For Dixon, the Indy 500 remains both a race he’s conquered and the home of some unfinished business.
The six-time IndyCar champion won the race in 2008 and has built a career that puts him in the Parthenon of open wheel racers. Yet, for all the wins, titles, records and reputation, the Indy 500 has often been a cruel place for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.
Dixon has been fast enough to have won the race on numerous occasions and his record of near misses at The Brickyard is heartbreaking.
He has led laps, controlled phases, sat on pole, played the fuel game better than almost anyone, and still lost. He has finished second three times and third twice.
“It’s different every year, you know, the competition is different every year,” Dixon told the Weekend Herald.
“You’re chasing different things or trying to overcome different things and it changes from year to year.
“It’s been a bit frustrating getting so close [to winning another Indy 500] in the past, but you can’t dwell on past results. Although, I sometimes think more about the races we lost than some of the wins.
“These days you won’t see a driver leading by a few laps towards the end of the race. Everything is so close now and you have to start to move up through the field as soon as possible after the race starts.”
Dixon starts this year’s race from 10th, and while he might have liked to be further up the field he’s not too worried about it.
It would be a strange day indeed if the Indy 500 is won in the first 50 laps, and Dixon’s great strength has always been the ability to build a race in layers.
He’s the King of saving fuel, conserving tyres, reading the traffic, having a solid race strategy and keeping himself out of trouble for the final push towards the end.
At 45, Dixon remains as clinical as ever. His speed is still there, but so is the calculating patience that’s made him so hard to beat over two decades.
Dixon’s greatest weapon is not just experience, but his calmness and being able to deal with what is immediately in front of him.
“The first qualifying session to get into the Fast 12 was good. Then we had an issue with the right front tyre that blistered, which kind of killed it [getting into Fast Six for pole] for us.
“I think we would have been in with a good shot to race for the pole if we didn’t have our issues. I think we’ve got a really good race car.
“We’re quite a bit different than where we’ve been setup-wise in the past, and I think what we have is quite good. So I think we’re in a good spot.”
Armstrong, on the other hand, is relatively new to the Indy 500 having only raced twice, finishing 30th and 18th. Qualifying could have been better and the team was hoping for better than 16th, however, it’s not a bad place to launch from with the right strategy calls.
The 25-year-old is no longer feeling his way in IndyCar. The 2023 Rookie of the Year has become a more rounded and solid competitor. His 2025 season, which included a career-best eighth in the championship and a podium at Iowa, showed he is increasingly at home in the series.
Oval racing is almost a different sport compared to the tracks Armstrong raced on in Europe. The close racing, dirty air, constant weight adjustments, and sitting line astern knowing exactly when to make your move is a new learning curve for the Kiwi. He’s starting to master all of it, and he’s learned it the hard way against people who grew up on these tracks.
“We got our Speedway car back from last year that got broken in our crash, so that was always nice,” said Armstrong.
“Qualifying was kind of hard to decipher because the timing screens are a bit loopy with tow laps and everything, but we felt pretty good right from the very first run.
“Then we kind of struggled to weave it all together for whatever reason, just didn’t have the pace, but the balance of the car was super good.
“I would say road courses have been our strength so far. We’ve got a good package clearly for road courses, and I think street courses we’re not far off as well.
“Funnily enough though, we’ve had our best result on an oval. You could see [Indy 500 practice] that we’re pretty well rounded at the moment, but this weekend is the true test of our oval package.”
McLaughlin, the third Kiwi in the field will start from ninth on the grid and sits eighth in the championship on 141 points. After six rounds of the IndyCar series, Alex Palou leads on 327 points from Kyle Kirkwood (210) and David Malukas (185) with Dixon in sixth (148) and Armstrong 10th (123).
