Starting a lowly ninth on the grid, Scott Dixon and his team made the right calls to put him out in front and from there, Dixon cruised to his third win of the season. That third win would be the tie-breaker between he and Juan Pablo Montoya in claiming the championship.
Once Dixon got out front after a mix of mid-race cautions, he held firm and faced nothing in the way of a challenge.
Graham Rahal, who had sat second in the overall points standings, struggled from the start, dropping four positions on the opening lap. Though he ran in the top five owing to pit strategy, he never showed the speed necessary to contend for either the race win or the championship.
Dixon may have been pressured by Ryan Hunter-Reay in the final stages of the race, but never faced a serious threat. Montoya, however, after contact with his teammate Will Power on the restart after the first caution, consistently found himself racing from the back to the front – and all for naught.
For Dixon, the championship breaks his peculiar string of winning every fifth year, having taken the title in 2003, 2008 and 2013.
About the author
As a writer and editor, Ava anchors the Formula 1 coverage for the site, while working through many of its biggest columns. Ava earned a Masters in Sports Studies at UGA and a PhD in American Studies from UH-Mānoa. Her dissertation Chased Women, NASCAR Dads, and Southern Inhospitality: How NASCAR Exports The South is in the process of becoming a book.
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