Scott Dixon has picked up his first win of the 2024 IndyCar series, finishing 0.979 seconds ahead of Colton Herta, with Dixon's teammate Alex Palou a further 0.786 seconds behind him. Australia's Will Power finished further down the grid in sixth.
It was a tight, tense finish but once the drama of the race had concluded, one man came to mind for Dixon - the Kiwi quick to dedicate his victory to the late Sir Colin Giltrap, the founder of Giltrap Group and an icon of New Zealand motorsport who passed away last week, aged 84.
"That was tough, that was real tough," Dixon said in his initial reflection of the race, before hugging team boss Chip Ganassi in celebration during his post-race interview.
"Josef (Newgarden) was coming strong and I was kind of unsure how he was going to be once he got behind us. But I also knew that he'd been burning the tires off too. Chip came on and said 'just go for it, man' and I was going to try."
As cool as ever 🧊@scottdixon9 earns his second career Long Beach win 👏#INDYCAR // @GPLongBeach pic.twitter.com/gbPD8GTn1y
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 21, 2024
Dixon last past the checkered flag in first place at the long-running Orange County street race in 2015, his first and only win at Long Beach until today.
"This one I'm going to dedicate to Sir Colin Giltrap, obviously helping (to) start my career, we lost him this week unfortunately, but a huge thank you to him and all the support back home."
While Newgarden was pushing for a podium finish, the American driver ended up in fourth position after a collision involving Herta with eight laps remaining.
Speaking post-race, Herta addressed the situation: "I misjudged it a little bit, but I think he set up pretty wide and was cutting back in, so he was a little slower at apex, but ultimately it's up to me to carry the race speed into the corner and not run into the back of people.
"I don't like to race like that, especially with Josef, who I have a lot of respect for."
After the Indy 500, the Grand Prix of Long Beach is often ranked highly amongst IndyCar drivers as the one to win. Dixon, doing all he could to manage his fuel consumption and remain on top, rates his latest win as one of the most difficult of his career.
"The stress level was high - those guys were coming fast and strong. I think we were off by a lap or two of making it easy.
"Other fuel races I've done I've had it under control for the whole stint, but I was Josef coming and thought this is going to be really tough, I don't know what happened there, but I knew Colton was going to be strong."
Alongside Dixon, New Zealand continues to be well represented on the IndyCar grid with 23-year-old Marcus Armstrong, who finished with the best lap of the race in twelfth position, while Scott McLaughlin failed to finish in a race to forget for the former Supercars champion.
After two points races this season, 43-year-old Dixon sits second on the IndyCar Championship standings just 12 points behind Newgarden. It's a short turnaround for the drivers with the next race weekend taking place in Birmingham, Alabama on April 29 for a 5am NZT start.