Scott Dixon explains Ganassi's struggles in 2018 IndyCar season
Scott Dixon says Chip Ganassi Racing took a wrong direction in the IndyCar off-season and had become "stuck" in its ways as it tried to recover

Ganassi has struggled in 2018, with its first podium of the season not achieved until round five on the Indianapolis road course last weekend.
That result came after Dixon reacted to a dismal qualifying position of 18th with an unconventional strategy aided by a late caution caused by Penske's Josef Newgarden.
The team scaled back to a two-car line-up this year, with Ed Jones partnering Dixon, while also tackling what Dixon called the "big change" of the new aerokits.
"In the off-season, I think we've gone down a bit of a road that we shouldn't have, and it's affecting how the car feels," Dixon explained.
"It's very hard to feel what it's going to do, and it's not very consistent, and thirdly, the heat really affects us, so we need to get on top of that.
"I guess [the new aerokit] is a big change. It's one of the biggest changes we've seen in probably a five- or six-year cycle, so that might be a bit of our issue too.
"We're kind of stuck in our ways a little too much.

"We have a very good engineering group, but it's stayed the same for quite a long time, so we maybe don't think outside the box as often as we should.
"We definitely did that a lot [at Indianapolis], which I think should help us throughout the season."
The four-time IndyCar champion is now fourth in the points but admitted a team of Ganassi's pedigree should not have been as lost as it was coming into the race.
Asked how much change was made on the cars from Friday to Saturday at the two-day Indianapolis event in a bid to recover, Dixon said: "Man, that's a long list.
"Dampers, springs, geometry, cambers, It was pretty much everything.
"A team like ours shouldn't be as lost as we were, and I think maybe with the [Indianapolis] test [in late March] in those really cold conditions, we tried to react to that too much.
"Over a two-day event, it doesn't really give you much time to sit on it and think about it, and we made a lot of knee-jerk reactions. We should know better.
"But yeah, it played out well, and we ended up finding a bit more pace out of the car, and the result was decent."

Previous article
James Hunt Rush actor Chris Hemsworth to serve as Indy 500 starter
Next article
Zachary Claman de Melo to stand in for Pietro Fittipaldi at Indy 500

About this article
Series | IndyCar |
Drivers | Scott Dixon |
Author | David Malsher |
Scott Dixon explains Ganassi's struggles in 2018 IndyCar season
Trending
The Indycar season that proves Michael Andretti is better than F1 showed
Often unfairly characterised as a car-breaker, judged for his lack of an Indianapolis 500 win and a disappointing part-season of Formula 1 in 1993, Michael Andretti was highly respected by his rivals and only thwarted greater success by ill-fortune. When it all came together in 1991, he was a truly formidable force
How McLaren is striving towards IndyCar's elite
The second year of McLaren's full-time IndyCar return is looming, with Patricio O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist leading its line-up. Strong team personnel and work behind the scenes means that 2021 could be the year it joins the established elite
The enigmatic legacy of a misunderstood Indy stalwart
Flashes of brilliance amid spells of obscurity have been too common for Marco Andretti. While the third-generation racer has opted to bring his full-time IndyCar career to a close, his peaks and troughs have never been for want of trying
Why American racing's top dog is without equal
A byword for success in business and in motorsport for over 50 years, Roger Penske's importance to the US scene cannot be understated. In an exclusive interview, the custodian of the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway reflects on his journey
The McLaren that rendered its Indy rivals obsolete
When founder Bruce McLaren died in June 1970, his team could have folded. Instead, his loyal band rallied to produce a string of winners - including an Indycar game-changer that won its third Indianapolis 500 five years after its debut
Why Newgarden's best IndyCar season yet wasn't enough
Josef Newgarden feels he didn't put a foot wrong in 2020, yet his finest season-long run of performances failed to yield a third series championship. But in a warning shot to Scott Dixon, Team Penske's team leader has vowed to redouble his efforts in 2021
How Dixon held on in IndyCar's most unpredictable season
Three wins on the trot gave the Chip Ganassi Racing superstar the cushion he needed to hang on for a sixth title in the face of Josef Newgarden's late challenge. Here's the rundown of a typically frantic IndyCar campaign in an extraordinary year
The balancing act required for improving racing at Indy
Calls for an improvement in the racing spectacle at the Indianapolis 500 have been met with small aerodynamic tweaks from IndyCar on superspeedways. But where such high speeds are involved, even minor adjustments require significant planning