Beyond the Flag
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IndyCar: Ranking the Past 10 Series Champions

By Asher Fair

Sep 18, 2016; Sonoma, CA, USA; Hewlett Packard Enterprise driver Simon Pagenaud (center) celebrates his win and the title with Verizon Team Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya (right) and Steak’n Shake driver Graham Rahal (left) after the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 18, 2016; Sonoma, CA, USA; Hewlett Packard Enterprise driver Simon Pagenaud (center) celebrates his win and the title with Verizon Team Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya (right) and Steak’n Shake driver Graham Rahal (left) after the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports /
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Aug 30, 2015; Sonoma, CA, USA; 2nd place IndyCar Series driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, first place IndyCar Series driver Scott Dixon and 3rd place IndyCar Series driver Charlie Kimball raise their respective trophies after the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 30, 2015; Sonoma, CA, USA; 2nd place IndyCar Series driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, first place IndyCar Series driver Scott Dixon and 3rd place IndyCar Series driver Charlie Kimball raise their respective trophies after the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 7 – Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 2015

To this day, it still doesn’t seem like Scott Dixon really won the 2015 championship. In a season-long come-from-behind effort, he was able to pull it off and win his fourth title, tying him for 2nd on the all-time list. But even though he won it on a tiebreaker, his championship season was better than the past three come-from-behind champions mentioned on this list.

After winning the season-opener at St. Petersburg, Juan Pablo Montoya led the championship standings through each of the first 15 races on the 16-race 2015 IndyCar schedule. Scott Dixon won the season finale at Sonoma, however, and that set him up to win his fourth championship.

Yes, it only set him up to win it; it didn’t officially win it for him. When he crossed the finish line, he hadn’t won it yet. Unlike the champions on the previous two slides, Dixon wasn’t simply managing a favorable situation in the season finale where his championship competitor was out of the race and he simply needed to finish in a certain position or higher to win.

Sure, Montoya was involved in an early on-track incident, but he was never out of the race or the championship battle. When Dixon won the race, Montoya was battling for Ryan Briscoe for 5th place. Briscoe held him off, and Montoya finished 6th. This caused Dixon and Montoya to tie for the championship lead, but Dixon won the tiebreaker based on total wins thanks to his victory at Sonoma to wrap up a great season.