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Dixon ties Andretti for third in all-time wins with triumph in Detroit opener

by Mike Haag | Posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2018

Scott Dixon begins the celebration in Victory Circle after winning Race 1 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park — Photo by: Chris Owens

 

Courtesy of the Verizon IndyCar Series

DETROIT – Scott Dixon’s quest to tie Michael Andretti for third place on the Indy car career wins list was threatened, ironically, by a trio of Andretti’s own drivers.

Scott Dixon sails out of Turn 7 during Race 1 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park — Photo by: Chris Owens

None had the measure of the four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion on Saturday, however. Dixon won the opener of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear doubleheader, collecting the 42nd victory of his star-studded career. The win knotted Dixon with Andretti on the all-time list and leaves only fellow legends A.J. Foyt (67 wins) and Mario Andretti (52) ahead.

CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX PRESENTED BY LEAR: Race 1 official results

“I feel very lucky and very privileged to be in this sport,” said Dixon, who spent the first year-plus of his Indy car career with PacWest Racing before joining Chip Ganassi Racing four races into the 2002 season. He’s been with CGR since.

Scott Dixon sprays the champagne in Victory Circle after winning Race 1 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park — Photo by: Chris Owens

“For me, I love racing. I feel very lucky to do it, and while I’m here, I want to do the best that I can. Winning is why we’re in this business, and that’s why we’re going to come back tomorrow and try and get No. 43.”

In the 294th race of his 18-year career, Dixon sailed the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda across the finish line 1.8249 seconds ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay on the 14-turn, 2.35-mile temporary street course. Hunter-Reay’s teammates Alexander Rossi and Marco Andretti finished third and fourth, respectively.

Dixon’s first win of 2018 extended his record of capturing at least one race in a season to 14 consecutive years. It also moved him into second place in the 2018 championship. The 37-year-old New Zealander trails Rossi by four points.

Marco Andretti dives into Turn 7 during Race 1 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park — Photo by: Chris Owens

Marco Andretti, who earned his first pole position in nearly five years in morning qualifying, led the opening 23 laps before making his initial pit stop in the No. 98 AutoNation/Curb Honda. Dixon followed with a lightning-quick pit stop a lap later and returned to the track ahead of Andretti. From there, Dixon led 39 of the final 48 laps.

“We were trying to save as much fuel as possible to make sure that, whenever they did pit, we could go a lap or two longer, and that’s how it played out,” Dixon said. “As soon as (Marco Andretti) peeled off, we used a ton of (push-to-pass overtake activation), that good Honda power there, and threw in a big lap time. The pit stop was flawless, too, and we were able to jump him.”

Mike Hull, the managing director at CGR, has had a front-row seat for the majority of Dixon’s success as his long-time race strategist.

Ryan Hunter-Reay leads teammates Marco Andretti and Alexander Rossi through Turns 1-2 during Race 1 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park — Photo by: Joe Skibinski

“Winning today was like winning the first race with Scott,” Hull said. “The first race we won with Scott was (at) Homestead in 2003. It’s been a great ride to this point for us.

“What Scott does so well is that he represents the culture of Chip Ganassi Racing. He’s a teammate, a team member. It’s something that you’ll look back on and say, ‘Man, that was awesome to be a part of.’ But for today and now, we’re happy to come home with the win.”

Hunter-Reay opted for a three-stop strategy in the No. 28 DHL Honda and clicked off the fastest lap of the race to move onto the second step of the podium. It equaled the best Belle Isle finish for the 2012 Verizon IndyCar Series champion. Hunter-Reay also knew it was Dixon’s day to shine.

“Scott is one of the best,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s amazing, in this day and age in racing and how equally matched everything is, to be in that bracket of third overall (in wins). As long as they’ve been collecting these stats, there’s many years where certain drivers would have streaks where they’d win 10 races in a season or something like that, so it’s amazing that in this day and age that he’s able to continue to rack them up and be in that list.”

Alexander Rossi comes in for tires and fuel on pit lane during Race 1 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park — Photo by: Joe Skibinski

Rossi, in the No. 27 Ruoff Home Mortgage Honda, passed Marco Andretti for third place on a Lap 61 restart to notch his fourth podium finish this season and regain the championship lead. Team owner Michael Andretti praised Dixon for tying him on the all-time victory list, but wished it hadn’t happened on a day when Andretti Autosport had three strong cars.

