74 points, 2 races, 2 contenders, Kiwi vs Spaniard, Chip Ganassi Racing driver vs Chip Ganassi Racing driver. That’s what we have remaining for the 2023 NTT IndyCar season, and it could be a record-equalling if your name is Scott Dixon. No matter the outcome it will surely be a tense and nail-biting finale.
Scott Dixon may have found the kind of form that may just see him snatch the IndyCar championship from his teammate Alex Palou. Coming off back-to-back wins at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and at Worldwide Technology Raceway with both wins coming through a fuel-save race and no one is better at saving fuel than Dixon and it’s not as if they’ve been straightforward races either. At Indianapolis, he got spun around by Romain Grosjean and was on a recovery drive to remain in mathematical contention for the title.
When you look at Dixon’s results the fact that he is only 74 points behind when he had a DNF at Long Beach after being pushed into the tyre barrier by Pato O’Ward. The problem that Dixon faces is that if he manages to take the title battle down to the wire at Laguna Seca, it’s not really been a track that the Kiwi driver has excelled at. Dixon also seems to be hitting the form that can win a championship based on the last 2 races.
As much as they were both fuel-save races, they were 2 different types of races. In the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he was able to drive fast enough to just stay in the lead of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda of Graham Rahal but at Worldwide Technology Raceway, the Kiwi’s margin of victory was 22 seconds, and he was the only driver to attempt and execute the 3-stop strategy whereas everyone was on a 5 stop.
Palou, on the other hand, has been insane this year with 4 wins (3 road course wins and 1 street course win) and has the lowest finish of 8th place which is impeccable. When you get a runaway leader it’s always easy to say when will everyone close the points gap but this year is different. When Palou has had an off day, he hasn’t been bleeding points away from his rivals which has helped him maintain his points lead.
Palou’s margin of victories at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was 17 seconds ahead of O’Ward, on the streets of Detroit the margin of victory was 1 second for Will Power, at Road America it was a 5-second gap to Newgarden and at Mid-Ohio, the margin over Dixon was 6 seconds.
The question will be whose seat would you rather be in? Dixon who is the hunter or Palou who is the hunted. Dixon needs to be within 54 points of taking the championship battle to Monterey otherwise Palou will do what hasn’t been done in 16 years which is win a title before the final round.
So, let’s look at the pairs record around Portland International Raceway.
Scott Dixon:
Year | Qualifying | Race |
2018 | P11 | P5 |
2019 | P3 | P16 |
2021 | P3 | P3 |
2022 | P16 | P3 |
Alex Palou:
Year | Qualifying | Race |
2021 | P1 | P1 |
2022 | P4 | P12 |
It will be interesting to see who comes out on top in the penultimate round of the championship and with the records of the 2 challengers, all it says is that Dixon knows how to protect his race car when qualifying low down the pecking order as well as having a good strategy team behind him. The P16 finish in 2019 was down to an engine issue when running near the front. One area that both drivers will need to get past is the turn 1 and 2 chicane at the start of the lap as most of the chaos in the lap will happen. The pair actually came together at turn 1 last season but that was due to Felix Rosenqvist running too deep and forcing Dixon off the road and taking Palou with him.
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