It wasn’t a perfect metaphor. But it worked well enough to illustrate Scott Dixon’s orientation to everyone else with designs on the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series championship.

Defending series champion Josef Newgarden led the Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday entering a restart on Lap 33 of 85. Dixon, the points leader, slinked toward the restart zone in Turn 11 – the last corner before the start/finish line on the 1.786-mile temporary street course – just behind Newgarden.

Caught in a film of granulated tire debris or dust or bad luck, Newgarden glided into a brush with the concrete barrier at the turn’s exit. Dixon bore away for the lead and, effectively, the race win.

Newgarden had unwillingly moved aside for Dixon’s win and a massive compounding of the points lead – from 33 to 62 – and the ever-growing sense of momentum as the 37-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing veteran attempts to secure what would be a fifth championship.

“When I saw (Newgarden sliding toward the wall), the seas were parting, away we went, which for us, especially for the championship, he's our closest competitor right now,” said Dixon, who tied Newgarden for most wins this season with three. “I didn't expect it, for one, but it was good for us, for our day. … That's where our race was won today, was through the bad luck or bad situation that Josef had.”

It’s not over, not with five races left and double points available in the Sept. 16 finale at Sonoma Raceway. Inevitable can be made less so over such a distance with mistakes or unattended details or a spinning opponent with no concerns about another driver’s aspirations. But Dixon capitalized on Sunday in the same way Newgarden faltered somewhat when Dixon finished 12th last week at Iowa Speedway: translating the most capable race car of the weekend into maximum points. Make that almost maximum. Newgarden denied Dixon one for his pile by swiping the pole, leaving Dixon with just a win and most laps led (49).

Newgarden can be consoled by being in the mix, at least. And he continues to say the right things as the wrong things happen around him.

“I think (the No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet) was capable of being in the top three or potentially winning the race if I didn't make the mistake, but you have days like this in racing,” he said. “We have to move on now and try to pick it back up.

“With the championship battle, we've got a long way to go. This doesn't help, but look, we have plenty of racing. We need to keep our head up here. We're going to be just fine. We've got fast cars and the best in the business. If we get our mistakes sorted out, we're going to be just fine."

After winning the pole, leading the most laps but finishing fourth at Iowa because a late pit call backfired, Newgarden finished ninth on Sunday. The other drivers within double-digit deficits – Alexander Rossi (eighth place on Sunday), Ryan Hunter-Reay (16th place) and Will Power (18th place) – were relegated to subpar finishes after being mired by intersecting collisions, scrapes and mishaps of their own.

The pack of five drivers that had broken away from the field after Iowa remained intact, but lost ground as a group to Dixon. Power began the afternoon within 53 points of the lead in fifth place but now is 93 behind.

“It’s not at a DNF, but it’s like a DNF in a season,” he said.

They can hearten themselves with the points remaining to harvest, then hustling past some of the grist.

Newgarden enters the next race, the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 29, as the defending race winner – as he had at Toronto and will at Gateway Motorsports Park in late August. Though Dixon has won at Mid-Ohio five times and at every venue left this season except Gateway, he’s not taking the road course or any other venue for granted.

Dixon led the standings before Mid-Ohio last season but finished ninth, ceded the top spot and eventually finished third in points to Newgarden.

“It's an easy trap to fall into,” Dixon said of a letdown derived from past results. “You’ve just got to treat it as one race weekend, go there with the mindset of being fastest in the first practice, second practice, being fastest in qualifying. (I) definitely can't get complacent. With the competition, it can turn so quickly.

“All it takes is for me to make a mistake or the car to have a mechanical, which last year at Mid-Ohio, that's where we lost the lead in the championship. It can turn very quickly, as we saw this weekend, and even last weekend at Iowa. Just got to keep your head down, man, keep focus.”

As if the path had cleared out ahead.