Scott Dixon scored yet another strategic victory in Sunday’s Bommarito Auto Group 500 at Worldwide Technology Raceway, for his second consecutive victory. He kept his unprecedented 7th IndyCar Series title hopes alive and cut the lead to 74th points behind teammate Alex Palou. Dixon received an engine grip penalty that dropped him to 16th on the starting grid on the 1.25-mile oval track. Josef Newgarden who was trying to make history in his own right by winning 5th straight oval race of the season, started on the pole of the race took the lead and dominated much the first half of the race. Newgarden close competator in the early stages of the race was Mexican’s Pato O’Ward and David Malukas. Meanwhile Dixon played the long game for his first stint of the race by stopping on Lap 65 much later than any other competitive with the exception of Will Power who pitted with him.

Dixon got the break when his teammate brought out the caution flag when Takuma Sato made contact with the wall on lap 122. Dixon pitted on lap 126 which the race turned to his favor.

“Probably the hardest part was the restart where we were leading, having to get a pretty high fuel number,” Dixon said. “We weren’t getting it. We were a ways off.

“But I knew we could kind of stress that kind of second through fifth pack, get them into a pretty vulnerable situation. I knew once we caught the back markers, we’d be able to save and get beyond the fuel mileage that we needed to. It actually worked out perfectly. We were able to go further and beyond where we needed to.”

Josef Newgarden who dominated the first half of the race retired on lap 210 when he brushed the wall bending the suspension of his car and ending his chance of winning the IndyCar Series title. Scott Dixon went back into the lead on lap 221 which he would not relinquish, winning by over 22 seconds over Pato O’Ward.

Alex Palou, Scott’s teammate leads the IndyCar Series title with two races left of the season and should be the favorite to win the title because the races will be held Portland and Laguna Seca both natural terrain road courses. The only way Dixon call pull off a record tying 7th Series title is if he’s able to win both races and Palou isn’t able to finish in both races.