Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global
Breaking news

Dixon angered by “fabricated” St. Pete running order

Four-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon was left furious at IndyCar Race Control for calling a full-course caution that flipped the race order around, favoring those who started near the back of the field.

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Alexander Rossi, Herta - Andretti Autosport Honda
Sébastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing Honda
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

The yellows flew on Lap 26 when Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Tony Kanaan made hard contact with Mikhail Aleshin’s Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car at Turn 4. The caution period bunched up the field so that drivers on conventional strategies, led (ironically) by Kanaan’s and Aleshin’s teammates, James Hinchcliffe and Dixon, pitted from first and second, and emerged behind all those who had gone off strategy in the early stages. It mean Dixon took the restart from 11th.

Sebastien Bourdais, who had started last for Dale Coyne Racing, went on to win the race, while Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud who had started 14th went on to finish second.

“Yeah, I had a car that could have won,” Dixon told Motorsport.com. “The way Bourdais got to the front was fabricated. You might as well draw the running order out of a hat if that’s what they’re going to do strategy-wise in Race Control.

“There was no debris there. Actually there was a small piece but you’d have had to hit the wall to get to it. So I don’t know what the yellow was for.

“Normally those guys understand that it's a critical stage of the race and they’ve got to let that go. It’s not like [the debris] was on a part of the track that you race on, so you can’t have them flipping the field, otherwise qualifying is meaningless.

“I’m not taking it away from Bourdais. We all fall into these situations sometimes, and he did a good job and congrats on the win. But for us it definitely changed the race.

“So I’m off to see them to ask why they threw the caution.”

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Bourdais stunned by amazing IndyCar last-to-first win
Next article Power rues lost opportunity at St. Petersburg

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global