Dixon working on solutions to catch Palou

Scott Dixon bemoans the lack of IndyCar testing as he seeks to close the performance gap to his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou.

The 45-year-old New Zealander, who has six IndyCar championships to his name, was able to put up little opposition to Palou on the 28-year-old’s march to a fourth title in five years this season. Although he pounced on a late-race lapse by the Spaniard at Mid-Ohio and pushed his record of consecutive seasons with at least one win to 21, Dixon watched Palou claim eight victories in 2025 in one of the most dominant championship campaigns in Indy car history.

Having been regularly able to match or be within spitting distance of Palou in qualifying for the majority of their first three seasons as partners, 2021-’23, Dixon has struggled since the introduction of the hybrid units from the middle of 2024. In the 24 races since, he has started ahead of Palou just four times, just two of which were on street/road courses.

During Ganassi’s private test on the Nashville Superspeedway on Tuesday, Dixon took time out to provide RACER with a preview to this weekend’s penultimate round at the Milwaukee Mile. Asked if returning to tracks where the teams have already experienced the effects of the hybrid on an IndyCar’s handling, Dixon replied in the affirmative.

“Honestly, it was even a help last year when Milwaukee was a doubleheader,” he said. “We had a pretty crappy race one, so overnight we threw the kitchen sink at it and had a strong car for race two, and we climbed from somewhere low (17th) on the grid and finished second. Again at Iowa this year, race one was almost a test session and then we were better in race two.

“There’s no substitute for track time, and we barely get to test anymore. We’re the only team testing here in Nashville, and we were chatting in the engineering truck just now and we reckon it’s been something like nine or 10 years since we last did a test like this, not as part of a group test.

“Anywhere we return to, where we can implement what we learned about the how the hybrid affects the handling, it’s a lot easier to hit the ground running.”

While the heavily restricted amount of testing should theoretically favor series veterans – Dixon is in his 25th year of IndyCar racing, has made 414 starts and scored 59 wins – he says such a dearth of cockpit time has slowed his attempts to try and improve his form in the current breed of car.

“This car with the hybrid suits people with very smooth driving styles and that’s not me,” he said frankly. “Right now, more testing for me would be very beneficial because the car’s handling has not stayed stagnant – the added weight of the hybrid hurts the rear tires and my driving style agitates that more. When you’re in a good spot, sure, little or no testing is fine. When you’re needing to adapt things to find a solution, then you want track time. Absolutely, I’d take more testing right now while we’re trying to counter some of the things that are negative for me with car setups.”

Asked if simulator time could help him modify his driving style, Dixon replied: “Some things are easier to implement than others. The hard part is not going out there and doing what you naturally do. What we’re now trying to do is [counter things], as opposed to me having to think about it, because when you have to think about something that has been instinctive – like if you’re driving a long straight and you’re coming to a braking zone and you have to think, ‘OK, I’m going to slow my hands on initial turn-in and I’ve got to hold trail-brake later’ – you’re not going to be as quick as when you’re doing what comes naturally.

“We’re working around that and we’ve definitely made a lot of progress in getting this car to that point where it better suits my driving style. If you look at qualifying at Mid-Ohio, I had fourth or fifth best time overall (patching together the best sectors from qualifying laps - Ed.) and Road America I had the third fastest, and Portland was something like that too and Toronto as well. I only didn’t move onto the Fast Six at those races because I made mistakes. We’ve definitely improved the car and my driving style; we just haven’t pieced it together in qualifying that well.

“That will definitely get better. Just wish we had more on-track test time so we could catch up quicker.”