{"id":286453,"date":"2023-04-16T23:19:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T23:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=286453"},"modified":"2023-04-17T00:59:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T00:59:51","slug":"a-complete-joke-six-time-champs-warning-to-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=286453","title":{"rendered":"'A complete joke': Six-time champ's warning to rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six-time IndyCar Series<\/a> champion Scott Dixon was left bemused by officials and an opponent after a premature end to his race on the streets of Long Beach.<\/p>\n

After qualifying fifth, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver started from the third row on the grid.<\/p>\n

Such is the nature of the circuit that a hairpin precedes the start-finish line on the Long Beach street circuit, meaning only the first few rows typically line up side-by-side for the rolling start.<\/p>\n

Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2023 IndyCar Series, featuring Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon.<\/strong><\/em> All the action streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

It's not uncommon for officials to abandon race starts. However, even with just the first three rows lined up, the race got underway.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

A clumsy start saw Dixon close up to the cars in front of him while fourth-row starter Josef Newgarden raced to catch the first few rows.<\/p>\n

As Dixon maintained speed and the green flag flew, the Team Penske pilot flew past Dixon. That dropped him to seventh by the first turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His day got worse when McLaren's Pato O'Ward put a pass on Dixon into turn eight, making contact and sending the Ganssi driver into the wall.<\/p>\n

Dixon was able to return to the race, but later suffered an engine issue that took him out of contention.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndyCar\/status\/1647703870045564928<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking after the incident, the series veteran of more than 20 years hit out at O'Ward's manoeuvre.<\/p>\n

"That seemed extremely late," said Dixon.<\/p>\n

"We're already committed to the corner. Like I understand there's tyre deg(radation) and all that sort of stuff going on, but I wouldn't have chosen to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"If that's how the series wants us to race then I guess it's all gloves off from this point and that's how it would be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Disappointed with that and then I don't know what happened in the end there. We passed the No.60 car I think and then lost drive after that and got back to the pits."<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Dixon said it was already going to be an uphill battle, which was made harder by the race start.<\/p>\n

"Frustrating day," he added.<\/p>\n

"It was going to be hard on the strategy that we were and plus the start was a complete joke as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I don't know what they're calling up there, but it seemed like row six or five went way before even the leader did."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/PatricioOWard\/status\/1647721851488194560<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking after the incident, O'Ward stopped short of an apology.<\/p>\n

"I was on the inside, he decided to stay on the outside," said O'Ward.<\/p>\n

"Well, I'm pretty much alongside him – nose in front of his, at least alongside his.<\/p>\n

"I don't know what to say. I mean, I've been racing Scott for a few years and if he feels like that's my fault then I'm sorry he feels that way. I don't agree.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"I'm sure I'll circle back with him either this weekend or the next one, but I'm not going to apologise for that," he added.<\/p>\n

"We're racing. A lot of the times where I've been in that situation, I kind of just let the guy go because you know if you're on the outside you're more vulnerable to those things happening."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndyCar\/status\/1647733618599682048<\/a><\/p>\n

The race was won by Kyle Kirkwood in just his third race for Andretti Autosport<\/a> with teammate Romain Grosjean finishing second.<\/p>\n

Dixon's teammate Marcus Ericsson completed the podium.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Dixon, who came into the third race of the season sitting third, has fallen to sixth. Ericsson now leads O'Ward on 110 and 95 points respectively.<\/p>\n

Alex Palou, Josef Newgarden, and Kirkwood complete the top five. Will Power sits ninth while Scott McLaughlin occupies 10th.<\/p>\n

The IndyCar Series resumes on May 1 at Barber Motorsports Park.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon was left bemused by officials and an opponent after a premature end to his race on the streets of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286453"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286455,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286453\/revisions\/286455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}