Dixon ties Foyt’s record with Texas IndyCar win
FORT WORTH — Scott Dixon, a five-time IndyCar champion, took the checkered flag at dusk Saturday for his fourth win at the 1 ½mile oval. The 39-year-old New Zealander raced to his 47th career victory and matched A.J. Foyt’s record of 18 seasons with a win.
After a restart with three laps left following a caution when his teammate Felix Rosenqvist crashed, Dixon sped away in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Honda for a 4.4-second victory over Simon Pagenaud. Defending IndyCar champion and polesitter Josef Newgarden finished third behind Pagenaud, his teammate at Team Penske.
“It was such a team effort,” said Dixon, third on the career wins list behind Foyt’s 67 and Mario Andretti’s 52. “It’s just so fast. Any situation we were in, we could just go for it.”
Nearly three months after the start of the season was put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, IndyCar finally got on the track for what would usually
MOTOR SPORTS be the midpoint race of its season. The massive grandstands that can seat well more than 100,000 people were empty and not because of extreme heat — temperatures in the mid-90s with a heat index around 100 degrees throughout practice, qualifying and even much of the race. No spectators were allowed, as will also be the case for the next race on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 4.
“It’s rotten that the fans aren’t here. I wish everybody was here to celebrate,” said Dixon, who extended his own record to 16 seasons in a row with a victory.
Gov. Greg Abbott rode in the pace car for the first professional sporting event in Texas since sports shut down nationwide because of the coronavirus.
Dixon had the top speed during the two-hour practice session earlier in the day and qualified second to start on the front row alongside Newgarden.
Rosenqvist had been running behind Dixon for several laps when he crashed trying to move through traffic. He got high going onto the backstretch with nine laps remaining, bringing out the final caution. He finished 20th out of the 23 cars that started the race.
Dixon led 157 of the 200 laps and had an earlier sixsecond lead over Newgarden wiped out by a caution for debris. Newgarden led twice for 41 laps and fourthplace finisher Zach Veach led the remaining two laps. Ed Carpenter, the series’ only driver-owner, rounded out the top five.
Because of the extended day at the track, the length of the race was shortened to 200 laps from its usual 248.