Great Scott! Dixon ties Andretti for No. 2 on IndyCar all-time wins list
Scott Dixon is already the greatest IndyCar driver of the last 20 years. On Sunday, he inched a bit closer to becoming the greatest of all-time.
Dixon snapped the second-longest losing streak of his career to win the Honda Indy Toronto Sunday afternoon - his first victory since Texas in May 2021.
However, the win was even more significant as it was the 52nd of Dixon’s career. He’s now tied with Mario Andretti for second place on IndyCar’s all-time wins list.
Dixon now needs 15 more wins and one more championship to tie the legendary A.J. Foyt’s records of 67 race victories and seven titles. At 42, one has to wonder how long Dixon can continue to contend for wins.
But for what it’s worth, Dixon recently stated he doesn’t have any plans to leave the sport “for the next five years at least”.
Whether or not Dixon ties - or breaks - Foyt’s records shouldn’t matter, though. He already should be viewed as one of the sport's greatest drivers. Dixon’s win Sunday extended a record he already owned of most consecutive seasons with at least one win to 18. He also has 20 seasons total with at least one win - another all-time record.
“It was a very special day in so many ways,” Dixon said of his win. “Obviously some of those numbers, it took a little while to get to. It's definitely been a bit of a dry spell for us. Sometimes that puts on a lot of pressure, not just me, but everybody on the team.”
Mario Andretti wasn’t at the track to congratulate Dixon in-person, but the racing legend still shared a congratulatory message on Twitter.
“Utmost respect for my friend @scottdixon9 and truly happy to congratulate him on 52 wins,” Andretti wrote. “Also congratulate his team because nobody does it alone. I hope this is just a step on your continuing journey. Well done.”
Dixon said Andretti’s message meant a lot to him.
“I love Mario,” Dixon said. “I love Mario for so many reasons, what he's done in the sport, achieved, what he gives back to the sport.
“I feel extremely lucky to have the likes of himself and A.J. here most weekends. Even to sit and chat with these guys, the generations that they raced in or the time they raced is a lot different from now.
“It means a lot to me to even be mentioned in the same conversation as these greats. I never thought it was possible. For me, it's a huge credit to obviously the team that I work with now, but also the team that I started with, whether it was mum and dad to my brothers and sisters, all of my family, to the Scott Dixon Motorsport Group, which were the founders of getting a group together to put forward money and enable to get me to where I am today.
"As (Andretti) stated, it's a team effort. But those words from Mario mean everything to me.”
Scott Dixon celebrates his win Sunday with fans in Toronto. Photo: IndyCar/Chris Jones.
Mario’s record may have been tied (and very likely will be broken by Dixon). But the Kiwi thinks Foyt’s record of 67 race victories likely won’t be broken.
“(I'd) probably have to be racing well into my 50s for that one,” Dixon said. “It's hard. The competition's really tough right now. Even the luckiness of pulling strategies.
"If you have a bad day, pull off a win from weird cautions and things like that, gets a lot trickier because there's so many good teams now. You have a field of 25 or 27 every weekend that they're going to be thinking the same ultimate strategy.
“Yeah, it's tough. But we'll keep going, man. If we can get on a roll here and knock out some wins, anything's possible. A.J.'s pretty safe, I think.”
Dixon will have two chances to score career victory No. 53 next weekend. The NTT IndyCar Series heads to Iowa Speedway for a doubleheader on July 23-24.
