Indy 500 champ Takuma Sato feels 'fortunate' to even get to race this year
Takuma Sato this year became the 20th driver to win the Indy 500 twice, following his 2017 victory in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
Scott Dixon didn’t win Sunday’s IndyCar St. Petersburg Grand Prix, but his third-place finish earned enough points to deliver his record-setting sixth championship.
Scott Dixon celebrates the championship win with team owner Chip Ganassi.
The New Zealander leads four-time champions Dario Franchitti and Sebastian Bourdais on the all-time list since IRL/IndyCar was formed in 1996. (In 2008, IndyCar merged with the competing Champ Car World Series in which Bourdais won his titles.)
Defending IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden won the race, which was originally set to be the season-opener in March, but was postponed due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., for the second year in a row.
Dixon’s championship puts him one behind racing legend A.J. Foyt, who won seven national titles across IndyCar’s various predecessor series. Foyt’s IndyCar team offered congratulations to Dixon, tweeting: Y’all are getting closer and closer to The Boss’ record, but as he says, “records are made to be broken.”
“Six is good. Seven sounds better," the 40-year-old Dixon said. “That’s obviously going to be the goal. But it’s tough, as you can see from the competition, even if you mess up just a little bit.”
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Dixon’s points lead over Newgarden was as high as 117 during the season, but he ended just 16 ahead of his American rival, while 20-year-old Colton Herta finished the year 100 points behind Newgarden in third place.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.