Scott Dixon takes his first win of the season at Road America
Scott Dixon extended his championship lead with his first win of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series on Sunday at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Helio Castroneves controlled the field for the early stages of the race. While teammate Josef Newgarden temporarily leapfrogged him in the pits during the first round of stops, Castroneves got back by on warmer tires.
However, Newgarden wasn’t ready to give up, and on Lap 20 he made a brilliant pass on the outside of Castroneves in Turn 1 to take over the overall lead.
Castroneves continued to drop back as he soon found himself under pressure by Scott Dixon for second.
However, Castroneves was then helped out when the caution flew following the second round of stops as Takuma Sato spun out at the Kink.
Newgarden led the field back to green on Lap 31 but Scott Dixon - after starting fifth - made a move on the outside to get the top spot in Turn 1. Castroneves followed through and took second while, further back, James Hinchcliffe retired from the race after contact with Will Power.
Dixon continued to control the field through the final round of stops, but then lost all of the time he had built over Newgarden when the second caution of the race flew.
Tony Kanaan had made contact with Alexander Rossi entering the Kink, damaging his front wing. Kanaan didn’t have enough downforce to make it through the Kink and he went hard into the outside wall.
Dixon led the field back to green with seven laps left to go and sprinted away from Newgarden and Castroneves behind him for his first win of the season.
"A lot of it was strategy, right tires at the right time so a lot of credit to the team," said Dixon in Victory Lane, who has now extended his points lead to 34 points.
Unofficial race results
1. Scott Dixon
2. Josef Newgarden
3. Helio Castroneves
4. Simon Pagenaud
5. Will Power
6. Charlie Kimball
7. Ed Jones
8. Graham Rahal
9. Max Chilton
10. Mikhail Aleshin
11. Carlos Munoz
12. Spencer Pigot
13. Alexander Rossi
14. Ryan Hunter-Reay
15. Conor Daly
16. JR Hildebrand
17. Esteban Gutierrez
18. Marco Andretti
19. Takuma Sato
20. James Hinchcliffe
21. Tony Kanaan (DNF)
