Dixon spins and wins by 0.4s over Rahal

Dixon won by less than half a second from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward.

Title contenders Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Josef Newgarden (Team Penske) endured a wild first lap in which both made contact with Marcus Armstrong, with Newgarden losing a lap as Palou escaped relatively unscathed and finished in the top six.

Poleman Rahal led the 27-car field to the rolling start, leading team-mate Christian Lundgaard from the front row, but Andretti Autosport’s Devlin DeFrancesco made an unbelievable lunge around the outside from fifth on the grid to snatch the lead.

Chaos then unfolded further around the track, as the cars fanned out four-wide on the approach to Turn 7. Palou backed out but, at the apex, team-mate Armstrong turned across his bows and they made contact, with the third Ganassi car of Dixon getting spun around as he got into the back of Palou and was hit from behind by Romain Grosjean (Andretti).

Armstrong also spun and was stranded across the track, where he was collected by first Grosjean and then Newgarden, who bounced up on top of Armstrong’s nose and got stuck.

From 25^th on the grid, after he qualified 19^th and took a six-place grid penalty for an engine change, Newgarden lost a lap getting restarted and returned to pits with no nose section.

Dixon pitted under yellow on lap five, but all was not lost as his poor qualifying would pay back in the race as he had extra sets of unused alternate tyres to enjoy throughout his burn from the stern.

At the restart on lap 8, DeFrancesco led Rahal, O’Ward, Lundgaard, the McLarens of Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist and Scott McLaughlin (Penske). Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti) was eighth, despite a scare getting started off the dummy grid, ahead of Palou.

Rossi passed Lundgaard for fourth at Turn 1 straight after the restart, while Rahal left it a lap longer to pass DeFrancesco for the lead. Making good use of his alternate tyres, Rossi mirrored his earlier move on team-mate O’Ward on lap 9 and then passed DeFrancesco for second.

O’Ward overtook DeFrancesco at Turn 1 on lap 11 to head the primary starters in third, with Lundgaard also moving past DeFrancesco on the same tour at Turn 7, and Rosenqvist demoting him further a lap later.

Lundgaard passed O’Ward for third, while Palou stumbled over getting around DeFrancesco, the two banging wheels and allowing Kirkwood to slip past him for eighth. Kirkwood then dived into pitlane for an early first stop on lap 15, ditching his primaries for the preferable alternates. O’Ward stopped from fourth a couple of laps later to do likewise.

Rahal led Rossi at one quarter distance by 1.2s, with Lundgaard 3s further back. Palou was up to fourth, with the fourth Ganassi entry, Marcus Ericsson, now up to fifth from 17^th on the grid.

Rossi pitted from second on lap 21, switching to fresh primaries, with Rahal running three laps longer and switched to scrubbed primaries. He rejoined right in front of Rossi and managed to keep him at bay.

Lundgaard led until he pitted on lap 26, going for more alternates, and he rejoined third just behind Rossi. After a lap behind him, he took full use of his tyre compound advantage and overtook Rossi at Turn 1.

Lundgaard closed to within 1s of Rahal by the halfway point, while Palou pitted from third, just rejoining behind Rossi, who was now back on alternates.

Rahal pitted again on lap 48, forced to switch to used primaries as he’d lost his Q3 alternates due to locking up on them. Lundgaard stayed out on his alternates, now with clean air to attempt to overcut his team-mate.

Rahal countered by using his push-to-pass at this critical phase, and retained his advantage when Lundgaard pitted two laps later for used primaries. But Lundgaard suffered a slow stop due to an issue getting the refuelling hose connected, losing 3s to Rahal, and O’Ward jumped ahead of him to grab second.

Despite a big slide at Turn 12, Rahal pulled out a 5s lead over O’Ward, who was holding Lundgaard at bay, with Rossi a further second back, ahead of Palou. In the final stops, O’Ward rejoined just in front of Lundgaard and Rossi.

Rahal pitted for the final time with 23 laps to go, taking used alternates for the final stint. Having beaten everyone in his fight, it was Dixon’s completely alternate strategy that would pay off.

Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Dixon, who broke the all-time record for consecutive IndyCar starts with his 319^th that separates him from Tony Kanaan, routinely led laps during the pit cycles as he worked his way back towards the front. Having benefitted from the extra sets of alternates that he didn’t get to use in qualifying, as the final pitstop sequence unravelled, Dixon led by almost 5s.

His only concern was the fact he’d stopped four laps before Rahal, who emptied his push-to-pass allocation to catch him. With 10 laps to go, the gap was just over 3s.

Dixon lost time lapping Ryan Hunter-Reay (Ed Carpenter Racing), with the gap closing to under 2s, but Rahal got similarly balked. With five laps to go, the gap was down to 1.2s, as Dixon caught DeFrancesco to lap him, who jumped out of their way.

Rahal was right on his tail with two laps to go, but just couldn’t fashion an opening and Dixon held on to win by 0.4779s.

O’Ward finished a distant third, ahead of Lundgaard, Rossi, Palou, Will Power (Penske), McLaughlin, Kirkwood and Rinus VeeKay (ECR).

IndyCar Indianapolis Road Course – race results