traffic, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara, Honda, Vitor Meira, IndyCar Series, Nashville Superspeedway, Sam Hornish Jr., Buddy Rice, Ryan Hunter Reay, Champ Car
T
he hint of a smile slowly follows a shrug
when Scott Dixon is petitioned to
recount the drama weeks earlier at
Nashville Superspeedway that ultimately led to
his second consecutive victory on the oval.
The situation: On lap 89 of 200, with
front-running Dario Franchitti and Dan
Wheldon working traffic entering Turn 3,
Dixon’s No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
Honda-powered Dallara uses the smidgen of
draft off Franchitti’s car to dart underneath
both and claim the lead.
Lucky? Aggressive? Opportunistic? Sure, all
occasionally come into play at the diverse ovals
and street/road courses in the IndyCar Series.
In this instance – and more often than not in
similar situations – track management and a
car capable of handling the task allowed Dixon
to attempt the bold move.
“Looking ahead and trying to plan for it
are important,” says Dixon, who used a
three-race July winning streak to climb
securely into championship contention. “The
most important is how your car handles in
traffic. At Nashville in that circumstance, our
car was pretty good in traffic while the
other guys seemed to get a little looser than
what we were.
“Before that pass, going into Turn 1, I could
see quite clearly ahead that there were a lot of
cars and it was going to be a bit of a scramble.
Everyone sort of just got bottled up there with
lapped traffic. I eased it into [Turn] 1 and got a
good run going through 2 and then down the
back straight. I didn’t think [Franchitti and
Wheldon] were going to slow down that much
when they were in traffic. It so happened that
they split one person, then I went on the
inside of both of them three-wide going into
3, which is not always a good situation.
“Dan [on the high side] probably didn’t
even know I was there, and Dario luckily
gave me room. It was pretty hairy there for a
few seconds, but it worked.”
There you have Art of the Pick 101, or
using traffic on an oval to your advantage.
“To use it to your advantage, you always
have to plan ahead,” Dixon says. “You have
to try to pass them on the straights and
hopefully when the guy behind you gets to
traffic it’s the middle of the corner and it’s
going to take a lot longer for him to get
through. By then, you’re a second ahead.”
Delphi Panther Racing’s Vitor Meira points
to knowing your competitors’ traits and the
racetrack as tools to create and take
advantage of opportunities, which are filed
under B (for background) in his memory.
“Each track requires a different strategy,”
Meira says. “Chicago, for example, wide track
and traffic is always going to stay inside.
Always. So the guy running in front of you is
going to have to move up [to get around
traffic]. At the point he moves up, you come
inside trying to make the pass before he gets
to the traffic so you can squeeze him to pass
traffic. You’re using traffic to shorten the
track while still using his draft.
“At Nashville, you can’t make it two-wide.
So what you have to do is time it right like
Scott did. The guys in front of you are going
to have to slow down to pass the slower
cars. The first guy [Franchitti] slowed down
and then the second guy [Wheldon] slowed
down and Scott just came with momentum.”
The same holds true for not allowing
traffic to work to your detriment, whether
you’re the pacesetter or running fifth and
fighting not to go down a lap.
“Defending is hard,” Dixon says. “I think in
this series you don’t have any chance to
defend by yourself. As the leader with traffic,
the biggest thing you have to do is try to put
as many cars between you as you can.”
Adds three-time IndyCar Series champion
Sam Hornish Jr.: “To either defend against the
pick or use it to your advantage, you have to
have the same thing and that’s a goodhandling
car. And you have to be focused on
what’s going on ahead of you more so
Scott Dixon’s third-tofirst
Nashville pass
VIDEO EXTRA
CLICK HERE
Traffic jam
As Helio Castroneves (3)
and Dario Franchitti (27)
come up on lapped
traffic, will one of them
be able to use it to
disadvantage the other?
IndyCarSeries 2007 Review 49
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