IndyCar: Scott Dixon to drive the #1 Honda in the 2019 season

By Asher Fair | Jan 11, 2019

SONOMA, CA - SEPTEMBER 15: Scott Dixon of New Zealand driver of the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

Reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon is set to drive the #1 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda as opposed to the #9 Honda in the 2019 IndyCar season.

By winning an IndyCar championship, drivers have the option of using the #1 as their car number throughout the following season.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon has now had this option five times over the course of his IndyCar career, which began back in the 2001 season, as he just won his fifth championship in the 2018 season.

Dixon has only taken the opportunity to use the #1 as his car number the season once, as he did so after he won his first career championship in the 2003 season, which was his first official season competing in IndyCar, as he spent the 2001 and 2002 seasons competing in CART. He drove the #1 Chip Ganassi Racing Toyota in the 2004 season.

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Not including his two seasons in CART, the 2004 season was and still is the only season of Dixon’s IndyCar career during which he failed to win a race. Ever since then, he has never used the #1 as his car number.

Dixon, who typically drives the #9 car for Chip Ganassi Racing, drove the #9 Honda in the 2009 season after winning the 2008 championship. He drove the #9 Chevrolet in the 2014 season after winning the 2013 championship and in the 2016 season after winning the 2015 championship.

But after winning the 2018 championship, the 38-year-old New Zealander is set to do what he hasn’t done since the 2004 season, and that is use the #1 as his car number.

Dixon posted a photo of himself standings next to the #1 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda on his Instagram account.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsej2r2BMV9/

While this source is the only one to suggest that Dixon will drive the #1 Honda as opposed to the #9 Honda in the 2019 season thus far, it may very well be the most reliable source considering that the fact that it is the five-time IndyCar champion himself.

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Will Scott Dixon give himself the option to use the #1 as his car number in the 2020 IndyCar season by winning his sixth career IndyCar championship in the 2019 season? The 17-race season is scheduled to get underway in just under two months on Sunday, March 10 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. Full details about the 2019 schedule are available here.