INDYCAR: Scott Dixon falls victim to hybrid issues before taking green at Mid-Ohio
by William Soquet, LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: Indianapolis Star
Scott Dixon finished last for the 9th time in his NTT IndyCar Series career when his #9 PNC Bank Honda completed 40 laps before retiring with hybrid issues in Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
The finish was Dixon’s first since Long Beach last season, 23 races ago. Across NTT IndyCar Series history, it was the 10th for the #9, the 115th for Honda, and the first for hybrid-related reasons.
Being punted by Pato O’Ward at Long Beach was more or less a turning point in Dixon’s 2023 season. He suffered another spin at the May Indianapolis Grand Prix, but worked off-sequence to win the race. In August, Dixon played a classic fuel-saving strategy to win at Gateway. He worked all the way up to second in the standings and was the last driver in mathematical contention to challenge Alex Palou after Palou’s dominating spring-into-summer run. A victory in the messy season finale at Laguna Seca was icing on the cake for what initially looked to be a tough season for Dixon. In fact, “The Iceman” rattled off 14 straight top-seven finishes to close off the year.
The 2024 season has been filled with what are now known as ‘vintage Dixon performances’, mainly in the realm of fuel saving. He avenged last year’s last-place showing at Long Beach by winning on a fuel save. He took a car that was lacking in the raw speed department and wheeled it to a third-place finish. At Detroit, Dixon once again worked an incredible fuel save number to win, taking full advantage of plentiful caution laps. The lows have been there as well – an early exit from Thermal, getting shuffled into the mid-teens at Barber, and mechanical issues at Road America. The lows and the highs still averaged out to a top-three points position heading into Mid-Ohio, indicative of just the kind of driver Dixon is.
The mid-season driver carousel continued in earnest in the two-week gap between Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio. Former Road to Indy driver Toby Sowery became the sixth driver in Dale Coyne Racing’s #51 car in ten events. As recently as last year, Sowery was trying to piecemeal partial seasons in junior single-seater series, but took up paying gigs this year as a sports car driver. Sowery’s backers still had enough left in the tank to get him a race with Coyne in the IndyCar Series. His prior IndyCar experience? A single test with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, not involving anything to do with the hybrid system.
The hybrid was the other big story entering the weekend. After several planned rollouts were pushed back, the hybrid system finally made a midseason debut after several rounds of testing, even up to just a few weeks before Mid-Ohio. Despite all of the reliability tests, there was still a worry that there would be widespread problems. This was exacerbated by a software glitch during practice that made drivers unable to restart on track after stalling, leading to the decision to disable the software for qualifying.
The slowest car in opening practice was that of Sting Ray Robb. Robb was 22nd last year with Coyne, his rookie IndyCar outing at the track. He was just under half a second slower than 26th-place Agustin Canapino, now set for the remainder of the season with Juncos Hollinger. Robb was also at the bottom of the charts in second practice. Strangely, Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood was next up. Kirkwood struggled for pace in the middle part of the weekend, qualifying 15th.
The story changed a little bit in qualifying. Robb drew Group 2, putting him in position to take 14th in the group and 27th overall. However, Robb outqualified Sowery’s Coyne teammate Jack Harvey. Havey later revealed he was struggling with back and neck spasms throughout the weekend, something that stymied him in the race as well.
Another wrinkle came post-qualifying, as IndyCar announced grid penalties for several Honda teams who opted to take additional engines for the weekend. Among those was Pietro Fittipaldi, who qualified his #30 Rahal car 12th in Group 1 but slid to last following the six-spot penalty.
On the last pace lap, Dixon stalled on track from his 13th starting spot. He could not get restarted, and the AMR safety team couldn’t get him fired, either. Due to his position on the track, the safety team towed him off the track to the outside, seemingly ending his day. Multiple members of the NBC broadcast crew said as much, dismissing the possibility of Dixon’s car finding its way back to the garage via public roads on the outskirts of the track. In an interview with NBC, Dixon noted that his hybrid levels suddenly dropped to zero and then the whole car stalled.
From IndyCar’s point of view, it was almost the worst-case scenario with the rollout of the hybrid. Before the race even starts, a hybrid error causes one of the championship leaders to retire – with potentially long-ranging effects to the end of the season. However, no other visible issues with the hybrid occurred during the course of the race.
Despite commentators noting his day was done and the #9 car disappearing from IndyCar timing and scoring, Dixon did make it back on track after about 20 laps. It was probably a combination of wanting to make up points and to get actual race experience with the hybrid system. He joined the field well behind what would’ve been otherwise a barnburner battle for last place, with Robb and Fittipaldi staying within a second of each other for most of the opening stint.
Dixon lasted for another 40 laps, and pulled off when there were no more positions to gain. The race went green-to-checker, and no other drivers retired or experienced significant adversity to the point of being several laps down. Sowery piloted his Coyne car up to 13th, a gain of 11 positions after qualifying 24th. While he is unlikely to be a leading candidate for any open 2025 rides without additional funding, it was a more-than-solid showing for the debut driver. Katherine Legge is expected to take over the #51 for the six remaining ovals and Hunter McElrea is rumored to have the seat for Toronto, leaving only Portland for Sowery, Luca Ghiotto, Tristan Vautier or others to have another IndyCar race on the calendar in 2024.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Dixon’s ninth last-place finish puts him in a tie for fifth on the IndyCar Series (since 1996) list. He is tied with Will Power, Sebastien Bourdais and Tony Kanaan.
*This is the second time Dixon has finished last at Mid-Ohio. He fell out with suspension problems after 27 laps in 2016.
*The last seven last-place finishers have been from different countries: Dixon (New Zealand), Luca Ghiotto (Italy), Kyffin Simpson (Cayman Islands), Christian Rasmussen (Denmark), Marcus Ericsson (Sweden), Santino Ferrucci (United States), and Pietro Fittipaldi (Brazil).
THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #9-Scott Dixon / 40 laps / hybrid
26) #18-Jack Harvey / 79 laps / running
25) #2-Josef Newgarden / 79 laps / running
24) #30-Pietro Fittipaldi / 79 laps / running
23) #77-Romain Grosjean / 79 laps / running
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Honda (5)
2nd) Chevrolet (4)
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chip Ganassi Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing (2)
2nd) A.J. Foyt Racing, Andretti Global, Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Team Penske (1)
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
