Scott Dixon entered the weekend with the IndyCar championship lead – and he exited with the IndyCar championship – his fifth overall title.
Dixon successfully fended off challenges from former Formula One driver, Alexander Rossi, as well as IndyCar challengers Josef Newgarden [the defending champ], and Will Power, in the season finale at Sonoma.
But what could have been a tight battle wound up being mostly a smooth ride for Dixon at Sonoma as challenges from Newgarden and Power never materialized and Rossi took himself out of the championship contention early by hitting his teammate, Marco Andretti, forcing an early pit from which he was only able to recover to seventh place in the race won by Ryan Hunter-Reay.
