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Who’s Got Dixie?

Scott Dixon is all smiles in Victory Circle following his win in the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. [Photo by: Chris Jones]

Scott Dixon is all smiles in Victory Circle following his win in the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. [Photo by: Chris Jones]

Ten races into the 2015 INDYCAR season and it’s still anybody’s horse race.

Off a strong showing in Texas, it looks like Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon may be getting set to charge hard to the finish line and lasso himself a fourth INDYCAR championship trophy.

Yes, it’s way to early to make that call. Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya still holds the points lead, but on the heels of a team-wide (or nearly so) miscalculation of downforce at Texas Motor Speedway it isn’t at all a stretch to call Dixie’s name up from the pack and give him a nod heading down to the wire.

Dixon is like the steady plowhorse (though no plowhorse ever averaged 191 mph going through his work day like Scott did last Saturday night). He stays out of the limelight, is polite to the point of being reserved with fans and media, and seems to enjoy his home life more than most of us enjoy a circus night.

An aside from Dixon teammate Tony Kanaan during the post-race interviews is telling: speaking candidly with fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves (no shrinking violet himself) TK said, “As much as he can, Scott will be out of the limelight. He’s a racer. The spotlight is not his thing.”

Dixon has put together one of the finest resumés in racing, and done it without fanfare. His victory at TMS was his 37th of his career, which includes three INDYCAR championships and one trip to Victory Lane at the Indianapolis 500.

“Does he care if anybody is talking about him?” asked Kanaan rhetorically. “Not really. He’s going for the trophy, and tomorrow he will be home playing with his kids.”

Dixon stands fifth on the INDYCAR all-time wins list. He’s arguably the most-skilled driver in the series, yet no one outside of the ranks of INDYCAR fanatics and open-wheel insiders could pick the New Zealander out of a police lineup if their life depended on it.

Kanaan certainly knows. He put Dixon onto the top shelf by adding, “If you ask anyone that races against Scott they are going to tell you how much they respect him as a person…and to me that’s the biggest thing you can have going for you.”

Here’s a telling example of what Scott Dixon is all about.

Before Saturday’s green flag at the ultra-challenging loop outside Dallas the team’s engineers made a change of downforce on Dixon’s No. 9 car, increasing it to a point that might not have been exactly what the Kiwi was looking for.

“We went back and forth, starting after the warm-up last night. I thought I was going to have the car one way, but in the afternoon (race engineer) Chris Simmons texted me. He said we were going in a different direction with the package tonight.”

What did Dixon do?

Rather than carry his displeasure with the set-up into the cockpit he simply put on his firesuit and helmet, said to himself “I’m just the driver” and went out and won the race.

“I did try to push back a little,” Dixon said later, “and about 30 minutes before the race I was still moaning pretty good.”

The situation wasn’t helped when Dixon noticed the Penske cars (with the exception of third-place finisher Castroneves) were running less downforce—which in theory meant they could go faster—than the one Simmons had chosen.

Team manager Mike Hull, one of the savvy veterans who makes Ganassi a powerhouse operation, hinted that he was actually in Dixon’s camp on the issue. “I learned a long time ago, if Scott Dixon tells you the car is some way…loose, pushing maybe….it is.”

At one point the team thought about putting a different set-up on its two cars—one the way Dixon liked and one the way Kanaan liked—but in the end a consistent approach over the entire team seemed the smartest choice.

And it worked. Dixon’s car—with that extra bit of grip as the track cooled and got slippery in the Texas night— handled like a champ, and that is where the race was won.

“He started to say towards the end of the race that the tires were deteriorating (from the extra downforce) so we came in a little early on the last pit stop for that reason,” said Hull, “but Scott did a heck of a job with those long runs that really punish the tires.”

In retrospect, Dixon’s professionalism when things didn’t go his way won the day.

At the end of the evening Dixon put on the cowboy hat, fired the six-shooters and took home enough points to rope third place in the championship standings, 43 points behind the leader Montoya—whose setup Dixon had coveted so much at the start—and who struggled mightily all evening with a poor-handling car.

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