Written by Dan Jones
Despite having his best start to a season since 2020, Scott Dixon stated he was "pretty pissed off" after finishing runner-up to Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Álex Palou in IndyCar's season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg.
The six-time IndyCar champion would ultimately fall short to his double-defending champion teammate as himself and Josef Newgarden tried to chase down the Spaniard in the closing stages of Sunday's race to no avail.
Dixon's day was made all the more complicated due to a radio issue throughout the entirety of the 100 lap race, meaning he was completely unable to contact the No.9 stand in a race that was particularly dependent on both tyre wear and fuel mileage. The Kiwi ultimately relied on a fuel light in his cockpit to determine when to pit.
Dixon was overcut by Palou in the final round of stops, after Dixon was stuck in traffic on his in lap and lost between two and three seconds, by his estimations. The time loss allowed Palou to jump ahead of the traffic which would ultimately set him up for a first career win on the Florida coast. Dixon noted that was the first time in his 25 year IndyCar career that he has not had any form of radio.
"It ultimately cost us the race with not coming in when I should have," he commented after the race. "I think, with about maybe the same lap as Alex. We caught that traffic with about five or six cars and lost about two or three seconds on that in lap, so that was a bit of a nightmare."
St. Petersburg remains one of five circuits on the IndyCar calendar that Dixon has not been victorious at in his illustrious IndyCar career. That number is including the Thermal Club, which hasn't hosted a competitive IndyCar race to date, as well as a fairly recent addition to the calendar in Portland International Raceway.
Despite that statistic, this is Dixon's fifth occasion finishing second place on the St. Petersburg streets, in addition to a further three podiums taken at the venue. Dixon would not mince his words when asked about his frustration at not winning at the circuit to date:
"Yeah, I'm pretty pissed off. We had a good race going and we didn't get it done. So it doesn't feel good, that's for sure."
When Dixon was further asked how he could stop Palou's streak of titles he bluntly responded:
"Get a radio that works, I think, would be good."
The circuit is one of few where the overcut is the preferred strategy, due to the circuit being friendly when the car is light on fuel, in addition to the particularly short nature of the circuit making traffic a major influence. On this occasion though, it was the undercut that ultimately would send Palou into victory lane, but Dixon had his reasons for the overcut not working.
"The traffic," he explained. "I caught about five or six cars on my in lap. I think I lost about two or three seconds just on my in lap. They did the right thing; they could see the traffic coming. I had no communication, so didn't know. I'm sure they were trying to call me in, but as soon as you catch them, the undercut is going to be pretty strong, especially if you pop out into clear track."
After being undercut by Palou, Dixon would then be overtaken by Newgarden heading into Turn 1, but re-overtook the Penske driver on the final lap, when Newgarden had major fuel concerns that saw him coast to the finish.
Dixon's frustrations would be supported by his team owner, Chip Ganassi.
"Well, if everything was 100 percent, he would have won -- it was simple. He would have won the race. The race was over. It was one stop to go, and we pitted a lap later than we wanted him to. That was the race. That was the difference between he and Palou."
Barring two victories in the first five races last season, Dixon has traditionally started seasons slowly before picking up momentum mid-to-late season, this result being his best in a season-opener since his last title-winning campaign in 2020, when he won the opening three races.
Although Dixon has finished second at St. Petersburg in the four previous occasions, he has not gone on to win the title in any of the previous occasions. He now heads to another track he has not been victorious at, the Thermal Club, next time IndyCar's back on track. After that he'll aim to defend his Long Beach crown from 2025, as he continues to bid for a record-equalling fourth IndyCar championship.
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