the strategy, the way they shorten these races makes the race quite boring.”
Dixon also acknowledged, however, that his team probably played cautiously on the use of tires.
“I think we took the conservative route thinking that the Reds were going to shoot, because we had that established in qualifying and we thought that maybe there would be more of them,” he said.
“The intermediate stage was very difficult because a lot of people chose the alternative tire, the red tire, and they were very fast.”
Phil Long / ap
Will Power secured his first win of the season after winning from pole position.
Power scored his first win of the season in a 1-2 result for Team Penske after winning from pole, the 60th of the Australian’s career, behind only Mario Andretti (67) in the IndyCar record.
“That is probably the first race I believe in in about 10 years that I have pushed myself,” Power said. “Every two races I save fuel or we try to play a strategy game. Today, I said, ‘Let’s try hard, man. To hell with this, we don’t want to get caught by yellow. Let’s push ourselves, use my rhythm and see what happens. ” It was a great strategy. “
Alexander Rossi, caught in a miserable season, finished third. It was his second podium of the year and his second for the entire Andretti Autosport organization.
It was an uneventful 75-lap race with the drivers racing against threatening dark clouds. The teams were preparing to grab rain tires in the closing laps, but the race ended moments before the skies opened.
