IndyCar: Scott Dixon’s 6th title ends long streak
By Asher Fair
No driver above the age of 40 had won an IndyCar championship since 1993 before Scott Dixon became the oldest to win it since 1989 last Sunday.
Scott Dixon’s 2020 IndyCar championship was quite unique in more ways than one.
No driver had won a sixth title since A.J. Foyt, who retired a seven-time champion, won his sixth title back in 1975.
No driver had won a title after leading the championship standings after each and every race of the season since Sam Hornish Jr. did so in 2001 (and Sebastien Bourdais did so in 2006, including Champ Car).
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Dixon also became the oldest driver to win an IndyCar championship in more than three decades when he crossed the finish line in third place on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida to wrap up a crazy 2020 season last Sunday, October 25.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver of the #9 Honda from New Zealand turned 40 years old on Wednesday, July 22, making him 40 years and 95 days old when he secured his sixth career championship. The last time a driver over 40 years old won a title was in the 1993 CART season, when Nigel Mansell, who turned 40 on Sunday, August 8, secured the title on Sunday, September 19 at the age of 40 years and 42 days old.
It was in 1989 when a driver older than Dixon most recently won a championship. Emerson Fittipaldi won the title that year at the age of 42.
Since Will Power won the 2014 championship at the age of 33, Simon Pagenaud is the only driver above the age of 28 to win a championship aside from Dixon. Pagenaud won it in 2016 at the age of 32.
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Dixon is set to enter the 2021 IndyCar season, which is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 7 at the same venue where the 2020 season ended, with his sights on a record-tying seventh championship. However, he has never won back-to-back titles, winning in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and now 2020.