He didn’t win a race on an oval in 2011, but Scott Dixon secured the A.J. Foyt Oval Trophy with a third-place finish in the Kentucky Indy 300.
Dixon accumulated the most points via top-five finishes in all seven oval races (the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct.16 is not included), and outdistanced Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti by 10 points. Franchitti, the inaugural award winner in 2010, won at Texas and Milwaukee but had non-top 10s at Indianapolis and New Hampshire.
“It’s a big honor to win the A.J. Foyt oval award,” said Dixon, who will be presented a $50,000 check at the INDYCAR Championship Celebration on Oct. 17 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. “The guy’s a legend and a character as I’m sure everybody knows.”
Foyt, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner and owner of the IZOD IndyCar Series team that bears his name, is the all-time leader in victories with 67 (all under USAC sanction). Foyt, whose Indy car career started on a dirt track in Springfield, Ill., in August 1957, earned his first win came at DuQuoin, Ill., on Sept. 5, 1960.
Q. Congratulations on a podium finish. Talk about today’s race, getting that oval championship.
SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, first of all, it’s a big honor to obviously win the A.J. Foyt oval award. The guy’s a legend, a character as I’m sure everybody knows. But well happy with that.
Today was a bit of a different story. We just seemed to struggle a lot with speed, especially getting up to speed. The car for the first three or four laps after a restart just kind of sat there and did nothing. It was kind of frustrating. I’m not sure if we missed on the restart gears or something there. Just seemed to get hosed by everybody, took three or four laps to get back to where we kind of were.
All in all a great day for the team, a big points swing in the championship. I’m out of it now which is sad for us. Obviously we’ll try and help and push Dario as much as possible at Vegas.
Q. I know you just said you’re out of it. After what happened with Will Power today, to have such a dominant car, somebody take him out in the pits, what do you think is going through his mind? Dario has that invincible air to him going into the last race for a championship.
SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, you know, unfortunately it’s racing. I thought there was another race to go (laughter). I’m sure Will, as you commented, is probably frustrated, had a lot of choice words and maybe even talked (indiscernible).
That’s the way it goes sometimes. That’s racing. You can’t work those equations into what goes on. Obviously pit choice comes from qualifying from the previous events. That affected them big-time.
But, you know, positive for us Dario is obviously leading the championship now, which is good, I think by a fairly decent margin, 18 points, which is always a nice cushion going into Vegas. We’ll see what happens. I think Vegas is going to be a crazy race, 30 or 34 cars or something. You definitely have to keep your nose clean. We can always see a different points swing come towards the end.
Q. Scott, I know you’re disappointed you didn’t win, but what does it mean for the series to have a popular underdog team like Ed and Sarah win today?
SCOTT DIXON: I think it’s cool. Ed obviously has been knocking on the door for, what, the last two or three years. He’s always been very competitive here. Good on the mile-and-a-half’s. Kentucky seems to be his track where they do well.
To see it not a low-funded team, but a much less budget than some of the other teams out there, to actually go out and win the race says a lot. I’m sure there’s very few people in that building, and it’s good to see. I’m extremely happy for Ed. It’s kind of cool for him to obviously win so close to his home being in Indianapolis, obviously a lot of his friends and family here. Obviously for Sarah as a team owner, they just welcomed a little girl into the world as well.
I’m just extremely happy for them. It shows you that the little teams with a bit of (indiscernible) can bring it through.
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