IndyCar: The unsung hero of Scott Dixon’s come-from-behind 2015 title

By Asher Fair | Sep 19, 2019

SONOMA, CA - AUGUST 30: Scott Dixon of New Zealand driver of the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Dallara poses with the IndyCar Championship trophy after winning the Verizon IndyCar Series GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway on August 30, 2015 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

Scott Dixon entered the 2015 IndyCar season finale trailing points leader Juan Pablo Montoya by 47 points. The performance of an unsung hero helped him seal the championship.

Entering the 16th and final race of the 2015 IndyCar season, no driver not named Juan Pablo Montoya had led the championship standings at any point in the season.

Entering this 85-lap race around the 12-turn, 2.385-mile (3.838-kilometer) Sonoma Raceway road course in Sonoma, California, the Team Penske driver held a 34-point lead over Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in the standings. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was lurking in third, 13 points behind Rahal.

With this race being a double points-paying race, Rahal effectively trailed Montoya by 17 points with Dixon sitting a further 6.5 points back.

More from IndyCar

After having led 11 laps earlier, Dixon inherited the lead on lap 63. At this point, Team Penske’s Will Power, who had been involved in an earlier incident when Montoya spun him out and damaged his own front win in doing so, had led a field-high 26 laps, meaning Dixon still had a chance to secure the two bonus points for leading the most laps.

On the race’s final restart with 12 laps remaining, Dixon, who had not yet secured these two additional bonus points, led the race with Montoya in eighth place. With double points, Montoya effectively trailed Dixon by six points at this time.

Ahead of Montoya in sixth and seventh place, respectively, were Rahal and KVSH Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais. With nine laps remaining, Dixon had checked out from the rest of the field and needed to lead two more laps to pass Power in the laps led category. Bourdais and Rahal then made contact, sending Rahal spinning.

Montoya was now up to seventh place, trailing Dixon by only two points. When Dixon passed Power for the most laps led with seven laps remaining, Montoya then trailed him by four points. With six laps remaining, Bourdais was issued a drive-through penalty, promoting Montoya to sixth place.

Dixon and Montoya were now tied with 556 points, and because a victory for Dixon would be his third victory of the season and Montoya had only won twice, Dixon would be crowned champion.

As a result, Montoya set sail for fifth place and a wire-to-wire championship. With five laps remaining, he trailed Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Ryan Briscoe for fifth by roughly 3.5 seconds.

Every Dixon fan became an even bigger Briscoe fan. Dixon had the race won, but the battle for fifth place was far from over.

Briscoe wasn’t even supposed to be driving in the 2015 season. But because of the near-fatal crash experienced by James Hinchcliffe during practice for the Indianapolis 500 earlier that year, the Australian driver drove the #5 Honda in eight races throughout the rest of the season.

Sonoma Raceway was a track at which he had experienced tons of previous success, including five consecutive top four finishes from 2008 to 2012. His average finish during this span was 2.40, and he won one race while securing an additional three podium finishes.

With four laps remaining, that gap closed to 2.9 seconds.

Briscoe had the advantage of running behind two of Dixon’s teammates, with Charlie Kimball in third place and Tony Kanaan in fourth. As a result, they did not let up, as doing so would have slowed down Briscoe and given Montoya an advantage.

With three laps remaining, that gap closed to 2.5 seconds.

Montoya was coming.

With two laps remaining, that gap closed to 2.1 seconds, but Kanaan began to struggle, which did not bode well for Dixon by way of backing Briscoe into Montoya.

When the white flag flew, that gap was down to 1.5 seconds.

Throughout the race’s final lap, Montoya closed on Briscoe even more. He was only two car lengths behind him in the turn seven hairpin, and he was now well within one second of him.

Dixon took the checkered flag as Montoya continued his hunt for fifth place. Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay crossed the finish line in second ahead of Kimball in third and Kanaan in fourth.

Briscoe took fifth place, 1.199 seconds ahead of Montoya in sixth.

Scott Dixon became a four-time champion.

Briscoe hasn’t competed in an IndyCar race since, and Montoya lost his full-time ride to eventual 2017 champion Josef Newgarden following the 2016 season.

It played out pretty much opposite of how the 2008 Formula 1 season finale played out, when Felipe Massa won his home race, the Brazilian Grand Prix, and led the driver standings upon its conclusion before Lewis Hamilton passed Timo Glock for fifth place on the final lap to secure his first title in front of a devastated crowd.

Massa ended up never winning a championship, while Hamilton, now a five-time and likely soon-to-be six-time champion, is pursuing Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of seven.

Next. Top 10 IndyCar drivers of all-time. dark

Scott Dixon went on to win the 2018 IndyCar championship as well, and he remains mathematically eligible to win this year’s title heading into the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

However, trailing points leader Josef Newgarden of Team Penske by 85 points from fourth place in the championship standings, he will need a lot more help than the amount of help that Ryan Briscoe was able to provide in the closing laps of the season finale four years ago.