Kiwis on top of the world

Scott Dixon’s fuel saving ability combined with a rare mistake by Alex Palou led to another win at the mid-Ohio Indy 200 for the Kiwi. It is his 59th career victory, and his first win for the season in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. That extends his sequence of seasons with at least one win to 21, dating back to 2005.

Six-time series champion Dixon crossed the finish line just four-tenths of a second ahead of Palou’s No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Christian Lundgaard placed third in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

With only five laps to go, Palou misjudged a corner and ran off track briefly, enough time for Dixon to pass and retain the lead to the finish.

“Just a stupid mistake, honestly,” Palou said. “Just got a bit wide on entry and lost it completely.”

Dixon’s victory was improbable with a starting spot of ninth, so he opted for a fuel-saving two-stop strategy where most pitted three times.

Marcus Armstrong had another solid result this weekend, qualifying eighth and finishing seventh, running in the top five for a good portion of the race.

Scott McLaughlin not so much, finishing 23rd after qualifying 21st. McLaughlin needed to pit five times, which hurt his race, and struggled with the car all weekend.

Palou still holds a strong points leadership in the series.

Less than a day after taking a victory in the Xfinity Series, SVG won in Sunday’s Nascar Cup Series race on the streets of Chicago. He again made history, with a weekend sweep from pole in both categories.

He is only the second driver in Nascar history to win both races in a weekend from pole position.

It was a chaotic 75-lap contest that ended with the New Zealander surviving a final-lap caution to clinch victory under yellow. An anticlimatic win but a win nevertheless.

Despite being on pole he was soon in third after the start of the race but lap 3 saw a huge pile-up. A red flag was need to clear the track. 

On the restart, McDowell got the jump on Van Gisbergen but the Kiwis soon pitted, losing ground on McDowell. 

In stage 2, SVG was in eighth on fresher tyres and going strong. He was soon up to third when McDowell had a DNF after a throttle cable issue.

SVG then took the lead over Allmendinger. After pitting SVG returned in 13th, Allmendinger in 15th. Ryan Blaney won Stage 2.

SVG would restart Stage 3 from seventh as others ahead pitted. He moved from seventh to fifth on the restart and was soon into third with 24 laps to go.

He caught and passed Reddick for second and with 16 laps remaining, made the move for the lead.

With nine laps to go, SVG led Gibbs, Allmendinger, Hamlin, and Briscoe. Just six laps out, Van Gisbergen had a 1.3-second gap on Gibbs. The Kiwi crossed the start/finish line just in time to take the white flag before a caution was called. With the field frozen, he coasted to the chequered flag under yellow and sealed a historic if anticlimatic win.

With three victories, Van Gisbergen now holds the record for the most Nascar Cup Series wins by a foreign-born driver.

NASCAR heads to Sonoma Raceway next weekend, another road course where Van Gisbergen will once again be amongst he favourites.

On a downbeat note, Liam Lawson had a weekend to forget at Silverstone. He was again fast in practice, not so much in qualifying and was shunted out on turn 5 of lap one in the actual race.