IndyCar season finale: Scott Dixon wins for first time at Laguna Seca

A few statistical nuggets from the season finale:

—Click here for the full statistical points and results package.

—The 2023 campaign ended without four 2022 winners reaching victory lane this year: defending series champion Will Power (whose 16-season winning streak ended), Pato O’Ward, Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi.

“Tough year but that’s how it goes,” Power told NBC Sports’ Dillon Welch. “Just not a good year, man. Not good enough. On my personal side, it was bad at the start of the year with my wife getting real sick. At the end of the day, she’s healthy, I’m racing, and everything she went through you don’t’ care about the rest. We’ll be back next year fighting hard.

—Scott McLaughlin finished third in the points standings, the best by a Team Penske driver. Pato O’Ward was four points behind in fourth, and Josef Newgarden was fifth (his lowest ranking in the championship since 2018).

McLaughlin rebounded from an avoidable contact penalty to finish second, his fourth podium of the season.

“That was Peak IndyCar right there,” McLaughlin said. “You think your day is done, you get a drive through, you come back. But I had a mega resatart to pass six or seven cars to get behind Dixon. Super proud. Third in the championship is an absolute bonus.”

—Marcus Armstrong clinched rookie of the year over Agustin Canapino with an eighth-place finish (despite running only the road and street courses).

“It’s been a wild ride,” Armstrong told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “Today was so up and down, I thought I was going to win at one point, thought I was going to finish last at one point. But rookie of the year having not done five races, I’m over the moon.”

Armstrong will move to full time with Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 11 Dallara-Honda next year.

—Chevrolet won the manufacturer’s championship by 12 points over Honda.

A dream season ended in victory lane for Chip Ganassi Racing, which scored its ninth victory to cap a 1-2 points finish.

Scott Dixon led the final 20 laps to win for the first time at WeatheTech Raceway Laguna Seca, beating Scott McLaughlin by 7.3180 seconds.

Alex Palou, who clinched his second championship with a victory at Portland International Raceway last week, finished third. Palou and Dixon already had wrapped up the top two spots in the championship standings.

It’s the third victory this season for Dixon and the 56th of the six-time IndyCar champion’s career.

Dixon overcame starting 11th after a six-position grid penalty for an engine change and a questionable avoidable contact penalty on the first lap.

“It’s definitely a credit to this team,” Dixon told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “They’ve just been executing like that all year. It’s been a special group to be a part of, obviously celebrating Alex’s second championship.

“Some mayhem at the start. I had nowhere to go, so I don’t know what (IndyCar stewards) expect me to do, but we won. That’s all that matters.”

Ganassi has won nine of 17 races this season, having earned five wins with Palou and a season-opening triumph by Marcus Ericsson.

The top two cars pitted under caution — putting six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon in the catbird seat.

Dixon inherited the lead when Romain Grosjean and Pato O’Ward made stops from the top two spots.

The Chip Ganassi Racing superstar now is on track for his third victory this season despite receiving a questionable avoidable contact on the first lap.

His first victory this season (Aug. 13 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course) also came after he was involved in a Lap 1 melee.

No caution but still a lot of action on a Lap 74 restart.

After a poor restart for Pato O’Ward, Romain Grosjean snatched the lead. Behind the front two, Devlin DeFrancesco had shifting problems, and Scott Dixon was able to pounce and move into third.

A lap later, the yellow flew for Helio Castroneves, who put a wheel off course and sent Colton Herta into the gravel.

With 20 laps remaining under yellow, Grosjean leads, followed by O’Ward, Dixon, Scott McLaughlin and Callum Ilott. Alex Palou is running sixth.

The green means yellow today at Laguna Seca.

For the third time, a restart immediately was followed by a caution. Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Marcus Amstrong and Marcus Ericsson took the brunt of this incident (with Armstrong needing to get refired).

Pato O’Ward leads under yellow, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Romain Grosjean, Alexander Rossi and Devlin DeFrancesco.

IndyCar on NBC cameras just caught the pace car being refueled during a 95-lap race that has featured seven caution flags for 28 of the first 68 laps.

The chaos continues on Laguna Seca’s fresh asphalt with the green flag immediately followed by a yellow for the second time today.

Santino Ferrucci and Tom Blomqvist both went off course in Turn 11 during the multicar incident, which also resulted in Alex Palou getting rear-ended. But the two-time champion advanced from 15th to seventh after pit stops.

Running ninth, Scott Dixon was first among those who stopped ahead of Marcus Armstrong, Colton Herta and Christian Lundgaard. All should be done with their stops for the remaining 31 laps.

In search of his first victory in 2023, Pato O’Ward finally might have caught the break he’s been seeking all season.

O’Ward pitted just before David Malukas and Devlin DeFrancesco made contact and went off course in Turn 3.

It was similar to the break that Alex Palou caught when he pitted just before a Lap 29 yellow. Palou gave up the lead on Lap 59 when he stopped under this caution.

