Dixon eyes his second IRL title
The recent Indy 500 winner last won the IRL title five years ago as a rookie.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Scott Dixon is hoping that winning the Indianapolis 500 is just the first big step toward another major goal — winning a second IRL IndyCar Series title.
It’s been a long, tough five years since the New Zealander took the championship in his rookie year. And last year provided the biggest disappointment in that stretch.
After a season-long title duel with Dario Franchitti, all Dixon had to do was finish ahead of the Scot in the season-finale at Chicagoland Speedway and a second title would be his. Dixon was leading Franchitti on the last lap as both drivers tried to stretch their final fuel load to the finish.
Franchitti made it. Dixon didn’t, falling less than half a lap short. Title gone.
Instead of crushing the spirit of the 27-year-old Dixon and his Chip Ganassi Racing team, that agonizing loss served to renew their determination.
“I think it even goes back further than that,” Dixon said. “We had the dominance of winning three races in a row and going for four and trying to chase down Dario for the championship. ... everything that everybody was doing was just falling into the right place.”
Now Dixon is the winner of the world’s richest and most prestigious open-wheel race, and that may have given him just the edge he needs to win the 2008 championship.
The past three Indy winners — Dan Wheldon, Sam Hornish Jr. and Franchitti — have all gone on to win the IndyCar title in the same season.
“We definitely knew that because of last season,” Dixon said earlier this week as his team prepared his No. 9 Dallara for Sunday’s race at Milwaukee. “And we were definitely trying to stop that tradition [last year]. Unfortunately, we came up short. This year, we won the 500, and it sounds like a pretty good tradition. We’re going to try and carry that on, come away with the championship.”
Asked how winning at Indy compares to winning that first championship, Dixon said Sunday was “much more sweeter.
“There’s not many people that have this happen,” he explained.
“For me, though, a championship is different. I think, especially in 2003 for all us guys, it was a bit of a shock [to win the title], you know. It wasn’t a shock for Chip and his team because they’re great at winning championships, but it was different for me.”
Dixon noted that when he moved with Ganassi from the CART series, where he ran the previous two seasons, to the rival IRL in 2003, he didn’t like ovals very much and wasn’t too happy about the non-turbocharged IndyCars.
“That’s why that year was definitely a shock, I think,” Dixon said. “So this is much sweeter. You know now what goes into winning this race and how much effort everybody puts into it.”