ELKHART LAKE, Wis.,
July 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A
strategic pit call by his Chip Ganassi Racing team, combined with
Scott Dixon's ability to run
qualifying-like laps in clean air, enabled the Honda driver to
continue his season-opening streak of NTT INDYCAR SERIES races wins
to three Saturday at the REV Group Grand Prix. Today's race
was the first of a doubleheader race weekend at the challenging
4-mile Road America road course.
Starting ninth, Dixon was seemingly stuck in a pack of cars
contesting fourth through ninth for the first two dozen laps of the
55-lap contest, so his Ganassi team elected to make his second stop
on Lap 26. Exiting pit lane with no nearby traffic, Dixon
rattled off a series of ultra-quick laps to find himself second to
Will Power when the pit stop
sequence concluded on Lap 30.
Dixon repeatedly challenged Power for the lead, then jumped
ahead during the final round of stops under caution on Lap
40. Once in front, Dixon remained in charge to the finish,
despite a series of late-race caution flags, to score his
49th career Indy car victory and three in a row for the
first time in his career.
The late-race sequence of cautions provided Honda-powered rookie
Alex Palou with the opportunity he
needed, as the Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh driver jumped from
sixth, to fifth, to third in a series of ambitious overtaking moves
on the succeeding restarts. The strong finish promoted Palou to
third at the checkers, after starting mid-field in 14th.
The podium finish is the best to date in the promising rookie's
Indy car career.
Honda drivers claimed four of the top five finishing positions,
and eight of the top 10. After starting third, Ryan Hunter-Reay ran in the lead group for the
entire day, finishing fourth with his Andretti Autosport teammate,
Colton Herta, fifth.
Santino Ferrucci ran as high as
second in his Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Honda, but a near collision with
a slower car during his final pit stop dropped the second-year Indy
car driver to sixth at the checkers.
Starting fourth, Graham Rahal
looked like a potential race winner in the opening stint, but a
refueling issue during his first pit stop dropped the Rahal
Letterman Lanigan driver deep in the field. A strong recovery
saw Rahal claw his way back to seventh at the finish. Teammate
Takuma Sato worked his way from
15th to ninth, with Marcus
Ericsson rounding out the top 10 for Honda despite a spin on
the final lap.
With three wins in as many races this season, Honda also
continues to lead the IndyCar Manufacturers' Championship, with an
unofficial total of 267 points to 213 points for Chevrolet.
Next
Today's race was the opening round of a
doubleheader REV Group Grand Prix weekend at Road America.
Tomorrow's 55-lap finale starts at 12 p.m.
EDT, with live coverage on NBC. A second doubleheader
follows next weekend, July 17-18, on
the oval at Iowa Speedway.
Honda Racing social media content and videos from the REV Group
Grand Prix at Road America will be available on Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at
(https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD). Produced by the
CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found
at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.
Quotes
Scott
Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Started ninth,
finished first; third consecutive INDYCAR win to open the 2020
season and 49th career victory: "I'm not sure
how that happened! I know we had huge out laps [exiting the pits]
and a big in lap as well. We're definitely proud to be
powered by Honda here. This is a huge weekend for us.
We definitely didn't start the way we wanted [qualifying ninth],
but we dialed it in a little bit better for the race. That
was awesome, man! But it's not me, the team does such an amazing
job to cover all the bases. I'm proud of this team, and proud
of everyone on it."
Alex Palou (Dale Coyne
Racing with Team Goh Honda) Started 14th, finished
third: "This is amazing, it feels so good. It took time
to get here [finishing on the podium]. We still need more
practice, but we're getting there. I'm becoming more
comfortable with the car, and with the team. I was a little
bit lucky today, to be honest, with the restarts. It was one
of those days were you try something, and it works! We had
tough luck in qualifying [14th], but good luck in the
race."
Ted Klaus (President,
Honda Performance Development) on today's Honda win in the GMR
Grand Prix: "Today's effort by Scott
Dixon and his Chip Ganassi Racing team demonstrated exactly
why they have won so many races, and championships, over the
years. That was a brilliant race strategy, and perfect
execution by both driver and team to make it work. It was
amazing to watch, and a well-earned third consecutive win for
Scott, and for Honda. Alex Palou had
some fantastic restarts, and it was great to see him get a
well-earned result after demonstrating so much speed earlier this
season. Ryan Hunter-Reay also
drove an excellent race, as did Santino
Ferrucci. But for the refueling issue during his first
stop, I think Graham Rahal would
have challenged for the win. Jack
Harvey also deserved better luck after his great qualifying
effort and race pace. Best of all, we get to do this again
tomorrow!"
NTT INDYCAR SERIES REV Group Grand
Prix
Circuit: Road America (4.0-mile road
course), Elkhart Lake, Wis.
2019 Winner: Alexander
Rossi (Andretti Autosport) 132.894 mph average
Weather: Mostly sunny, warm, 82 degrees F
Top-10 Race Results:
Fn.
|
St.
|
Driver
|
Team
|
Manufacturer
|
Laps
|
Notes
|
1.
|
9.
|
Scott
Dixon
|
Chip Ganassi
Racing
|
Honda
|
55
|
116.027 mph
average
|
2.
|
5.
|
Josef
Newgarden
|
Team
Penske
|
Chevrolet
|
55
|
+2.5386
seconds
|
3.
|
14.
|
Alex
Palou-R
|
DCR with Team
Goh
|
Honda
|
55
|
|
4.
|
3.
|
Ryan
Hunter-Reay
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
55
|
|
5.
|
7.
|
Colton
Herta
|
Andretti Harding
Autosport
|
Honda
|
55
|
|
6.
|
6.
|
Santino
Ferrucci
|
DCR with
Vasser-Sullivan
|
Honda
|
55
|
|
7.
|
4.
|
Graham
Rahal
|
Rahal Letterman
Lanigan
|
Honda
|
55
|
|
8.
|
12.
|
Patricio
O'Ward
|
Arrow McLaren
SP
|
Chevrolet
|
55
|
|
9.
|
15.
|
Takuma
Sato
|
Rahal Letterman
Lanigan
|
Honda
|
55
|
|
10.
|
13.
|
Marcus
Ericsson
|
Chip Ganassi
Racing
|
Honda
|
55
|
|
Other Honda Results
16.
|
20.
|
Zach
Veach
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
55
|
Running
|
18.
|
8.
|
Felix
Rosenqvist
|
Chip Ganassi
Racing
|
Honda
|
54
|
Running
|
19.
|
11.
|
Alexander
Rossi
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
54
|
Running
|
22.
|
10.
|
Marco
Andretti
|
Andretti Herta
Autosport
|
Honda
|
39
|
Did not finish –
mechanical
|
23.
|
2.
|
Jack
Harvey
|
Meyer Shank
Racing
|
Honda
|
37
|
Did not finish –
mechanical
|
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SOURCE Honda Racing/HPD