Dixon emerges through carnage to win Laguna Seca finale

Scott Dixon did it again: After taking a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact in the first lap of the race, Dixon went onto an alternate strategy and emerged as the winner in a calamitous final round of the 2023 IndyCar Series at Laguna Seca Raceway.

Dixon’s drive-through penalty came after a chain reaction crash in the first corner on the first lap – when Dixon and Colton Herta made contact that sent Dixon into Rinus VeeKay, and caused VeeKay to spin out. Behind them, Christian Lundgaard received a drive-through for kicking off a multi-car collision which wiped Graham Rahal out of the race and took his rookie team mate Juri Vips out of contention for the day.

Alex Palou took control of the race from the ensuing restart. Josef Newgarden spun and crashed at turn four on lap 9. Newgarden returned to the race after damage repairs but finished 22nd, four laps off the lead. Dixon served his drive-through penalty on lap 13 then pitted on lap 17 to switch strategies.

Palou was building a commanding ten-second lead before a string of incidents, that began on lap 29 with a collision between polesitter Felix Rosenqvist and his countryman Marcus Ericsson. Palou came to the pits before IndyCar race control called for a Safety Car, and he would continue to lead after the restart on lap 39 was effectively waved off for a multi-car collision at the final corner before the start-finish line.

The race then turned out of Palou’s favour after another collision at turn four between Devlin DeFrancesco and David Malukas, which sent Malukas into the gravel. Pato O’Ward, who was second behind Palou, had pitted before the incident but Palou couldn’t come into the pits in time to cover the caution flag.

O’Ward was now out in front, ahead of Armstrong, and Dixon who had come back to third place.

On lap 62, there was another multi-car pileup at the last corner before a restart, which took rookie Tom Blomqvist out of the race; Palou also got hit from behind by Santino Ferrucci, but Ferrucci came away with worse damage than the two-time series champion. It was during the ensuing Safety Car when Dixon made his final pit stop, while O’Ward stayed out for track position.

This was followed by yet another restart incident at the last corner on lap 68, and then on lap 74, the field finally completed one clean green-flag lap before Helio Castroneves ran into Colton Herta at turn four. Herta’s car subsequently retired due to damage, resigning the one-time AlphaTauri F1 prospect to a winless 2023 season.

Finally, the carnage ended in the final 20 laps, and O’Ward’s challenge for the win ended when he needed one more stop to get to the end of the race. Dixon cycled to the lead and never looked back, for his 56th career IndyCar win and his third of the season. On top of all this, it’s worth mentioning that Dixon also had to take a six-place grid penalty before the start for an unapproved engine change.

Scott McLaughlin overcame two significant penalties during the race himself, for causing a collision with Ferrucci, but he eventually finished in second and secured third in the 2023 IndyCar championship standings.

Palou, who led 51 out of the 95 laps on the day, still salvaged a third-place finish despite the poorly timed Safety Car intervention that knocked him out of contention for the win. It was his tenth podium of 2023, to cap off what may be the greatest individual season by an IndyCar driver since the reunification of the sport in 2008.

For Will Power, a fourth-place finish brought to an end an incredible streak of 16 seasons with a race victory. Power, like McLaughlin, also had to overcome two penalties when he caused the lap 39 pileup at the last corner.

Callum Ilott finished a season-best fifth, but the young Brit could have finished on the podium if he’d not run wide at Rainey Curve in the closing laps. Despite running critically low on fuel, Ilott was able to hold off Lundgaard in sixth, and Alexander Rossi in seventh, over the line.

Armstrong, in the wars all day, survived to finish eighth and with it, he secured the 2023 IndyCar Rookie of the Year award. Agustin Canapino, his sole remaining rival for the honour, was having a career-best race and ran as high as third, until front wing damage caused the Argentine driver to tumble down the order and finish 14th.

Pato O’Ward finished in ninth, and Ryan Hunter-Reay finished in the top ten for the first time since he was appointed by Ed Carpenter Racing to take over the number 20 car.

The tenth-place finish for Hunter-Reay, and the 14th for Canapino, were enough for the ECR number 20 car and the number 78 car of Juncos Hollinger Racing to get the final two places in the top 22 in the IndyCar Entrants’ Championship and a $910,000 USD bonus payout for securing status in the IndyCar Leaders’ Circle.

Romain Grosjean was 11th in his final race for Andretti, his incoming replacement, Ericsson, was 15th. Castroneves, in his last start as a full-time IndyCar driver, was 13th despite being caught up in incidents.

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Grand Prix of Monterey race results

Position	Car	Driver	Team	Engine
1	9	Scott Dixon	Ganassi	Honda
2	3	Scott McLaughlin	Penske	Chevrolet
3	10	Alex Palou	Ganassi	Honda
4	12	Will Power	Penske	Chevrolet
5	77	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger	Chevrolet
6	45	Christian Lundgaard	RLL	Honda
7	7	Alexander Rossi	McLaren	Chevrolet
8	11	Marcus Armstrong	Ganassi	Honda
9	5	Pato O’Ward	McLaren	Chevrolet
10	20	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Carpenter	Chevrolet
11	28	Romain Grosjean	Andretti	Honda
12	51	Sting Ray Robb	Coyne/RWR	Honda
13	06	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank	Honda
14	78	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger	Chevrolet
15	8	Marcus Ericsson	Ganassi	Honda
16	55	Benjamin Pedersen	Foyt	Chevrolet
17	14	Santino Ferrucci	Foyt	Chevrolet
18	21	Rinus VeeKay	Carpenter	Chevrolet
19	6	Felix Rosenqvist	McLaren	Chevrolet
20	18	David Malukas	Coyne/HMD	Honda
21	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti	Honda
22	2	Josef Newgarden	Penske	Chevrolet
23	26	Colton Herta	Andretti	Honda
24	30	Juri Vips	RLL	Honda
25	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti	Honda
26	60	Tom Blomqvist	Meyer Shank	Honda
27	15	Graham Rahal	RLL	Honda

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