IndyCar: Scott Dixon championships usually mean two things

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Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, IndyCar (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Scott Dixon championships: Someone other than Scott Dixon will win in 2021

As many times as Scott Dixon has won the IndyCar championship, he has never been able to back up one title run with another.

And this can’t be blamed on the feared #1, either.

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His 2004 season was documented on the previous slide; Tony Kanaan won the title that year and became the first driver in modern history to complete every single lap throughout the season.

Dixon came close to repeating in 2009 after winning his second title in 2008, even leading the championship standings heading into the season finale, but he couldn’t do it, despite winning five races that season, a mark he hasn’t matched since but could very well match this year. Dario Franchitti, who also won five races, won it in his return season from NASCAR.

Dixon won his third title in 2013 and finished in third place in the championship standings in 2014, as Will Power won the title. He won his fourth title in 2015 and finished in an uncharacteristically low sixth in the standings in 2016, his lowest result since his 13th place finish in 2005, when Simon Pagenaud won the title.

After winning his fifth title in 2018, his 2019 season was marred by multiple uncharacteristic wrecks and several late mechanical failures. On the strength of his 10 podium finishes, tying his most in a season since 2008 when he recorded 12, he still managed to be in the title fight heading into the season finale and ended up finishing in fourth place in the championship standings. Josef Newgarden won the title that year.

With these five champions all being different drivers, will we see somebody completely new win it in 2021?

In terms of the entire series, IndyCar hasn’t seen a repeat winner at all since Franchitti won three straight titles from 2009 to 2011.

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Can Scott Dixon secure his sixth career IndyCar championship this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course? The two races of the IndyCar Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader are scheduled to take place on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3 and are set to be broadcast live on USA Network and NBC beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET and 2:30 p.m. ET, respectively.