INDIANAPOLIS – The morning after winning the 92nd Indianapolis 500, Scott Dixon was once again riding around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, only at a much slower speed.
Instead of being behind the wheel of his Indy-winning Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda, Dixon was a passenger in a van that carried a group of reporters around the race course as he described the biggest race victory of his career.
Despite the fact he only had four hours of sleep, the driver from Auckland, New Zealand still had a smile on his face as the basked in the glow of his milestone achievement.
“My phone kept going off, too, so I didn’t get any rest whatsoever,” Dixon said. “Lucky enough I didn’t drink too much so I’m not feeling too bad. I’m tired, just tired.
“It’s been pretty crazy.”
After Dixon won the Indy 500 and drove into Victory Lane on Sunday evening, he said it was a surreal moment; that it didn’t feel real.
But so far, he hasn’t had that “light-bulb moment” where he realizes the impact of what he has accomplished.
“I’ve been so busy and when you get a break, which I haven’t gotten yet, it hasn’t kicked in yet,” Dixon said. “It’s going to take a week or two to really soak it up. I think tonight at the Victory Awards Banquet, having everybody up there for the presentation and getting the check is really going to seal the deal.”
The lasting memory of his Indy 500 victory is the final 10 laps of the race.
“That is when you know you are so close and when you see the pylon coming down and see lap 190, you know you are so close but so many things can happen and are racing through your mind of what can go wrong,” Dixon said. “You start hearing things and the car is making different noises and things like that.
“That is the moment you remember the most, the last few laps and you start thinking of that with 10 laps to go.”
Dixon had few close calls but one came when Tony Kanaan was the leader and being pressured by his Andretti Green Racing teammate Marco Andretti which resulted in Kanaan crashing into the third turn wall before he was hit by Sarah Fisher.
“When TK (Kanaan) actually got caught up in that mess, the spotters coached me to lift a bit in Turn 1 and we got a good run in Turn 2 to pass TK and get through that traffic before he got collected,” Dixon recalled. “There were definitely many moments where they help you out.”
As the van entered the area where Kanaan had his crash, which was a monumental part of the race, Dixon was able to describe it from his viewpoint.
“I had already passed him, actually, and I remember looking in my mirror as I turned into Turn 3 here and I could see him, that he was very close,” Dixon said. “Coming through the short chute here, the yellow went on. I thought it might be for Marco Andretti.
“I don’t know if TK could have saved it without getting collected there. Unfortunately for TK, he has led the race every time he has come here.”
Key moments like that often determine the outcome of the race. By being able to avoid situations like that allowed Dixon to capture the win that has elevated the Kiwi to legendary status throughout the world.
“I only just saw the paper and being on the front page drinking the bottle of milk, little things like that add to it and you start to feel the sensation of it,” Dixon said. “It’s pretty cool.
“It’s like nothing else. The funniest part of the race is after you win, you just want to get back to the pits and enjoy it with everyone else. You feel so alone out there on that cool-down lap and you feel so alone out there.”
One of the big moments in the race came on lap 160 when Vitor Meira split Dixon and race leader Ed Carpenter on the frontstretch. Meira’s move was a perfect “thread of the needle” with mere inches between the two cars on either side.
“That was crazy because he came from way back, he had such a big restart,” Dixon said. “I was surprised to see him because I thought I had a good run on Ed Carpenter. Ed had to break as well because Meira had to cut across.
“I just let him go because there were 40 laps to go and nothing to defend at that point. It was a brave move of his behalf. I think it was the only shot he had to have a good go of it. He was giving it his all. At the end, Meira was definitely the guy to watch.”
Dixon said the pivotal moment for him was the last restart on lap 176 because the leader at Indy is often “a sitting duck.”
“I slowed down a bunch on the last restart, went down to second gear and I normally start in third, gave a slight little brake-check and took off which gave us enough buffer so that Vitor couldn’t get by me,” Dixon said. “That was the key moment for me and that’s how we won the race.
“I was worried. I would have been happier to start that last restart in second place. That is why I put so much emphasis on trying to put Vitor at a disadvantage on the restart.”
Sunday’s Indy 500 was contested in front of one of the largest crowds in years, estimated at 350,000 as the fans returned for the first 500 during the “unified” IndyCar Series.
And the size of that crowd was apparent to the drivers in the race.
“You can always see the front straight but when you come out on your first parade lap and look down the backstraight, especially the inside of Turn 3 was a mob scene down there,” Dixon said. “It was absolutely the biggest crowd I had seen here before, by a ton. Sometimes you see some spaces in the bleachers but it was rock solid on Sunday.”
Dixon wants to soak up the Indy 500 victory for a few days before heading to Milwaukee for next Sunday’s 225-miler at The Milwaukee Mile. He wants to continue his charge toward a second IndyCar Series championship.
He also is fortunate in picking a year to win when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has doubled the check to the Indy 500 winner. Dixon will get a minimum of $2.5 million and with other contingency awards, can take home close to $3 million.
“I don’t know what the check is going be tonight, but I heard it is pretty big, so I’m definitely looking forward to that,” Dixon said.
The Indy 500 is an event known throughout the world so even as a boy, he remembers watching the race on television, but he certainly never dreamed of winning it.
“It’s not until you actually come here and witness it for the first time that you really grasp it,” Dixon said. “I came here in 2002 with Chip Ganassi. I wasn’t driving for him yet but I had to come to the race to see what it was all about.”
And on Sunday, he now has first-hand experience on what it takes to win the Indy 500.
“It was a dream month,” he said.