27 August 2023 00:00 (UTC)
"The team did a great job in the pits, but Scott Dixon did a Scott Dixon today"
A ninth podium on the 2023 season!
Sunday's final oval race of the season ended with some champagne from second-place on the podium. Pato O'Ward captured his seventh podium of the year and fourth runner-up finish.
Alexander Rossi started seventh and finished fourth, while Felix Rosenqvist crossed the start-finish line in eighth.
See what the drivers, as well as Racing Director Gavin Ward said after Sunday's race.
Race Date | Sunday, August 27 |
Round | 15 of 17 |
Total Laps | 260 laps |
Total Race Distance | 325 miles / 522.6 km |
Length | 1.25 miles / 2.01 km |
Number of Turns | 4 |
"It’s another P2 for the books this year. I haven’t quite gotten that one last spot that we want which is P1, but I’m happy with that. The team did a great job in the pits, but Scott Dixon did a Scott Dixon today. We’re onto Portland and Laguna, and we’ll keep pushing."
Starting Position | 3rd | |
Finishing Position | 2nd | |
Championship Standings | 4th | 429 points |
"We’ll take P4 today. It was probably all we could do. It was tough to race here. I think the Firestone Alternative tires brought a good element of differentiation. You just can’t follow close enough, and it makes it really difficult to race, not being able to pass cars that are laps down. But it was a good day for the team. We have two top-five finishes in a row, which coming off a really difficult summer is good. We’ll aim to keep going the last two races."
Starting Position | 7th | |
Finishing Position | 4th | |
Championship Standings | 9th | 339 points |
"Given the circumstances, we actually had a really good race. We had good speed. Strategy didn’t really play out well, and also we had Nick, our front right tire changer had a problem with his back, so we had a teammate step up as a replacement. He did really well getting thrown into the race like that but when you have a change like that to the crew, it’s never optimal, so we lost a bit of time in the pits. This track is such small margins, so if you don’t do a perfect race, you’re not going to be in the top five. P8 is pretty good for what we had, and the car felt good. Good job to Pato and Alexander."
Starting Position | 4th | |
Finishing Position | 8th | |
Championship Standings | 13th | 270 points |
"That’s seven podiums for Pato so far this season, which is a wonderful tally, but somehow feels a little bittersweet when you’re missing that little bit to get a win. It was a strong day for the team, really good points with second, fourth and eighth. We’ve got to look into what let Felix down there, but we had a really strong pace out of all three cars and a clean day when a lot of other people didn’t have those. So we’ll take that and move on."
