WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin – Scott Dixon, Will Power and Josef Newgarden will each achieve a milestone in Sunday’s Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s at the flat, one-mile oval at the Wisconsin State Fair Park.
For Dixon, it will be his 400th consecutive IndyCar Series start. Power celebrates his 300th consecutive IndyCar start and Josef Newgarden will start his 200th IndyCar race.
“That’s a big number,” Dixon said of 400 consecutive starts. “It will be an even bigger number when I start 400 more races.”
That they are all happening in the same race is mathematically remarkable.
“That is amazing to me,” Power told NBCSports.com. “I knew I was offset to Scott Dixon by 100, but I didn’t know I was offset to Josef by 200.
“It’s very interesting. What a cool stat to have.”
What makes it even more stunning is the last time Dixon missed a race was at the Milwaukee Mile in 2004.
In the worst season of his career, Dixon came to Milwaukee in 2004 after winning the first of his six NTT IndyCar Series championships in 2003. In 2003 and 2004, Dixon was in a Toyota, but Honda was the dominant powerplant in 2004 and Chip Ganassi Racing was overmatched with the Toyota engine.
Dixon arrived at the Milwaukee Mile sixth in points, but in a matter of four laps in practice, he destroyed two of Ganassi’s Indy cars.
After the second whack with the outside wall, Dixon was sent home to Indianapolis to recover and did not start the race.
“I think probably got the record for destroying two cars in four laps and then ended up going home,” Dixon told NBCSports.com
He returned for the following race at Michigan International Speedway and has been competing in IndyCar every race for every season thereafter.
WEST ALLIS, WI - JUNE 15: Josef Newgarden, driver of the #67 Sara Fisher Hartman Racing Honda Dallara prepares to qualify for the IZOD IndyCar Series Milwaukee IndyFest presented by XYQ at The Milwaukee Mile on June 15, 2012 in West Allis, Wisconsin. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
Josef Newgarden at Milwaukee Mile in 2012 — Getty Images
Newgarden makes his 200th consecutive IndyCar start, a streak that began after he crushed his index finger and was forced to miss the Baltimore Grand Prix on September 2, 2012. The finger was so badly crushed, at one point the doctors wanted to cut it off, but Newgarden resisted.
He was back in the lineup for the very next race, the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway on September 15, 2012.
“I can’t believe how we were all able to achieve these milestones on exactly the same day,” Newgarden told NBCSports.com. “That is really one cool statistic.”
Dixon, Power and Newgarden are three of the five drivers in the IndyCar starting lineup that have raced at the 1.015-mile oval located at Wisconsin State Fair Park. Dixon was a winner here in 2009.
“It’s definitely challenging,” Dixon continued. “Probably one of the toughest, circuits or short tracks that we get to go to.
“Good and bad memories as you touched on.
“The win there for me was big, for sure.
“I think when you look back at tradition and the history of this race and who’s won here tradition of it always normally coming right after the biggest race of the year in the Indy 500, even reminiscing to my first win here in Indy Lights in a dominant fashion, it’s impressive.
“It’s a fun place. It can be an extremely tough place, especially if you get it wrong and if you don’t have the car that you need. So that could add to it twice this weekend, whether you’re on the good side or the bad side of having a doubleheader.”
All three drivers will celebrate their milestones in Saturday’s first race of the doubleheader.
In Friday’s only practice of the weekend, Newgarden was the fastest at 158.762 miles per hour in the No. 2 Chevrolet for Team Penske. Dixon was second at 158.080 mph in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing. Power was 11th in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet for Team Penske at 156.539 mph.
It’s the first IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile since Sebastien Bourdais won here in 2015.
“I think it’s definitely going to be interesting,” Dixon said. “Cars have changed a lot since those days. Obviously, the introduction probably of the hybrid may add some difficulties to it just with the added weight and the speed of the corners and things like that.
“It will change a lot on how you used to drive the track.
“Obviously, one thing is still true is that the competition is through the roof, but kudos for IndyCar getting back on the schedule.
“Obviously, the downside was that we’ve been away for almost 10 years, and they’ve added to it with a double-header, so it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.”
Dixon also has a point to prove after he was squeezed off the race course by Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood on the opening lap of last week’s BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland.
Kirkwood knocked Dixon’s No. 9 Honda off the track, he brought it back over a curb and hit the side of Pietro Fittipaldi’s No. 30 Honda.
That shot Dixon’s car across the grass with a hard impact into the barrier.
He entered the race 66 points behind points leader and teammate Alex Palou but with the last place finish he is all but mathematically out of contention, 101 points behind with only three races remaining.
“I think that’s frustrating,” Dixon told NBCSports.com. “The move I still think was pretty crappy and pretty dirty.
“It’s one of those things, and obviously that kind of rolled on to, having the contact with Pietro, which, honestly, it’s tough in that situation, especially with cars going everywhere.
“It was an unfortunate situation, but as we all know, that’s racing. You can’t do much about it. It’s something that was out of your control.
“Even when it’s in your control, it’s frustrating as well.
“We’ll do the best that we can now, obviously, to go on to and try and win the final three races of the year. What that means championship-wise is that we wouldn’t be racing for a championship at this point, 101 points back.
“We’ll do our best and if it comes to it, we’ll also be trying to help our team win this championship as much as possible.”
NBCSports.com asked Dixon on Thursday if he had talked to Kirkwood about the first-lap incident at Portland.
“Not really, we will at some point,” he said. “It’s unfortunately I think a little bit too how IndyCar guidelines, of kind of let you race.
“It’s like a new go-karting racing.”
Dixon admitted after Friday’s practice that he spoke with Kirkwood earlier in the day.
“Yeah, we spoke today,” Dixon said. “It was definitely an F-U move. I explained that to him. That’s kind of amateur when you’re doing stuff like that. It’s also how the series allows you to race. So I don’t know what the answer is on that, to be honest.
“In my way of racing, the outside, the white line, there’s a wall there. But you just can’t run somebody completely off. We saw the chain effect of what happened there. Then with Pietro, Pietro really had nowhere to go, but it was because of the 27 and the issue we had.
“I don’t know. I said I wouldn’t race him like that. That was kind of the end of it, so...”
Kirkwood indicated he would like to speak to race control during the offseason to make changes for that move in 2025.
Dixon was asked if he was onboard with that?
“No, I didn’t speak to race control,” Dixon said. “I figured it would be on deaf ears.”
Realizing the numbers in the championship won’t add up in his favor, at what point does Power decided to play “wing man” for his championship leading teammate, Alex Palou?
“I think at this point, Alex has obviously got things in a great situation,” Power explained. “For me, foremost is to try and win races at the end of the season. So that will be the main focus.
“But if it comes down to it, yes, we’ve always worked as a team. And, if that comes to that, then that’s what we’ll do.”