A Magical Win for Dixon at Long Beach

He is called the Iceman but he might as well be the Magic Man. Scott Dixon is well known throughout Indycar for his ability to save fuel and tires, but what he did on Sunday required all the skill of David Copperfield.

As his alternate tires were degrading and the field sighted him in their crosshairs, Dixon went an astonishing 34 laps in his final stint – without the aid of a caution period – and held off three of the best drivers in the NTT INDYCAR Series to win the 49th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

It provided Dixon with his second career win at Long Beach and his 32nd road course victory, a series record he now shares with Will Power. It was Dixon’s 57th career victory, second all-time to A.J. Foyt’s 67.

“Clearly he’s cheating and has an extra fuel cell,” said third-place finisher Alex Palou, the 2023 and 2021 champion and Dixon’s teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing.

Palou may have been joking but his astonishment at Dixon’s feat was real -- and was not unique. “I don’t know how Dixon did it, to be honest,” said seventh-place finisher Kyle Kirkwood, who won last year’s race. “It was crazy.”

That was the sentiment throughout the paddock.

Southern California native Colton Herta finished second for Andretti Global , which gave Honda a sweep of the podium in its home race. Penske Racing’s Josef Newgarden finished fourth, Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson fifth, and Penske’s Power sixth. Polesitter Felix Rosenqvist battled braking issues and finished ninth.

The victory gave team owner Chip Ganassi seven career Indycar wins at Long Beach, tying team owner Roger Penske. The victory also gave Ganassi a sweep of the weekend’s marquee events. Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande won the 100-minute IMSA GTP race on Saturday with a risky strategy of taking on fuel only at the driver change. “I’m probably happier for the 01 guys if I’m being honest,” Dixon said. “They don’t deserve to have the results they’ve had. It was cool to see.”

Despite playing a risky fuel game, Dixon averaged 98.35 mph and finished 0.97 seconds ahead of Herta on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary circuit. The victory gave the New Zealander 20 consecutive years with a victory. Dating to last season, the six-time champion has won four of the last seven races. And though he has been a slow starter in recent years, he is second to Newgarden in the championship by 12 points, which probably spells trouble for the rest of the league. Herta trails by 15, Palou by 24, and Power by 26.

Weekend attendance was more than 194,000, a record since the 2008 Indycar-Champ Car merger. The event will celebrate its 50th anniversary on April 11-13, 2025.

The most disappointed person in Long Beach was Newgarden, the 2023 race winner who won the season-opener in St. Petersburg.

Newgarden led 19 laps. After the final round of pit stops cycled through on Lap 62, Newgarden trailed Dixon by about three seconds, had fresher tires by seven laps, and didn’t need to save fuel. But it all went for naught in the closing laps.

Newgarden was running a close second to Dixon with eight laps remaining. That's when Newgarden changed his racing line in the Turn 11 hairpin to make a run on Dixon, but had to slow to do so, said Herta. Newgarden’s departure from the norm is why Herta ran into the back of him, he said, lifting the Penske Chevrolet’s rear wheels off the track and causing it to go into anti-stall mode. Newgarden fell to fourth as Herta and Palou slotted into second and third.

“I’m not saying we were going to get Dixon,” said Newgarden, who will get a chance to redeem himself next week at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. “It was very, very difficult for me to get the run I needed to. I think traffic was going to provide me an opportunity, so that run right there, I was really excited about it. I think that was going to be my last chance. Never know if I would have pulled it off or not.”

Herta understood Newgarden’s frustration and the pointed message he delivered privately after the race. “I just misjudged it,” Herta said, refusing to repeat what Newgarden told him. “I apologized to him.” The bump was so egregious that Herta said he would not have been surprised with a penalty, such as having to drop behind Newgarden.

With Newgarden no longer a threat, Dixon continued trying to hit his conservative fuel-saving number while negotiating lapped traffic, green flags, and feathering the overtake button. He finally got the go-ahead to go all out with two laps remaining.

Dixon said this performance ranked high on his list of most stressful, and strategic, victories in his career “because they were coming hard and fast.”

“They were going to get us with eight to 10 laps to go,” he said. “Chip actually got on the radio. I couldn’t hear what he said. I heard he was yelling. I guess it meant go. That’s what I did. … Worked out well.”

Dixon and Power were the two front-runners who adopted an alternate race strategy. Power started second and took the lead from Felix Rosenqvist on the third lap. During the race’s only caution – for Christian Rasmussen, whose crash damaged Jack Harvey’s vehicle on Lap 15-- Power pitted from the lead and Dixon pitted from seventh. Then they crossed their fingers that they could complete the 85-lap race on only one more stop.

Power started the race on the faster but softer compound alternate tires and had hoped to go a full stint with them. Dixon had two sets of alternates because he failed to use a set in qualifying because he didn’t reach the Fast 6 qualifying round to compete for the pole. That gave him more laps with a faster package.

Dixon ultimately had fuel and tires to spare. He even completed a victory lap and some celebratory burnouts. Then, having pulled a rabbit out of his hat, he sprayed the victory champagne.