You can read all about the strategy here, with Hull revealing the lap that Dixon needed to get to in order to make his final pitstop and have enough fuel to reach the finish.
Also, we should tip our hat to Honda, which again showed its economical prowess and swept the entire podium.
But let’s focus on the genius of the man behind the wheel: Dixon's last five race wins have come from eighth, 11th, 16th, 15th and 14th on the grid – so you could argue that technically this was his easiest!
His last ‘regular’ win was at Toronto in 2022, where he qualified on the front row and ended quite a win drought for the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing team at the time. On that day he matched Mario Andretti's tally of 52 wins.
His Long Beach success (only his second here) also means he’s registered a win for the 20th consecutive IndyCar season, which is an amazing achievement in such a competitive series. It again owes much to the consistency of Ganassi’s team, which he joined in 2002.
Having also scored four wins out of the last six races at the end of last season, it’s clear he’s got his reigning champion team-mate Alex Palou in the No. 10 sister car in his sights for another title this year.
But how did this victory compare to those other remarkable fuel strategies and comeback drives?
“It ranks on the stressful meter pretty high,” Dixon admitted. “Yeah, that one was up there.
“I think Nashville maybe beat that a couple years ago, where we didn't take tyres on the last stop, we tried to be crafty and do 50 or 60 laps on a set of tyres. That was pretty wild!
“This one was up there because [the chasing pack on the regular strategy] were coming hard and fast. They were going to get to us with eight to 10 laps to go.
“Even the scenario [of] do you push and maintain track position over maybe not finishing? It's kind of a hard decision to make.”
Source: Autosport