IndyCar: Scott Dixon’s ‘worst’ track still his ‘best’ track

By Asher Fair | Apr 19, 2021

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, IndyCar - Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports /

Scott Dixon is now 0 for 11 at Barber Motorsports Park throughout his IndyCar career, despite the fact that he is basically a podium lock there.

Barber Motorsports Park continued its role as Scott Dixon’s kryptonite on Sunday afternoon in the 2021 IndyCar season-opening Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by AmFirst.

Dixon, in his first race as the series’ second ever six-time champion, once again failed to find victory lane at the track, making him 0 for 11 at the 17-turn, 2.38-mile (3.830-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Birmingham, Alabama — very uncharacteristic for one of only three drivers who has 50 wins to his name.

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Yet if there is one track where the 40-year-old New Zealander would probably like to begin his title defense in his bid to become a back-to-back champion for the first time in his career and to become the second ever seven-time champion to tie A.J. Foyt’s record, it’s probably Barber Motorsports Park.

Because as “bad” as he has been there, it has arguably been his best track, except for maybe Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where he has won six times.

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No, he still hasn’t won there, but he’s been as good as you can possibly be without winning, and that has been the case consistently for more than a decade.

It used to be that three things were guaranteed in life: death, taxes, and Scott Dixon finishing in second place at Barber Motorsports Park. He finished runner-up at the track in his first four starts there in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 before that streak finally ended in 2014. Now it was death, taxes and Scott Dixon finishing on the podium. In 2014 and 2015, he finished the race in third place.

2016 was an outlier, as he only finished in 10th place — but his whole season was really an outlier that year. 2018 was as well, when he finished in sixth.

But 2017 and 2019 featured returns to the norm, as he placed second in both of those years, and he opened up the 2021 season with a third place finish after the race there was canceled in 2020.

In 11 starts, he has never missed the Firestone Fast Six at the track. His average starting position is 4.18 — interestingly, with no pole positions — and his average finishing position is 3.36, featuring nine podium finishes.

Not bad for his “kryptonite”.

He has only led 46 of his 961 laps there. To put that in perspective, teammate Alex Palou, in his first start at the track and first ever start for Chip Ganassi Racing, led 56 of the 90 laps on Sunday en route to his season-opening first career victory.

Dixon has led just eight of 691 laps there from 2013 to 2021, despite securing six podium finishes in eight races during that span.

Interestingly, the next track on the schedule is also a track where Dixon has not yet won throughout his career.

He is 0 for 16 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida despite recording six podium finishes, including three in the last four seasons, but we won’t call that his “worst” track, even in jest, considering he secured his sixth career title there last October with a third place effort to cover off the points that championship rival Josef Newgarden made up on him by winning.

As for the rest of the 2021 schedule, there are only three tracks where Dixon has never won. He has never won on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, but the series has also never raced there.

He also hasn’t won at Portland International Raceway or WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, but he has made just four and three starts there, respectively.

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The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is set to be broadcast live on NBC from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 25.