IndyCar Detroit: Dixon takes championship lead with win from charging Ericsson

The six-time IndyCar champion started fifth, pushed through the murky pitstop cycles and fended off late challenges while saving fuel to claim victory by 0.8567s – the 58th win of his IndyCar career.

“At about lap 50, I said, ‘I think we can make it on no more stops from this point if we do one now,’” Dixon said. “We didn't go that risky, but the team called it perfectly. We were on the right strategy.”

Ericsson made a late charge from fourth but was unable to put together a sustained attack on Dixon so had to settle for second, which still marked his best result for Andretti Global to date.

Marcus Armstrong, last year’s IndyCar rookie of the year, established his best performance in the series to collect his first podium, ahead of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood who finished fourth and Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi in fifth.

Despite a horrendous day with multiple collisions and penalties, Team Penske’s Will Power rebounded for sixth, ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in seventh.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who made a race-high 26 passes, overcame his 22nd-place starting spot to finish eighth. AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci was ninth, with Arrow McLaren rookie Theo Pourchaire taking his best result in the series in 10th.

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by: Josh Tons / Motorsport Images)

In a chaotic race, which featured nine cautions for 47 laps of the 100-lap race, a brief rain shower shook up the field after 35 laps, as the majority of the runners swapped to wet weather tyres.

That appeared to favour Christian Lundgaard and Kirkwood, who were among those that opted to remain on their respective used primary slicks tyres as the track dried out, with Kirkwood taking the lead through a series of caution periods.

But after a restart on lap 60 provided some green flag running another yellow flag came on lap 64, to provide the last pitstop for Kirkwood and others, which put Dixon - who pitted under the previous caution with 44 laps to go - in the lead.

The caution occurred after Newgarden, who served a drive through penalty after running over an airhose and nearly hitting pitcrew members during an earlier pitstop, lost the rear of his car entering Turn 3 which blocked Alex Palou, but both were able to continue on.

Then, mercifully, some green flag running allowed Dixon to lead the field, as Kirkwood made quick work of passing Tristan Vautier to move into third.

Fuel conservation was fresh on Dixon’s mind as he feathered the throttle in corners while holding a 3.3s lead over his team-mate with 20 laps to go.

Despite showing flashes of strong pace whenever there were green flag laps, Kirkwood began to lose ground to Armstrong in second, and his struggles began to show even more when team-mate Ericsson passed him at Turn 3 with 11 laps left.

Colton Herta, Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda (Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images)

Dixon’s conservation mode allowed Colton Herta to unlap himself and he remained in front of the six-time IndyCar Series champion. The gap between the top two tightened to 1.1s with seven laps to go, with Dixon then calling over the radio for Herta to move aside as they were both Honda drivers.

Dixon lunged by Herta entering Turn 3, before he dived into the pits to not impede the other frontrunners. That enabled the New Zealander to widen the gap to 2.5s with two laps to go, as Ericsson made an inside pass on Armstrong to move into second.

The Chip Ganassi driver held a 1.8s lead at the start of the final lap, with Ericsson charging hard, but the Swedish driver was not able to muster a proper challenge before the chequered flag.

IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix - Race results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	Mph	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9		100	2:06'07.9684		92.177	2
2	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28		100	+0.8567 2:06'08.8251	0.8567	93.569	2
3	M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11		100	+4.9129 2:06'12.8813	4.0562	89.220	4
4	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27		100	+6.1249 2:06'14.0933	1.2120	91.894	2
5	A. Rossi Arrow McLaren	7		100	+8.9532 2:06'16.9216	2.8283	91.540	4
6	W. Power Team Penske	12		100	+10.1045 2:06'18.0729	1.1513	90.616	7
7	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5		100	+11.4821 2:06'19.4505	1.3776	91.821	4
8	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60		100	+15.4998 2:06'23.4682	4.0177	91.571	5
9	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14		100	+18.2882 2:06'26.2566	2.7884	92.324	6
10	T. Pourchaire Arrow McLaren	6		100	+18.8912 2:06'26.8596	0.6030	93.183	4
11	C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45		100	+23.3158 2:06'31.2842	4.4246	77.720	5
12	A. Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing	78		100	+27.3674 2:06'35.3358	4.0516	91.476	4
13	P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30		100	+28.3686 2:06'36.3370	1.0012	91.313	4
14	R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21		100	+29.4122 2:06'37.3806	1.0436	90.893	4
15	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15		100	+30.1565 2:06'38.1249	0.7443	90.389	4
16	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10		100	+39.0438 2:06'47.0122	8.8873	90.520	5
17	J. Harvey Dale Coyne Racing	18		100	+46.3377 2:06'54.3061	7.2939	91.836	5
18	T. Vautier Dale Coyne Racing	51		99	+1 Lap 2:06'20.3437	1 Lap	92.777	5
19	C. Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian	26		99	+1 Lap 2:06'33.2229	12.8792	91.147	5
20	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3		99	+1 Lap 2:06'40.7466	7.5237	90.213	5
21	R. Robb A.J. Foyt Enterprises	41		99	+1 Lap 2:06'54.9977	14.2511	91.591	4
22	L. Lundqvist Chip Ganassi Racing	8		99	+1 Lap 2:06'55.2725	0.2748	91.771	6
23	R. Grosjean Juncos Hollinger Racing	77		97	+3 Laps 2:06'39.1904	2 Laps	91.037	4
24	K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing	4		96	+4 Laps 2:06'56.8918	1 Lap	90.911	8
25	H. Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing	66		95	+5 Laps 2:07'07.6110	1 Lap	89.357	6
26	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2		94	+6 Laps 2:07'02.1853	1 Lap	93.250	8
27	C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing	20		24	+76 Laps 1:52'14.4086	70 Laps	1.186	1		Mechanical
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