Earlier this season, IndyCar’s Scott Dixon indicated that retirement is not in his immediate plans, and with each win he shows that there really is no competitive reason that he should consider walking away.
Dixon, 42, will arrive for Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 having won the most recent race, at Nashville, and is in the middle of a championship battle that could see him land his seventh title.
The twist is that Dixon, who is second in the standings entering the race at World Wide Technology Raceway, is competing with two Chip Ganassi Racing teammates — third-place Marcus Ericsson and fifth-place Alex Palou.
“There’s no doubt every year is completely different from any other, and this year it’s exciting with six or seven still having a chance with three races to go,” Dixon said. “Maybe you can pull that down to four or five with a legitimate chance. With this team, it’s what you expect. Sometimes in points you’re looking at teammates to help you. In this situation, you’re trying to help yourself.”
Although Dixon still is at the top of his game, he also is focused on the future of racing and opportunities in the sport, most notably for women. With the weight of his legendary racing status, he is in position to have a impact with Ganassi’s Women in Motorsports initiative, which is designed to help women find opportunities in all aspects of a racing operation.
Dixon has two daughters, ages 11 and 13, and they have inspired him to a supportive role in the endeavor.
“The cool part for me was at the Indy 500 with my younger daughter noticing and asking who were all the new women at the team,” he said. “I was giving her the gist of it. It was great for her to see that because it is a male-dominated sport. It opened her eyes. There are so many areas you can work in.”
One of the inroads is through paid summer internships with Ganassi. The program included five women this summer. The program’s mentor, Angela Ashmore, recently became the first female crew member for an Indy 500-winning team with Ericsson.
If Dixon races long enough, his daughters Tilly, 11, or Poppy, 13, could find themselves in the program. Dixon has been in IndyCar since 2000 and understands the value in adding new talent, whether it’s in the area of fitness, on a pit crew or in data analysis.
“I think there were many positives from it,” he said of the summer. “For us on the performance side, it helped across a deep dive on data to the PR side to engineering. It was great to see it work.”
Things are working well on Dixon’s end. He has added two wins this season to his career total to reach 53, which is the most all time in IndyCar and second in open-wheel history behind A.J. Foyt’s 67.
He has one win in the Indy 500, that coming in 2008. However, this year he passed Al Unser for the most laps led in the history of the race.
Dixon has one win at WWTR. It came in 2020, the year the track hosted races on consecutive days. Last year he was 19th after being involved in a wreck on the 56th lap, hitting the wall in turn 1.
“Hopefully this year will be a bit better,” he said. “It’s a track where our cars have been pretty good. Last year we were taken out so early in the race.”
Dixon is six points behind leader Will Power and six ahead of Ericsson. Palou is 33 points out of first. They have combined for 18 top-five finishes this year and three wins.
Dixon’s championships have come early and late in his career: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020.
He knows the feeling of battling teammates for the championship, having done so against Dario Franchitti and the late Dan Wheldon on more than one occasion.
“I feel we’re in such an open team environment and everything is shared. There’s nothing you can hide,” Dixon said. “I feel these teammates have been straight up. It’s been nice and we’ve been together for two years or more.”
