IndyCar: If you haven’t learned, you can never, ever count out Scott Dixon

By Asher Fair | Jun 4, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 24: Scott Dixon of New Zealand, driver of the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon proved once again why you can never, ever count him out, this time at the Raceway on Belle Isle.

One of the rarest sights in IndyCar is seeing five-time champion Scott Dixon crash, especially on his own. Such a sight is, to a large degree, almost surreal. But that is exactly what happened in Saturday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 1 at the Raceway on Belle Isle.

On lap 24 of what ended up being a 43-lap, 75-minute race around the 14-turn, 2.35-mile (3.782-kilometer) Raceway on Belle Isle temporary street circuit on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan, Dixon was running in third place, as he was having the kind of typical championship-building run that he has become known for over the last two decades.

But entering turn six, he clipped the inside barrier before plowing his #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into the outside tire barrier, ending his race with a 22nd (last) place finish.

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Entering this race, which was the seventh race of the 17-race 2019 season, Dixon sat in a fourth place tie in the championship standings following a disappointing 17th place finish in the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500, his worst finish since his 32nd place finish in the 101st running of the Indy 500 back in 2017.

Dixon was tied with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato with 203 points. Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud led the championship standings with 250 points, 47 points ahead of Dixon, with teammate Josef Newgarden in second place with 249 and Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi in third with 228.

While Dixon crashed out of this race and collected only eight points in the championship standings, these other four drivers all finished in the top six. Newgarden won the race ahead of Rossi in second place, Sato in third and Pagenaud in sixth.

As a result, Dixon now sat in fifth place in the championship standings entering Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 2 with 211 points. Newgarden led the standings with 303 points, 92 points ahead of Dixon, with Pagenaud in second with 278, Rossi in third with 270 and Sato in fourth with 238.

His championship hopes were shot.

That is, if his name weren’t Scott Dixon.

Pagenaud crashed on the first lap of Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 2 and ultimately finished in 17th place. Newgarden crashed toward the halfway mark of the race and ultimately finished in 19th. Sato dropped from the top five to 13th over the race’s final several laps due to a tire puncture. Rossi recovered from his involvement in Newgarden’s crash to finish in fifth.

Dixon?

All he did was lead 44 of the race’s 70 laps en route to his first victory of the season. And just like that, he is back to fourth place in the championship standings with 264 points, and he trails Newgarden for the lead by just 52 points (316 to 264). Rossi sits in second with 301 points while Pagenaud sits in third with 291.

It was almost like this weekend didn’t happen, at least from a negative perspective. Dixon lost just six points relative to Newgarden and 12 points relative to Rossi, and he gained 20 points relative to Pagenaud and nine points relative to Sato.

Keep in mind, this was a weekend where he threw a third place finish down the drain with an unforced crash.

How can anyone count Dixon out at this point — or ever? The same thing happens over and over and over again, and yet for some reason, different results are expected every time.

He thrives when the odds are stacked against him, and he proved that once again, for literally the millionth time, this past Sunday, cutting his deficit to championship standings leader Newgarden from 92 points all the way down to 52.

Look at Dixon’s championship history.

In the 16-race 2003 season, he entered the season’s 14th race a total of 42 points behind championship standings leader Helio Castroneves (429 to 387) in fourth place. He ended up winning that championship. The 18-race 2008 season was rare for Dixon in that he was truly the driver to beat throughout the whole season.

In the 19-race 2013 season, Dixon entered the season’s 11th race a total of 92 points behind championship standings leader Castroneves (332 to 240) in seventh place. He ended up winning that championship as well.

Then in the 16-race 2015 season, Dixon entered the season’s ninth race at total of 63 points behind championship standings leader Juan Pablo Montoya (315 to 252) in third place. He made up just 16 of these 63 points throughout the season’s next seven races, and entering the season finale, only Montoya had led the standings at any point throughout the season.

Dixon then made up all 47 of the remaining points by winning the double points-paying season finale at Sonoma Raceway, vaulting himself into a tie with Montoya for the championship. Dixon was awarded the tiebreaker as a result of the fact that he won three races throughout the season while Montoya only two.

Most recently, last season, Dixon had one of the worst starts to a season of his career. In the season’s first four races, he failed to finish on the podium, something he had not previously failed to do since the 2005 season, and he found himself mired in seventh place in the championship standings through these four races, already 51 points behind standings leader Josef Newgarden (158 to 107).

A few month’s later, he became just the second five-time champion in IndyCar history.

Once again, have we still not learned our lesson when it comes to counting him out?

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Is Scott Dixon a lock to win the 2019 IndyCar championship? Absolutely not. But until the math shows that he has absolutely no possible path to winning it, he should not only be considered a contender but the favorite.