New Zealand veteran Scott Dixon won the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday to seize the lead in the season standings in pursuit of a seventh series crown.
The 43-year-old Kiwi became the first multiple race winner of the season after his triumph in Long Beach last month, managing to stay out of trouble in a crash-littered race on the nine-turn, 1.645-mile (2.65km) temporary street circuit in downtown Detroit.
Chip Ganassi driver Dixon, who started in fifth on the grid, inherited the lead under the seventh of eight cautions with 34 laps remaining and with another masterful execution of fuel-saving strategy held on for the win without making another pit stop.
“The team called it perfectly, we were on the right strategy,” Dixon, whose 58th career race victory left him nine away from matching A.J. Foyt’s record of 67, told broadcaster NBC.
“We were on the right strategy. A lot of fun driving my Honda out here. And we won, man. How fun was that?
“You never are really sure how the transitions and strategies are going to fall. So stoked for everyone on the team. That was cool.”
Dixon moved atop the championship standings with 216 points, 18 points ahead of teammate Alex Palou of Spain with Australian Will Power of Team Penske in third, 31 points back.
Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson got past New Zealand’s Armstrong with two laps remaining but couldn’t find a way around Dixon, taking second 0.8567sec back.
Kyle Kirkwood and Alexander Rossi rounded out the top five. Power incurred three penalties but finished sixth and McLaren driver Pato O’Ward was seventh.
Rossi, Power and O’Ward all survived a first-corner crash that hinted at chaos to come.
Pole-sitter Colton Herta crashed on lap 46, Scott McLaughlin lost control while running second and hit a wall and Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden received a drive-through penalty for a pit-lane swerve after he drove over an air hose.
Penske’s Newgarden would then tag the wall with less than 20 laps remaining to finish outside the top 20.
