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Sport Nation
Find your frequency here'I love this place': SVG completes Chicago sweep, Dixon picks up 59th Indycar win
Sport Nation • July 7th, 2025 10:19 am
Shane van Gisbergen has completed an incredible weekend of NASCAR racing on the streets of Chicago, backing up yesterday's win in the second tier Xfinity Series with another Cup Series win.
"What an amazing weekend, lucky guy to be driving some great cars," SVG told TNT Sports post-race.
"I guess we made no mistakes. There were some really fast cars and we just seemed to get it right... be smooth every lap, really cool."
The Kiwi driver started on pole position at the street circuit where he picked up his first NASCAR win in 2023, and had to navigate a challenging race filled with stops, including a six-car pileup on lap 4 that took out Australian Supercars driver Will Brown.
van Gisbergen wasn't the only Kiwi taking home the chequered flag in a thrilling weekend of New Zealanders stamping their mark on American motorsport.
IndyCar veteran Scott Dixon claimed his 59th win on Monday morning (NZ time) to now be eight wins behind A.J. Foyt in equalling the American's record of 67 all-time victories.
Alex Palou was four seconds ahead of Scott Dixon with four laps remaining before Palou veered off the racing line to lose that advantage, allowing Dixon to pass cleanly and fend off the Indycar season leader for the remainder of the race to once again win at Mid-Ohio.
Speaking with Fox Sports after the race, the Kiwi driver was all smiles with his wife Emma, daughter Tilly, son Kit, and mother Glenys all in attendance.
"It was definitely a tough race - full credit to everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing," Dixon said.
"Awesome to have all the family here today, which is fantastic, they drove up this morning. I think that's Kit's first win at the track, pretty cool."
Prior to Dixon's Honda Indy 200 win, the season victories had been split between Palou and Kyle Kirkwood with six and three respectively.
Dixon's most recent win prior to Mid-Ohio was back in June 2024 in another masterclass of fuel preservation at the Detroit Grand Prix.
The win extends the 44-year-old's streak of winning an IndyCar Series race in every season to 21, dating back to 2005.
"I knew it was going to be tough, just because it's hard in the wake. We still had to save fuel all the way to the end, so it was definitely very tight.
"I didn't see what happened - I saw he went off on turn nine, so we got a little bit lucky with that."
Fellow Kiwi drivers Marcus Armstrong and Scott McLaughlin placed seventh and 23rd respectively.
