IndyCar: Scott Dixon on pace to achieve ultrarare feat in 2020

By Asher Fair | Aug 29, 2020

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, IndyCar, Indy 500 (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Scott Dixon has yet to trail in the 2020 IndyCar championship standings. That trend hasn’t lasted throughout an entire season for a driver in a long time.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, coming off of a “down” year that saw him “only” win two races and finish in fourth place in the championship standings, opened up the 2020 IndyCar season with a bang, dominating at Texas Motor Speedway and then winning the next two races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Road America.

Dixon hasn’t won any of the last four races, but his lead in the championship standings is at a season-high 84 points following his double points-paying second place effort in the 104th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this past Sunday.

Dixon has scored 335 points through seven races while second place Josef Newgarden of Team Penske has scored 251. No other driver has scored more than 218.

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The odds that the 40-year-old New Zealander does not win the 2020 IndyCar championship grow slimmer by the lap, given that this season, assuming it goes 14 races and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course doubleheader is rescheduled, is tied for the shortest season since 2001.

Plus, there is no double points-paying season finale this year for the first time in 2013, which will make it even more challenging for his rivals. As a result, Dixon has a good chance to lead the championship standings after each race on the schedule, something that hasn’t happened in many years.

It happened most recently in the 2001 IndyCar season when Sam Hornish Jr. led the standings after each of the 14 races on the schedule en route to his first title, and it happened in the 2006 Champ Car season when Sebastien Bourdais led the standings after each of the 14 races on the schedule en route to his third straight title.

It nearly happened in the 2015 season, when Juan Pablo Montoya led the championship standings after each of the first 15 races on the 16-race schedule, but Dixon derailed his title hopes in the final race at Sonoma Raceway and won on a wins tiebreaker (three to two).

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Can Dixon pull it off? He is well-positioned to do it with seven races to go, including two at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where he is a six-time winner, that haven’t yet been rescheduled, and the fact that none of those seven races are double points-paying races doesn’t hurt his odds.