Scott Dixon wins the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

The NTT IndyCar Series concluded the 2023 season on Sunday afternoon from WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in what can be only described as a chaotic and eventful race.

Last week, Alex Palou wrapped up the championship with a win at Portland International Raceway and was looking for one more win for the record books.

For some drivers, this was their last time racing for their current teams like Felix Rosenqvist, David Malukas, Marcus Ericsson, and Romain Grosjean. This was a chance for them to make one last statement before heading into the 2024 season. For Helio Castroneves, this was his last race as a full-time IndyCar driver. He had an eventful afternoon.

Felix Rosenqvist started the race on the pole with Scott McLaughlin joining him on the front row starting second. Before the race started, Scott Dixon, who was supposed to start in fifth, was issued a six-position starting grid penalty for an unapproved engine change. Dixon had an event to remember on this day.

It did not take long for the first caution to come out. The race got off to a chaotic start when Christian Lundgaard got loose before hitting Scott McLaughlin triggering a five-car crash as the caution came out. The other drivers involved were Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Rinus VeeKay, and Juri Vips. Out of the cars involved, Rahal was done.

Scott Dixon and Christian Lundgaard were issued drive-through penalties for avoidable contact. Dixon should not have been penalized because he had nowhere to go.

The race restarted on the sixth lap. Alex Palou muscled his way past Rosenqvist for the lead. Two laps later, Josef Newgarden got loose at Turn 4 before making contact with the tire wall which led to the second caution. Despite the crash, Newgarden continued the race.

The race restarted on lap 11. During the green, Helio Castroneves spun at Turn 2. Then, he got loose again almost hitting Benjamin Pederson before going off the track. When he returned to the track, he nearly hit Alex Palou. Palou had to veer off the track to avoid hitting Castroneves.

On lap 29, Marcus Ericsson hit Felix Rosenqvist in Turn 2 then stalled on the track leading to the third caution. Alex Palou was still leading the race when it restarted on lap 36.

However, the green didn’t get far when there was a chain reaction leading to Helio Castroneves and Benjamin Pederson making contact at Turn 11. In addition, Callum Ilott and Will Power were also involved. The race restarted again on lap 41.

On lap 58, another caution came out when Devin DeFrancesco smacked David Malukas at Turn 3. Everyone in this race was hitting each other except for the pace car. On lap 63, Santino Ferrucci and Tom Blomqvist were the latest to tag each other at Turn 11 for the sixth caution.

With the number of cautions that happened in this race, the pace car needed to be refueled. Pato O’Ward was the new leader of the race. He led four laps before the race went back to green. However, Marcus Ericsson and Marcus Armstrong made contact at Turn 11 on lap 68.

On the restart, Romain Grosjean passed Pato O’Ward for the lead before the eighth and final caution came out when Helio Castroneves went off the track at Turn 3 and hit Colton Herta.

The final restart happened with 17 laps to go with Scott Dixon as the leader. He pulled away from Scott McLaughlin, who was in second place. Dixon went on to win his third race of the season by 7.3180 seconds over Scott McLaughlin. Alex Palou, Will Power, and Callum Ilott wrapped up the top five. Alex Palou led 51 laps, the most in the race. WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca set new records for on-track passes (432), 101 passes in the top-ten, and 36 passes in the top-five.

Marcus Armstrong, who finished in eighth place is the 2023 Rookie of the Year. Chip Ganassi Racing became the first team to finish one-and-two in the points plus win Rookie of the Year. Alex Palou became the first driver in 16 years to win the championship with one race left since Dario Franchitti did it in 2007. In addition, Chevrolet won the manufacturer championship.

“A credit to this team. They’ve been executing like that all year. We got caught up in some mayhem at the start,” said Dixon. “I definitely didn’t agree with the (penalty) call, but I haven’t seen all of it yet. But I had nowhere to go. But we won; that’s all that matters. We won.”

“There was stuff I could have avoided, couldn’t have avoided. That was peak IndyCar right there,” said Scott McLaughlin. “You think your day’s done (with a penalty), you come back. But I had a mega restart with like the second-to-last restart. I passed like six or seven cars to get behind Dixon there.”

The NTT IndyCar Series will return on Sunday, March 24, 2024, with an exhibition race at The Thermal Club in Riverside County, California.

Starting Lineup: