Dixon nets first Road America win, 41st of Indy car career

By INDYCAR | Published: Jun 25, 2017

Scott Dixon

ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin – One of the prizes eluding Scott Dixon in his illustrious Indy car career was a win at Road America’s picturesque permanent road course. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver took care of that by winning today’s KOHLER Grand Prix.

Dixon crossed the finish line 0.5779 of a second ahead of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden to collect the 41st win of his career, moving the four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion within one victory of tying Michael Andretti for third on the all-time list.

Dixon’s first victory of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar season also allowed him to stretch his unofficial points lead to 34 points over last year’s season champion, Simon Pagenaud. It also makes Dixon the eighth different driver to win in 10 races this season, continuing the series’ ultra-competitive trend.

KOHLER GRAND PRIX: Unofficial results

Graham Rahal and Charlie KimballDriving the No. 9 NTT Data Honda, the 36-year-old New Zealander made what wound up the decisive pass of the day on Lap 31. Using his softer Firestone alternate tires to perfection, Dixon zoomed past Newgarden, in the No. 2 DeVilbiss Team Penske Chevrolet, on a restart and into the lead heading into Turn 1 on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn circuit.

Dixon led 24 of the last 25 laps to win for the first time at Road America in his fourth start on the track named by most Verizon IndyCar Series drivers as their favorite road course. Dixon has now won on 11 of the 16 circuits on this year’s schedule.

Team Penske drivers finished second through fifth in the 55-lap race. Trailing Newgarden across the finish line were Helio Castroneves (No. 3 REV Group Team Penske Chevrolet) in third place, Pagenaud (No. 1 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet) in fourth and Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) in fifth.

Dixon, with eight top-six finishes in the first 10 races, has unofficially earned 379 points. Pagenaud is second with 345, Road America pole sitter Castroneves third at 342, Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato fourth with 323 and Newgarden fifth at 318.

The next Verizon IndyCar Series race is the Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway. The 300-lap race on the 0.894-mile oval airs live at 5 p.m. ET July 9 on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.