MADISON, Ill — Scott Dixon continues to do Scott Dixon things by a remarkable drive by doing 260 laps at the World Wide Technology Raceway in 2 less pit stops than everyone else. There was plenty of storylines leaving the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, so let’s see some from my notebook.

• Alternate Tires Work, But Create New Problem Too – The debut of the alternate tire on an oval did it’s job. The tire degraded faster than the primary tires which is exactly what it was asked to do. However, Scott Dixon thinks that it could actually serve best by degrading even more.
  • “The tire was kind of interesting. It actually had a good amount of deg. But I think for next year, I think you’d almost want to double that deg,” said the race winner. “I think having an alternate tire, you really kind of want it to – I know Firestone doesn’t want to do it because that’s the product they produce, they produce very good tires – but I think for falloff like we see at Iowa where you go from an 18-second lap all the way to 22s, 23s, you have good cars coming and going, people able to make changes throughout the race. I think that’s what they need to bring back here, a little bit more aggressive for next time.
  • “Ultimately it worked out. It was although tire to manage. Probably 15, 20 laps into my stint, I thought we were going to have to bail. We actually saw the 12 car bail off it very quickly. There were a few others you could see were really struggling with it and ultimately had to bail, as well. You really had to manage it, which is nice to have another kind of dimension to the race, something you really had to kind of look out for. Yeah, I think they could be more aggressive next year.”
  • The unfortunate nature of why it didn’t visually work as well as intended though was due to the nature of the second lane never really coming in. That’s because as the low lane being the customary preferred line, it forced the marbles into the second lane from the red tire degrading faster. Once the marbles accumulated, no one dared to try to get into it because you’d become a passenger while doing so.
  • “It brought in some pretty horrendous marbles onto the racetrack, which made the second lane almost impossible to use,” Pato O’Ward admitted. “I don’t think I was the only one. I think not that the blacks don’t create marbles, but definitely this alternate tire was a special add-on to that. It made it pretty hard. The difference in grip wasn’t that big of a difference.”
  • “Yeah, it was pretty treacherous,” said David Malukas.
• Lapped Traffic A Problem – We saw it happen here in years past and it occurred again. When the leaders caught the back of the field, the line stalled out and caused a constant array of cars without much action on track. That’s because the leaders couldn’t pass. Pato O’Ward says that the drivers need to play nicer because they’re back there for a reason.
  • “Because if they were fast enough, we wouldn’t be catching them,” he says. “Just move. Like, you’re getting lapped, move. Texas, you don’t need them to move because you have a second lane. But you have nothing to do here.
  • “I feel it’s more of a gentleman’s agreement, but nobody follows it. I feel like I’ve followed it pretty much my all my career. If I’m not having a good day, I’m not going to screw your race. Hopefully that comes in return whenever I am having a good day and they’re not, which has been a few cases. Definitely it’s not everybody. But the consistent lappers, it’s like, Dude…”
  • As far as where they could get out of the way? “Just slow down in the straightaway and somebody pass by. It’s super simple,” said O’Ward.
• Pole winners bad luck – You would think since qualifying means a lot, the pole winner would have success. In fact, it’s the opposite in Gateway. There’s not been a pole winner here since Helio Castroneves did it in 2003. For Iowa, the pole winner is now 1-for-19.
• Honda kept Chevy from being undefeated on ovals. With Scott Dixon’s win, Chevy now is 4-for-5 instead of a perfect 5-for-5. Chevy had won 13 of the last 15 short oval races entering Sunday. They led 492 of 500 laps in Iowa too. So, for a Honda to come out on top on Sunday was eye opening.
• Only the best win at Gateway. Names like Paul Tracy (1997), Alex Zanardi (1998), Michael Andretti (1999), Juan Pablo Montoya (2000), Al Unser Jr. (2001), Gil de Ferran (2002), Helio Castroneves (2003), Josef Newgarden (2017,2020, 2021, 2022), Will Power (2018), Takuma Sato (2019) and Scott Dixon (2020, 2023) all won on the 1.25-mile oval in Indy Car competition.
• This was just the second time in the last 7 races that the driver who led the most laps won the Bommarito Automotive Group 500. In 2018, Scott Dixon led 145 laps but finished third. In 2019, Santino Ferrucci led 97 laps but finished fourth. In 2020, Pato O’Ward (94 laps in Race 1) and Takuma Sato (66 laps led in Race 2) finished third and ninth respectively and last year, Power led 128 of 260 laps and didn’t win. On Sunday, Dixon led a race-high 123 of 260 laps in his win.
