Dixon Signs Extension with Ganassi

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer

The first major domino of Verizon IndyCar Series silly season has fallen. Chip Ganassi Racing today announced that Scott Dixon has signed a multi-year extension to remain with the team in the No. 9 Honda entry.

Dixon is the longest tenured driver in the teams’ history and is third on the IndyCar wins list with 44 wins. He is the current IndyCar points leader.

“I’ve grown a lot as a person and as a driver throughout the years,” said Dixon. “It’s due to thanks and admiration for Chip himself, his team, the people that he enables us to go out there and win. For me, there’s a lot of other people that like racing because of what it is, but I love it for its passion and what we’re able to achieve, and not very many of us get the opportunity to do what we love in our life, and for me, as much as hashtag, we all like winning, and that’s what the business is about. I wouldn’t be here if we weren’t winning. The team wouldn’t be here, either.”

“Scott and I have been together a long time and he knows how to win,” said team owner Chip Ganassi. “More importantly, he knows how to win championships. There’s guys that can win races, but there’s other guys that can win championships, and Scott has proven that. He’s proven that he’s not just a normal run-of-the-mill driver in any sense, even in the — where he is in the overall win column speaks for itself, I think.

“I think — you know, I can’t help but think that however many years Scott and I have been together that — and I’ve said this before, he’s the kind of driver that any team would want to have on as their lead driver. I think on and off the track he shows that he is the man, as we like to say, or he’s the driver that if you were to take a stone and inject some brains into it, you’d chisel out Scott Dixon.”

The next Verizon IndyCar Series race is the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway on August 19th.