IndyCar: Dixon Dominates Dramatic Phoenix Race

Scott Dixon inherited the lead early and dominated the Verizon IndyCar Series’ return to Phoenix International Raceway. But, the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix was full of more drama than Dixon’s dominant win might suggest. Let this be a lesson to race fans who don’t like endings under yellow: a race can be great and end under caution.

The 2016 Phoenix Grand Prix was about daring passes, tire trouble, and pit strategy. It ended with Target Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon in Victory Lane after leading the vast majority of the race. The drama started early. Dixon inherited the lead after both Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya both had right front tire failures while leading and they were forced into the pits. It’s not clear yet what caused the tires to fail.

Heading into the race, many drivers and experts believed passing would be nearly impossible and the Chevrolet teams would blow the Honda teams off the track. Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay put those theories to bed in the first corner of the first lap and on nearly every restart throughout the 250-lap event.

At the drop of the green flag, Hunter-Reay jumped to the outside and put the hammer down to pass several cars and jump into the Top Five. He had the car to beat, but got caught out by two separate caution flags and had to fight his way back to the front pack over and over. Hunter-Reay ended up in the tenth spot.

Another Honda that refused to bow to the pressure of pre-race doom and gloom predictions was Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Graham Rahal. Rahal rolled off the starting grid from the 19^th position and battled through traffic and multiple caution periods to find himself inside the top ten. He managed to sneak his Honda past Ed Carpenter’s Chevy after Carpenter made an ill-advised pass attempt before the last round of pit stops. That helped vault him to fifth place finish and the best finishing position for Honda. He and Hunter-Reay were the only “H”-branded cars inside the Top Ten when the checkers fell. After the race, Rahal said he felt the Chevrolet teams had a 5 mile-per-hour advantage, proving Honda still has some work to do to catch the Bow Tie.

The struggle was not restricted to the Honda teams. The Chevy team of Ed Carpenter Racing, which had one of the strongest performances in testing, practicing, and qualifying at Phoenix, just couldn’t stay out of trouble. Young ace Josef Newgarden was forced to the back once by a mistake from his pit crew and again after getting caught out by a caution. He managed to fight his way to a sixth place finish. Team owner Ed Carpenter ran most of the race in the Top Five, but a pass attempt right before the final round of pit stops ended with his machine in the wall. Carpenter finished in the 21^st position.

Here are the full race results from the Desert Diamond West Phoenix Grand Prix:

1. Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, Target Chip Ganassi Racing
2. Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, Team Penske
3. Will Power, Chevrolet, Team Penske
4. Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, Target Chip Ganassi Racing
5. Graham Rahal, Honda, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6. Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, Ed Carpenter Racing
7. Max Chilton (R), Chevrolet, Target Chip Ganassi Racing
8. Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, KV Racing Technology
9. Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, Team Penske
10. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, Andretti Autosport
11. Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, Team Penske
12. Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, Target Chip Ganassi Racing
13. Marco Andretti, Honda, Andretti Autosport
14. Alexander Rossi (R), Honda, Andretti Autosport
15. Takuma Sato, Honda, AJ Foyt Racing
16. Conor Daly, Honda, Dale Coyne Racing
17. Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
18. James Hinchcliffe, Honda, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
19. Jack Hawksworth, Honda, AJ Foyt Racing
20. Luca Filippi, Honda, Dale Coyne Racing
21. Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, Ed Carpenter Racing (CRASH)
22. Carlos Munoz, Honda, Andretti Autosport (CRASH)

Next: IndyCar: Top 5 Phoenix Races

The next race for the Verizon IndyCar Series is the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in Long Beach, California. The race is scheduled for 4:00pm ET on Sunday, April 17. The race will air on the NBC Sports Network.