• McLaren/ECR Find Improvement From Iowa – McLaren had the potential for 2 cars on the podium in both Iowa races but Felix Rosenqvist was bumped from 2nd to 4th on the final restart in Race 2. He finished 13th in Race 1. Pato O’Ward was 3rd and 10th in the two races. Alexander Rossi was only 10th and 15th. That’s why when looking at Sunday’s results, to see them 2-4-8 was saying something. They looked good all race weekend and have something to build upon.
• Pato O’Ward has improved his finishing spot in each of the last 4 races: 10th, 8th, 3rd, 2nd. Alexander Rossi has back-to-back top 5 finishes (5th, 4th). His previous six results were 10th, 10th, 16th, 10th, 15th, 19th. Felix Rosenqvist was on the pole at Texas, on the front row at Indy, crashed while running in the top 5 late in the Indy 500, was 4th in Iowa 2 and now 8th at Gateway to make himself a quick driver on ovals this season.
• Same for ECR. They were terrible at Iowa.
• They went 17-23-24 on Saturday and 18-23-24 on Sunday.
• Rinus VeeKay was 3 laps off pace on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Carpenter was seven laps down on Saturday and six on Sunday. Hunter-Reay was -6 on Saturday and crashed out on Sunday.
• For Gateway, they all 3 started P20-P23-P27 but saw 2 cars in the top 14 in the end with VeeKay in 11th and Hunter-Reay 14th.

• Ganassi Sleeper Oval Team – Coming into the race weekend, the top drivers on ovals were actually the Ganassi camp. Yes, Newgarden was untouchable but Ganassi had 2-3-4 in oval points behind him. That’s why it wasn’t a shock to see them qualify 5-7-8-18. They always qualify well here.
  • Marcus Ericsson has qualified 14th, 4th, 7th, 6th, 2nd 18th and the only reason he was 18th was because he had a pieced together car from his Saturday night practice crash.
  • Scott Dixon has qualified 5th, 7th, 1st, 8th, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 6th, 7th with Alex Palou 11th, 14th, 21st, 5th, 5th.
  • However, they had grid penalties. Palou would roll off 14th, Dixon 16th and and Sato 17th due to 9 spot grid penalties for engine changes. To come away with finishes of 1-7-10-26 is impressive.
  • For Iowa, they went 4-6-8-9 in Race 1 and 3-6-9-25 in Race 2. Ganassi won 2 of the 1st 3 years there but 0-for-17 since.
• Short Ovals Not Andretti’s Strong Suit: At Iowa, Andretti is 0-for-12 since winning 7 of 9 to start Iowa off with. They’ve not been close either. While Romain Grosjean was 7th and 9th as a rookie in 2022, he was 11th and 12th last month. Devlin DeFrancesco was 17th, 15th, 22nd and 21st in his four Iowa starts while Colton Herta was 24th and 12th in 2022 and 19th and 7th this year. Alexander Rossi was 13th and 18th last year with Kirkwood 7th and 11th this year.
  • For WWTR, they just finished 6-12-15-19 on Sunday.
  • Romain Grosjean was 14th as a rookie with Coyne in 2021 and 13th last year, 12th on Sunday. Ryan Hunter-Reay also struggled in the same car previously going 15th, 20th, 8th, 7th, 11th and 7th.
  • Likewise for Kyle Kirkwood who was 17th last year with Foyt and 15th this year with Andretti. But, his car Alexander Rossi had driven was 6th, 2nd, 13th, 22nd, 14th, 17th and 25th himself.
  • Colton Herta has finished 5th, 14th, 21st, 22nd, 18th, 11th and 6th in 7 Gateway starts.
  • Devlin DeFrancesco qualified a respectable ninth last year and finished 12th but was 19th on Sunday.
• Malukas Short Oval King – For whatever reason, David Malukas is good on these tracks. He has 2 podiums (2nd, 3rd) in 2 Gateway tries. He swept both Indy NXT (formerly Indy Lights) races in 2021. He was 8th in Iowa 2 this year and has accumulated enough oval points to land him inside the top 10 in oval points this year.
• Part-Timers Do Their Jobs – Ryan Hunter-Reay extended the 20 car’s advantage over the leaders circle cutline. Conor Daly got the 30 car for RLL back inside of the top 22 of the standings while rookie Linus Lundqvist kept the 60 in it. These 3 did their jobs on Sunday leaving Agustin Canapino (-1), Devlin DeFrancesco (-4), Sting Ray Robb (-38) and Benjamin Pedersen (-55) below it.