Scott Dixon is winding down the most successful driver/team run in INDYCAR SERIES history. Earlier this week, the six-time series champion who has spent most of 25 seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing while winning 58 races, including the Indianapolis 500 in 2008, was confirmed to join rival Arrow McLaren for the 2027 season.

Word of Dixon’s departure from CGR had leaked in the days leading up to the July 2 confirmation, but it was stunning, nonetheless. Will Power’s 17-year association with Team Penske is the only recent pairing that comes close to the seismic move of Dixon.

Dixon was 21 years and 10 months old when he moved from PacWest Racing’s disbanding program to sign with Chip Ganassi in 2002. Their first race together was June 2. Dixon finished sixth that day at the Milwaukee Mile, taking the checkered flag ahead of Ganassi’s full-season drivers, Kenny Brack and Bruno Junqueira.

Paul Tracy Scott Dixon Kenny Brack

It’s difficult to remember a time when Dixon, who turns 46 on July 23, didn’t drive for CGR; in fact, four of this year’s full-season drivers hadn’t yet been born when he joined the team. One is Kyffin Simpson, who has been Dixon’s teammate for two-plus seasons. Simpson was born Oct. 9, 2004, which was six days after Dixon completed his 70th series race. The track used that day was still known as California Speedway, and Dixon already had four career race wins. Simpson’s career total stands at 45 starts heading to the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls on Sunday, July 19 at Nashville Superspeedway, a track where Dixon has won three races.

With CGR, Dixon has climbed to No. 2 on the sport’s all-time list with 59 wins, a figure that stands behind only A.J. Foyt’s 67 wins. Dixon has accrued nearly every significant statistical milestone in the sport’s 112-season history, including most starts (430), most consecutive starts (367), most top-three finishes (146) and most top-five finishes (218). He has led 6,987 laps in his career, with Mario Andretti’s record 7,595 only above him.

Dixon also has been one of this generation’s Indianapolis 500 standards despite winning only once, in 2008. He has led in 17 of his 24 races for a combined 709 laps, records each. He has won five poles (second to Rick Mears’ six) and has finished second on three occasions and in the top five nine times.

Dixon’s decision to change teams this deep into his storied career is nearly without precedent. Mario Andretti was 43 years old, a winner of 33 races, including the Indy 500 in 1969, and a three-time series champion (plus another in Formula One) when he joined Newman/Haas Racing full time in 1983. But Andretti didn’t have the same career association with one team at that time that Dixon has with CGR.

Nigel Mansell

Nigel Mansell joining Newman/Haas in 1993 (photo, above) was more shocking because he was the reigning F1 champion and crossing the Atlantic Ocean at age 39 in a bid to tackle CART as Andretti’s teammate. That created a frenzy like the sport had never seen, but Mansell had bounced around some in F1 (five years with Lotus, eight with Williams).

Legendary drivers such as A.J. Foyt, Bobby and Al Unser, Johnny Rutherford and Michael Andretti changed teams to varying degrees of surprise, but again, none of them were historically linked to a single team as Dixon has been.

In more recent years, Sam Hornish Jr. surprisingly joined Team Penske after becoming a two-time series champion with Panther Racing, but he had only been with that team for three years. Dario Franchitti’s decision to leave Andretti Green after 10 seasons with surprising, especially when he chose to go to NASCAR with CGR. Helio Castroneves definitely seemed out of place when he drove six races for Meyer Shank Racing in 2021, but he was four years removed from being a full-time Team Penske driver for 18 seasons.

Easily the best comparison to Dixon’s move is Will Power, who joined Andretti Global last year after 17 seasons, 42 race wins, 65 poles, an Indy 500 victory and two series championships with Team Penske. It was as shocking to see the Australian in a different team’s uniform as it will be with this New Zealander. But Dixon’s situation is still No. 1 on a list such as this.