“Scott Dixon is one of the best Indy car drivers of all time, so it was only just a matter of time before he was going to get there,” Michael Andretti said. “Well deserved. He’s always running up front and when you do that, you’re going to win a lot of races.

“He picked the wrong day to do it, for sure,” Andretti added with a laugh. “You finish second, third and fourth and you’re still not really, really happy, which is probably being a little greedy right now.”

Graham Rahal streaks down the frontstretch during Race 1 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park — Photo by: Joe Skibinski

The 70-lap race was slowed by two full-course cautions. Graham Rahal, who won both Detroit races a year ago and was running among the leaders Saturday, ricocheted off a curb and into the Turn 13 wall on Lap 47, ending his day in 23rd place in the No. 15 United Rentals Honda. Nine laps later, Carlin’s Charlie Kimball ran into the back of Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, sending the 20-year-old into the Turn 7 tire barrier in his Verizon IndyCar Series debut. Kimball was penalized for avoidable contact and Ferrucci finished 22nd.

AJ Foyt Racing driver Tony Kanaan celebrated his 350th career start with a 14th-place finish. Kanaan is third on the all-time starts list, trailing Mario Andretti (407) and Foyt (369).

The first seven Verizon IndyCar Series races this season have seen five different drivers reach victory lane. Rossi leads the standings with 276 points, Dixon is second with 272, Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power is third with 269, reigning champion Josef Newgarden has 255 and Hunter-Reay is fifth with 227.

The second race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix takes place Sunday. Qualifying starts at 10:45 a.m. ET and streams live on RaceControl.IndyCar.comyoutube.com/indycar and the INDYCAR Mobile app. Live coverage of the 70-lap race is carried on ABC (3:30 p.m. ET) and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network (3 p.m.).

‘What They’re Saying’ from Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear Race 1

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): “That was a lot of work for a ninth-place finish. I’m worn out. This place really takes it out of you. This is a place where you have to be up on the wheel all the time. If you aren’t, it can bite you. We saw that today with (Graham) Rahal. But I need to thank everyone at Team Penske and Team Chevy. We really want to do well here in our backyard, but we just didn’t have enough here today. I think the max were we going to be was fifth or sixth. We know we are going to have to try some things. We are going to do some experiments overnight and try to come up with something different tomorrow.”

MATHEUS LEIST (No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): “It was a tough race starting 21st. I think we were OK until the yellow came out for Graham (Rahal), it messed up our strategy. I think we made some improvements in the car, but the race didn’t go our way at the end. I think we could be a little bit faster than that, so we will improve the car and try to have a great race tomorrow.”

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Electronics SPM Honda): 
“That one was on me… pretty disappointing result. We got hosed in qualifying by a slow car – just a wrong place, wrong time sort of thing – so we started behind where we should have. We had kind of committed to an alternate strategy, the three-stopper. Unfortunately, on that first stop, I just had a pit lane violation – 100 percent on me. Very frustrating, because after that the Arrow Electronics car was really good. We were taking a lot of time out of the guys on the two-stop strategy. Then, that yellow sort of closed it up, but the race had gone yellow-free for so long. I used a lot of push-to-pass trying to get around guys and get that open track we needed. I was kind of a sitting duck on those restarts, didn’t have much to play with. Really disappointed in myself with the pit lane violation. The SPM guys deserve better, they were great on pit lane as always. The car is quick, and we get a chance to try and qualify where we belong tomorrow and hopefully race up front.”

ROBERT WICKENS (No. 6 Lucas Oil SPM Honda): “Honestly, it was a tough day… I felt that we had a great car. For sure there are some areas we need to work on, but we fell off massively on the reds (Firestone alternate tires) out of nowhere. We had to commit to the three-stop strategy pretty early on, and then we lost track position and it was kind of a battle from there. We were able to climb back up to eighth, but I think we could have gotten the Lucas Oil car up in the top five. The good thing is we have another shot at just that tomorrow.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): “It’s always nice (to win). I think right now, with the competition in the Verizon IndyCar Series, it’s just through the roof. If you look back a few years, you can sort of run off five or six victories in a season, and it seems those days are pretty much gone. I’m super proud of everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing, and obviously PNC Bank’s first victory. Finishing third in Indy is nice, but really people only care about who wins at that place, so it’s always tough leaving Indianapolis unless you’ve won. But it’s always nice to rebound strong in Detroit. Honda has done a superb job, Top six for them here in the Motor City is a pretty big deal and congratulations to them. We’re going to come back and do it all again tomorrow. Would have been nice to celebrate a bit tonight.” 

