Scott Dixon Starts 10th in Chase for Second Indy 500 Title
scott dixon will start 10th for the 110th Indianapolis 500, leaving him with a workable grid spot as he chases a second win at the race. The six-time IndyCar champion has already been there once before, winning in 2008, but the gap between speed and the finish has stayed stubbornly small.
He has finished second three times and third twice at Indianapolis. That history makes this year’s starting position more than a simple row-number detail: Dixon is still in range, but he is also carrying a long record of near misses into a race that runs at 4am on Monday NZT.
Dixon and the 10th-place start
Dixon, a Chip Ganassi Racing driver, will line up from 10th in the 110th running. He said, "It’s different every year, you know, the competition is different every year," and added, "You’re chasing different things or trying to overcome different things and it changes from year to year."
Those words fit Indianapolis as well as any race on the calendar. The 804.67km event is run on a 4.02km superspeedway, and Dixon’s own record shows how quickly a strong position can turn into a fight for track position, fuel and timing rather than outright pace alone.
New Zealand trio at Indianapolis
Three New Zealanders are in the field this year: Dixon, Marcus Armstrong and Scott McLaughlin. For readers following the Kiwi angle, that means the race is not just about one veteran chasing another title, but about three drivers carrying New Zealand interest into the same field.
That broader presence gives Dixon’s 10th-place start extra shape. He is not the only New Zealander on the grid, but he is the one with the clearest Indianapolis record behind him: one victory, three runner-up finishes and two thirds, all before this year’s run.
Past near misses at Indianapolis
Dixon called those repeated close calls frustrating, saying, "It’s been a bit frustrating getting so close [to winning another Indy 500] in the past, but you can’t dwell on past results." He also said, "Although, I sometimes think more about the races we lost than some of the wins."
That is the friction in his bid. He has the résumé of a driver who can win the race again, but the event has also given him enough second and third places to make every restart and pit sequence matter. "These days you won’t see a driver leading by a few laps towards the end of the race," he said, a reminder that the race rarely stays settled for long.
More than 300,000 people will be at the 110th Indianapolis 500, and Dixon will have to turn a 10th-place start into a result that changes the shape of his Indianapolis story. For him, the target is simple: convert another strong opening into a finish that finally moves the race back into the win column.
