The 2018 IndyCar Championship has gone to New Zealand’s Scott Dixon.
It has become old hat for Dixon. This is his fifth championship and the only driver ahead of him is A J Foyt, who won seven titles over the course of a long career.
Dixon won in 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2015, to steer clear of a pack of four-time champions made up of Mario Andretti, Dario Franchitti and Sebastien Bourdais.
Foyt won his seven in 1960, 61, 63, 64, 67, 75 and 79.
This year’s championship came down to the very last race, an expected occurrence, as this year is the 13th time in the past 13 years IndyCar went to the wire.
Dixon’s singular accomplishment garnered headlines all over the world, but Dixon avoided any self-congratulatory hyperbole, telling Autoweek, “I feel lucky. I’m very, very blessed in many ways … racing career, to meet the love of my life with Emma, have a great family, two beautiful girls. I feel lucky I get to do what I love to do. I enjoy racing. I get to work with the best in the business. I don’t know. I just don’t see it that way. I hope that I continue for more years to come and enjoy the sport for what it is.”
Dixon is 38, an age where some drivers no longer have the nano-second reaction times necessary to compete at the top level.
Most people think of the Indianapolis 500 when they think about IndyCar racing at all, but most of the series is driven on road courses similar to those used by F1 racers, that is, they have to do more than steer left and mash the accelerator.
Autoextremist editor Peter DeLorenzo said that Dixon could have been a champion, when praising Dixon, he said, “Would he have been a champion in F1? I have no doubt he would have been had he chosen that pursuit. But I’m glad he has raced in Indy cars, because we have gotten to see one of the best drivers in racing history, year-in and year-out.”