Dixon’s triumph in the 2023 season finale at Laguna Seca made for a total of 27 tracks at which he has won IndyCar races, while he had already extended his record streak of seasons with at least one victory to 19.
However, despite also being the only driver to have started every St Petersburg event, of which this weekend’s is the 20th, the New Zealander is still yet to stand on the top step of the podium at the Florida airport/street circuit.
The closest Dixon has come is second place on four occasions, including in 2019, although he has made the podium four times in the last seven years.
“I’m really looking forward to the warm weather in St Pete where we can kick off the season,” he said.
“The race is always fantastic and last year, we had quite a good battle.
“We made it to the podium then but the goal this year is to get the win.
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“This is a big event for PNC Bank and all of our team partners, and then the Dan Wheldon documentary [The Lionheart on March 12] premiere, as well, so it will be a full weekend.”
Dixon will start the 2024 IndyCar Series in the relatively rare situation, in recent times of having the same Race Engineer as he did in the previous season, namely Ross Bunnell.
It is no coincidence, according to ‘The Ice Man,’ that all three of his wins in 2023 came in the final four races of the season.
“I think there were some missed opportunities kind of early on, maybe strategy a little bit, too,” admitted Dixon of his 2023 campaign, in which he finished a distant second to Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Alex Palou.
“I think Toronto was definitely a big letdown in what we did there.
“You can also dissect a lot of different things and maybe the performance in some areas.
“I think everybody kind of just got into their flow. They felt a lot more comfortable.
“I think when you’re changing a lot of people in the [pit] stand and the people that are involved there, it gets difficult for each other to understand themselves, I think, or get the confidence, as well, which I think that really started to develop later.
“Ross being new to the team… [I] kind of had three or four different engineers in the last two or three years…
“To have that stability I think has been really good, and he’s done a really good job.”
Practice 1 at St Petersburg starts on Friday afternoon at 14:45 ET/Saturday morning at 06:45 AEDT.
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