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “Obviously, we have good top-end speed, which is great for Indy and some of these tracks with longer straights. I drove pretty hard for seventh place. Our car is pretty good; the handling is not bad, so there’s not much I could pick out to gain us some speed. If we could qualify a little better, like in the top four, it would make a big difference. You could do something there with strategy.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): “We passed a lot of cars today. We gambled with the strategy and we knew it could work or not and that last yellow killed us, but it is what it is. We have to qualify better, which we are working on, because track position is so important. When you start playing with strategy like that, I told the boys we were either going to finish inside the top 10 or we’re gonna finish where we started. But I’m happy, the pit stops were good, so we just have to keep working on the items we need to make better.”

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 United Rentals Honda): “I’m OK. It was about the worst hit you could take around here. I think the car did its job. Obviously, we were going to finish third, at worst, and it looks like a lot of our competitors are struggling today. I’m disappointed in myself. We’ve got to go back and look at what happened. I just lost it before I even really turned in. I don’t really know what happened. It was shaping up pretty good for the United Rentals team so it’s disappointing. We were the only ones that were bold enough to do it (start with Firestone primary tires), but it put us in a good spot in the race and then we could manage the pace from there. On the red (Firestone alternate tire), it was certainly ugly for me. It was a handful to hang on there, but it was my out lap on the last set there when I lost it and I’m not really sure what happened. It was feeling OK. We just decided to try something different, get off strategy there and it worked. In my head, I had it all played out where I felt like if I could start on blacks, I could hold off others the first few laps so that I could make my way through the guys and it worked out.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 18 Team SealMaster Honda): 
“It had to be one of the hardest races I have ever done. We haven’t found the sweet spot on the setup. We are searching, we are trying things, but this afternoon we went backwards. I lost the tires very quickly on the first stint with the alternate (Firestone red tires), then I made a mistake and lost two spots. We put on the black (Firestone primary) tires and I had no pace. The car got loose right away. The car was just super difficult to drive. We put the front wing down a little bit, that kind of got the car back in the groove at the end, but it was too little too late. The positive is the car is in one piece and we have another go at it tomorrow.” 

SANTINO FERRUCCI (No. 19 Paysafe Honda):
 “The No. 19 Paysafe, Cly-Del Dale Coyne Racing car was absolutely amazing. We had a fantastic balance coming out of qualifying. All the engineers did a fantastic job sorting the car out for me during the race. Once I figured out how to fuel save better, we picked up massive time and we were doing a really good job. We were in great shape to get a potential top 10 finish for my first outing in the Verizon IndyCar Series, so it’s disappointing to get run over like that, but that’s racing and we’ll come back stronger tomorrow.”

JORDAN KING (No. 20 Allegiant International Chevrolet): 
“The second half of our race was quite good, we were quite strong the second half pace-wise. I am a bit confused as to why I couldn’t get much of pace out of it at the start of the race. We were just kind of holding on to everybody, but not able to do anything. After that, we got into quite a good rhythm and made some good progress. Starting at the back just made it difficult. We overtook a few people, but I think our pace was a little better than where we ended up. It’s tough out there, the field is quite close which makes strategy calls difficult, as well. It was good to get a first full race with no issues in. That’s quite nice, but it’s annoying in that we’re further down the field than we want to be.”

SPENCER PIGOT (No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet): “Overall, it was a pretty solid race for us. We made improvements throughout the weekend and we were able to move up during the race. Unfortunately, we had a stall on our first pit stop which cost us a little bit of time, but I don’t think it had a huge effect on the finishing position. It was nice to get our first top 10 finish of the season. I feel like it should have come a lot earlier, but hopefully, this can be the start of a good string of results for us. Thanks to all of the Fuzzy’s Vodka guys in the pit lane for another day of hard work.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet): “I’m really proud of the effort by the Carlin boys today. The No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet was good, we had great pit stops and we made great fuel mileage. I got caught out on contact with a rookie. Honestly, that one was on me, because I expected him to be a little more consistent than he was. With a rookie, I should’ve given him more benefit of a doubt. I feel badly for the team on that front, but the good thing about the Dual in Detroit is that we get to come back and try again tomorrow. We’ll try and qualify a little higher up, so we don’t have to fight quite as hard in the back to get back up front.”

