Scott Dixon Must Take Long Route To Repeat at Long Beach
INDYCAR
Oh, those pesky concrete walls in this Southern California port city.
Scott Dixon found two of them with his race car Saturday in preparation for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, with both hits occurring in the same area of the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit. That misfortune will make Sunday's 90-lap race even more challenging for Dixon than it was already going to be.
The two smacks combined to put the two-time and defending race winner in the 14th starting position.
Here's the historical significance of that position: Drivers in that starting territory usually don't get to victory lane in this event. In fact, only four times in INDYCAR's 40-year history here has a winner come from that far back. Colton Herta won the 2021 race from 14th. Paul Tracy won from the 17th position in 2000, Michael Andretti won from 15th in 2002, and Mike Conway won from 17th in 2014.
Dixon, who won last year's race from the eighth starting spot, bounced the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda off the wall on the exit of Turn 6 in the first round of qualifying, causing left-side damage. Similarly, he slammed another part of the Turn 6 wall – at the approach to the corner – in the morning practice, which required significant repairs to the right rear and the car's floor during the session.
Those two impacts followed Friday's penalty for improperly crossing the painted line where drivers exiting the pits are required to stay to the right of ahead of Turn 1. So, it's been anything but a smooth weekend for the legend who was inducted in the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame on Friday before practice.
Despite all those troubles, Dixon could only shake his head when considering how close he came to advancing to the second round, which would have given him a chance at a much higher starting position.
'I think we were up on our teammate (series points leader Alex Palou) by about a tenth and a half (of a second) at that point (of the contact), so easily (could have advanced),' he said.
Dixon had hoped to complete his fastest lap one circuit earlier.
'But the car (ahead) aborted (the run), so I had to do the same thing,' he said. 'I just thought we still had time (to improve), then at the exit of (Turn 6) I clipped the wall and bent the toe link.'
The first wall contact happened where the barrier juts out a bit. Dixon acknowledged the car got away from him.
'You're always trying to find a little bit more, and obviously the wall kind of moves there on the way in,' he said. 'It's obviously in the same spot every lap, but I just kind of got a little bit of a lock on the rear, and it kind of moved me sideways a little bit before I got to the wall and collected it. I thought it was OK because (the impact) was pretty square, but obviously it cut the rear tire. Luckily, I was able to come back in and run some laps later.'
The team did a miraculous job of making repairs in about 10 minutes, giving Dixon time to turn a couple of laps ahead of the checkered flag.
This is only the third race of the 17-race season, but Dixon and other title hopefuls can't afford to give positions away. Palou has won the year's first two races to build a 39-point lead, and he earned the No. 3 starting position for Sunday's race. Palou has finished in the top five in each of his four event starts at Long Beach. Dixon is third in the standings, 41 points behind the Spaniard.
While Dixon has won twice won this race, quality results haven't always come to him. Only once in his first eight starts did he post a top-10 finish – he was fourth in 2010 – but lately he has had better luck. In fact, Dixon has finished in the top four in six of the past eight races, adding a sixth-place finish in 2022. In '23, he got knocked into the tire barrier by Pato O'Ward, the driver who is closest to him in the current standings.
Dixon led 42 of last year's 85 laps. This year's race has been extended by five laps, improving the chances for different pit strategies to be used, something Dixon often capitalizes on. Last year, he made his final pit stop 10 laps earlier than Herta, who finished second, and he made it work.
Dixon and the rest of the 27-car field will begin the pursuit shortly after the broadcasts begin at 4:30 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network).
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