By David Morgan, Associate Editor
NASHVILLE – Scott Dixon knew his No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda had the speed in it to win Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, he just needed the chance to show it.
After starting back in 14th place, Dixon would have to overcome some damage early in the race to make it happen, getting caught up in the Lap 26 melee in Turn 7. But Dixon’s crew went to work to get him back in the game and he was able to stay in the fight.
Dixon would make his final pit stop on lap 50 and advanced up to second-place when the yellow flag flew on lap 52, putting him in position to strike.
When race leader Josef Newgarden had to duck off onto pit road under the lap 64 yellow flag, Dixon ascended to the race lead, where he would remain through to the finish.
It wasn’t a walk-off win for Dixon as the yellow flag and a subsequent red flag flew with four laps to go, setting up a green-white-checkered restart for the victory.
Scott McLaughlin, who made an impressive charge from 16th to second by the time the red flag flew, lined up behind Dixon on the restart and gave the wily veteran a run for his money, but Dixon was able to hold him off by 0.1067 seconds.
With the win – the 53rd of his illustrious career – Dixon surpassed Mario Andretti to move into sole possession of second-place on the IndyCar all-time wins list behind AJ Foyt. The victory also moved him just six points out of the points lead with three races to go as he aims for his seventh championship.
“The tough thing all weekend was that I knew the PNC Bank No. 9 was super-fast,” Dixon said. “We proved that in the warm-up. We just didn’t have many consecutive laps, but kudos to the team.
“We had a big crash there. It took half the floor off the car. We had to take four turns of front wing out, so we had no grip. And then I think we did 45 or 50 laps on the last set of tires, so the last stop we didn’t even take tires. Huge credit to Firestone.
“Man, Nashville is so awesome.”
Dixon added that he had to keep an eye on McLaughlin behind him, knowing that if he had the chance, McLaughlin would make a run at the win for himself. Also, noting the limited lap count after the restart played into his favor.
“We were worried about him because I knew he’d take chances,” Dixon said. “He kind of has to with the standings at the moment and he was super-fast as well. Honestly, he had fresh tires too. I was a…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsports Tribune…