Temporarily frustrated by finishes outside the top 10 in the first two races of the IndyCar Series season, Scott Dixon now is at the top of the championship standings after five of 17 events.
But as the reigning series champion knows from experience of the past two seasons, it’s tenuous at the top.
“It’s more frustrating, how tough the competition is now,” said Dixon, who became the first two-time winner of ‘09 by darting to the front late in the ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225. “We’ve given up our two bad races in the first two races. Now we’ve got to go out, we’ve got to try to maintain and gain as many points as possible.”
As Dixon alluded, that won’t be easy. Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe and Dixon’s Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti were his closest pursuers at The Milwaukee Mile on May 31 and are tied for second in the championship standings (four points behind).
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Danica Patrick, with four consecutive top-five finishes, is 22 points back, and Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves is 25 points behind in fifth as the series continues its diverse oval adventure under the lights of the 1.5-mile, high-banked Texas Motor Speedway on June 6 with the Bombardier Learjet 550k.
A return to short ovals - Iowa Speedway and Richmond International Raceway - follows, and then there’s a July spate of road/temporary circuits (Watkins Glen, Toronto, Edmonton) to test man and machine.
Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon, the 500-Mile Race runner-up and a 10th-place finisher at Milwaukee, and Andretti Green Racing’s Tony Kanaan are within 40 points of the top. Kanaan, with three consecutive top fives at the outset, has dropped with unfortunate incidents the past two weeks that have him smarting - a heavy hit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that relegated him to 27th place and a brief fire on the Team 7-Eleven car in the pits at Milwaukee that placed him 19th.
“Luckily enough, there’s been a few guys that have had some bad days,” said Dixon, who won from the pole at Texas last June. “Briscoe has been consistently strong. I think at the moment, between him and Dario and a couple others, those are the guys to watch.
“It’s going to be a tough season no matter what. There are so many great competitors. They can pop out at any point.”
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Patrick, driving the No. 7 Boost Mobile/Motorola car for Andretti Green Racing, is one. Graham Rahal, who finished fourth at Milwaukee and has three front-row starts, is another. Marco Andretti, who advanced six positions to seventh at Milwaukee, won’t be overlooked either.
“There are a good six, seven, eight people that could win this championship,” Dixon said.
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