Scott Dixon crashes hard in opening practice for Grand…

Scott Dixon has a steeper climb after crashing out in opening practice for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The New Zealander was getting up to speed on a fresh set of the softer Firestone alternate (red sidewall) tires during Group 1 running of the session when he got loose in Turn 9 and pounded the outside wall. The contact, which was narrowly avoided by Team Penske’s David Malukas, was nearly head-on and sheared the nose and a portion of the left-front of his No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The incident brought out a red flag with less than three minutes remaining in the initial group running.

Dixon on what went wrong

A big hit and damage for Scott Dixon in St. Petersburg opening practice. 👀 pic.twitter.com/z0p8XEb9hK
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) February 27, 2026

“Just lost it on entry which is quite weird like typically there that corner you always maybe clip the inside wall,” said Dixon, 45.

“Car balance had been really good up to that point. That was kind of my first push lap on the reds to bring them in and just before turning in, got loose, and then kind of over-corrected and lost it and then went.

“Luckily, it scrubbed off quite a bit of speed because normally when you hit the inside you're flat out and it's pretty hard so that one isn't too bad.”

The six-time IndyCar Series champion also knew it was a tight squeeze for Malukas to get through between where his car came to a rest and the outside wall.

“Yeah that was close,” Dixon said. “I did hear him first and then, luckily, I think he just had enough room to get through on the outside there because that could have been pretty rough for him as well.”

Although the team still needs to look over the damage, Dixon does not believe he will have to go to a backup car.

“It actually looked fine,” Dixon said. “The rear was not bad. I think they'll just have to change suspension, the front nose and front wing obviously, but then even the front suspension didn't look that bad it was kind of weird. So yeah, weird as in good weird.”

Motorsport.com was able to confirm with the team that Dixon will not go to a backup car.