IndyCar Series: Meijer Indy 300 presented by Coca-Cola and Secret

Topics:  Meijer Indy 300 presented by Coca-Cola and Secret

Scott Dixon
August 13, 2006

SPARTA, KENTUCKY

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our second place finisher, Scott Dixon. His third second place of the season, second Top-5 finish. Tell us about your day a little bit up there.
SCOTT DIXON: It was pretty good. The first stint I think everybody stretched out quite a bit. The first four cars definitely left the pack and were just all trying to save fuel I think. I think how the yellows fell today, it didn't really make any difference if you save fuel. It never got to that point, except for right at the end.
But generally, pretty happy. I think if we didn't have the yellow towards the ends, I think we might have been able to hold Sam off. I think our restart gears were totally different to his, and his seemed to be a lot better. It took us a lap or two to get going and he seemed to get speed straight away. Good points, and we really needed to win to try and gain on the championship.
So hopefully going into Infineon, we can hopefully gain a little more.
THE MODERATOR: You stand 33 points behind in the fourth place in the points standings now. Questions for Scott?

Q. Early in the race -- inaudible?
SCOTT DIXON: I was basically told because he was burning a lot of fuel, I was I had leaned right out, like I couldn't just about go any more leaner on my car. My car seemed to be a little better at the front and he couldn't hold on, and so I leaned back and then we had the yellow anyway.
So that was definitely a strategy by the team to try and make sure that both cars went the distance.

Q. Inaudible?
SCOTT DIXON: I was definitely pissed off when Sam passed and just chopped me off. I had to get out of the gas there. Lost all of the air and nearly spun, so I don't know what his problem was. But, you know, we'll see what happens. But then I had to, you know, hold Helio off and I probably wasn't so nice to him. It's just the kind of mood I was in at that stage.

Q. Going back to that pass, when you say you had to get out of the gas, you had to get out to keep from touching?
SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, going into one, he just came down. If I didn't lift, either I would have hit him or I would have spun.