LEXINGTON, OH — Scott Dixon did exactly what he had to do during Sunday’s Honda Indy 200. He gained five spots from his sixth-place starting spot to score a runner-up on an overcast day at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The only problem was, the driver he’s chasing for the championship, went from fourth to first.

Dixon finished 5.0242-seconds behind Alex Palou at the finish to give Chip Ganassi Racing their second 1-2 finish in the last six years on the rural Ohio road course. As a result though of Pato O’Ward only starting 25th and making it up to just 8th, Josef Newgarden finishing 12th and Marcus Ericsson’s opening lap crash and finishing last, Dixon went from fifth in points to second.

“Yeah, it was definitely a good day,” Dixon boasted.

The thing is, Dixon had a fuel probe issue on his opening stop or else he feels like he would have had a shot at earning his seventh career win on the 2.258-mile track.

See, he and Palou each started off on the Firestone primary tire strategy to where the four others around them began on the alternates. Pole sitter Colton Herta pit first on Lap 26. Second place starter Graham Rahal stopped next on Lap 27. Palou followed up next one lap later. Dixon though, stretched it two laps longer. It paid off massively.

The problem was, he, like Rahal, had that fuel issue which that slow stop forced him behind Herta instead of in front of him after the first pit sequence.

“A little bit frustrating here and there,” Dixon continued. “First up I think we had a little bit of an issue with the fuel probe, which I think in hindsight that would have cleared — we would have cleared Herta, which we would have had a race on I think with Alex.

“You’re definitely fighting over tenths of a second. Especially in the pit stop exchanges like we were. Like maybe we would have cleared the 26, and that would have been a much easier race for us and possibly a race with the 10.

“So it’s part of it, man. Some weekends you don’t get it, and some you do. I think our team is extremely good. Honestly I haven’t looked at it. Maybe I missed the mark by a foot and screwed the guy.

“We’ll look at it and see what happened there, but definitely the first stop was a bit slow.

“But, yeah, the pace of the PNC Bank No. 9 was really good. Fuel mileage was super easy, so Honda definitely stepped it up here this weekend. Great power, and obviously the fuel mileage was pretty good.

“So, yeah, it was kind of a race where I think had a couple of things changed maybe with the 45 at the start and then obviously with the 26 later on, you know, we could have maybe been in a race for the win.

“But huge credit to the 10 car and obviously Alex. He is on a hell of a run. He definitely has a pretty big championship lead at the moment, which is going to be definitely tough to overcome.”

Palou has won four of the last five races. Dixon says that what makes his teammate so tough is that they’re covering all bases.

“The qualifying is solid, the race pace is solid, strategy is solid. It’s just a really good all-around package right now,” he admitted.

“It’s never always one thing, but having quick paces is something that is huge obviously with how tight the competition is now, but even today we didn’t qualify on the front. We were fourth and sixth, but he was still able to overcome the three possibly quicker cars in qualifying.

“Some others may have had some problems on pit road or just whatever it was. He has done a hell of a job to cover all bases.”

Palou was the second driver since 2016 to win three consecutive races. The other?

Dixon in 2020. If Dixon wants to make up a gap of 110 points, he’s going to have to go on a run himself. Honestly, he can too.

After Mid-Ohio is Toronto. Dixon has won 4 times there too including just last year for which the Exhibition Place circuit is somewhere that he currently has a streak of three consecutive top two finishes at.

Then, it’s a doubleheader at the Iowa Speedway which is a place that he’s never won at (0-for-17), but he’s also had five straight top five finishes there too including a pair of runner-ups at that.

Nashville is up next and his two finishes there are second and first respectively. That gets you to the final month of the season with Indy road Course, Gateway, Portland and Laguna Seca left.

That’s why it all started right here at Mid-Ohio. While he’s been so dominant here, it’s also a place that had just 1 podium in his last 9 tries on this track. He also only had only 1 podium finish on the year too. Dixon had finished 7th, 6th and 4th respectively on natural road courses in 2023.

So, to come away runner-up, he’ll take it.