Scott Dixon knew the feat was a big one. 74 points stood between he and teammate Alex Palou for the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship. Luckily, he knew with his Bommarito Automotive Group 500 win at the World Wide Technology Raceway that the title for the 3rd time in the last 4 years was staying with the Chip Ganassi Racing group.

However, which one would take the Astor Cup back from a brief stay at Team Penske last season?

With slim chances, Dixon knew it was likely going to be Palou and on Sunday, that’s exactly what happened. Palou finished 1st with Dixon 3rd. While it ended Dixon’s chances of a record tying 7th title, it was good enough to secure a second-place finish in points though too.

Palou wanted to be sure he stopped Dixon’s momentum. With two straight wins, he was coming and for Palou, he knows what Dixon is capable of and knows that if there’s a chance to end the championship early, he had to go for it.

“Yeah, I mean, I always say that he’s my obviously biggest fear,” Palou said of Dixon I” think he’s one of the best INDYCAR drivers, if not the best, that we ever had.

“Not only that, but he also has the best team around, which is the same as I have. So it’s tough because we couldn’t really hide anything or we couldn’t really — I mean, like in the 10 car we couldn’t really have an advantage on him because we were sharing everything. He knew what was going on.

“So obviously he pushed a lot the last couple of weeks, couple of months; but I’m glad that we were able to seal it and especially with a win.”

With Dixon now 57 points ahead of Josef Newgarden, he now knows that he’ll finish second in points giving Ganassi their first 1-2 finish in the standings since 2009 when Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon accomplished that feat.

Dixon and Palou started the race from 4th and 5th respectively. Both elected to be the top two drivers to start on the Firestone primary tires. That was the winning move.

Unfortunately for Dixon, when Palou got by on Lap 1, it was it for his championship hopes.

Third place starter Colton Herta bailed on Lap 17. Second place starter Scott McLaughlin pit on Lap 21 with pole sitter Graham Rahal pitting on Lap 22. That handed the lead to Palou and second place to Dixon.

Palou pit for the first time on Lap 30. Dixon led Lap 31 then pit a lap later. Palou cycled to the lead. Dixon elected to go with the primary tires again while Palou was on the alternates.

Palou pit on Lap 47 handing the lead back to Dixon. Dixon would lead until pitting on Lap 59 and going on the alternate tires stint.

It didn’t end up making a difference. Palou pit for the final time on Lap 79. Dixon did so on Lap 81. Felix Rosenqvist stayed out as he knew he had to run his final stint on the alternates. He was going to go long but Agustin Canapino got off track in Turn 12 and brought out the second and final caution.

Rosenqvist pit before they brought the yellow out and remained ahead of Dixon.

On the Lap 88 starter, Palou led Rosenqvist but there were two lapped cars between Rosenqvist and Dixon. That made a difference in the fact that Dixon had to settle for third.

It didn’t truly matter as Palou cruised to the championship clinching win.

Still, for Dixon, this was the 17th time in the last 18 years that he came away with a top four points finish. That’s remarkable. To go along with 6 titles, this year was his 3rd runner-up finish too giving him 9 in 21 years too.

What’s crazy is, if Palou hadn’t run away from the field for the championship, Dixon’s stats are actually championship worthy in and of themselves.

Dixon had a top 7 finish in all but 1 race this year. That was when he was punted by Pato O’Ward in Long Beach. He was sixth at the time.

Since May, Dixon has finished 6th, 6th, 4th, 4th, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 6th, 5th, 1st, 1st, 3rd. That’s an average finish of 4.0 in that 12-race stretch.

It’s just that Palou has been a little bit better.

Palou has finished 1st, 4th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 8th, 3rd, 3rd, 7th, 7th, 1st in the same 12 races for an average finish of 3.25. He’s not finished worse than 8th since Portland last year.

It was those mid season wins from Palou and it taking Dixon until it was too late to go on his run.

Dixon has won at least 1 race in 21 of his 22 years in the sport. It took him until Race 10 to win in Toronto last year and now Race 14 this year extending his record streak of consecutive seasons with a win to 19.

He followed that up with a second straight win two weeks later in Gateway. It was just too little too late.

The glaring weakness for Dixon since Palou arrived on the scene at Ganassi is podiums.

Since Palou has been in that 10 car, his ride has outperformed Dixon in fact. In 49 starts in this span, Palou has 9 wins and 23 podiums. Dixon has 5 wins and 14 podiums.

But, when you take the overall bigger picture view of things, you’d see that Palou’s average finish with Ganassi is 6.52.

Dixon’s average finish in this same span is 6.72.

That’s why even without a title this year, you can’t ever write Dixon off.

Dixon is showing no signs of slowing down. While he flashes glimpses of maybe this being it, Dixon quickly then shows why you can never question him.

Still, time is against him though for that 8th title. Just 10 times has someone won the title at 41 years of age or older. Three drivers were 42. One was 43 and four more were 44. No one was 45 while two drivers won at 46.

Among the drivers to be crowned a champion at 41 years old and up, only one came since 1990. With his stats declining this year and the trends not being on his side, this is a legitimate question to ask if he’ll ever win another one?

However, I’ll never doubt his capabilities as Dixon is still on top of his game today.