Scott Dixon is preparing for a hotly fought championship challenge over the remaining few rounds of the IndyCar Series.
Dixon is third in the driver’s standings, 56 points adrift of championship leader and teammate Alex Palou.
Palou has had a standout sophomore IndyCar season thus far, claiming his maiden race win and has finished consistently in the top five.
However, Dixon has been snapping at Palou’s heels the past few races, managing the points gap and staying within the title fight.
The Kiwi knows all too well how quickly things change in the championship if a title contender has one lousy race or gets involved in an unfortunate accident.
“I had a 130-point lead, I think, at some point last year and it went down to 17 or 15 or something,” Dixon said after the latest race.
“It’s going to be tight. Josef is going to be strong. I know Alex is going to be strong. There’s going to be a lot of strong cars.
“So, keep our heads down. We’re going to keep working hard.
“We’ve got some interesting tracks coming up towards the end of the season.
“A bit of a four-week break here, which is going to be interesting for a lot of us, too. So we’ll see how it goes.”
Dixon’s race at Mid-Ohio on Monday morning (NZT) nearly unfolded inside the first four laps when he tangled with Will Power.
The Penske driver was pitched onto a kerb and spun before being collected by an unsighted driver.
Dixon says it was a racing incident between the two drivers but apologised for ruining Power’s race.
“You know, we were pushing hard. If you give too much room on the outside, last year, I gave Will a bunch of room on the outside, and he kind of ran me off the track.
“I didn’t do anything on purpose.
“Definitely a tough race for us. The rear of the car we couldn’t hold on to throughout the race. It was definitely very frustrating.”
The next round of the IndyCar Series will be its inaugural race on the Nashville Street circuit on August 8.
