Dixon finishes runner-up to Palou but he's still modern-day IndyCar's GOAT
PORTLAND, Ore. - Scott Dixon’s race to chase history will have to wait another year.
The 43-year-old New Zealand native entered Sunday’s BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland with a mathematical shot to win a record-tying seventh championship. But in the end, it was his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou who won it all.
Dixon already had an uphill battle entering the penultimate round of the 2023 season, as Palou simply needed to leave the Rose City with a 54-point lead. Unfortunately for Dixon, Palou dominated the race, leading 69 laps en route to both the race and championship victories.
Palou and Dixon finished 1-2 in the standings, the first time two Ganassi cars took the top two spots since Dixon finished second to Dario Franchitti in 2009. If it were any other year, Dixon and Palou’s finishing positions may have swapped.
But Palou simply was just too good.
Dixon finished in the top 10 in all but one race this year, but he also finished behind Palou in all but three of those races. He entered Portland having won the previous two races at the Indianapolis road course and Gateway, but it was too little, too late.
And perhaps fittingly, Dixon spent the Portland race chasing his teammate like he had done all year.
“Congrats to Chip (team owner Chip Ganassi) on his 15th Championship and Alex's second,” said Dixon, who finished third behind Palou and runner-up Felix Rosenqvist. “They had a fantastic race today.
“Obviously I think the starting position and us starting on the tires that we did definitely helped play out the way that it did.
“It was a little bit frustrating with some of the traffic and some of the pit sequences that we were in and kind of lost some time during those crossovers, but it is what it is.”
Scott Dixon finished third in Sunday's race at Portland, clinching second place in the 2023 IndyCar standings. IndyCar photo by Joe Skibinski.
When asked to analyze how his 2023 season went, now that the championship has been decided, Dixon used one word that was somewhat surprising.
“It was pretty blah, to be honest,” he said. “We had an issue at Long Beach and some races where we didn’t capitalize or maybe didn’t do the right strategy like Toronto.
“You can always pick a season to pieces, just like everyone can. All-in-all, you have to look at the big picture to secure one-two in the championship, that’s tough to do. And in this competition, it’s really tough to do. For us to rebound the way we did, that’s a testament to everybody and what they did.”
As lofty as Palou's achievements were this season, he's still a far cry from Dixon, who has 55 career wins (12 shy of A.J. Foyt's record), six championships (one shy of tying Foyt), and is arguably the most popular driver in the sport.
Sunday marked the third straight year that Dixon finished third on Portland's nearly two-mile, 12-turn permanent road course. As disappointed as he was at not winning the race or this year's championship, Dixon was complimentary of his current – and now confirmed future – teammate.
“He kind of does everything right,” Dixon said of Palou. “Yes, of course, you have seasons where things kind of roll your way sometimes. I’ve been a part of those and those are pretty special.
“He is a hell of a competitor, a huge talent. Obviously, we knew that right out of the gate. He’s done a hell of a job.”
But there was one thing that frustrated Dixon. He did not publicly express any disappointment in how the championship played out, but he did vent his frustrations with Race Control. A long delay to put out the yellow after a competitor stalled may have kept Dixon from taking second place from Rosenqvist in the closing laps.
‘I think it was the 78 (of Agustin Canapino) that spun off of probably the most dangerous part of the track in Turn 11, and then they just let him sit there until the leaders pit,” Dixon said. “The issue there is that as soon as the leaders pit, they make it to pit lane, they go caution, so the leaders don't have to eat the out-lap, which can be several seconds.
“It's just they feel like they're probably helping people, but they're making it worse in a lot of scenarios, but I'm happy that it helped Felix. He is a good friend and a guy I like a lot. If it was somebody else, I would have been a little more pissed off.”
While Dixon won’t have the chance to win another title this year, he could at least cap the season off with one more race victory next weekend. The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterrey, the season finale of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series, takes place on Sunday, September 10 at 2:30 p.m. ET (NBC).