IndyCar: Is it finally time to count out Scott Dixon?

This isn’t the first time that Scott Dixon hasn’t been performing at his best. But is it really time to count out the six-time IndyCar champion?

For the first time since Dario Franchitti won the third of three consecutive IndyCar championships in 2011, Scott Dixon finished behind a teammate in the championship standings in 2021.

His nine-year run of beating every teammate he faced, every season — nine different drivers, in total — came to an end in emphatic fashion last year, as Alex Palou convincingly capture the title in just his first season behind the wheel of the #10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.

That nine-year run included 23 victories and four championships, bringing Dixon to 50 career wins and six titles, good for third and second on the all-time lists, respectively.

But for the first time since 2016, Dixon was not mathematically alive in the championship hunt last year heading into the season finale, and he ended up 68 points behind Palou in the standings.

While a fourth place finish in the standings is hardly anything to sneeze at, for Dixon, the 2021 season was subpar.

He finished last among full-time Chip Ganassi Racing drivers in victories, winning just one race. He failed to win a road or street course race for the first time since 2004, which remains his most recent winless season. Meanwhile, Palou won three races, and second-year teammate Marcus Ericsson won two.

All of a sudden, it looks as though Dixon has a lot more on his plate than simply trying to beat Team Penske on a yearly basis.

And it wasn’t just a down 2021 season for the 41-year-old New Zealander. Since winning the first three races of the 2020 season, jumpstarting a sixth championship run during which he never sat lower than the points lead, he has won just two more races.

As the 2020 season wound down, he saw a seemingly safe 125-point lead evaporate into a slim 16-point title victory over Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden. Newgarden outscored him in each of the season’s final six races to close that gap by 87.2%.

It’s a question that has been asked before, most recently after a disappointing 2016 season that produced his lone non-top five points finish since 2005 and after a 2017 season that saw him win just one race for the first time since 2005, and the answer has always been a resounding no, as he went on to win his fifth and sixth titles in 2018 and 2020.

But given how things have gone for the driver of the #9 Honda as of late, is it finally time to count him out?

We all know the saying; you can never count out Scott Dixon. But just how true is that statement at this point in his career?

Bottom line, it’s still as true as it’s ever been.

And that is because one lap changed Dixon’s 2021 season and made it look a lot worse than it was.

An ill-timed caution flag period in the Indy 500 resulted in Dixon running out of fuel approaching his first pit stop. He fell one lap behind and into 31st place, and he could only battle back for a 17th place finish.

Aside from his Gateway DNF, that finish was his worst of the year, and it came in a double points-paying race.

He had already scored 10 points, nine for taking the pole position and one for leading three early laps. He scored 26 more for a 17th place finish (normally 13).

Any top five finish for Dixon, which seems pretty much guaranteed if not for that early issue, would have netted him at least 60 points. Those extra (at least) 34 points would have at least halved that season-ending deficit to Palou, keeping him alive heading into the season finale.

Palou has, of course, gotten his 2022 season off to a better start than Dixon as well, finishing the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Florida in second place while Dixon finished in eighth. But not only has Dixon actually never won in St. Petersburg, but he has historically not gotten off to great starts in his championship seasons.

This eighth place finish was his worst finish in a season opener since 2015, when he didn’t finish in the top 10 until the third race. Since then, he has won half of his titles; he would still go on to win his fourth championship that year.

And you better believe that after an offseason during which the focal point of the Chip Ganassi Racing camp was the dominant championship of a first-year teammate, that fire is there for Dixon to prove that he still belongs.

He is poised to pass Mario Andretti on the all-time wins list (currently at 51, one behind Andretti’s 52), and he is one title away from tying A.J. Foyt for the all-time record (seven).

Dixon’s lone win in the 2021 season came at Texas Motor Speedway, which is scheduled to host the next race on the 2022 schedule, the XPEL 375, this Sunday, March 20. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET. How will Dixon, a five-time winner at the track, perform as he looks to avoid falling further behind his teammate? Start your free trial of FuboTV today and don’t miss it!