Josef Newgarden Wins St. Pete, But Scott Dixon Is Your IndyCar Champion

From Road & Track

Obviously, this was not an ordinary IndyCar season.

The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was scheduled for March 15th. Obviously, it did not happen. The race was canceled after cars arrived at the track, and the season was postponed indefinitely before finally beginning in June. When the season did begin, it was even more strange, opening with a single race before a month-long break, followed by a stretch of five races in three weekends.

This stretch belonged to Scott Dixon. The then five-time champion and eternal championship favorite won three of the first four races, and finished either first or second in three of the next five. The year seemed, unquestionably, to be another Scott Dixon classic. Then, during the second race of a doubleheader at Gateway, everything flipped.

This was the stretch of defending series champion Josef Newgarden, who won that race before starting a streak of finishes of second, eighth, first, and fourth. Dixon ran tenth, tenth, ninth, and eighth in those same races, and Newgarden suddenly came into the finale with a legitimate, albeit slim, shot at a championship of his own.

This was the stage for today's race. Both Newgarden and Dixon qualified unimpressively, and, with each expecting the other to find their way to the lead, both would need to get closer to the front to have any hope of winning a title. They did just this.

While the contenders were making their climb, Will Power was starting on pole. He lost the lead quickly, and Alexander Rossi found himself at the front of the field in what quickly became a 1-2-3 grouping of Andretti Autosport drivers with teammates Colton Herta and James Hinchcliffe. Fifty laps later, chaos in the back of the field brought out a flurry of mid-race yellows. One of these resulted in Alexander Rossi coming onto a dirty track with cold tires, and a few laps later Rossi would bring out the yellow himself when he spun on rubber marbles on the dirty party of the track. Rossi's mistake promoted Herta to the lead, and chaos followed.

Herta led, but he was followed closely on the restart by Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden. A bold but questionable move got Palou to the lead by the apex of turn 1, but he could not get back up to speed quickly enough and he slowed both himself and Herta. Newgarden saw the once-in-a-season opportunity, and he swung hard to the inside, passing both leaders in one instance to grab the race lead. Scott Dixon used the same restart to move past Patricio O'Ward, grabbing fourth. Marco Andretti found himself in the wall a few seconds later, and a yellow followed.

The cautions in this race were so plentiful that chaos began to break out under yellow flags. On one restart, rain appeared from nowhere, before disappearing almost immediately. On another, Conor Daly suddenly found himself with significant damage, only then realizing that he had hit the wall under green a full lap earlier. On this final restart, the pace car had simply seen too much, and it ran out of fuel. Newgarden would pace the field himself coming to green. This is where Patricio O'Ward struck, quickly dispatching Dixon and Herta to get to Newgarden's bumper. He ran behind Newgarden for the final fourteen laps, but, as tires warmed, it became clear that Newgarden had a faster car and O'Ward would not catch him. Colton Herta, understanding that he would finish third in the championship no matter what and only interested in a win, found himself in the tires while chasing the top two, breaking up a race that would have otherwise ended with the top four in the championship finishing first through fourth on track.

The race ended with a win for Newgarden, another runner-up finish for O'Ward, and a shocking podium for Scott Dixon. Both Newgarden and Dixon stepped up in the moment that mattered, but, with Dixon in third, Newgarden simply could not finish negative seventh. Newgarden's perfectly-run race ended in a memorable win, but Scott Dixon walked away with his sixth IndyCar championship. Next year, he will have a chance to tie AJ Foyt with his seventh. Those who watch other forms of racing will note that this is the same record number in NASCAR, where Jimmie Johnson tied Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty earlier this decade, and Formula 1, where Lewis Hamilton will likely tie Michael Schumacher at the end of this season.

Herta won just once this season, but his excellent late-season charge that saw him seemingly competing for every win the past two months was enough to move him to third in the season standings, an exceptional run for any second-year driver. Perhaps even more impressive is Patricio O'Ward, who finished a close fourth in his first ever full season of IndyCar racing. Will Power slotted in fifth after what can only be described as a disappointing season for the fastest driver in the field, with Power winning just twice in a car that started on pole five times. Two cars from Rahal-Letterman Lanigan, two more from Andretti Autosport, and the final Penske car filled out the top ten on the season.

With O'Ward technically ineligible for Rookie of the Year points due to his partial season of IndyCar racing last year, the award instead went to Ed Carpenter Racing's Rinus VeeKay. VeeKay, who goes by a nickname to avoid forcing broadcasts to say his full name "Rinus van Kalmthout," was also awarded Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year earlier in the season.

IndyCar's 2021 season will be one of the most anticipated seasons of auto racing in recent memory, thanks in no small part to an incredible field that will include new competition from seven time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and three time Australian Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin. New Zealand's McLaughlin made his IndyCar debut in today's race, spending the day trying to recover from a poor qualifying performance before his race ended after crashing in a battle for position in the middle of the field.

That season begins with this same race, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, on March 7th of next year. Calendar enthusiasts will note that this is just over four months from today.

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