Intro To Indy - Chip Ganassi Racing - Pt 2 - Scott Dixon

Now we move to the rock of Chip Ganassi Racing and IndyCar - Scott Dixon.

This is his headshot from the IndyCar website.

In some ways, the two mainstays of IndyCar for the past twenty-ish years have a similar story. However, Scott does have seniority over Will.

Like Will Power, Scott Dixon comes from a family involved in motorsports. Born in Australia to ex-pat New Zealanders, Scott is a Kiwi. Scott started karting at seven, which is the usual age for those drivers looking to move into motorsport as a career.

The difference is that Scott's family may have had a bit of the pedigree but none of the money. This is a key thread throughout the whole Dixon story.

Scott's father worked tirelessly to support Scott in the five years he was in karting. During that time period, Scott won thirty titles.

At thirteen, he was granted special dispensation to begin racing in higher classes of racing. namely the lower Formulas like Formula Ford.

In the 1993-1994 season, he won the lower Formula Ford title,

In 1996-1997 season, he won the upper Formula Ford title, having won over 50% of the races in that season.

During the 1997 season, he and his family connected with fellow driver Ken Smith, who became Scott's mentor. Like previous seasons, Scott struggled with funding and would race with different sponsors on a race by race basis during his first year in the Formula Holden series. He placed third in his rookie year.

1998 would find a different solution for his ongoing funding issues. Investors formed Scott Dixon Motor Sports to be able to support Scott and pay him a salary until a top team signed him. Although he was racing in an Australian based league, and was born in Australia, he was barred from the Australia Institute of Sport to help with fitnes and media training.

Scott had struggled a little bit with articulating himself earlier on with people outside of his family, and the prevention of aid must have been a tough pill to swallow.

After winning his second season in Formula Holden, and taking second place in the New Zealand Grand Prix, Scott left Australia to chase after a Formula 1 seat.

Unlike his counterpart Will Power, Scott genuinely did not have the funds to afford a European campaign. With such success, it would be expected that he would move into British F3 or a contemporary series to follow the ladder up to F1.

Though SDMS couldn't afford Europe, they could afford the US. Dixon moved into IndyLights (now IndyNXT), a feeder series for IndyCar, to see if it could propel him upwards.

His first season had him finish in the top five of Indy Lights, but also had his manager Smith leave post season. A new negotiation between SDMS and teams started; an Australian media manager named Brett Murray encouraged PacWest Racing to sponsor Dixon for 2000.

Dixon won the Indy Lights title in 2000.

Graduating to the big leagues in 2001, Dixon spent two seasons in CART. First with PacWest, then after PacWest lost its funding, into Chip Ganassi Racing.

Dixon went with CGR to IRL and the rest is history.

Dixon and CGR won their first title in their rookie year in IndyCar - 2003.

After that, the team struggled with the Toyota power units and regulation changes for the following two years.

Then came the switch to Honda engines in 2006, and Dixon was in the top five in the championship again.

2007 had him start a streak of top three in the championship finishes that lasted until 2016.

That's right. Scott Dixon finished first, second or third in the IndyCar standings for nine seasons running. Incredible.

On top of that, Dixon won the Indy 500 in 2008.

While it must have been a huge disappointment for Scott to finish sixth in 2016, he bounced back easily enough. He hit a top ten finishing streak - including two titles in 2018 and 2020 - from 2017 to 2024.

Although Scott came in sixth last year, I wouldn't count him out. It's his tradtional pattern, and is honestly a sign of things to come.

Like his compatriots at Team Penske, Scott Dixon is a safe bet if you're looking for a favorite IndyCar driver. He's one of the strongest drivers, a consistent performer, patient since his time in Australia, and a staple of the IndyCar series. If you like F1, he's similar to Hamilton in the fact that it doesn't matter what he does in quali, he comes in clutch on race day.

If you like your drivers to not be highly emotional, more on the logical side, Scott is IndyCar's Iceman. There will be no flapping of the bird when Scott is cut off, there will be no radios full of curses.

On the backend, Scott is an incredibly charitable person. He and his family work with CanTeen, a program for teens with cancer, Women in Motorsport and then IndyHumane, an animal shelter in Indianapolis.

A kind, cool, and collected driver, Scott is a great and steady choice for your favorite IndyCar driver.

Next up is current title holder Álex Palou.