[ad_1]
Michael Conroy / AP
Scott Dixon finished eighth after struggling early in the race.
The race for the IndyCar crown will be curtailed until the last minute after Kiwi Scott Dixon failed to close out the championship in the Harvest GP double title.
Following his victory in race one on Saturday (New Zealand time), defending IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden finished fourth at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday to get within 32 points of Dixon heading into the final of season.
Dixon started in 15th and struggled to eighth after the five-time series champion ran into trouble in the first 10 laps. He damaged the underside of the wing of his No. 9 Dallara-Honda in a collision and fought a loose car the rest of the way.
“I got in touch a couple of times,” Dixon said. “I tried everything in that race. We were full.”
READ MORE:
* Scott Dixon’s IndyCar leader is cut after ninth at Harvest Grand Prix
* Scott Dixon looking to win the IndyCar title at Indianapolis this weekend
* Can Scott Dixon’s charge be stopped for the sixth IndyCar title?
Will Power held back a furious charge from Colton Herta to claim a cable-to-cable victory from pole position by 0.8932 seconds.
But all eyes will be on the battle between Power Team Penske teammate Newgarden and Dixon in the final race of the season, which will take place on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida on October 25 (26). October New Zealand time).
Michael Conroy / AP
Josef Newgarden has reduced Scott Dixon’s championship lead to 32 points with one race remaining.
After leading by as much as 117 points at one stage of the season, Dixon arrived in Indianapolis with a 72-point lead over Dixon and a chance to clinch another title for team owner Chip Ganassi.
While he remains in the box, a difficult weekend (he finished ninth in race one) has left the door open for Newgarden to claim his crown.
“As always, the NTT IndyCar series comes down to the final race, even without double the points and the lead we had, more than 100 points in one stage,” said Dixon.
“It’s good to be ahead of the points at this stage. It’s still a good margin.
“It gives us a bit of a window. He (Newgarden) has to lead most of the laps, he has to get all four bonus points and we have to finish ninth.
“They have also been very good at St Pete for many years, so we are definitely going to have a lot of work to do.
Darron Cummings / AP
Scott Dixon had a difficult weekend at the Indianapolis double title.
Meanwhile, Power earned his fourth win for Team Penske on the 14-lap, 2,439-mile circuit. He has won two of the last four races and now has 39 in his career, tying Al Unser for fifth on IndyCar’s all-time list.
For most of the 75-lap race, the Australian driver was hardly challenged.
But once Herta beat his Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi on the first corner late with about 10 laps to go, he landed a clean shot on the Australian driver and started to close the gap.
Herta got closer to 0.5597 seconds with six to go, but never got any closer after Power’s former teammate Helio Castroneves let the top two cars pass for the final duel.
– with AP
