By Jeff Smith
indy500.com
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Some will say that is just Dixon's style - quiet and reserved. But on May 26, Dixon took a ceremonial victory lap around the 2.5-mile oval in an Indianapolis Motor Speedway tour bus with a dozen members of the media on board, explaining his winning ride and the reasoning for pulling in shortly after crossing the Yard of Bricks.
"I keep saying to people that is the funniest part of the race because all you want to do is get back to the pits and enjoy it with everybody else," he said. "That last pace lap, all you can do is talk to them on the radio."
The usually composed Dixon admitted to being anything but cool and calm on the radio following his life-changing win at the Brickyard. In the simplest of ways, he said it was like nothing else.
"I don't normally yell too often, but that was special," Dixon said.
As the tour bus cruised down the front stretch - albeit at a much slower pace than his final lap Sunday - IndyCar Series points leader Dixon spoke about the final 10 laps on the race. He said he remembered looking at the scoring pylon and seeing Lap 190 displayed, a sign the checkered flag was within his reach.
Cue the mind games.
"You know you are so close," he said. "So many things can happen, and so many things are racing through your mind about what can go wrong. You start hearing things. You think the car is making noises."
Those noises were likely mistaken for the throngs of fans that packed the bleachers and lined the infield for "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."
When asked about Sunday's crowd, Dixon said that while the packed front stretch is always an impressive sight, he tends to gauge the support by when he exits the warm-up lane on to the back straightaway. He was taken back by the massive infield crowd in Turn 3 and summed up the race attendance with two words:
"Rock solid."
Restarts were a hot topic during the 15-minute ride with the media, and several journalists sought Dixon's impressions on second-place finisher Vitor Meira of Panther Racing. Meira's stirring pass of Dixon and Ed Carpenter for the lead on a Lap 160 restart brought everyone inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to a collective gasp.
"That was crazy because he was coming up from way back; he had such a big restart," Dixon said. "I was surprised to see him because I thought I had a good one on Ed."
Meira split Dixon and Carpenter before entering Turn 1, coming within inches of contact on both sides. Dixon said that with 40 laps remaining in the race, the pass was not worth defending.
"It was a brave move on his part," he said.
Dixon admitted he would have preferred to have been behind Meira on the final restart of the race on Lap 176. After serving as the leader and pace setter on the majority of the restarts Sunday, Dixon said he was worried about the hard-charging Meira.
"When you're out front, you're a sitting duck," he said. "I actually slowed down a bunch on the last restart. I went down to second gear; normally I start in third. I finally gave a slight little brake check and took off, which gave us enough of a buffer that Vitor couldn't get by us. That was the key moment for me, and I think that is how we won the race."
Dixon's focus will soon turn to this Sunday's race in Milwaukee and the IndyCar Series Championship - a title he lost on the last lap of the 2007 season finale at Chicagoland Speedway.
For now, he admits that waking up Monday morning to his face pictured on the front page of every newspaper, drinking the milk in celebration, made him "feel the real sensation of it all."
As the IMS tour bus passed the Hall of Fame Museum one last time, Dixon was reminded that his portrait will now hang inside along with 91 other Indianapolis 500 winners.
Regarding his new "legend" status, Dixon gave reason to believe he would be back for more Memorial Day victory laps in the future.
"I have got much more to do yet, man, much more to do."
***
2008 IMS tickets: Tickets for the two remaining world-class events in 2008 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - the 15th Allstate 400 at the Brickyard and inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP - are on sale.
Fans have three easy methods to buy tickets: Online at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com at any time; on the phone by calling (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area or (317) 492-6700 locally between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday; or visiting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ticket Office on the first floor of the IMS Administration Building at 4790 W. 16th St. in Indianapolis from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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