By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
Defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon fell short of winning the Firestone Grand Prix on the Streets of St. Petersburg by finishing second to race winner Josef Newgarden.
In the closing laps of the race, Dixon was trying to catch Newgarden for the race win. Unfortunately, slower traffic kept him from catching the race winner.
With the race pace, Dixon’s car was good in the first part of the run, would fall off in the middle, but come back to where it was at the start of the run.
“I felt our cars were strong for the first 15, 20 laps, especially on restarts, as well, but the last sort of five to ten, it flipped the other way and they had some really good speed,” Dixon said.
“Had some great battles out there. Lap traffic was interesting, Will and I had a really tough fight in one, two, and then all the way to three I think it was, and then, you know, it worked out for us.
Although there were ebbs in flow in the balance of the car, Dixon believes the strategy and pit stops were clean all day for his team.
“I think strategy-wise and pit stops, it was a clean day for us,” he said. “I think any of us got out front, as will said, had some really good pace, you would have been able to capitalize and Josef’s did that and their strategy, they were able to run and start on new Reds and use Reds later. Their pace opened it up. Interesting day, and good points for us and hopefully we can keep maintaining that.”
As the series heads to Circuit of the Americas, Dixon finds himself second in the points standing.