Scott Dixon holds up Astor Cup while championship confetti flies. [Joe Jennings Photo]
Sonoma, Calif. – Scott Dixon came into the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma third place in points, 47 behind leader Juan Pablo Montoya, and after 85 laps of grueling competition, the consummate driver had not only won the final race of the Verizon IndyCar season but he came away with his fourth championship.
At the end, Dixon and Montoya were tied in points but Dixon won it on a tiebreaker with three wins to two for Montoya. After a trying day, Montoya, who collided with teammate Will Power, ended up in sixth place.
The final point standings had Dixon top with 556, Montoya with 556, Power at 493, Graham Rahal 490, Helio Castroneves 490 and Ryan Hunter-Reay 453 and Josef Newgarden 431.
“Obviously, we won it on a countback. It was tied for points and to get it obviously winning three races, you know,” the newly crowned champion said. “It’s a partnership. My teammates were phenomenal. They helped all year and we won this together. I knew if we got to the lead the Target team would help me keep and they just had some phenomenal pit stops. We were getting fuel mileage so easy, which was a key. We could roll the car through the corner and obviously get the mileage. You never know until the last lap. That’s what it came down to. You hope for it. We had to do our best job and that’s what we did today and luckily enough it worked out.”
Asked about his championship outlook going into the race, he commented, “There was still a chance and that’s all we were hoping for. I just can’t thank my teammates enough. All of them helped all weekend and all season long and in the closing fight for this battle. This is fantastic for Target.
“Don’t know what to say. There are just so many people to thank. This season we had some good races and Long Beach was a first for me, which was a big milestone. And Indy was a massive disappointment just because I thought we had a car to beat until we had overheating issues. Chevy has done a phenomenal job with this aero kit and the engine and the mileage and everything, which definitely helped us today. I still can’t believe it. It was such a long shot to get this done. And I guess we won it on count back, too for the most wins, we tied with JPM (Juan Pablo Montoya), so I’m sorry for them but it was fantastic for the team.”
Commenting on the competition behind him, he added, “On the caution, I was watching and counting the cars coming around the hairpin to see where JPM was. I knew that, I think, at the first one, he was back in 16th or 17th when some cars in my vision moved out of the way. You constantly kind of know where they are, but you try to calculate points as well, and then when they were saying nothing (on the radio), I knew it was going to be extremely close. I can’t believe it.”
“We needed a lot of things to happen today, and they all seemed to happen,” Chip Ganassi said. “My hat is off to Roger (Penske) and Juan, as everyone knows the depth of that organization and I have a lot of respect for them. We knew we had a shot at it, and we gave it everything we had.”
Addressing Dixon’s career, Ganassi stated, “Scott is the driver of our generation, and I think his stats speak for themselves. There’s no one else I would have driving our cars; he’s a quality driver and a person. Also, a father and a husband, and a quality guy you would want in your organization.”
Dixon led the most laps (34), including 33 of the final 34 laps. His big break came on the 51st lap when a lightning-fast pit stop propelled him into the lead.
He now has 38 IndyCar victories, which ranks fifth all-time and the Chip Ganassi Racing registered its 100th IndyCar win and its 11th championship.
Hunter-Reay, the Pocono winner, took second place with Dixon’s teammates Charlie Kimball and Tony Kanaan were third and fourth.
Ryan Briscoe soldiered from 17th to fifth place.
Montoya took sixth with Power seventh.
Said the disappointed Montoya, “It doesn’t matter what happened. We fought all year. Our Verizon Chevy was really strong. It’s just a shame. We had two ways to win the championship and just threw it away. It’s a shame. We had a competitive car today to do what we needed to do but just couldn’t close it.
“It’s racing, you know? When you do this and you put double points in the last race like that, it doesn’t matter what you did all year. We had one bad race where its double-points and we’re out of the championship.”
Takuma Sato, Rodolfo Gonzalez and returnee Mikhail Aleshin rounded out the top-10.
Championship contenders Castroneves, Rahal and Newgarden had off days, finishing 15th, 18th and 21st, respectively.
Four caution flags slowed the race for 14 laps.
GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma Race Results SONOMA, Calif. – Results Sunday of the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 2.385-mile Sonoma Raceway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, aero kit-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any): 1. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 85, Running 2. (3) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 85, Running 3. (7) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 85, Running 4. (11) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 85, Running 5. (17) Ryan Briscoe, Honda, 85, Running 6. (5) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 85, Running 7. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 85, Running 8. (18) Takuma Sato, Honda, 85, Running 9. (24) Rodolfo Gonzalez, Honda, 85, Running 10. (14) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 85, Running 11. (8) Marco Andretti, Honda, 85, Running 12. (19) Oriol Servia, Honda, 85, Running 13. (10) Sebastian Saavedra, Chevrolet, 85, Running 14. (21) Gabby Chaves, Honda, 85, Running 15. (15) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 85, Running 16. (4) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 85, Running 17. (20) Stefano Coletti, Chevrolet, 85, Running 18. (6) Graham Rahal, Honda, 85, Running 19. (25) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 85, Running 20. (16) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 85, Running 21. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 84, Running 22. (12) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 84, Running 23. (23) Tristan Vautier, Honda, 82, Running 24. (13) Luca Filippi, Chevrolet, 80, Running
25. (22) James Jakes, Honda, 63, Contact
Race Statistics Winners average speed: 94.117 Time of Race: 2:09:14.2620 Margin of victory: 6.1115 seconds Cautions: 14 Lead changes: 10 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders: Power 1 – 13, Hunter-Reay 14, Kimball 15, Andretti 16 – 19, Saavedra 20 – 21, Power 22 – 34, Saavedra 35 -44, Kanaan 45 – 50, Dixon 51 – 61, Hunter-Reay 62, Dixon 63 – 85
Verizon IndyCar Series point standings: Dixon 556, Montoya 556, Power 493, Rahal 490, Castroneves 453, Hunter-Reay 436, Newgarden 431, Kanaan 431, Andretti 429 and Bourdais 406.
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