IndyCar
Scott Dixon Fighting For 6th IndyCar Championship As The Series Heads To Pocono
LONG POND, PA (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon’s win in the last NTT IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio is helping Dixon stay in the hunt for his sixth Championship.
“Those are the kinds of weekends that you need,” said Dixon reflecting on Mid-Ohio. “You’ve got to take it.”
Dixon trails points-leader Josef Newgarden of Team Penske by 62-points heading into this weekend’s ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway.
“I think he’s going to be the person to beat,” said Dixon. “That team is super strong right now and we’re going to have our work cut out.”
Two other drivers stand between Dixon and Newgarden. Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi is in second place, 16-points behind Newgarden and Penske’s Simon Pagenaud is in third place, 42-points out of the lead.
The lead for any of the top four driver’s trailing Newgarden is not insurmountable because double-points are available at the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca.
Dixon is laser-focused on one thing, wins.
“Anything is possible,” said Dixon. “We’ve just got to keep our head down; we can’t start thinking about that (points racing) right now. If you win races that will take care of itself.”
IndyCar series teams should take notice that if Dixon gets on a roll, and the No.9 PNC Bank CGR team is certainly capable, the “Iceman” should not be counted out.
Dixon trailed Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya by 47-points going into the season finale in 2015. Dixon and his “Wolfpack” crew went out, won the race and finished tied with Montoya atop the standings, winning the Championship by tie-breaker, 3-wins to 2.
The Ganassi team has been involved in eight of the closest IndyCar Series Championship finishes since 1999.
In 1999 Montoya, who was driving for CGR tied Dario Franchitti, who was driving for Team Green, with Montoya taking the title based on the tie-breaker of most wins with seven in his rookie campaign.
The 2006 Championship came down to a tie-breaker as well. Dan Wheldon tied Sam Hornish Jr., who was driving for Penske, but lost the championship based Hornish’s four wins to Wheldon’s two.
Dixon rallied from 39-points behind in 2013 to beat Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves. One of the wins on Dixon’s 2013 run to the Championship, came at Pocono.
In 2011 Franchitti, driving for CGR, edged his teammate Dixon by 11-points to win Franchitti’s fourth Championship.
Franchitti grabbed his third championship in 2010 by rallying from 59-points to beat Penske’s Will Power.
Franchitti’s first Championship in 2007 came with Andretti Green Racing. Dixon was the runner-up finishing 13-points behind Franchitti.
Dixon picked up his first Championship in 2003 where he beat Penske’s Gil deFerran by 18-points. Dixon and de Ferran both won three races, but Dixon had 4-second place finishes versus one for de Ferran.
The ABC Supply 500 takes place Sunday August 18, 2019 with a one hour practice session Saturday morning from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Qualifying takes place on Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Final practice is on Saturday from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
There will be an autograph session on Sunday in the Firestone Fan Village from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. with the green flag waving at 2:45 p.m. Tickets and information is available at www.poconoraceway.com.
The race will be televised by NBCSN and can be heard on the Advance Auto Parts IndyCar Radio Network.
SPEEDWAY, IN (May 9, 2026) – Christian Lundgaard finally finished a race ahead of Alex Palou, winning Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Lundgaard passed David Malukas on lap 68 as the pair staged a thrilling battle from turn 3 through the turns 5/6 chicane, where the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet driver completed the pass.
“It probably looks more spectacular from the outside than it really did inside the helmet,” explained Lundgaard, who led 20 of the 85-laps. “I knew I had one chance, maybe two on David at that time. I tried to set him up for 2 and actually make the slingshot to be on the inside for turn 4, but he was pretty slow kind of through the kink of 3. I thought, okay, F it, I’m going to stay on the outside and see how it goes.”
The victory was the second career win for Lundgaard and his third podium of the season, his first two were finishes behind Palou.
Malukas came home in second place, 4.6713 seconds behind Lundgaard.
“You know, I could be a little bit more aggressive and push him wide, whatever, but I think it was fair racing, and he made a proper move,” said Malukas. “I came in thinking this was going to be our hardest race of the whole season, and it ended up being our best result yet, which it was just fantastic.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Graham Rahal finished third in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda to tie his season-best result.
“I was good at starting stints,” explained Rahal. “I could really close the gap there, but later in the stints the rear would go off. We’ve just got a little work to do. I think missing practice, half of it at least, kind of put us on our back foot with the rear grip and never quite got there. But look, I thought we put a great race together, great strategy, great calls by Brian, Eve, and the entire group, and great stops.”
Penske’s Josef Newgarden finished fourth followed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, who rounded out the top 5 and maintained his Championship points lead over Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood.
It didn’t take long for lots of on-track action as Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who started third, locked up his brakes going into turn 1 and made contact with Arrow McLaren Racing’s Pato O’Ward, who was running in second behind Palou, who started on the pole.
Rosenqvist spun O’Ward into the grass and in the ensuing mayhem behind him several cars made contact. Newgarden couldn’t get slowed down and nerfed Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, turning the No. 9 Honda to the right, directly into Caio Collet. The full-field caution slowed the rest of the field as the AMR Safety Team tended to the pileup. All three were able to continue as did Rosenqvist and O’Ward.
