The 43-year-old New Zealander began fifth, pushed by means of the murky cycle of pit technique, and fended off late chargers whereas saving gas to assert victory by 0.8567s across the 1.645-mile, nine-turn non permanent road circuit.
It’s the 58th win of Dixon’s IndyCar profession.
He defined of his gas technique: “At about lap 50, I stated, ‘I believe we are able to make it on no extra stops from this level if we do one now.’
“Clearly, we did not go that dangerous, however the staff known as it completely. We have been on the correct technique. And we received, man. How cool is that?”
Marcus Ericsson made a late cost from fourth within the closing stint, however was unable to place collectively sufficient of an effort to climb increased than second for his finest end result with Andretti World so far.
Marcus Armstrong, the 2023 IndyCar Collection Rookie of the 12 months, scored his career-best end en path to his first podium to provide Chip Ganassi Racing two of the highest three spots within the operating order.
Andretti World’s Kyle Kirkwood completed fourth, forward of Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi in fifth.
Regardless of a horrendous day with a number of collisions and penalties, Workforce Penske’s Will Energy rebounded for sixth, forward of Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in seventh.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who made a race-high 26 on-track passes on the day, overcame his depressing Twenty second-place beginning spot to complete eighth.
AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci was ninth, with Arrow McLaren rookie Theo Pourchaire accumulating his first-ever IndyCar prime 10 in tenth.
The race featured eight cautions for 47 laps of the 100-lap race.
Story of the race
Herta led the sector to the inexperienced flag however hassle struck shortly after as Lundgaard pressured a three-wide transfer, going to the within of Pourchaire, who was on the within of Energy. The state of affairs led to contact, with Energy getting tagged getting into Flip 3 and making a site visitors jam that included Ferrucci, O’Ward, Rossi and the Dale Coyne Racing duo of Tristan Vautier and Jack Harvey.
All automobiles continued on, with Energy receiving a rear wing change. Rosenqvist additionally pitted attributable to struggling a puncture through the sequence of occasions.
Palou, who began second, went from pressuring Herta after the lap 4 restart for the result in all of a sudden dropping the rear grip together with his used alternates and going right into a freefall all the way down to seventh, dove to pit lane on lap 12 and switched to recent alternates.
Lundgaard’s cost from eleventh went as excessive as fourth earlier than his alternates additionally began to go off and restrict his progress, falling again one spot earlier than diving to pit lane for used main tires on lap 16.
And he caught a break with the timing because the warning got here out on the similar time; Ferrucci tagged the again of Helio Castroneves getting into Flip 5, sending him right into a spin. Simpson was additionally collected within the melee and suffered a damaged entrance wing, however all three have been capable of proceed.
One other warning got here out on lap 33 when Workforce Penske’s Scott McLaughlin crashed in Flip 1 whereas operating second. Pressed in opposition to the tire barrier on the surface of the nook, the Indy 500 polewinner fell two laps down as his automobile was retrieved.
Herta pitted from the lead on lap 35, with Lundgaard assuming the highest spot, forward of Palou, Canapino and Energy. Newgarden additionally pitted however suffered a fueling subject, which pressured the staff to vary out the hose after the cease.
Then a rain bathe led the vast majority of the sector to swap to moist climate tires over the following few laps, however Lundgaard, Kirkwood and Dixon have been amongst those who opted to stay on their respective used main slicks. And that proved to be a pivotal name for observe place because the rain let up and the observe started to dry out.
When the race lastly restarted on lap 41, Kirkwood propelled to the lead previous Lundgaard as they approached Flip 3. In the meantime, Rossi pitted to change off the wets to the primaries forward of the inexperienced flag.
Moments later, Energy made a transfer to the within of Romain Grosjean heading into Flip 3 and the 2 made contact, with Energy pushing forward and hitting Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, who was on the surface of the 2 drivers.
The end result left VeeKay parked the fallacious manner on the exit of the nook and introduced out one more warning. Energy was pressured to drop to the rear for avoidable contact for his half in triggering the sooner crash.
This warning gave Lundgaard a chance to pit, together with the drivers that have been on moist tires to change again to slicks.
One other restart on lap 46 was as soon as once more halted by one other warning, with this one coming after Herta, who was mired in site visitors, made a late dive on Palou getting into Flip 5 however locked up and drove by means of the nook into the runoff. He misplaced a lap within the technique of getting refired.
It was rinse and repeat on lap 53 as one other restart was interrupted with contact in Flip 3 bringing out a warning. Lundgaard charged into the nook and piled into Grosjean, climbing midway up his sidepod and blocking a part of the observe in entrance of Armstrong and rookie Linus Lundqvist. Lundgaard acquired a drive-through penalty because of this.
The yellow flag got here out as soon as extra on lap 64, which arrange the final spherical of pit stops for Kirkwood, Palou and Rossi, which put Dixon, who pitted on the earlier warning with 44 laps to go, within the lead.
Dixon led the sector to the restart on lap 70, forward of rookie team-mate Armstrong and Vautier. The racing didn’t final lengthy as Newgarden, who served a drive by means of penalty after operating over an airhose and almost hitting pit crew members throughout an earlier pit cease, misplaced the rear of his automobile getting into Flip 3.
Palou was blocked by Newgarden sitting sideways throughout the observe, however each have been capable of proceed on.
Then, mercifully, some inexperienced flag operating occurred when Dixon led the sector as soon as extra to the restart on lap 74. Kirkwood made fast work of Vautier and moved into third and made a failed try and get by Armstrong for second.
Gasoline conservation was recent on Dixon’s thoughts as he feathered the throttle in corners whereas holding a 3.3s lead over his team-mate with 20 laps to go. Armstrong did eat into Dixon’s lead the following two laps, taking out a large chunk to be 2.4s again.
In the meantime, Newgarden’s day of distress continued as a faucet of the wall with the left-rear out of Flip 4 put him again on pit street for repairs with 18 laps left.
Kirkwood started to lose floor to Armstrong, fading to just about 2s again of him and greater than 5s from Dixon with 14 laps to go. And Kirkwood’s struggles started to indicate much more when team-mate Marcus Ericsson, who began ninth, handed him in Flip 3 to maneuver as much as third.
With 10 laps to go, Armstrong continued to make up floor on Dixon and was 1.6s behind. Dixon’s conservation mode allowed Herta unlap himself and remained in entrance of the six-time IndyCar Collection champion.
The hole between the highest two tightened to 1.1s with seven laps to go, with Dixon then calling over the radio for Herta to maneuver apart as they have been each Honda drivers.
Ericsson, Herta’s team-mate, was capable of additionally shut on the Dixon and Armstrong to make it a three-car battle for the win with six laps left. The next lap noticed Dixon make a lunging move by Herta getting into Flip 3. Herta then circled again to dive down pit street to not impede the opposite frontrunners, together with his team-mate, within the closing laps.
Ericsson made a push for second into Flip 3 with 4 laps to go, urgent to the surface of Armstrong, who held the spot with some stout defending.
Dixon was capable of widen the hole to 2.5s with two laps to go whereas the runner-up spot was being contested. Moments later, Ericsson made an inside move on Armstrong to maneuver into second and push towards Dixon.
Dixon held a 1.8s lead when he took the white flag, with Ericsson charging laborious however was not capable of muster a correct problem after solely chopping out 1s of the lead.
