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INDIANAPOLIS — At 41-years-old, Scott Dixon is the second oldest full-time driver in the NTT IndyCar Series. Helio Castroneves is now the oldest at 46 with his re-emergence in the series.

As the defending IndyCar series champion a year ago, Dixon played more of a supporting role in 2021 to his young upstart teammate in Alex Palou. Dixon finished the season fourth in the points and found victory lane just once last season in Race 1 at Texas.

“It was just one of those seasons where we had some good results, but it just wasn’t what it was going to take to win the championship,” Dixon said. “We learn a lot, I think, throughout the year, and looking forward to going into ’22.”

Dixon heads into the new season with plenty of opportunities to further solidify himself as one of the best drivers ever to sit in an Indy car. With 51 career wins, Dixon sits one win behind Mario Andretti for second in all-time IndyCar wins. Dixon is also in the hunt to win his seventh IndyCar championship, which would tie him with AJ Foyt for most all-time.

But, Dixon said the priorities for the 2021 season are strategically planned, starting with the month of May.

“Basically, for us we always set two goals, first, to win the Indy 500 because it comes so early in the season,” he said. “Secondly to win the championship, and those goals are no different.”

Dixon has won the Indy 500 once before back in 2008.

Dixon is the elder statesman among a team of four full-time drivers for the 2021 season in the Chip Ganassi stable. Alex Palou will look to defend his series championship, Marcus Ericsson won two races a year ago, and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will return to run both ovals and road/street courses. Johnson ran just the road/street course races last season.

Tony Kanaan will be the fifth of a five-car effort for Ganassi in the Indianapolis 500.

“Yeah, it’s five cars, a lot of cars,” Dixon said. “I think when you understand the process and how many times you’ve been there before, it can be tricky, and you’ve definitely seen other teams kind of step on their toes in their scenarios. I think the way it’s done and who’s involved I think hopefully it should go pretty smoothly.”

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