Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dixon became the all-time lap leader for the biggest open-wheel race in America, surpassing Al Unser Sr’s record of 644 on Lap 133. Dixon started the day third on the list and passed Ralph dePalma’s mark of 612 just before half distance.
Dixon started on the pole for the fifth time in his career but finished 21st – despite leading 95 laps – due to his penalty, which occurred in his final scheduled stop of the day while leading with 25 laps remaining.
“It’s just heartbreaking to be honest,” Dixon told NBC. “It must’ve been very close [to the limit], I came into the pits and locked the rears, then kinda locked all four, so I knew it would be close and I think it was a mile an hour over or something.
“The car was really good all day, we had really good speed, the team did an amazing job on strategy. I just messed up.”
Teammate Alex Palou, who he traded the lead with in order to save fuel over the opening stint, also suffered a pitlane disaster ahead of his second stop of the day when he was forced to take emergency service.
The reigning IndyCar champion was just about to enter the pits when the red light came on for Callum Ilott’s crash at Turn 2, and Palou missed the pit commit line by one second. The resulting penalty sent him to 32nd place after the restart, but he battled his way back to finish ninth.
“I had lots of fun in this race, there was just one point where my heart broke in pieces,” said Palou, who led 47 laps. “We just kept going and we had a good result at the end of the day.
“I’m proud of the team and super-proud for Marcus [Ericsson, his winning teammate]. We just didn’t have the luck we needed, we had a really strong car and were extracting everything from it.
“At the end, I just couldn’t have done anything different with that yellow – so just wrong place, wrong time. We’ll come back again next year.
“I had to work a lot today, it was super-hard to come back from there. We had the car to win the race, so it’s a bit easier when you’re at the back.
“It was the most overtaking moves I’ve made in an oval race, so I’m happy with getting back up there.”
