Kiwis shine in IndyCar

Winning the drivers’ championship may have eluded the Kiwi contingent in this year’s IndyCar series but there was still plenty to celebrate after the final race of the season.

Scott Dixon, pictured, led the way for the New Zealanders as he took the chequered flag at the Grand Prix of Monterey and finished second overall for the campaign.

It was his third win of the year and he came home ahead of his compatriot Scott McLaughlin, whose second place at the Raceway Laguna Seca circuit bumped him up to third in the final standings.

Marcus Armstrong made it three Kiwis in the top 10 of the season-ending race after finishing eighth. The result helped him clinch the rookie of the year title and he was 20th overall in the drivers’ standings.

The race victory for Dixon, a six-time series champion, was his first at the circuit and 56th of his career.

“A credit to this team,” he says. “They’ve been executing like that all year. We got caught up in some mayhem at the start … but we won, that’s all that matters.”

His Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Alex Palou completed the podium and took out the drivers’ championship, which he had already secured in the penultimate event of the season.

Final standings

1. Alex Palou, 656 points
2. Scott Dixon, 578pts
3. Scott McLaughlin, 488pts
4. Pato O’Ward, 484pts
5. Josef Newgarden, 479pts
Also: 20. Marcus Armstrong, 214pts