Any aspirations of winning the Grand Prix of Portland for Scott Dixon ended with a tough crash just moments after taking the green flag.
After starting ninth, the 44-year-old New Zealander made quick moves to push his No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda further up the grid. Once through the first sector, though, he was pressed by the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda of Kyle Kirkwood, who pulled a move to the inside of Dixon.
Left with no room and unwilling to back out of the throttle, Dixon dropped wheels off course on the 12-turn, 1.964-mile natural terrain road course. He returned after falling a few positions and immediately made wheel-to-wheel contact with a significantly quicker No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda of Pietro Fittipaldi, which then sent Dixon back off course before crashing hard into the Turn 8 barrier.
Dixon, who came into the weekend third in the championship standings at just 65 points behind teammate Alex Palou (443-378), was left climbing out of his machine as the first retirement of the race due to severe left-front damage.
Fittipaldi was handed a drive thru penalty by Race Control for avoidable contact, which Dixon thought should have been given instead to Kirkwood, who was able to continue on.
.@scottdixon9 is OUT of the race on Lap 1 at @Race_Portland. 💥 #IndyCar
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) August 25, 2024
🎥 @IndyCar pic.twitter.com/MtDJAmcSMV
“Yeah, (I’m) totally fine,” Dixon said. “The No. 27 [Kirkwood], I think caused all that mayhem, to be honest. Just a lunge and then gave me zero room on the exit, which knocked me off. And then you try to recover and obviously, I think with, you know, Fittipaldi, honestly getting the penalty there it’s no real fault of him; just funnels there. But yeah, the penalty should have been on the No. 27.”
