Dixon “just messed up” in Indy 500 pit speeding incident
Scott Dixon has shouldered the blame for the pit speeding incident that cost him a shot at a second Indy 500 win.
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 laps led on lap 133 of the 2022 Indy 500. Dixon started the day third on the list and passed Ralph dePalma’s mark of 612 just before half distance.
Polesitter Dixon looked in control of the race, leading 95 laps overall, but finished 21st due to his pitlane speeding penalty earned in his final scheduled pitstop while leading with 25 laps remaining.
Team-mate Marcus Ericsson went on to win after holding off Patricio O'Ward at a late restart following Jimmie Johnson's crash, while fellow Ganassi driver Tony Kanaan finished third.
“It’s just heart-breaking 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 kind of 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.”
Team-mate Alex Palou, with whom Dixon traded the lead in order to save fuel over the opening stint, also suffered a pitlane disaster ahead of his second pitstop, when he was forced to take emergency service.
The reigning IndyCar champion was just about to enter the pits when the red light in pitlane came on for Callum Ilott’s crash at Turn 2.
Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
The resulting penalty sent Palou 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 the Spaniard, who still led 47 laps on the day due to his off-sequence strategy.
“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. 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 back there.
“It was the most overtaking moves I’ve made in an oval race, so I’m happy with getting back up there.”
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