Kiwis Dominate Stateside: Your Week in Motorsport

Iceman Makes History

Six-time IndyCar champion Dixon rallied from a spin into the grass after being collected in an accident on Lap 1 to win the Gallagher Grand Prix in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Dixon, from New Zealand, extended his record streak to 19 consecutive seasons with at least one victory. He also set a series record with his 319th consecutive start.

“What a day to win on,” said Dixon as he held his 3-year-old son, Kit. “It makes it so fun, especially for this little guy. He gets to see it. It’s been a little while since I’ve had a win, probably over a year. It makes it worthwhile, and we’re going to keep trying to win on (start) No. 320.”

It was an impressive victory following the first-lap carnage. Spaniard Alex Palou nudged the rear of another Kiwi and fellow Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Marcus Armstrong, in heavy traffic in Turn 7 at the end of the back straightaway. The concertina effect of drivers trying to avoid the incident caused Romain Grosjean to take out Dixon, spinning the Kiwi’s car into the grass. Then Josef Newgarden, who started 25th, arrived at the scene with nowhere to go, and his car climbed over the nose of Armstrong’s stopped car, damaging Newgarden’s front wing.

Dixon kept his engine running in the infield grass, straightened his car, and returned to the track. He pitted on Lap 5 on an alternate strategy and started his march toward the front, trading places with the front-runners, Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard.

Dixon made his final stop on Lap 59 after turning blazing laps before entering pit road and continued driving laps after his final stop. Rahal pitted from first on Lap 64 for his final stop but exited in second behind Dixon.

On Lap 66, Dixon led Rahal by 6.1866 seconds, with both drivers on Firestone alternate tires. But Rahal’s fresher tires paid dividends, and he began to claw ground on Dixon.

“The only problem there toward the end, I think on my out laps I pushed it too hard to kind of create that gap on Graham and unfortunately burned the tires up a little bit,” Dixon said. “It was a little sketchy at the end, but we tried to put on a show for everyone.”

But Dixon hung in, maintaining a 0.8639 lead by the final lap at the white flag and hung on during the final trip around the circuit that includes portions of the famous 2.5-mile oval and the Yard of Bricks at IMS.

Dixon’s season thus far has been frustrating, and this is his first race victory for 2023. Despite this, the Iceman remains second in the Championship.

Fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin finished eighth, while Marcus Armstrong had to settle for 24th after the early damage incurred.

McElrea Wins in Indy NXT

Kiwi Hunter McElrea drove to his first win of the Indy NXT feeder series in 2023, leading all 35 laps from pole. But it was far from an easy run.

McElrea’s biggest competition came from his Andretti Autosport teammates, Louis Foster, and James Roe, with some close racing between them. However, McElrea maintained the lead and claimed the win over Roe, who trailed by nearly seven seconds with seven laps remaining but built to a heated final lap with a tight duel.

“That was the hardest race of my life,” McElrea said. “From about Lap 15, I burned my rears (tyres) off. I think we probably favored the qualifying car a bit much this weekend. I think it was a bit self-inflicted, but it (car) was a handful. I was hanging on for dear life.”

McElrea jumped to second in the championship standings, 33 points behind leader Christian Rasmussen, who finished sixth in the No. 6 HMD Motorsports with DCR car. Four races remain this season.

Strong Showing for SVG at Indy

All eyes were on Shane van Gisbergen as the Kiwi returned to the USA and NASCAR this weekend to contest an oval race in the Truck series as well as a road course race in the NASCAR Cup series.

While SVG has proven himself already in NASCAR on the series’ first street course, a good performance on ovals is critical for a team to secure backing should the Kiwi make a permanent move. With a full field, for a team to take van Gisbergen on, they would need to either bump a current driver or purchase a new charter for an additional car. Like all motorsports, there is a significant financial decision that runs parallel to the talent consideration.

Van Gisbergen didn’t embarrass himself, however, qualifying mid-field for the oval race and finishing in 19th. A much better finish than many predicted for his first-ever attempt at oval racing.

In the NASCAR Cup race at the Indianapolis road course, he predictably fared much better in the Trackhouse Racing entry. Van Gisbergen drove a fairly clean race to finish inside the top ten, despite having a technical issue.

Mid-race, the Trackhouse Racing Camaro developed a sticking throttle which made smooth acceleration on corner exit difficult to manage.

Aside from bumping, which is par for the course in NASCAR, van Gisbergen’s drive was without incident, and he made an aggressive overtake on veteran ace Kyle Larson, Larson forced to make space and let the Kiwi through.

Ahead of the weekend’s races, Shane Van Gisbergen was interviewed by the legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. for his Dirty Mo podcast and made it quite clear the last thing he wanted to do as an outsider coming in was to cause an accident and potentially disrupt a main driver’s championship battle. So he drove respectfully and conservatively, but overall, it was a very strong showing for the Kiwi.