SALINAS, Calif — Scott Dixon can’t win this year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship. Despite a third-place finish in last Sunday’s race in Portland, his teammate, Alex Palou, still clinched the title early.

On the flipside, Dixon can’t go backwards either. He’ll finish P2 in the final standings. He’s basically coming to Monterey for this weekend’s 17th and final race of the 2023 slate with nothing to gain but nothing to lose either.

So, with that said, how do you approach Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network) while coming from the 5th place starting spot?

“It’s a bit of a strange one; can’t be first, can’t be third,” he says. “Obviously, it was a great result for the team in Portland locking up first and second in the championship.”

You can’t undersell that it has been a phenomenal year of success for Chip Ganassi Racing, as they have claimed exactly half of the race wins (8) this season and have been on the podium in 14 of the 16 races (17 total podiums).  The team has boasted three-or-more drivers in the top-10 in every single race this season too.

While Dixon has won six championships in his career, he has also finished in second two previous times (2007, 2009). This was also the 17th time in the last 18 years that he came away with a top four points finish.

That’s remarkable.

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.

His 5.6 average finishing position overall this season ranks second in the series behind only his teammate and now two-time champion Palou. He has finished with a better mark in only six other previous seasons throughout his career, winning the title in three of those seasons. 

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.

He 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. Which is why Sunday is worth something to Dixon and that’s momentum.

“Looking forward to finish the season strong,” said Dixon. “We’ve had three podiums in a row and will try to complete things with another one.”

Dixon, who has led laps in nine of the 16 races this season, will look to continue his recent streak of podium success and achieve his second such result at the track (P3 in 2019). 

Plus, when looking at seasons preceding championships, Dixon had 3 top 2 finishes in the final 4 races of 2007. He’d win the title in 2008.

In 2012, Dixon’s final four finishes were 1st, 14th, 4th, 3rd. He’d take home the championship in 2013.

In 2014, his final four finishes were 1st, 4th, 1st, 2nd. He’d win the title in 2015.

In 2019, he’d close out the season with 5 podiums in the final 7 races. He’d win the title in 2020.

His last 3 finishes on the season?

1st, 1st, 3rd.