Insider: Scott Dixon survives IndyCar season-finale chaos at Laguna Seca

SALINAS, Calif. – In the most chaotic race of IndyCar’s 2023 season -- eight cautions, 35 yellow-flag laps and more than 70 minutes behind a pace car that needed to be refueled -- there should be no surprise who came out on top.

Scott Dixon won his third race of the year – and third of the last four – overcoming a six-spot grid penalty due to a Sunday morning engine change and a drive-thru penalty for avoidable contact on Lap 1 with Colton Herta and Rinus VeeKay.

But in the end, with how the cautions flipped strategists’ plans multiple times mid-race, Dixon and his own strategist, Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull, combined for their latest masterclass at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Behind him, the action was furious and rampant. Here were the biggest takeaways and developments from IndyCar’s season-ending carnage and chaos:

Lap 1 crash sidelines Rahal, McLaughlin and Dixon survive

Scott McLaughlin, like Dixon, was one of more than a half-dozen drivers involve in Lap 1 ping-ponging initiated by Christian Lundgaard, who started on the second row behind polesitter Felix Rosenqvist and McLaughlin. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver got into the inside of McLaughlin, sending him into his Penske teammate Josef Newgarden. Juri Vips, Graham Rahal, Marcus Armstrong, VeeKay and Herta were among others involved in the melee.

Rahal was the only driver whose day was ended in the incident after Armstrong attempted to split the space between Vips and Rahal. The Ganassi car then bumped Rahal, who bounced into his teammate.

“I felt like I left a lot of room to the inside for whatever transpired, but clearly I was in the wrong place, wrong time. I didn’t see Armstrong at all, but unfortunately we hit Juri, Josef and god knows who else,” Rahal said. “I just told the medical staff, ‘I’ve seen them more than my wife this year.’ It’s pretty pathetic.

“It feels like we can’t get any good fortune. I try to keep clean and leave plenty of room, and these young guys nowadays, they race much more without the part up here.”

Rahal pointed to his head.

“But we’ve got to be prepared for that.”

Palou's luck continues

For quite some time, the race felt like it was Alex Palou’s to lose, after the 26-year-old -- who’d already clinched his second championship in three years -- took the lead from Rosenqvist with a Lap 7 pass of Rosenqvist.

It seemed as if Palou’s good luck continued when he dipped into the pits on Lap 29 just as teammate Marcus Ericsson and Rosenqvist traded contact. The Arrow McLaren car suffered a cut right-front tire, and though he initially got back rolling, Rosenqvist ran into the gravel and stopped, forcing the caution call.

Palou was maybe only 20 feet onto the pitlane straight when the yellow came out. Behind him, Herta and Will Power, running 2^nd and 3^rd, had not pitted and lost out with the yellow. Herta had to pit when pitlane was closed or he would’ve run out of fuel, meaning he was forced to start at the back of the field on the restart. Power was able to wait until pitlane was open, but fell back to 16^th.

Their days went in separate ways afterwards, with Herta eventually crashed out when he was t-boned by a skidding Helio Castroneves. Power, who snapped a 16-year streak of winning at least once a season, finished 4^th.

Middle-of-the-race chaos flips field

The ensuing green flag kicked off a furious run of green flags immediately followed by yellows before the leaders could make it into Turn 2. On Lap 36, Power spun Benjamin Pedersen rounding the final corner after the race had restarted, and Castroneves ran square into the A.J. Foyt Racing car. Up the track, McLaughlin couldn’t slow enough as cars checked-up entering Turn 2, running into the back of Foyt’s other driver, Santino Ferrucci, who managed a remarkable save to make it back on-track.

Though he was able to keep on running to the end, Ferrucci’s hope for a top-10 finish ended on a Lap 62 restart crash that significantly damaged his front wing. Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist was also gathered in the incident, and his day was then done as the only other driver along with Rahal who failed to take the checkered flag in 26^th.

The race then failed to restart on Lap 67 when teammates Armstrong and Ericsson spun in the final turn in the latter’s final race with the team. Ericsson’s second incident of the day left him one lap down in 15^th, while Armstrong managed to move on to take 8^th and seal the Rookie of the Year award.

With that, CGR began IndyCar’s first team ever to clinch 1^st and 2^nd in points and the ROY award in a single season.

Dixon pushes to the front for the finish

In a pivotal restart with 23 laps to go, Dixon jumped from 7^th to 3^rd, while Romain Grosjean, who was searching for his first win of any kind in more than a decade, passed O’Ward for the lead despite a need to pull off an immense fuel-save to stay towards the front. Just three laps later, the race’s final caution fell for Castroneves’ incident with Herta, sparking O’Ward and Grosjean to dip into the pits for new tires and a splash of fuel to get to the end.

From there, Dixon assumed the lead and cruised to a 7.3-second edge over McLaughlin.

After his stop, O’Ward dropped back to 13^th but managed to climb up to 9^th by the checkered flag. The drop at the end, though, saw the Arrow McLaren driver surrender 3^rd-place in the championship, which he had in real-time for the majority of the race. O’Ward finished four points back of McLaughlin, who managed to pace Team Penske in his third full-time IndyCar season.