Scott Dixon’s quest for a seventh IndyCar Series championship took a big leap forward on Sunday when he survived early race banging, a late-race restart and went on to win on the streets of Nashville.

The win was Dixon’s second of the season.

It came despite a decision by officials to red flag the race after a wreck in which Josef Newgarden of Team Penske wrecked Romain Grosjean of Andretti Autosport with five laps to go.

Dixon started the race fourth in points in his Chip Ganassi Honda and 38 behind leader Will Power of Team Penske.

He left Nashville second in points, just six behind Will Power of Team Penske.

Scott McLaughlin to Penske, who started from the pole, finished second.

“If this was an 81 or 82-lap race I think we would have made it past Dixon, but it was only 80 laps,” McLaughlin said. “We were alongside there across the finish line. But man, we were 16th on that last pit exchange and had an awesome restart, and then the car was fast. Just fell short at the end. Congrats to Scotty. Always dreamed of racing him to the finish. That was a proper duel.”

Alex Palou was third and Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport was fourth.

An ugly Lap 26 produced several wrecks which spelled trouble for a number of drivers, including six-time champion Scott Dixon, championship hopeful Pato O’Ward, Graham Rahal, Dalton Kellett, Help Castroneves, Simona De Silvestro.

Dixon, of course, continued on.

“Kudos to the team,” Dixon said. “We had a big crash there and took half the floor off the car. We had to take four turns of front wing off, so we had no grip. I think we did about 45 or 50 laps on that last set of tires. Nashville is awesome and that was such a wild day. These ones are a lot of fun because it’s such a team effort and for all that we achieved.”

The start of the race was delay about two hours because of a lightening storm.

(This story will be updated shortly)

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Results Sunday of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 2.1-mile Streets of Nashville circuit, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (14) Scott Dixon, Honda, 80, Running
2. (1) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 80, Running
3. (4) Alex Palou, Honda, 80, Running
4. (17) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 80, Running
5. (23) Colton Herta, Honda, 80, Running
6. (6) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 80, Running
7. (15) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 80, Running
8. (3) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 80, Running
9. (13) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 80, Running
10. (11) Jack Harvey, Honda, 80, Running
11. (8) Will Power, Chevrolet, 80, Running
12. (10) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 79, Running
13. (26) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 79, Running
14. (18) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 76, Mechanical
15. (19) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 76, Running
16. (2) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 75, Contact
17. (22) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 74, Running
18. (25) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 72, Contact
19. (16) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 63, Contact
20. (7) David Malukas, Honda, 63, Contact
21. (20) Takuma Sato, Honda, 32, Contact
22. (24) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 32, Contact
23. (9) Graham Rahal, Honda, 29, Contact
24. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 25, Contact
25. (12) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 25, Contact
26. (21) Simona De Silvestro, Chevrolet, 25, Contact

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 79.744 mph
Time of Race: 2:06:24.2439
Margin of victory: 0.1067 of a second
Cautions: 8 for 36 laps
Lead changes: 3 among 4 drivers

Lap Leaders:
McLaughlin 1 – 22
Palou 23 – 53
Newgarden 54 – 65
Dixon 66 – 80

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Power 450, Dixon 444, Ericsson 438, Newgarden 428, Palou 417, McLaughlin 392, O’Ward 391, Rossi 330, Rosenqvist 325, Herta 315, VeeKay 300, Pagenaud 284, Rahal 281, Grosjean 273, Lundgaard 272, Daly 249, Malukas 231, Castroneves 224, Sato 208, Ilott 181, Johnson 178, Harvey 178, DeFrancesco 159, Kirkwood 144, Kellett 108, Tony Kanaan 78, Santino Ferrucci 71, Ed Carpenter 67, Tatiana Calderon 58, JR Hildebrand 53, Juan Pablo Montoya 44, De Silvestro 26, Marco Andretti 17, Sage Karam 14, Stefan Wilson 10

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