Scott Dixon walked away from the IndyCar Series season-finale non-plussed after another title chance went begging.
For the 14th time in his storied career, the Kiwi finished the championship inside the top three.
Of those finishes, six of them have been title wins – all with eponymous outfit Chip Ganassi Racing.
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Such has been his dominance in the modern era that only Will Power and Josef Newgarden come close to his six championships with two apiece.
Dixon came into the closer with a shot at the title, 20 points adrift of Team Penske’s Will Power.
In the end, he wound up 39 points in arrears of champion Power after a lacklustre finish at Laguna Seca that saw him come away 12th
After his agonising Indianapolis 500 fumble that saw victory slip through his fingers for speeding in the pit lane, Dixon recorded just his second finish outside the top 10 all year.
“We ultimately just didn’t have the pace,” said Dixon, who won two races in 2022.
“I think it was definitely a strange race in the fact that we tried everything that we could. We tried to shortstop, kept coming out in traffic. We had one run there where we actually had clean air and our pace was as good as the leaders for that whole run.
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“Just frustrating. We couldn’t bring what we needed to. Congrats to [Alex] Palou and obviously a big congrats to Will Power. It’s a tremendous year that he ran there and congratulations on his second championship.
“Yeah, you win some, you lose some man. I know this team never gave up. We pushed as hard as we could all year and unfortunately we ended up third.”
Dixon is one title away from equalling AJ Foyt for the most IndyCar Series wins.
This year, Dixon equalled motor racing legend Mario Andretti for the most race wins in a career with his 52nd effort.
Now 42 years old, ‘The Iceman’ remains determined to rack up another win.
“It’s all that matters, man. That and the Indy 500,” said Dixon.
“We’ll be pushing. Maybe it’ll be next year, maybe it won’t maybe it’ll be the year after that.
“We’ll keep pushing as hard as possible to make these possible. It’s been a pleasure and very proud moment to be part of this team, and unfortunately we didn’t do it.”
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