St Petersburg: Dixon crowned despite Newgarden victory

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi) won his 6th titleIndyCar at the end of the final round of the season, Sunday, in the streets of St Petersburg, where he took 3rd place. 

Already titled in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, and 2018, the New Zealander has deepened his mark in history with this title which places him one length behind Al Unser, the driver with the most extensive track record in car U.S.. 

His only rival for the title, Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), did the job, winning a bumpy race, but it was not enough to recover his 32 points deficit at the start. For this, Dixon would have had to finish higher than 9th place. But the Kiwi, 11th on the starting grid, always remained in contact. 

In the end, the reigning champion finished the season 16 lengths behind Dixon, after being 117 points behind six races from the end of the season.
 

And he does it again, @ScottDixon9 is now a six-time #INDYCAR Champion. pic.twitter.com/eh7O4XcxzC

- NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) October 25, 2020

Starting in 8th position, Newgarden won a clear race during his first third, before a first neutralization caused by his teammate and pole sitter, Will Power (37th lap), made it become chaotic. The neutralizations then followed one another (six in total) to the point that the safety car driven by Oriol Servia broke down before the last restart (84th of 100 laps).

While the Andretti Autosport cars dominated the race for a long time, all made mistakes, Alexander Red the first, who had been leader for 61 laps.

James Hinchcliffe, Colton Herta and Mario Andretti imitated him, incidents which notably benefited the French.

Party 7th, Sébastien Bourdais (AJ Foyt Racing) finished just off the podium, in 4th place, for its 3rd race of the season. simon pagenaud (Team Penske) ended a disappointing season in 6th place.