IF SCOTT DIXON played for the All Blacks he would be a national hero.
If his success behind the wheel was achieved in Formula One then he would be hailed with Schumacher, Prost and Senna as one of the greatest of all time.
But while his chosen vocation, driving an Indy Car better than almost anyone else in history, may not offer him the profile and prestige an alternative career may have delivered, there’s little argument that the quietly spoken Kiwi is one of the very best.
As he stands on the edge of history, thanks to a very real chance of winning his fifth IndyCar series title this weekend when the 2018 season concludes in California, it’s worth putting into context the weight of the achievements he has scribed on a remarkable resume.
Dixon’s 43 race victories have come over a 17-year career in the top flight of US-based open wheel racing.
At 20 years and 9 months, his first win at Nazareth in 2001 made him at the time the youngest ever of a CART / IndyCar race and came in a style he would make familiar over the next 43 victories; by saving fuel and making his tank last longer than anyone at the time thought possible.
His first win came for PacWest Racing, which shuttered early in the following season.
Fortunately, waiting in the wings and willing to take a punt on young talent was Chip Ganassi and from that moment one of the most effective driver-owner relationships the sport has seen was created.
His first win for the team came a year later at Homestead; the same year he won his first IndyCar title.
He went winless the following season though that’s not something that has happened since: Remarkably, Dixon has won at least once every year since 2004.
Where his first title came at the height of the IRL-CART split, his second came in 2008, the year the two series were merged into the entity today known as the Verizon IndyCar series.
His relentless run at remaining a perennial championship contender since then is scarcely believable, especially given the depth of competition IndyCar racing has developed in recent years.
In the nine seasons following his second title, Dixon won two more – in 2013 and 2015 – finished second in 2009 and third on a remarkable five occasions; generally remaining in the championship hunt to the final round.
His worst year in that near decade was 2016 when he finished ‘only’ 6th – though a closer look at the points table shows he was less than 30 points from yet another top three finish.
His 44 race victories, to date, place him third on the all-time winners list with a vast majority of them achieved in an era where the rules attempt to make domination almost impossible.
Ahead of him stand two of the most famous names the sport has: AJ Foyt’s 67 wins may not be catchable. Mario Andretti’s 52, however, is absolutely a legitimate target.
What’s more, his podium strike rate is basically one in every three races: He’s finished in the top three in more than 100 of his just over 300 IndyCar races.
Since the merging of the various record books representing the 100-plus year history of what we now know as Indy Car racing, Dixon stands tied with a group of six others on four championship wins; Andretti is one, Dario Franchitti, Sebastien Bourdais, Al Unser, Jr, Bobby Rahal and Al Unser Snr the others.
A fifth would elevate him into his own stratosphere, with only Rick Mears’ six titles and Foyt’s seven standing above.
His single Indianapolis 500 victory came in 2008, though he has three pole positions at the Brickyard and has twice finished a narrow second and once third – this year, in fact – across his 16 starts at the Speedway.
He’s won the Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona on three occasions, twice outright and this year the LM GTE class aboard one of Ganassi’s Ford GTs.
As noted, however, numbers only go some of the way to unfolding the career Scott Dixon has forged.
There’s the unflinching loyalty to Chip Ganassi and his team, which began in 2002 and will continue for at least another year after Dixon reportedly eschewed several big-dollar offers to defect.
Then there’s his ability to rebound from adversity, no more apparent than in the most recent IndyCar race at Portland where he was caught up in a lap one, turn two crash that would have ended any other drivers’ day.
Dixon, however, had the presence of mind to keep the car running and the luck to avoid any damage and went on to finish fourth and actually extended his championship lead in a day that began by looking like he might lose it all together.
Then there’s the intangible, unexplainable skill he has in extracting more fuel from a tank than seemingly any other driver. In the same equipment and the same circumstances as everyone else, he magics his way to better economy which is so often the key to winning those kinds of races.
Scott Dixon isn’t the kind of person to talk up these achievements, nor is he the type to chase publicity or incite drama that creates attention.
History, it seems, will be kind to Scott Dixon because he certainly doesn’t chase the accolades in the present.
Instead it’s his relentless ability to keep wining and his positive, family-man attitude that make him one of the brightest role models in the sport, if one that is undersold to the media and public.
Such is the topsy-turvy nature of IndyCar racing that fifth title is by no means a fait accompli this weekend at Sonoma.
However such is are the weight of numbers behind Scott Dixon’s career to date, he doesn’t need to win to assure his place as one of the greatest we’ve ever seen.
He probably will though.. after all, that’s what he does better than anything else.
Ashwp
Couldn’t agree more! Especially now that he HAS taken his 5th Championship. In my opinion, Scott’s achievements in motor racing could be seen as a greater achievement than that achieved by Denny or Chris (much as I admire and respect both of these great drivers, in an era that saw multiple deaths in motor racing every year). And, unlike Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Nigel Mansell, he didn’t win titles through bad sportsmanship and driving fellow competitors off the track. Scott is almost universally admired and respected by the drivers he races against – ref the opinion piece by Alexander Rossi in the ESPN broadcast from Sonoma today.