Scott Dixon finished in second place for the opening round of IndyCar’s 2025 season, but he was still unhappy after the race was over.
The veteran revealed after his podium celebrations were complete that he had run nearly the entire race with no radio communication.
Instead of managing the 100-lap event through constant communication with his engineer, Dixon was forced to use his vast experience to manage his own race while sitting behind the wheel.
With only one early caution period to dictate strategy, he simply waited until his car was nearly out of fuel to complete each pit stop. He discovered that pitting one or two laps early would have gained him precious seconds and potentially fight for the win.
“Yeah, no radio for the entire race,” said Dixon. “It was kind of tough just to see what we were doing, mileage-wise. Once the first caution happened, it was going to be a strict kind of two-stopper.
“Kind of worked on the warm-up laps and kind of for the first 10 and that was about it, but ultimately cost us the race, with not coming in when I should have.
“You have a fuel light so you can run — you know when the car is going to run out. I didn’t know if they could hear me, so I was just telling them I’m just go to run to the light and see what happens. Ultimately I think for me, it was just one lap too long.
“We caught that traffic with about five or six cars and lost about two or three seconds on that in lap, so that was a bit of a nightmare.
“Yeah, I don’t know. Car was good. I think pit stops were really good. I think all around, we had good speed. Anytime that we had clean air, we could definitely stretch out, but spent most of the race in dirty air.
“It’s kind of the first time I’ve ever done a whole race without a radio, so that was interesting. Glad we got some good points and a nice one, too, for the team.”
If Dixon had any fewer than 25 years of experience, his dilemma could well have cost him more. Securing a podium despite the situation would make nearly any other driver happy.
But all Dixon could think about was the win that got away.
“I’m pretty pissed off. We had a good race going and we didn’t get it done. So it doesn’t feel good, that’s for sure.”
