Scott Dixon wins in Detroit, takes lead in series standings

Scott Dixon of New Zealand moved into the IndyCar Series championship lead by winning the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon.

Dixon's No 9 PNC Bank Honda edged out Marcus Ericsson of Sweden by 0.8567 seconds for his second win of the season.

Dixon jumped Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou of Spain for an 18-point lead in the season standings. A six-time series champion, most recently in 2020, Dixon is gunning for his seventh, which would tie the record held by A.J. Foyt.

"For sure," Dixon said of that target. "I think it always is. Until you're out of it, you're going to keep chasing it. It's a team effort."

Dixon preserved enough fuel to stave off Ericsson down the stretch. Ericsson cut Dixon's lead by more than half during the final lap, according to IndyCar.

"The team called it perfectly," Dixon said. "We were on the right strategy. We won, man. How cool is that?"

"After the month of May we had, it was really, really tough mentally," Ericsson said. "I'm new in this team. I want to show myself as a top driver, as they hired me as. It was really important. We had so much pace. One more lap, and we might have been able to get that win. But great day."

Marcus Armstrong of New Zealand finished third, and Kyle Kirkwood and Alexander Rossi rounded out the top five. Palou placed 16th.

Josef Newgarden, who won the Indianapolis 500 for the second year running last week, placed 26th of 27 drivers.