Scott Dixon Wins Third Straight IndyCar Race at Road America
ELKHART LAKE, WI – RIS - Scott Dixon dominated on track in the season opener and had strategy drop a second victory in his lap. On Saturday he won the front end of the REV Group Grand Prix doubleheader on pit lane at Road America to stay unbeaten in the NTT IndyCar Series. The five-time series champion survived three restarts and held off Will Power by 2.5386 at Road America.
“We’re in the business of winning, so we’re going to win,” Dixon said in his television interview. “That’s what I’m proud of this team.
The Chip Ganassi Racing Honda driver benefited from a stall by runaway leader Josef Newgarden mid-race and then got around Power – Newgarden’s Penske Racing teammate – on the final stop to lead 16 of 55 laps on the rolling 4.014-mile circuit
Rookie Alex Palou finished third, Ryan Hunter-Reay fourth and Colton Herta fifth in the first race of the season for which fans were permitted to attend.
Dixon, who also won at Road America in 2017, became the first driver to win twice in the track’s five race.
Dixon has 49 wins with a chance to reach 50 in the weekend’s second round Sunday.
“I’ll see if I can sneak in a couple of beers,” he said.
Dixon is the first driver in modern history to win the first three races of an Indy-car season, having dominated at Texas Motor Speedway and then won a week ago on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
A.J. Foyt won the first three in 1964 and Al Unser in 1971 in USAC, and Sebastien Bourdais won the first four of the 2006 Champ Car season. All of them went on to win the championship that season.
Dixon has had three-race winning streaks in his career twice previously: Watkins Glen, Nashville and Mid-Ohio in 2007, and Pocono and a doubleheader sweep at Toronto in 2013.
Road America is the first of three doubleheader weekends on a schedule shuffled in reaction to restrictions and concerns about the corona virus pandemic. The track initially was scheduled to host the series last month but changed dates to create the best possibility to have fans onsite, and the second race was added.
Ron Fleshman
RIS NASCAR Editor. Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.