NTT INDYCAR SERIES: CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX

June 5, 2022

Scott Dixon

Alexander Rossi

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, joined right now by Alexander Rossi, comes home second, best finish of the season, 26th career podium in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Scott Dixon as well, Chip Ganassi Racing. Scott now with his 128th podium of his career, second all time. Best finish of the season. 186th top five, which is second all time, both behind Mario Andretti.

Let's start with Alex. You did everything you could there at the end. This was a fascinating race to watch.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: It was hard at the end. Obviously with the three-stop we knew it was just basically a qualifying run for 70 laps type of thing.

The team did an amazing job and the NAPA AutoNation Honda was fantastic. We thought we had a car to be in the front yesterday, and circumstances prevented that. It's good to get the car where it should have been and have a shot there at the end.

Obviously Will did a fantastic job on a tire that has a lot of falloff at the end. We did our best to kind of manage the pace and go for it at the end, but we were probably a lap short.

Still all in all a good result for the team.

THE MODERATOR: Surprised how long he went on those reds?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yeah, I mean, I don't know that we could have done it. Maybe at the end of the race it's a little bit better with the grip or the rubber down from the rest of the cars. Still very, very difficult to do.

He certainly deserved that win and congrats to him and the whole team.

THE MODERATOR: Scott, watching this play out, you were a factor in the end, what was it like to be in the cockpit?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, it was okay. Probably not aggressive enough on the start I think. I think both Alex and Will did a tremendous job I think on the first few laps to get track position. I think if anything I would change in the race, would be that, be a little more aggressive at the start.

The red stint for us was actually pretty good. I know Will went black, black, red. I don't know how many laps he had at the end to get on the reds.

It was good for the 9 car, good for PNC Bank. Obviously Honda have done a great job. Yeah, it's great to be back on the podium for a change.

THE MODERATOR: 20 laps at the end for Will.

SCOTT DIXON: Good job.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.

Q. Alex, how excited are you, given the announcement during the week about your move next year, but how much momentum does that give you going into Road America?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: The announcement doesn't really matter to me personally. We're here in 2022, trying to do a job for Andretti Autosport and Honda and all of our partners. That's the main focus.

Q. In terms of today's result?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Two weeks in a row where we've had very good races and overall a good weekend. That's the result of a lot of work from the whole organization.

I think the 27 car in particular has some good momentum going right now into one of our best tracks frankly at Road America. We feel good about the position we're in. We'll just have to go out and continue that here in five or six days.

Q. Scott, obviously Indy didn't go as well as you hoped. Today you did a good job getting the podium. How confident are you you can continue this momentum into Road America and into the season?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, we hope so. Yeah, last week didn't go as planned. You just got to keep looking forward.

Honestly, I think we had great pace all weekend. These sessions are crazy. Going into qualifying I think I did two consecutive laps at speed. Definitely a wild weekend. Not a race that I thought would have gone green-checkered either. We couldn't even do five minutes in a row in practice without a red flag.

It's good for myself. It's great for the team. Hopefully we can keep it rolling. I don't know where the points are, but I think the 8 and 10 are doing great in points at the moment. We've got a little bit of work to do and hopefully we can keep gaining on that.

Q. Alex, with all the action earlier this weekend, were you wondering could there be a caution? Anybody in your pits doing a caution dance or something?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: We've seen in the past, I think in Ohio a few years ago comes to mind, where it's just relentless, yellow flags, red flags in practice and qualifying. Then you get to the race, it goes green. It's almost the events where people don't get it out of their system early where they have problems in the race.

I'm not entirely surprised.

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