Scott Dixon’s second IndyCar win in a row means he’s the only driver who could deny Alex Palou the 2023 title in the last two races, following a stunning fuel-saving victory almost beyond belief at the Gateway oval.

The first half of the race was a fascinating affair as Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward took their usual places as IndyCar’s oval dominators, but Dixon managed to stretch both of his first stints to give himself a chance of doing a three-stopper, equating to at least one fewer stop than everyone else.

A caution for Dixon’s team-mate Takuma Sato crashing on lap 122 – after spending most of the race in incidents with other cars – meant all drivers could make the end of the race on two more stops, seemingly eliminating Dixon’s strategy advantage to that point.

It still meant that he cycled to the lead even after pitting because most of the drivers who stopped had gone a lap down and the ones that didn’t pitted behind him.

Dixon led following the restart and on lap 163 his rivals began to come to pit road to stop early, ensuring they needed the two stops, while Dixon extended his stints trying to go to the end on one more stop with another strategy masterstroke.

He did a gargantuan stint to pit with 65 laps remaining and emerged in 10th, waiting for everyone ahead to pit.

Pato O’Ward had undercut Newgarden – who led most of the first 100 laps of the race – in the penultimate stop, and Newgarden returned the favour at the last stop but got caught in traffic and then smashed the wall with 49 laps to go, managing to avoid causing a caution.

A historic oval run will come to an end.@josefnewgarden has damage to the right rear toe link after contact with the wall.