IndyCar Laguna Seca: Dixon wins chaotic season finale

The six-time champion kept his head when many around him lost theirs, beating Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) and his champion team-mate Alex Palou after a race punctuated by eight caution periods caused by a series of wildly over-optimistic lunges and collisions that had a definite end-of-term feel.

Poleman Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren) led the 27-car field to green on his final start with the team, before Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) clipped McLaughlin in the battle for second at the Andretti Hairpin, triggering a multi-car collision further back between Marcus Armstrong (Chip Ganassi Racing) and RLL duo Juri Vips and Graham Rahal that took out Penske’s Josef Newgarden – who was pinballed multiple times into the gravel.

“Wrong place, wrong time there,” said Rahal. “We hit Juri, we hit Josef – I told the medical team I’ve seen more of them than I’ve seen my wife this year.”

Ganassi’s Scott Dixon made a late engine change, which dropped him to 11^th, but he smacked Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing) on the exit of Turn 2. Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti) also took damage.

At the restart on lap 7, Rosenqvist led Palou, Will Power (Penske), Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren) and Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport, who appeared to jump the initial start but it wasn’t called for it).

Palou grabbed the lead at the end of that lap, barging Rosenqvist down to third behind Power – who was the only car on alternate tires in the top 10. The race soon went yellow again, when Newgarden spun all on his own into the tirewall on the exit of Turn 4.

At the restart on lap 12, Rosenqvist shoved his way past Power at Turn 2 and took O’Ward with him. Power clung to fourth, as Scott Dixon (Ganassi) and Lundgaard were pinged for contact on the opening lap and served drive-through penalties.

Herta held fifth from Romain Grosjean (Andretti), with Agustin Canapino (Juncos Hollinger Racing) up to seventh from 19^th on the grid. McLaughlin recovered in 12^th after his trip to the gravel and got rid of his alternate rubber.

Palou led Rosenqvist by 9s by one quarter distance, with O’Ward in third well clear of a battling Power and Herta. Palou endured a big scare when Helio Castroneves – in his final fulltime IndyCar race for Meyer Shank Racing – spun at Turn 2, then rejoined and half spun at Turn 3, where he rejoined across the bows of the race leader.

Rosenqvist pitted from second for sticker alternates on lap 28, with O’Ward in a lap later and sticking with primary tires.

Rosenqvist was then punted into a spin at Turn 2 by Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi), cutting his tire that caused a second spin into the gravel at Turn 3, and brought out another caution. Palou dived into the pits, rejoining on another set of primaries, ahead of Power. Herta had to take emergency service and tumbled down to 18^th.

An attempt at a restart on lap 27 failed when Benjamin Pedersen (AJ Foyt Racing) was punted by Power and clipped Callum Ilott (JHR) into a spin too. Moments later, Santino Ferrucci’s Foyt car got sent into a wild moment at Turn 1 by a punt from McLaughlin, who needed a new front wing.

The race restarted on lap 42 with Palou leading O’Ward, Grosjean and Canapino, after Lundgaard (11^th) and Dixon (13^th) pitted. Grosjean ran wide on the exit of Turn 2, coughing up third to Canapino and fourth to David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing). Grosjean regained fourth by divebombing Malukas at the The Corkscrew.

O’Ward pitted on lap 58, seconds before Malukas clashed with Andretti’s Devlin DeFrancesco at Turn 3, causing another caution. That proved disastrous for Palou, who pitted under yellow and fell from the lead back to 15^th.

Another calamitous restart attempt led to Ferrucci flying through the air over the back of Palou and into the gravel at the final corner and a sixth caution. Tom Blomqvist (MSR) was also forced to a halt when he connected with DeFrancesco.

That led to more pitstops and a race off pitlane between Dixon and team-mate Armstrong that Dixon won.

The next abysmal restart attempt was the same story with different players: Ericsson connected with team-mate Armstrong, after the Kiwi had been clipped into a spin by Pedersen.

O’Ward led at the restart with 23 laps to go, ahead of Grosjean, DeFrancesco, Canapino, Callum Ilott (who’d spun in the pit entry not too many tours ago), Palou and Dixon. Grosjean passed O’Ward into Turn 2 to hit the front, while Palou had a terrible exit from the final turn, allowing Dixon to rocket up to third, followed through by McLaughlin.

A couple of laps later, the yellow flew again as Castroneves took out a gearbox-troubled Herta at Turn 3. Grosjean and O’Ward pitted under yellow, dropping to the mid-teens, promoting Dixon to the lead from McLaughlin, Ilott and Palou.

It restarted with 17 laps to go, with Dixon going early and spreading the field out.

Power and Rossi passed Canapino, who was carrying front wing damage, to run fifth and sixth respectively.

Palou passed Ilott for third with 12 laps remaining, and Power demoted him further with four laps to go after he went off at Turn 9.

Lundgaard, Armstrong, O’Ward and Hunter-Reay also overtook the hamstrung Canapino, who tumbled down the order, to fill the top 10 places. Lundgaard then grabbed sixth from Rossi at the penultimate corner.

Cla	Nº	Driver	Car / Engine	Laps	Gap
1	9	Scott Dixon	Dallara/Honda	95
2	3	Scott McLaughlin	Dallara/Chevrolet	95	7.3180
3	10	Alex Palou	Dallara/Honda	95	10.6111
4	12	Will Power	Dallara/Chevrolet	95	14.6669
5	77	Callum Ilott	Dallara/Chevrolet	95	21.1289
6	45	C.Lundgaard	Dallara/Honda	95	21.3750
7	7	Alexander Rossi	Dallara/Chevrolet	95	22.2153
8	11	Marcus Armstrong	Dallara/Honda	95	27.1310
9	5	Patricio O'Ward	Dallara/Chevrolet	95	28.3907
10	20	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Dallara/Chevrolet	95	32.3407
11	28	Romain Grosjean	Dallara/Honda	95	39.0207
12	51	Sting Ray Robb	Dallara/Honda	95	43.9875
13	06	H.Castroneves	Dallara/Honda	95	58.3175
14	78	Agustín Canapino	Dallara/Chevrolet	95	1'01.1843
15	8	Marcus Ericsson	Dallara/Honda	94
16	55	B.Pedersen	Dallara/Chevrolet	94
17	14	Santino Ferrucci	Dallara/Chevrolet	94
18	21	R.van Kalmthout	Dallara/Chevrolet	93
19	6	Felix Rosenqvist	Dallara/Chevrolet	93
20	18	David Malukas	Dallara/Honda	93
21	29	D.Defrancesco	Dallara/Honda	91
22	2	Josef Newgarden	Dallara/Chevrolet	91
23	26	Colton Herta	Dallara/Honda	80
24	30	Jüri Vips	Dallara/Honda	71
25	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Dallara/Honda	65
26	60	Tom Blomqvist	Dallara/Honda	61
27	15	Graham Rahal	Dallara/Honda	0