Scott Dixon was critical of the Verizon IndyCar Series officials for bringing out the caution flags for what he described as a ‘small piece of debris’ that ultimately cost him a chance of victory at St. Petersburg.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver was one of a handful of drivers to lose track position due to not having pitted before the yellow flags flew, with debris from a clash between his team-mate Tony Kanaan and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Mikhail Aleshin at turn four causing the caution period.
Despite losing significant ground as a result of the resulting pit stop, Dixon drove superbly to clinch a podium finish, albeit well behind leading duo Sebastien Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud.
“It started off a little bit rough,” said Dixon. “We lost a spot at the start and then there was the mysterious caution.
“It was a bit strange – I don’t know why they were yellow for such a small piece of debris that wasn’t even on the racing line. That pretty much put us in the toilet right there. I will go see what the story was there.
“We had good speed and a good GE LED car to overtake. We passed a lot of cars both on strategy and on-track. It wasn’t the day we had hoped for obviously but it was better than a lot of other results we’ve had here over the years.”
