Dixon, third in the Indy 500, the Honda ray of sunshine

Seeing Scott Dixon being beaten by three of his teammates, even in qualifying, is something rare, but it happened this year in Indianapolis! 200 laps and 500 miles later however, the six-time champion IndyCar led the way for Chip Ganassi Racing. Third at the finish, a place acquired in the last meters. In fact, it is the McLaren by Alexander Rossi who came out of the last turn in third place. The American had to slow down, having gone a little wide, and Dixon took advantage in the very final straight.

At the last restart, it was even Dixon who was leading the race, almost to everyone's surprise! The New Zealander, as is often the case, played a perfect part in terms of strategy, accompanied by a regularly infallible team in the pits. Once the last pitstops were over, however, the superiority of the Chevrolets from Arrow McLaren and Team Penske was felt. Scott Dixon then remained in the slipstream, waiting for a possible error, which presented itself in the last meters.

“Honestly, we gave everything we had. I took the restart in the lead and from the start/finish line two drivers overtook me! That's when I realized it was going to be difficult. Well done to them for having the rhythm. We had some pretty strange restarts in the middle of the race, we lost places, then we changed strategy. That, combined with better restarts, put me back in the leading group, with Pato [O'Ward] in particular. On the last stint, we were just flat out. We were doing an average of 218 mph (351 km/h), them at 220, then when the McLarens started to exchange the lead and Newgarden came along, they were at 222 and I was just trying to hang on. They had a much better pace than us, and we didn't have enough at the end of the race. »

Give everything to regret nothing

With a fifth place for reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou, his teammate Scott Dixon knows that the entire Ganassi clan gave their all. And that’s what he will remember from this 108th edition of the Indianapolis 500. The team ultimately did much better than limit the damage, after disastrous qualifying! The three engine failures at Honda at the start of the race (including one for Marcus Armstrong's Ganassi) could also have derailed this good overall result...

“I think the most important thing is that when you get out of the car you are happy with what you did. I think we gave everything. This is my case and that of the team. We tried. They really tried to motivate me at the end and I told them that I was all in, that I had nothing left in stock and that I was trying my hardest. Yes, I think that in this sense, the only disappointment you can have is when you leave the track and you know that you didn't give everything you had. I know as a group we left nothing on the table. »

Dixon surprised by contact with Hunter-Reay

The quest for a second victory for Scott Dixon in Indianapolis will therefore continue for another year. It has now been 16 years since he last won at the Brickyard, an anomaly given his track record on this circuit. He is notably the driver who has led the most laps in the history of the race! All this could have ended on lap 107, when he clashed with Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dreyer & Reinbold). No damage, and no penalty for Dixon surprised by this contact.

“I don’t really know what happened. There was no room, and I was looking to the right instead. I saw at the last minute that he had hit me, but he was already well into the grass at that point. I hope he is well. I haven't watched the replay yet to see if I could have done anything differently other than move out of his way. But that's not how you race! »

ALSO READ > Despite arriving in Indy, Kyle Larson's dream turned into a nightmare