Spending 25 years with one motorsports team is unfathomable. In fact, spending that much time with any organization is rare unless there is a pension and a decent healthcare plan in it at the end.
Scott Dixon’s time at Chip Ganassi Racing ranks as one of the longest professional sports relationships in history. Others that come to mind include Richard Petty and his team started by his father Lee, Kenny Bernstein and John Force driving for their own operations in NHRA drag racing. But that’s the distinction between them and Dixon — he wasn’t family, he was a hired driver that became family over time with the team.
It’s a magnificent history, and one has to look back and wonder what were some of Dixon’s best years driving for Chip Ganassi? Well, let’s take a look.
2003
It’s hard to start a list of Dixon’s best years with Ganassi without touching on his first championship. In his inaugural season in the all-oval Indy Racing League, with new chassis and engine combinations, Dixon won in his very first start at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The next three races weren’t stellar, though he had a chance at Indianapolis, but a bad fuel number led to him later trying to make up time and crashing while scrubbing his tires under yellow. At Texas, a sixth place ended up igniting a stellar summer run in which he won twice more and finished second five times, including four in the last five races.
He won the title by 18 points over Gil de Ferran, giving CGR their fifth title. By the end of his run, Dixon would add on five more.
2009
The only non-title-winning year on the list, this one is more about what Dixon and the entire CGR operation was able to accomplish. With the addition of the 2007 IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti coming back from his NASCAR stint, the team started a run of three title years, all helmed by the Scot.
However, it was that level of excellence that helped raise Dixon’s game. The results weren’t there for the No. 9 team through the next three seasons to best Franchitti, but over the next seven, Dixon finished no worse than third in the standings.
For 2009, the entire CGR operation won 10 times out of the 18 events, with the two drivers splitting that tally evenly with five. Dixon also racked up a total of 10 podiums, the second most in his career.
So while there were no titles that year, it was setting the team up for much more success in the future.
2015
Compared to Dixon’s five other title years, 2015 wouldn’t be a highlight of domination and consistency. However, it was a sterling example of how his team never gave up.
Heading into the last round at Sonoma Raceway, Dixon had just two wins on the season, and one other podium. However, the rest of the paddock were facing similar challenges in consistency. In a time period now where drivers must finish on the podium, if not win, to best Alex Palou, in 2015 top 10s were enough to stay in the hunt.
Heading into Sonoma, Dixon was 47 points behind leader Juan Pablo Montoya. The amount was insurmountable under the traditional points system, however the final race offered double in IndyCar’s unique format at the time. With a fourth place finish at Indianapolis in May that gave him double points as well, Dixon offset his lack of podiums and three other top fives by season’s end.
By race’s end, Dixon took the victory by well executed strategy from his pit stand, and tied Montoya for the championship, winning out by number of race wins — three to Montoya’s two. It wasn’t the strongest year Dixon had with Ganassi, but it was the one in which he persevered the most.
2020
The Covid-impacted 2020 season was a mashup of events vainly scratched together to ensure that Roger Penkse’s newly purchased series survived. Races were moved from traditional dates while, early on, no tracks permitted fans, but by the end of summer in-person attendance was allowed once more. Drivers competed at a vacant Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August, with the entire vibe of the year just feeling off.
Except Dixon didn’t seem to mind. When the season kicked off at Texas in June, he won his fourth race in the Lone Star State and swept the next two events. It wasn’t until the second round of the doubleheader at Road America did Dixon falter. The strong start continued at Iowa’s doubleheader in July, with a runner-up and top five, it was at Indianapolis where one of his strongest runs occurred.
In the sweltering August heat, Dixon overtook polesitter Marco Andretti on the first lap and set sail. He led 111 laps, the second most in his career there, and was on the verge of claiming his second Borg-Warner Trophy, but a pass by Takuma Sato on the last pit exchange took it away.
One more win came at Gateway, with the rest of the season turning quite bumpy. However, due to the team’s exceptional start in June, with four wins in the first eight races, Dixon held off a late run by Josef Newgarden to win his sixth, and as of now, last title.
2008
If there was a magical year between the pairing of Dixon and Ganassi, it was 2008. It was their sixth full season together, and came off a strong runner-up showing to Franchitti in 2007. This was significant as the team dealt with inconsistency and poor speed while running the Toyota engine with a G-Force chassis before the series went to a single engine supplier in 2006.
Now on Honda power, which had won the previous two titles, Dixon built up a racing craft that would establish him as one of the best. In 2006, he returned to victory lane twice, doubling his win output over the last two seasons. He built up his legendary consistency, earning 11 runner-ups after switching to Honda.
When 2008’s oval heavy season started, fresh off the American open-wheel merger, the team was ready to go. With recent champion Franchitti and former three-time champion Sam Hornish Jr. gone to NASCAR, Dixon filled the void. Over the first nine races, he placed on the podium seven times, with three wins. During that stretch, he crushed the field at the Indianapolis 500, leading more than half the laps (115) and kissed the bricks for the first time.
Over the last seven rounds, he finished off the podium only two more times, clinching his second championship by 17 points over Helio Castroneves who had a similar consistent season. To put a cherry on top of his championship banquet milkshake, Dixon then finished second at the last Surfers Paradise race in Australia, run as an exhibition.
The six victories and 12 podiums were the most Dixon earned in one season, while his 646 points were the second most he earned over his six championship years, but best without the added benefit of double points events. It’s clear that over Dixon and Ganassi’s 25 years together, their 2008 run was their best.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.
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