{"id":513604,"date":"2026-07-07T05:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T05:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/513604\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T05:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T05:57:09","slug":"sir-scott-dixon-on-why-he-left-chip-ganassi-racing-for-arrow-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/513604\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Scott Dixon on why he left Chip Ganassi Racing for Arrow McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arrow McLaren put paid to all the rumours overnight, announcing the New Zealander would race for the team in 2027<\/a>, as reported previously in the Weekend Herald.<\/p>\n

\"SirSir Scott Dixon: “The decision was not about one thing or one person.” Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Dixon on-the-move ball started rolling months ago, and the 45-year-old\u2019s looming departure from Chip Ganassi<\/a> was confirmed by the team last week.<\/p>\n

The Dixon-Ganassi collaboration<\/a> is one of the longest continuous pairings in American motorsport history. Together, they\u2019ve pulled in six championship titles, 58 wins (he has one more victory with PacWest Racing) and an Indianapolis 500 victory.<\/p>\n

While it is a bit of a surprise Dixon is leaving a team he regards as family, a potential move to Arrow McLaren was mooted in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it nearly happened in \u201919. It was just the timing was a little bit off,\u201d Dixon told the Herald. \u201cI was on a weird contract year at that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been friends with Zak [Brown, McLaren F1 CEO and Arrow McLaren chairman] I think 1999 was when I first met him when he ran a go-kart track in Indianapolis called Zak Attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been friends for a long time and have been hanging out quite a bit in England, because he\u2019s based there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chatter about the possibility of Dixon moving teams started around the time of the Long Beach race in April and soon gathered momentum. Back then it was all conjecture and supposition as no one could see Dixon leaving the Ganassi organisation. It was evident in Chip Ganassi\u2019s statement about Dixon leaving that he wanted the Kiwi to stay and see out his career with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision was not about one thing or one person,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cThere was no situation and no real feelings [bad about the team] \u2013 and that\u2019s why it was so hard to sit down with Chip and just say, \u2018Hi, I think I\u2019m going to do something different, it\u2019s not because of anything, it\u2019s just I want to try something new\u2019. It was quite emotional with Chip and Mike [Hull, his chief race strategist].<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a couple of other teams we talked with, but when it came down to it McLaren was the best fit and with all the Kiwi history it just made sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the McLaren one that just sort of ticked most of the boxes. There is a lot in the name and the team. Obviously, the founder [Bruce McLaren] was a Kiwi and there\u2019s so much heritage as well<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

There may have been another mitigating factor for Dixon signing with Arrow McLaren. The Kiwi has always enjoyed endurance racing and has often lamented the fact he hasn\u2019t had many opportunities to race at the Le Mans 24 Hour. <\/p>\n

\"SirSir Scott Dixon says changing IndyCar teams was a really hard decision to make. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

McLaren are testing their prototype MCL-HY Hypercar and have officially signed up as an entrant in the 2027 World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hour. There is a possibility Dixon will have the opportunity from next year onwards to take part in the top category at an event that holds so much New Zealand history. <\/p>\n

A number of New Zealanders have won Le Mans over the years, but there has yet to be a Kiwi winner in a McLaren car. That could change if Dixon gets a chance in McLaren\u2019s new Hypercar.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcLaren and even Andretti United Autosport are spread over so many different categories with so many different options to race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was part of the decision and then there\u2019s looking beyond right now and what the future might hold, even if that is racing or not racing. Being a part of the team in some other factor might be good, so we\u2019ll just have to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dixon\u2019s record across so many different statistics is prodigious and nigh on unmatched. If he were to snatch another IndyCar championship with McLaren, or set the world alight racing in the World Endurance Championship, he will have truly earned his place in the pantheon of motorsport.<\/p>\n

Speculation for the future is all well and good, but Dixon still has a job to do at Ganassi Racing for the rest of the 2026 season. He has a record of getting at least one win for the past 21 years<\/a>. This season is not going according to plan and despite the whirlwind around his move next year, Dixon is focused and determined to get at least one victory in 2026.<\/p>\n

He sits ninth on the leaderboard with 224 points while his teammate Alex Palou (404) leads from Kyle Kirkwood (348), Christian Lundgaard (339), David Malukas (338) and his future teammate Pato O\u2019Ward (310).<\/p>\n

\"SirSir Scott Dixon has had a remarkable career with Chip Ganassi Racing. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing\u2019s really changed within the team. There was obviously a lot of noise going into last weekend and the season itself has been its own kind of struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been no ill intent or anything like that, it\u2019s just the way it\u2019s played out. There\u2019s been crazy stuff like the rules and penalties we\u2019ve had, which have just been complete insanity. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying everything as a team to win and with seven races to go we\u2019ve definitely got to knock off that win and hopefully more,\u201d Dixon said.<\/p>\n

Arrow McLaren has confirmed Dixon\u2019s teammates for 2027 will be Felix Rosenqvist and incumbent O\u2019Ward. Lundgaard and Nolen Siegel have been released to make room for the new pair.<\/p>\n

There are a number of ex-Ganassi team members at Arrow McLaren and team principal Tony Kanaan in particular is a close friend and former teammate, so Dixon should fit right in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arrow McLaren put paid to all the rumours overnight, announcing the New Zealander would race for the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114949,3028,84394,46351,1888,2082,252677,692,5620,101,4262,86468,2683,111,139,69,90,3512,8139,48613,7811,8485,213,6642,54946,6923,4276,102],"class_list":["post-513604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arrow","tag-chip","tag-dixon","tag-eric","tag-first","tag-for","tag-ganassi","tag-he","tag-interview","tag-left","tag-mclaren","tag-motivated","tag-move","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-racing","tag-scott","tag-signing","tag-since","tag-sir","tag-sports","tag-tells","tag-thompson","tag-what","tag-why","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}