Scott Dixon exited the pits with 33 laps remaining in Saturday’s IndyCar race at Gateway, pulling out in front of Pato O’Ward – who Dixon had been following around the track all day.
The driver of the No. 9 thought he would be tasked with simply holding off O’Ward to earn another win – his fourth of the season.
Although, somewhere along the way, last week’s Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato made things interesting.
Sato passed O’Ward on the outside in turns one and two and looked to have a much faster car than Dixon’s in the closing laps.
Sato made up 2.2 seconds out of the 2.5 seconds he had trailed Dixon by in his Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing car in eight laps.
With a handful of trips around the track remaining, he tried everything he could to setup the move on Dixon. The opportunity just never came.
That’s what happens when someone finds themselves behind a five-time series champion.
Dixon’s win is the longtime driver’s 50th career IndyCar victory – after he picked up three to start the season.
The series will return to Gateway for another edition of the doubleheader race, and it will set up the final two weekends of the year.
Sunday’s edition is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. CT on NBCSN.
IndyCar Gateway 1
1. Scott Dixon
2. Takuma Sato
3. Pato O’Ward
4. Colton Herta
5. Marcus Ericsson
6. Rinus VeeKay
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay
8. Felix Rosenqvist
9. Tony Kanaan
10. Conor Daly
11. Jack Harvey
12. Josef Newgarden
13. Charlie Kimball
14. Oliver Askew
15. Alex Palou
16. Santino Ferrucci
17. Will Power
18. Graham Rahal
19. Simon Pagenaud
20. Ed Carpenter
21. Zach Veach
22. Alexander Rossi
23. Marco Andretti
