After a few years of seeing young and upcoming drivers enjoy success at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, veteran driver Scott Dixon kicked it old school on Sunday in the 49th running of this historic race in front of a capacity record-setting crowd.
Dixon, 43, used his veteran strategy and poise to come from eighth place and lead 42 laps on his way to taking the NTT Indycar checkered flag for Chip Ganassi Racing team. He also won here in 2013.
“That was fun, this is always a marquee event,” Dixon said. “The first time I came here I think was in 1999 with IndyLights (developmental series) and the history of this race, it’s 50 years next year, there’s not many events on the Indy schedule where people can celebrate like that.”
This is the 40th IndyCar race in Long Beach, and Dixon’s second win here is the 57th of his IndyCar career. That’s just 10 wins behind all-time wins leader AJ Foyt. Dixon is also a six-time series champion.
“I think what we really enjoy as drivers and teams is the atmosphere,” Dixon said of Long Beach. “This place is wild, it’s got a lot of energy. It’s a lot of fun and that’s what we need to be doing.”
According to Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President & CEO Jim Michaelian, the preliminary report indicates that the weekend attendance of almost 194,000 is the largest since the 2008 IndyCar/Champ Car series merger.
“We always say, ‘We hope we could have more events like Long Beach, or the 500, or Nashville and places like that. It’s tough to beat it,” Dixon added.
A pair of young drivers Colton Herta and Alex Palou finished second and third, respectively. They’ve both had marquee moments on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit that encircles the Long Beach Convention Center.
On Thursday, Herta said the recent youth moment in Long Beach results is just the rhythm of the sport.
“Will Power is still here and (Scott) Dixon is still here, but they haven’t won here in the past few years,” he said. “But I don’t know. I think it’s just how it is in this sport. If you’re around long enough you get to see guys rise and fall.”
Herta ended up running with the old dogs all day and they had a few new tricks.
Power, 43., has six podium finishes in Long Beach and qualified second. He showed his experience by passing pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist on the tight first turn headed towards the Dolphin Fountain. An early caution put Power on the wrong race strategy when he went to the pits early hoping for more caution flags. They didn’t come in what was one of the cleanest IndyCar races since 2008.
After the leaders went to the pits for the last time, Dixon went to work stretching his last tank of gas for an impressive 34 laps. He even spun some donuts for the grandstands before driving into the winners circle and taking the top step of the podium for the fourth time in his last six IndyCar starts.
“I don’t think I could have made it work like Scott did,” Palou said of his teammate. “Once he took (the lead), I was like, ‘He’s going to make it work.’ It’s super tough if you know the numbers he has to get, what he has to do driving-wise. … I don’t know how. Probably he’s cheating and he has an extra fuel cell that I don’t know yet. I’m just joking.”
“It’s a difficult discipline,” Dixon said of fuel saving. “It’s not just all about technique. There’s a lot of steps to take to get there. Even for me today, I wasn’t sure we were going to get that. When you do, it feels damn good.”
The controversial moment of the day came very late on the final hairpin turn with eight laps left. Former race and series champion Josef Newgarden was navigating traffic behind Dixon when Herta made contact. Newgarden’s back tires were lifted off the ground and his car went into a stall saving mode that caused him to finish fourth. There were no penalties for the contract.
