Courtesy of TMS Media Relations
FORT WORTH, Texas – Scott Dixon always has looked up to legends Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt, but he soon may find himself firmly entrenched beside them.
With the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season underway, the Chip Ganassi Racing superstar continues to inch closer to the once seemingly untouchable INDYCAR career statistical records of two of the greatest drivers in motorsports.
Given Dixon’s success at Texas Motor Speedway, one of those marks could be matched in Sunday’s XPEL 375 NTT INDYCAR SERIES race (TV – NBC. Radio – INDYCAR Radio Network, SiriusXM Radio INDYCAR Nation Ch. 160 and 95.9 The Ranch) as the Fort Worth venue opens its 26th season with the second event on the 17-race INDYCAR calendar.
With 51 career victories, Dixon is one shy of tying Andretti for the second-most wins in INDYCAR history. He also owns six NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships and needs one more to tie Foyt for the all-time mark. To put his success into greater perspective, no current fulltime driver has more than 40 wins (Will Power) and or more than two series titles (Josef Newgarden).
The 41-year-old New Zealander is not showing any signs of slowing down, either. He has won two of the last four series titles, capturing one in 2018 and another in ’20, and has finished among the top four in the championship 15 of the last 16 years. He finished fourth in last year’s title race that was won by his 24-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Alex Palou.
Dixon has earned at least one win in 17 consecutive seasons and 19 overall, both INDYCAR records. His win at Texas last season allowed him to extend those records, but it turned out to be his only one and ended a run of four consecutive multiple-win seasons.
“The motivation is strong, for sure,”,” said Dixon, who includes the 2008 Indianapolis 500 among his wins. “We worked hard in the offseason to figure the areas that we needed to work on, and I think we laid that out pretty well. I’m excited for the season. I love racing, I love the INDYCAR SERIES, everything about the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and what they do. Hopefully, it’s a good season. We’ll see how it goes.”
Dixon opened the season with an eighth-place finish in the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Feb. 27 and now arrives at a track where he and Chip Ganassi Racing have enjoyed a ton of success.
He became the all-time leader for career INDYCAR victories at TMS when he won the opening race of last season’s doubleheader for his fifth, breaking a tie with Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing. It also was the seventh win overall for Chip Ganassi Racing, which ranks second only to Team Penske’s 10. However, Chip Ganassi Racing is trending upward thanks to Dixon, who has won three of the last five races at Texas Motor Speedway, while Team Penske has just one since 2018 (Newgarden, 2019).
“It’s a place I feel comfortable at, it’s a place where we have run at and done well, and the team has always been fast here from pole positions to having very fast cars,” Dixon said. “It’s an interesting place; you don’t always get it right and when it does go wrong it can be pretty bad. But I like having the situation of being on the limit, quite unlike a lot of these new road courses that we go to where there’s parking lots of run-off space. You’ve got to have the risk versus reward, and I think this place sums it up well.”
With five career wins at Texas, he has enjoyed his share of cowboy hats, six shooters and flames in the SpeedyCash.com Victory Lane and the post-race celebration has made an indelible impression on him as has the high-banked, 1.5-mile oval.
“It’s a tough track, it’s a fun track, there’s no winner’s circle like it in the world,” Dixon said. “I know for me it’s been one of the most fun places I’ve ever won anything.”
- The XPEL 375 weekend opens Saturday featuring NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying (1-2 p.m.) and a pair of practices (10-11 a.m., 4-5 p.m.). On Sunday, the Fan Zone opens at 8 a.m. and the gates at 9 a.m. for the XPEL 375 that takes the green flag at 11:45 a.m. TV – NBC. Radio – INDYCAR Radio Network, SiriusXM Radio INDYCAR Nation Ch. 160 and 95.9 The Ranch (local).
The XPEL 375 weekend opens Saturday, March 19, featuring NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying (1-2 p.m.) and a pair of practices (10-11 a.m., 4-5 p.m.). On Sunday, March 20, the Fan Zone opens at 8 a.m. and the gates at 9 a.m. for the XPEL 375 that takes the green flag at 11:45 a.m.
TICKETS:
Texas Motor Speedway is offering a $48 special promotion for two tickets to the race. Tickets for children 12 and under are only $10. For more information on tickets and the race, please visit www.texasmotorspeedway.com.
Tickets for Texas Motor Speedway’s 2022 major event season, including the March 20 NTT INDYCAR SEREIS XPEL 375/American Flat Track races and, May 22 NASCAR All-Star Race, are on sale now at https://www.texasmotorspeedway.com/events/season-tickets/.
MORE INFO:
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