Determined Dixon Finishes Second for Honda at Gateway

• Scott Dixon takes championship battle into final two races
• Sixth top-six finish of season for Alexander Rossi
• Sebastien Bourdais returns from injury to finish 10^th

MADISON, Ill. (Aug. 26, 2017) – Scott Dixon continued his fight for the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series Championship with a determined second-place finish Saturday night at Gateway Motorsports Park, as the series returned to the metro St. Louis in front of a large, enthusiastic audience after a 14-year absence.

Starting seventh, Dixon moved to the outside and successfully avoided an opening-lap crash that eliminated several contenders, including an innocent Takuma Sato, who was collected by a spinning Ed Carpenter. Taking the restart in fifth, Dixon remained in the lead group through the final round of pit stops on Lap 200, where he emerged in third. 

With 30 laps remaining in the 248-lap contest, Dixon took advantage of light contact between Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden to move around Pagenaud. Dixon went on to finish second, just sixth-tenths of a second behind Newgarden. As a result, the pair are now 1-2 in the championship, with Dixon 31 points behind Newgarden heading into next weekend’s race at Watkins Glen, where he has four career Indy car race victories.

Behind Dixon, Alexander Rossi continued his late-season run of strong results, taking the checkers in sixth following runs of third, sixth and second in the previous three races. Charlie Kimball surged to seventh in the final 50 laps, his best result since finishing sixth at Road America, while James Hinchcliffe brought his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda home in eighth. 

Making his first start since suffering multiple hip fractures in a crash during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, Sebastien Bourdais completed his recovery process with a 10^th-place finish tonight.

Video recaps from this weekend’s Honda IndyCar Series action at Gateway Motorsports Park, as well as Acura Motorsports activities from Virginia International Raceway, are available on the "Honda Racing/HPD" YouTube channel. Produced by the Carolinas Production Group, the video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV. 

The Verizon IndyCar Series continues its stretch run to the finish of the 2017 season with next weekend’s penultimate race: the IndyCar Grand Prix at the Glen, September 3 at Watkins Glen International Raceway in upstate New York.

Scott Dixon

“I guess that’s the best we could have hoped for. It was definitely going to be a tough race for us, but the car was actually very good. I think we had better mechanical grip than the group we were racing with, especially toward the end of each run. We could get to them, but we couldn’t pull out and pass them. It was pretty exciting to watch Josef and Simon with that pass into Turn One, which was pretty tight. I was hoping it would go a little bit different and we would pick up two spots, but huge credit to everybody on the NTT Data car. It was strong tonight, and we had strong pit stops. And how about the fans? It was awesome to come back to St. Louis and see the fans and how excited they were for this race.”

Alexander Rossi

“It was a pretty hard night, but I think the whole NAPA team really capitalized on the opportunities that were given to us. To come home sixth, on a track that’s dominant for the other manufacturer, is a solid result and that’s what we were looking for all weekend. Maybe we could have been a couple spots higher, but at the end of the night we brought the car home and that was a solid race. The pace was good and there was really nothing to complain about on a track where we knew we were going to be at a deficit, it’s nice to come away with a top six [finish].”

Art St. Cyr

“I think Scott Dixon, once again, demonstrated why he is the best driver in Indy car racing. We knew coming into this season that the short oval races would present a challenge for Honda and our teams. All of our teams and drivers fought well tonight, and we’re looking forward finishing the season strongly at Watkins Glen and Sonoma.”