IndyCar is reviewing the incident, which started when DeFrancesco veered left into Malukas on the entry to the corner.

O’Ward leads with 35 laps remaining under yellow, followed by Marcus Armstrong, Scott Dixon, Colton Herta and Helio Castroneves.

Palou, who has led a race-high 51 of the first 58 laps, will restart in 15th and will need to make one more pit stop.

Trying to punctuate his second championship by ending 2023 on a two-race winning streak, Alex Palou has led 40 of the first 48 laps at Laguna Seca.

With 47 laps remaining, Palou leads Pato O’Ward (who is seeking his first victory this season) by 3.5279 seconds. Agustin Canapino is a stunning third, keeping alive his long-shot hopes at being named rookie of the year.

David Malukas and Santino Ferrucci round out the top five.

Another traffic jam on the restart produced the fourth caution.

Rookie Benjamin Pedersen took the worst of it in a Turn 1 stall.

A.J. Foyt Racing teammate Santino Ferrucci made an impressive save while sliding sideways through the gravel after getting rear-ended by Scott McLaughlin in the ensuing chaos.

McLaughlin and Penske teammate Will Power received avoidable contact penalties in the incident.

With 38 of 95 laps complete, nearly half the race has been run under yellow.

The third yellow flag resulted from an unusual incident involving Swedish drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist.

After pitting from second, Rosenqvist got tagged in the left rear by Ericsson in Turn 2 — with the contact resulting in a stall for Ericsson that brought out the yellow.

Rosenqvist then went off course on the next corner with an apparent puncture.

Alex Palou’s season of good fortune continued as he pitted from the lead just before the yellow flag flew. Meanwhile, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ericsson and Arrow McLaren’s Rosenqvist (each of whom is in the final race with their teams) are both outside the top 20.

Ericsson received an avoidable contact penalty that sent the Chip Ganassi Racing driver to the back of the field on the restart.

A frustrating season for Josef Newgarden will end with another difficult day.

After being caught in a Lap 1 incident, the two-time IndyCar champion spun in Turn 4 to bring out the second yellow on Lap 8.

Though he has four victories this season (including the Indy 500), Newgarden has said the 2023 season was among his most disappointing because of missed opportunities.

“Yeah, definitely,” Newgarden said Friday. “It’s been a frustrating year in a lot of ways. Disappointing in a lot of ways, there’s no doubt. But you’ve got to just show up, put in the work, give your best and hope that everything lines up. We’re still fortunate that we’ve had some items line up for us, especially the big one at Indy, but across the board, it’s been a tough year, no doubt.

“I really think the last four years (since his 2019 title) have been tough years. ... I feel just as good as I did four years ago. I think we’re in a really good spot, team-wise, but there’s no doubt we’ve just not had the whole equation line up the way we need to, so yeah.

“It’s going to sound silly, but it feels like the lost years. These last four years have just been lost opportunities. But that’s OK. I still relish in the opportunity that we have every weekend. If you look at the opportunity and potential internally, they’re very much lost years. You can only control so much.”

Two-time champion Alex Palou apparently wants to take a figurative and literal victory lap at Laguna Seca.

After starting fifth, the Chip Ganassi Racing star moved to second on the start (just before the caution flew for a Turn 2 incident), and he wasted no time after the Lap 6 restart.

Palou shoved pole-sitter Felix Rosenqvist aside in Turn 11 to take the lead in pursuit of his second consecutive victory (which would be his series-leading sixth on the season).

After predictions of calamity on Laguna Seca’s fresh, fast and super-grippy asphalt, the opening lap delivered chaos in the second turn.

A midpack stack-up collected Josef Newgarden, Graham Rahal, Kyle Kirkwood, Rinus VeeKay and Juri Vips.

Newgarden, Kirkwood and Vips eventually were able to drive away, but Rahal is done.

IndyCar stewards punished Scott Dixon and Christian Lundgaard with drive-through penalties for avoidable contact in the incident.

The headlines this race week have revolved around Alex Palou — but not necessarily because he clinched his second IndyCar championship.

Since his title-clinching victory at Portland, more details have emerged about the year-plus saga that has been a contractual tug of war between Palou and the two teams trying to employ him for the 2024 season.

Chip Ganassi confirmed Palou would return to his team immediately after Portland, and Palou shed a little more light on the decision earlier this week.

Ganassi told reporters Friday that he had a feeling since Palou’s 2022 victory in the season finale that his prodigal superstar would return despite committing to Arrow McLaren for next year.

Zak Brown provided McLaren’s side of the story Saturday and conceded he also knew Palou had cold feet — but still was extremely disappointed at how the situation was handled.

Other stories on NBC Sports this week:

—Roger Penske is pleased with IndyCar’s growth rate; and top lieutenant Mark Miles says attendance is up more than 20 percent.

—Pato O’Ward has stayed upbeat despite a trying winless season.

—It already has been a special weekend at Laguna Seca for Bryan and Colton Herta.