IndyCar: Dixon chases Montoya, Power as title fight heads to Fontana
FONTANA, California -- Juan Pablo Montoya has maintained the points lead since the first race of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season and is attempting to win the second race in IndyCar's "Triple Crown" at Saturday's MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway.
Standing in his way is Scott Dixon, who is hoping to further close the gap in the championship standings as the three-time IndyCar Series champion hopes to win at the 2.0-mile superspeedway for the first time in his career. To do that, he has to make up the 45-point gap on Montoya and the 18-point deficit to defending champion Will Power, who maintains second-place in the standings.
"I think with how the season's gone, the No. 9 Target car has been strong in just about every scenario," Dixon said. "We've had some pretty sore races I think with St. Pete, the mechanical issue there with the air jacks. Then New Orleans was kind of the non-race there. Toronto was a bit of a bummer I think with strategy and just how we ended up there. I think we could have capitalized on a good points-ending day there. But we're still third in points, 40-odd something out of the lead and still in great contention for the championship.
"It's never easy. It's tough. I think the Penskes have been extremely strong this year, especially on the street course scenarios, qualifying on the ovals. But I think hopefully we can have a smooth run and gain some much-needed points on Juan and obviously Will. But Helio Castroneves is very close, as well. The championship, as always, is going to come down to the wire."
The superspeedway is one of the few tracks on the schedule where Dixon has never won. In six starts at Auto Club Speedway, Dixon has two second-place finishes including last year, a third-place result in 2012 and a fifth in 2013.
Dixon has celebrated victory two times before in California with a win at Sonoma Raceway in 2014 and in April's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
"You always want to win, no matter what track it is," Dixon said. "It's rewarding definitely the first time you maybe get to have a shot at winning. Fontana, we've had mixed results there. Last year we were very dominant I think with both cars. T.K. (Tony Kanaan) did a phenomenal job capturing the win late in the race, to take that. I think we've done well on ovals so far this year. The car was very good at Indy, despite the overheating of the engine at the end of the race that cost us another shot at the 500. And in Texas, both the 9 and the 10 were definitely the class of the field.
"We'll have to see how it goes for Fontana this weekend, but typically a track I think the team does quite well at. Hopefully we can continue that trend. Obviously different conditions this year going from a night race to a day race. It should hopefully be not too hot. Looks like the temperatures are kind of mild for this time of year. But I think degradation and trying to maintain pace over a stint is going to be the tough situation, especially with the track temp being higher during the day."
To compensate for the heat for a Saturday daytime race, IndyCar officials have mandated the same superspeedway aerodynamic configuration will include the rear wing main plane angle must be set between 0 degrees and -10.5 degrees for the 250-lap race on the 2-mile, D-shaped oval with 14 degrees of banking in the turns. It was -6 degrees to -10.5 degrees for the race June 6 on the 1.5-mile, high-banked Texas Motor Speedway oval.
Six degrees more rear wing, even without a wicker that is unapproved for the event, will add about 300 pounds of downforce to compensate for the 90-degree afternoon ambient and higher track temperatures. The past three Verizon IndyCar Series races at the track have been contested under the lights.
"We looked at the downforce increase that we had at Texas and saw marginal improvement in the degradation from the tires," IndyCar Vice President of Technology Will Phillips said. "Fontana is a little different in that it doesn't have the tire degradation that Texas did when you go through the stats from 2014, so it's just the challenge to drive the track, which is why it will have more downforce in the heat of the day."
A sidewall or trimmed sidewall - added to the underwing - is among the aero kit-approved options. Front and aft rear wheel guard closure panels that were added for the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway will remain part of the aero platform.
A hot track surface means less mechanical and aero grip so the extra downforce should help the cars. As for the drivers, they have to prepare for 500 miles in the heat of the day.
"At this point your training regime should be in full swing," Dixon said. "Oval tracks, they're demanding, but more so mentally. A lot of it depends on how easy the car is to drive or how good it is, how good it is over a long run. That determines a lot of the workload for the driver.
"I expect this year to be quite tough. There are a lot of unknowns going there with the new aero kit. Every track we go to is a steep learning curve because of the that situation, not being able to go off of anything from last year with a day race and different scenarios we've had, with the addition of it being 500 miles. It will be draining and hopefully we're up for the task. I think it's the typical stuff; make sure you get some good sleep, eat well, keep hydrating yourself."
The next win for Dixon will be his 38th - just one behind Al Unser for fourth on the all-time victory list. The next win for team owner Chip Ganassi will be his 100th in IndyCar racing.
"Of course it would be fantastic to get the 100th IndyCar win but if you're doing your job right, that's going to come anyway," Dixon said. "I think for us, the focus is every weekend, you know, getting the most out of the first practice - any practice - get the most out of qualifying, and try to win the race. Hopefully it comes this year from one of the four, which would be fantastic. Hopefully it's more than that. But, yeah, it's fantastic for Chip, obviously, what he's accomplished in a pretty short term with a team like this, across many platforms.
"I would love to bring that 100th but there are three other guys on the team that will be trying to do the same thing."
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