When Scott Dixon took the green flag in the first race of IndyCar's doubleheader weekend at The Milwaukee Mile, it marked his 400th US open-wheel start.
When he took the checkered flag for the second act on Sunday, he surged to a runners-up finish and with it, captured the 142nd podium of his career to set the all-time record on a list that includes the likes of legends A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti.
Dixon’s methodical climb through the field in Sunday’s attrition-filled contest nearly saw him pull off some late-race magic to take the victory. Restarting third with 11 laps to go, he lined up behind race leader Scott McLaughlin and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta.
The following lap, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver charged to the inside of Herta, coming out ahead in the tight wheel-to-wheel battle.
Despite his best efforts by running his fastest laps of the race at the end, Dixon was unable to surpass McLaughlin before crossing the line 0.4558s behind on the one-mile oval to secure his fifth podium of the season.
“It was pretty wild,” Dixon said of the race, which featured 13 lead changes.
“There was never a lap that you were kind of relaxing. It was just flat out the whole time, especially the strategy shift at the end with Colton, we got a bit of a reset with that last caution.”
Elaborating on a race in which his championship-leading team-mate Alex Palou was delayed before the start, while Team Penske title challenger spun and dropped a lap down, Dixon added: “[It was] definitely made for TV.
“For us it was a bit up and down throughout. I think we changed everything but the kitchen sink last night after yesterday's car.
“It was definitely very positive, it was nice to have a good car today.
“Obviously moved up when we needed to. Had a good restart on the last one.
“Congrats to McLaughlin. I know it's not the first time for a Kiwi 1-2, but it's always a lot of fun to have another New Zealand driver there.”
Dixon reckoned he “ran faster than I did in qualifying” while trying to catch McLaughlin in the closing stages and suggested “if we'd had maybe another 10 to 20 laps, it might have been slightly different”.
“He drove a fantastic race,” added Dixon.
“There was kind of the one stint where he got me, then the #14 [Santino Ferrucci], and also maybe one other that kind of got in front. Just got into a traffic sequence where I couldn't really run on the bottom.
“I couldn't understand why everybody else could. As soon as I did, I had loads of understeer and couldn't get it together.”
While the 44-year-old continues to make his mark in the record books with plenty of accolades, he remains humble about his impact on the sport.
“Yeah, it's cool,” Dixon said. “Obviously Mario, I'm a massive fan of Mario. He's a huge part of our series.
“I keep saying it, but it's so cool that he and A.J. and many others, whether it's Rick [Mears], come to a lot of our races. Obviously, Mario raced in a lot of different categories, as well, and achieved many great things.
“Just to be mentioned with any of those guys is very special.”
