DETROIT – With his victory in Saturday’s first race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon moved into a tie for third place on the INDYCAR all time win list with Michael Andretti at 42 career wins.
Along with that statistic and his four Verizon IndyCar Series championships and 2008 Indianapolis 500 win, the 37-year-old has cemented himself as one of the best drivers in the sport’s history.
Those who’ve watched him climb the ranks agree.
Mike Hull, the managing director at Chip Ganassi Racing, has worked with Dixon since the New Zealander joined the team in 2002. The 2000 Indy Lights champion, Dixon won in just his third Indy car race the following season for PacWest Racing – in what makes him still the fifth youngest driver to win (20 years, 9 months, 14 days).
When PacWest folded three races into the 2002 CART season, team owner Chip Ganassi scooped up Dixon immediately. Hull began calling Dixon’s strategy the next season when CGR moved to the Verizon IndyCar Series, and it was an immediate success. Dixon won the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway, then added two more victories and five runner-up finishes to collect his first series championship.
After Saturday’s win at Belle Isle Park, Hull said the feeling is just as sweet now as it was then.
“Winning today was like winning the first race with Scott,” Hull said. “The first race we won with Scott was Homestead in 2003. It’s been a great ride to this point for us.
“What Scott does so well is that he represents the culture of Chip Ganassi Racing. He’s a teammate, a team member. It’s something that you’ll look back on and say, ‘Man, that was awesome to be a part of.’”
After battling Dixon throughout the 70-lap race on Saturday, fellow Indianapolis 500 winners Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport echoed Hull’s sentiments. They both know they are competing against one of the best all time.
“We respect him as probably not only as one of the best drivers in Indy car history but also in the world,” said Rossi, who finished third in the race. “It's a pleasure to race against him, and any day that you can beat him is a good day.”
Hunter-Reay began racing with Dixon when he came to the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2007 and has nothing but praise for the driver of the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“Scott is one of the best,” Hunter-Reay said. “It's amazing, in this day and age in racing and how equally matched everything is, to be in that bracket of third overall (in wins). “It's amazing that, in this day and age, that he's able to continue to rack them up and be in that list.”
Michael Andretti drove against Dixon until his 2007 retirement, and has watched with admiration as a team owner as Dixon closed in on his total of 42 race wins. Only Michael’s father, Mario (52), and A.J. Foyt (67) have more.
“Scott Dixon is one of the best Indy car drivers of all-time, so it was only just a matter of time before he was going to get there (third on the all-time win list),” Michael Andretti said. “Well deserved. He’s a great ambassador for the sport.”
As has been the case throughout his stellar 18-year Indy car career, Dixon remained understated after the achievement – preferring to look ahead and not back.
“I feel very lucky and very privileged to be in this sport,” he said. “It's a very tight-knit family group, I think, and to be on this one team obviously for 16 or 17 years, it's a very tight group of people. We win and lose together as a group, and we've won 41 races together (at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“For me, I love racing. I feel very lucky to do it, and while I'm here, I want to do the best that I can. You know, winning is why we're in this business, and that's why we're going to come back (Sunday) and try and get No. 43, but that's easier said than done.”
Dixon takes aim at his 43rd win in Race 2 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday. Group qualifying starts at 10:45 a.m. ET and streams live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com, youtube.com/indycar and the INDYCAR Mobile app. The race from the 2.35-mile temporary street course on Belle Isle Park airs live on ABC (3:30 p.m.) and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network (3 p.m.).
See what other great think about the legacy of Scott Dixon in this video honoring his achievement on Saturday: