Dixon, a 51-race winner, is winless in his last 18 IndyCar races.
Stacy RevereGetty Images- Scott Dixon comes into next weekend’s 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500 in fifth place in the NTT IndyCar Series driver standings.
- Thus far this season, he has zero wins, zero podium finishes and his best finish has been fifth (twice).
- “It’s been pretty horrendous, I think, in some circumstances,” Dixon says.
On paper, Scott Dixon has had a decent start through the first five races of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season.
He comes into next weekend’s 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500 in fifth place in the driver standings, 37 points behind series leader Will Power.
But forget the paper. Dixon is a driver who demands perfection from both himself and his team. Thus far this season, he has zero wins, zero podium finishes and his best finish has been fifth (twice). On the flip side, his worst outing thus far was 10th in last weekend’s GMR Indy Grand Prix.
Scott Dixon won the Indianapolis 500 in 2008.
Sean GardnerGetty Images
Ask Dixon how his season has gone thus far and the New Zealander doesn’t hold back.
“It’s been pretty horrendous, I think, in some circumstances,” Dixon says. “Honestly some were pretty big mistakes that we did as a group that should have never happened. That’s probably two of them.
“And then I think we got into a bit of a weird snowball effect here (at Indianapolis) on the road course, and honestly we just changed way too much stuff. And when you do that, you just miss the balance, and with how tight the competition is right now, then you’re going to be out to lunch, and we definitely were.
“I think the cars race really well. We’ve had really strong races when you look at the competition of the field. It’s just really been the qualifying effort (16th at Long Beach, 13th at Alabama and 21st at the Indy road course) where we’ve either made mistakes or got ourselves into a bit of trouble.”
“I swear a lot. But that’s just because we’re all competitive.”
Dixon is in his 23rd year of IndyCar competition. During that time period he’s earned 51 wins and six championships. He turns 42 in July, and while he doesn’t feel he’s lost anything behind the wheel, he’s also more chagrined by things than he has been in the past.
Dixon is winless in his last 18 starts, which is his longest such streak since the 2004-05 seasons.
Still, Dixon isn’t giving up on his season just yet. He wants that seventh IndyCar championship (which would tie him for most all-time wins with the legendary A.J. Foyt), and he wants to tie or pass Mario Andretti for second on the all-time wins list (52 wins).
“I definitely get frustrated,” Dixon said. “I swear a lot. But that’s just because we’re all competitive. Yeah, it’s always tough. Been in this position before. It’s nothing new. We’ll turn it around and we’ll get on with it.”
Dixon came out of the gate in Tuesday’s practice (Wednesday was rained out) and was the man to beat with the top speed of the day until two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato passed Dixon in the closing laps of the afternoon session to take top speed honors away from Dixon.
“It’s always tough,” Dixon said. “We’ve been here (in this position) before, and it’s just part of racing. Yeah, things could have gone totally different at many places and many tracks throughout the year, and honestly in the last sort of year we’ve made some pretty big mistakes, as well.
“We should have kept close on it. It’s not easy, it’s never easy, but that’s the fun part of it is trying to beat the competition, and right now the whole spread of the field is extremely tight. Just got to get better.”How does he get better?
“I think we just kind of need to reset, calm down and get back to it,” Dixon said.
Follow Autoweek correspondent Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski
Keyword: How Six-time IndyCar Champ Scott Dixon is Coping with 'Horrendous' Start to Season