'Horrendous' start to 2022, 18-race winless streak has Scott Dixon tempering Indy 500 expectations

INDIANAPOLIS – Scott Dixon uses his words very carefully, and yet the 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner always means what he says. And Dixon says the start to his 2022 campaign has been “horrendous.”

Dixon used the word three days ago to describe his team’s qualifying effort for the GMR Grand Prix, which slotted him 21st. Outside his spin in Round 1 of qualifying for the second race on the IMS road course a year ago (where he ended up 26th), it was Dixon’s worst such performance since starting two races from 22nd in 2014.

The Chip Ganassi Racing veteran remains 5th in points through five races in 2022 – largely because Dixon’s worst weekends at the track would still qualify for a solid one for nearly the entire IndyCar paddock. It’s simply the way of life as a six-time champion. But Dixon’s 18-race winless streak, dating back to last year’s Race No. 1 at Texas, marks his longest since a 40-race drought that spanned 2003-05. During it, he’s logged three podiums, eight top-5s and 14 top-10s.

And that lack of top-end execution boiled over Friday after qualifying, 24 hours before he’d make up 11 spots in a caution-heavy GMR Grand Prix and finish 10th – the third consecutive race this season he’s made up at least eight spots in the race.

“I’m just frustrated, man. I think everybody can see that. We’re making swings where we shouldn’t be, and it’s just a different car every time we go out,” he said on the Peacock broadcast Friday. “Honestly, it sucks right now. We’ve got to sort it out. Our race pace has been good, and everyone on the PNC Bank car side has done a tremendous job, but if you qualify this far back, it’s just horrendous.”

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Tuesday, after he paced Indy 500 Practice No. 1 (227.119 mph) and nearly topped the second (227.768 mph) before Takuma Sato landed a big tow lap with just a few minutes to go (228.939 mph), Dixon said his team’s recent struggles have stemmed from a couple “big mistakes that should never have happened,” uncharacteristic of the No. 9 crew.

“It’s been pretty horrendous in some circumstances,” he said. “And then I think we kind got into a weird snowball effect on the road course and honestly just changed way too much stuff, and when you do that, you lose the balance. With how tight the competition is right now, you’re going to be out to lunch.”

The timing of the 500, a place where he’s sat on pole four times (including a year ago), won once in 2008 and scored five podiums, couldn’t be more fortuitous. Yes, Dixon’s not exactly new to the St. Pete, Texas, Long Beach, Barber or the IMS road course, but there’s just something different about his and CGR’s rhythm and synergy around these hallowed grounds.

Though timing charts – especially on Day 1 – can be deceiving, Ganassi landed four cars in the top-6 and all five of their cars in the top-9.

“It’s just a totally different environment, different structure and track time and circuit,” he said. “Any track that’s different, you’ve just got to be able to move on, and this is a good time to reset.

“I definitely get frustrated, and I swear a lot, but that’s just because we’re all competitors. It’s always tough, and we’ve been in this position before, but this is nothing new. We’ll turn it around and get on with it.”

That reset will have to come, though, at a track and in a race that Dixon had one of the more befuddling results of his career. After starting on pole last year, he got caught out by a Lap 34 caution when Stefan Wilson spun on pitlane. The incident closed the pits for several laps, and once they opened, Dixon was limping home and eventually ran out of gas. Doing so caused a lengthy first stop and put him a lap down.

He worked his way back to finish on the lead lap in 17th, but his hopes of winning a second 500 – and first in 14 years – were essentially shot then and there. The dreaded luck was reminiscent of his crash on Lap 53 in 2017 completely out of his control after also starting on pole. Along with his three runner-up finishes, they make up Dixon’s list of close calls in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing as the best IndyCar driver of his generation.

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As a driver who seems to so easily put highs and lows in his rear-view mirror, last year’s poor luck seems to stick with Dixon a year later.

“It was definitely tough to swallow,” he told IndyStar during the series open test at IMS last month. “I think you’re always optimistic at the moment, and even when you see the pace car roll by once, you say, ‘Okay, that’s just one lap. We’re still in this thing. We can easily get one lap back.’ But when you see it come by the next time, you realize, ‘Oh, this is going to be really tough now.’

“We were in a situation trying to stretch the window, and then you have a car with no brakes causing an accident. What can you do? It sucks, and I don’t want to see it, but it wasn’t my mistake. It will, though, probably change a little bit the way we race in not trying to stretch the window so much.”

And that is precisely why you weren’t about to get an overly enthusiastic Dixon, despite the solid lap he threw down early Tuesday afternoon, though the swearing seemed to be gone – at least for a day.

“It’s Day 1, Day 1,” he said. “Let’s see what the rest of the week brings.”

Email IndyStar motor sports reporter Nathan Brown at nlbrown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500: Scott Dixon calls 2022 'horrendous', looking for reset at IMS