Ultra-competitive season closing in on winners mark

Scott Dixon, who vaulted to seventh on the all-time Indy car win list courtesy of three victories in July, is among nine different winners through 14 of 19 IZOD IndyCar Series races this season.

The list includes four first-time winners (James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato, Simon Pagenaud and most recently Charlie Kimball on Aug. 4 at Mid-Ohio) in another highly competitive championship chase that likely won’t be resolved until the finale (Oct. 18 at Auto Club Speedway) for the eighth consecutive year.

Dixon also was a race winner as a 20-year-old rookie during the 2001 CART season in which there were a record 11 different winners in the 20 races, matching the 20-race 2000 season.

“It was a shock,” said Dixon, the 2000 Dayton Indy Lights champion who at 20 years, 9 months, 14 days was then the youngest winner in major auto racing history (eclipsed by 19-year-old Graham Rahal in 2008). “We had set goals of maybe winning a race later on in the season.”

Dixon started 23rd on the Nazareth oval on May 6, 2001, and earned his first victory of this season on July 7 on the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway tri-oval, which he called “Nazareth on steroids,” from the 17th starting position in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car.

The 2000 season also had four first-time winners (Max Papis, Roberto Moreno, Cristiano da Matta and Helio Castroneves).

Castroneves, who has accumulated 27 additional wins in the intervening years, is the IZOD IndyCar Series points leader – by 31 over Dixon – heading into the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma on Aug. 25. There have been seven different winners in the eight IZOD IndyCar Series races on the 2.385-mile, 12-turn road course, and a 10th different winner this season is plausible.

Yet to score a race victory this season are Will Power – the 2012 pole sitter and runner-up to Team Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe at Sonoma; Dario Franchitti (31 career wins), who has three podium finishes in the past four races; Sebastien Bourdais (31 career wins), who registered back-to-back podium finishes at Toronto in mid-July; Marco Andretti, who has 12 top-10 finishes in the 14 races and earned his maiden series win at Sonoma in 2006; and Ed Carpenter, the 2012 Auto Club Speedway race winner.

“You really don’t know who’s going to win any race; it’s a mystery every weekend and you really have to be on top of your game to make sure you score maximum points. It’s a lot of fun and typical INDYCAR,” said reigning IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has recorded two victories and is third in the standings.

There were eight different winners each of the past two seasons (the final year of the Dallara chassis-Honda sole engine supplier platform and the first year of the new-for-2012 Dallara chassis and engine manufacturer competition between Chevrolet and Honda platform).

Different winners this season and in the record years:

2013 season

2001 season

2000 season