Scott Dixon storms to Genesys 300 win after Felix Rosenqvist crash
Scott Dixon cruised to victory in the Genesys 300 at the Texas Motor Speedway after a late charge by Chip Ganassi team-mate Felix Rosenqvist was undone by a crash.
The Kiwi led for much of the race – round one of the season and the first making use of the new Aeroscreen head protection device – though it took some fortune towards the end of the race to stop him from being overhauled.
Pole sitter Josef Newgarden led initially during the first stint, but the report of a right-rear vibration would see Dixon move into the lead. Though he’d lose it again through the opening round of pit-stops to Newgarden and Rosenqvist, Dixon quickly reasserted himself out front to extend his lead out to almost ten seconds at one stage.
Rosenqvist began to reel him in during the closing stages though after Dixon was held up in traffic but it was the Swede’s attempt to lap James Hinchcliffe that saw him run too high and collect the barriers, putting him out of the race.
That allowed Dixon the breathing space he needed to win comfortably as he got his bid for a sixth IndyCar Series title underway in style.
Simon Pagenaud came through to claim second position, with reigning champion Newgarden contending with his vibration to the end to secure third place.
Zach Veach equalled his best finish in IndyCar with a strong run to fourth, ahead of Ed Carpenter, Conor Daly and Colton Herta. Ryan Hunter-Reay was eighth despite a drive-through penalty for having mechanics working on his car too late on the grid.
IndyLights champion Oliver Askew gave the Arrow McLaren SP team a strong ninth place finish on both his and the team’s IndyCar debut, with Tony Kanaan rounding out the top ten.
As well as Rosenqvist, Rinus VeeKay crashed out in an incident that also eliminated Alex Palou, while Takuma Sato failed to make the start after a crash in qualifying left Rahal Letterman Lanigan too little time to fix the car due to the short one-day race format.