The reshuffled lineup found Palou leading Malukas in second place but that didn’t last long at Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood quickly out-braked the No. 12 Chevy going into turn one.
That wasn’t the only incident of the day, which had teams scrambling on strategy.
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi suffered a hybrid failure on lap 20 and came to rest on the main straightway. Race control mysteriously called for a local caution in that area despite Rossi being stuck in the car. A frustrated Rossi could be seen waving his steering wheel from the cockpit but it took him climbing out of the car to bring out the full course caution.
Cautions breed cautions and on lap 28 Sting Ray Robb got into Marcus Armstrong and when Kyffin Simpson tried to avoid that contact, Rosenqvist made contact with the No. 8 Sunoco Honda, sending the No. 60 up into the air bringing out another caution.
LONG BEACH, CA (April 19, 2026) – A great pit stop helped Alex Palou pass Felix Rosenqvist in the pits and Palou did the rest, winning Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
“Incredible,” said Palou, who picked up his third win of the season and 22nd of his IndyCar career. “Feel so, so lucky with the opportunity I had to win the 500 last year, the Long Beach GP this year, it just feels like I’m living on this amazing cloud of happiness.”
Rosenqvist was out front when the caution flag flew on Lap 57 for debris in turn four, which set up the showdown between the Meyer Shank Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing pit crews.
“This full-course yellow put everything on that pit stop,” said Palou. “The guys did an incredible job once again.”
“Having the pit location and the pit crew we have, it certainly was on the top of our minds coming down pit lane knowing we have a shot at getting the win here,” said Barry Wanser, No. 10 Team Manager. “Again, the guys came through.”
“That last pit cycle was kind of the defining moment,” said Rosenqvist, who led a race-high 51-laps. “I don’t even think we had that bad of a stop. We had to come around the 14. I don’t know if Alex had an open in. Details like that matter. It didn’t seem like a super slow stop, but he probably nailed it or his crew.”
Despite falling short of a win, Rosenqvist said there were plenty of positives to take away from the team’s trip to the West Coast.
“I think all in all we got to be happy as a weekend for us at Meyer Shank Racing. We had a win yesterday with Nick in IMSA. We had a pole there as well, then a pole here and a P2. We just fell short of a grand slam.”
Scott Dixon finished third in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda, giving team owner Chip Ganassi two cars on the podium and the 6-time series Champion his best finish of the season
“Huge weekend for the Ganassi cars,” said Dixon. “I think probably one of the best for qualifying between all us, which was really good. It was nice just to have a clean weekend, no major issues, no damage, no mess-ups or anything like that. That was a lot of fun.”
Palou and Dixon’s teammate Kyffin Simpson brought the No. 8 Sunoco Honda home in tenth place, so all three CGR cars finished in the Top 10.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood finished fourth after starting third and gave up the Championship lead to Palou. Kirkwood now trails the four-time Series Champion by 17-points.
Pato O’Ward rounded out the Top 5 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Next up for the IndyCar Series is two days of testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 28-29 as teams get ready for the Indianapolis 500.
The next race is the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 9, on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course at IMS, which kicks off the Month of May.
LONG BEACH, CA (April 18,, 2026) – Felix Rosenqvist is on the pole position for Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach after turning a fast lap of of 1 minute, 7.4635 seconds in the No. 60 SiriusXM/Acura Honda.
The pole capped a great day for Meyer Shank Racing who on the IMSA race on Saturday.
“So great to put it on pole here and it’s been a long time, so it feels good,” said Rosenqvist. “But what a day for Meyer Shank Racing with the win in the IMSA race today and now the pole for the IndyCar race.”
Pato O’Ward, Rosenqvist’s good friend and former teammate, will start from the front row after qualifying a season-best second at 1:07.5076 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
“That was nerve-wracking to watch my ole buddy Pato do his run, and I wasn’t sure if we’d get it,” said Rosenqvist. “But the SiriusXM Green Day Acura has been great and hope we can have a good day tomorrow.”
“This is by far the best qualifying day I’ve had,” said O’Ward. “I’ve been happy with the car I’ve been given from practice one. Hats off to Arrow McLaren and Team Chevy. I know we’re leading their pack.”
Four-time Series Champion Alex Palou will start from the third position in the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda with 2026 Championship points leader Kyle Kirkwood right beside in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Andretti Global Honda.
David Malukas will start fifth in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, the best qualifying car for Team Penske.
Six-time Series Champion Scott Dixon will start sixth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The qualifying effort was Dixon’s best of 2026.
Next up is a 30-minute warmup Sunday at 1 p.m. ET (FS1, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
The 90-lap race around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile iconic temporary street circuit starts at 5:30 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
Gravel Grabs the Morgan Cup
Christian Lundgaard wins the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS
Connor Zilisch tracks down best friend for NASCAR O’Reilly win at The Glen
Watkins Glen not kind to Kris Wright and McAnally Hilgemann Racing
Kaden Honeycutt outduels Connor Zilisch for first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series win
Smith Holds off Dietz in Possee Thriller; Blair Blitzes Late Model Foes at Port Royal
Ryan Blaney charges to NASCAR Cup pole position at Bristol
Alex Palou wins Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach; Scott Dixon finishes 3rd
Tyler Reddick keeps the magic alive with overtime NASCAR Cup win at Kansas