ZACH VEACH (No. 26 Relay Group 1001 Honda): 
“I thought we had a really good qualifying car. I think we should have qualified inside the top six, but I just didn’t do the job I needed to during qualifying. I think our car is good, there’s just a couple things I need to improve on tomorrow. Overall, for learning, I think today was very good for us. Obviously 12th isn’t where we want to be finishing races, but for our first race here, I don’t think it’s terrible. Congratulations to my teammates, they’ve done a hell of a good job all weekend, so far. They’re paving the way for me and I’m just learning as much as I can. Detroit is very rough and 70 laps around this place seems like an eternity. Tomorrow is going to be a lot of work as well.”

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 27 Ruoff Home Mortgage Honda):
 “It’s great for Andretti Autosport to be 2-3-4, it’s great for the team. I think the No. 27 Ruoff Home Mortgage car had the capability to win, but for whatever reason, after pit stops, we just kept coming out behind a slower car and weren’t able to maximize clean air and fresh tire pace. With that being said, when the last restart happened, I knew we didn’t have the pace for the top two, so sometimes you’ve just got to be content with third. It’s great to be back on the podium, it’s great for the team after a very long month of May.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): “I was doing qualifying laps there the whole time. Man, it was physical, just trying to qualify every single lap. Then at the end, with the restarts, kind of threw it off the rhythm there. I had trouble getting the tires clean, and kind of let (Scott) Dixon slip away there. I thought, the first couple laps after the green came out on the restart, I had something for him, but I just couldn’t keep the mid-corner speed on the far end of the track to keep up with him, to get close enough for the pass. Good job by the No. 28 DHL boys today in the pit lane again. They did an awesome job in Indy and again today, just phenomenal. Just came up a bit short today.”

TAKUMA SATO (No. 30 Fifth Third Bank Honda): “It wasn’t the best day for us, but at least it was a solid result. After last year’s result for the team, obviously we had high expectations, but we struggled a little bit and had a technical issue on the first day and I think we came back really strong. The track is now nicely rubbered down. We can expect to have quite a competitive qualifying tomorrow and hopefully we have a good car.” 

RENE BINDER (No. 32 Binderholz tiptop Timber Chevrolet): 
“The race went OK, however, early in the race, I went in the runoff area and took a minute to get back on track. I tried to push and get a better feeling of the car. Our lap times were really competitive this afternoon compared to qualifying earlier today. I was able to find a good rhythm, so we need to keep this momentum going into the next race tomorrow.”

MAX CHILTON (No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet): 
“It’s unfortunate that we ended up where we did in today’s race, especially after we qualified so well this morning with a top-10 qualifying effort. We lost some positions on the start and then we went on an alternate fuel strategy that just didn’t work out the way we were hoping in the end for the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet. While we aren’t where we need to be yet, we’re seeing more and more progress being made every race. We’re excited to get back out there tomorrow, and we’ll hope to have a similar qualifying effort but a different race result.”

GABBY CHAVES (No. 88 Harding Group Chevrolet): “We just finished the first part of the Detroit doubleheader weekend. We learned a lot out there during the race today. I know that the guys are going to work hard to take what we learned out there to make the necessary changes before tomorrow’s race. I know we’ll have some improvements so we can make sure the No. 88 is closer to the front.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 98 AutoNation / Curb Honda): “You hate to go backwards. We definitely wanted another trophy. I haven’t had a podium in while and that’s been getting to me, let alone the win. We’ll do some homework tonight on how we can improve on the race today and do better tomorrow. We want to get the pole tomorrow.”

About the Author

Mike Haag has covered motorsports in San Antonio and South Texas for more than 35 years. In addition to covering motorsports for the San Antonio Express-News for nearly 28 years, Mike also has co-hosted TrackSmack with Dawn Murphy for 18 race seasons. In addition to being a writer, Mike taught high school English and Journalism for 30 years before retiring in May, 2020.