Dixon Ends IndyCar Win Drought In Toronto
Calum Gill 22:31 17/07/2022
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon took his 52nd IndyCar victory by winning at Toronto for his first triumph since May 2021, holding off Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta.
Despite an early caution a host of drivers elected to pit earlier than their fuel tanks needed to avoid being undercut by drivers behind. Dixon jumped polesitter Herta for the lead by pitting a lap earlier, and then both drivers crucially cleared Jimmie Johnson and Conor Daly – who were running longer and held up a train that varied but reached 14 cars sat waiting behind. Dixon and Herta were able to pull a 14 second gap over Josef Newgarden, who was leading the train that was stuck behind Johnson and Daly. A caution for two top five contenders - Felix Rosenqvist pushing Alexander Rossi into the Turn 3 wall - on lap 45 of 85 removed that deficit the Newgarden group had, although in the following pitstop Newgarden had a slow service.
Two more cautions ensued, one for the track breaking up at Turn 1 and another for Johnson and Kyle Kirkwood colliding. The race got underway again with 20 laps to go and Herta tried hard to reel in Dixon, but found himself unable to and slipping further and further into the clutches of Rosenqvist as the stint wore on. Despite getting right on Herta’s rear wing, Rosenqvist couldn’t find a way through. Dixon won his first race in 2022 to end a barren run where he has struggled with set-up difficulties and personnel changes on his Ganassi car, but delivered a vintage performance that showed no signs of any previous recent struggles. That 52nd win draws him level with Mario Andretti in second in the all-time IndyCar race win tally.
Herta scored a solid second in a year when he has struggled to convert pace at podiums at times, while Rosenqvist was fortunate not to be penalised for the Rossi incident and scored a first podium for Arrow McLaren SP in his second season at the team. Graham Rahal took a brilliant fourth from 14th on the grid. He started on the hard tyre, used a long first stint to put himself in an ideal position in that train of cars held up during the middle of the race, and the multiple cautions also played in to Rahal’s hands. However he wouldn’t have had fourth without many opportunistic moves too, including the one for fourth on Scott McLaughlin at Turn 1 on the final restart. Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson came from ninth to fifth to significantly extend his championship lead, after multiple instances of stout defending from his team-mate Álex Palou who executed a perfect early undercut to jump up the order and was aggressive overtaking after that.
Palou has been in the news as McLaren and Ganassi have claimed to own his racing rights next year but a 22nd place start to sixth at the finish was admirable work at his first visit to the track. Meyer Shank’s Simon Pagenaud helped Palou by giving the champion plenty of room, even though Palou still hit him at the final corner after the last restart. But the last winner at Toronto in 2019, Pagenaud, was rewarded for his gracious racing with his own preservation, and a late move on Christian Lundgaard won the spot. Lundgaard made it two Rahal cars in the top 10, ahead of Penske’s McLaughlin and Newgarden. Will Power, in the third Penske entry, struggled with oversteer all day and was involved in skirmishes that won’t have helped, finishing 15th. Canada's Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti) was 18th as countryman Dalton Kellett (Foyt) retired with an engine issue.
