Dixon vs. father time

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Scott Dixon took his seat at the podium inside the deadline room of the Mahaffey Theater. The six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion starts his 22nd season, Sunday.

In most sports, an athlete’s performance peaks in their mid to late 20s. Whereas in auto racing, many drivers race well into their 40s. Mario Andretti raced full-time in IndyCar until 1994, at the age of 54. AJ Foyt ran his final race in 1996, at 61, in a 28th-place finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Furthermore, winning races isn’t just for the youth. Dixon, 43, capped off the 2023 season with three wins in the last four races.

With that said, however, father time waits for nobody.

“I think it’s different for everybody, depending on when they feel like they should be done with a sport,” Dixon said.

Sometimes, a driver leaves a sport on top. While he didn’t win a fifth NASCAR Cup Series championship, Jeff Gordon, at 44, raced his way into the Championship 4 in his final full-time season in 2015.

More often than not, however, a driver exits with a whimper.

While Jimmie Johnson won his seventh championship in 2016, at 41, his performance declined as well. He finished less than half the races in the top-10 for the first time in his career and didn’t lead the most laps in a single race. Moreover, his results fell sharply in his final four full-time seasons. He went winless in his final three and missed the playoffs in his final two.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., at 43, finished his Cup Series career in 2017 with no wins in his last two seasons. That, and a concussion cost him half of his penultimate season.

Sometimes, a driver gets no say on how they go out. A wreck in the penultimate round of the 2013 IndyCar season forced Dario Franchitti, at 40, into an early retirement.

So how much longer Dixon has is “hard to answer.”

“I think you go until you feel like you don’t want to or maybe you’re not winning as much,” he said.

In 21 years in INDYCAR, Dixon won at least one race in all but one. Last season, in addition to his three wins, he finished top-10 in all but one race and top-five in 11 of 17.

For now, the New Zealand native shows no sign of decline. Aside from clocking in 12th in first practice.