IndyCar Toronto: Dixon scores 52nd win, matches Mario Andretti

The latest success means Dixon now matches Mario Andretti in second on the all-time IndyCar winners list.

From the start, polesitter Herta was unthreatened, while Dixon swept across from the outside to ensure Newgarden couldn’t sneak up from third to claim second.

Newgarden checked his momentum and that allowed Alexander Rossi around his outside to try and claim third, but Newgarden had put the matter beyond dispute by the end of the lap.

Scott McLaughlin, his Penske team-mate, passed David Malukas for fifth, but there was even worse luck for the other Dale Coyne Racing entry of Takuma Sato, who was shoved into the wall at the Turn 1 kerfuffle, and limped his very broken car back to the pits. The debris left behind obliged race control to throw the full-course caution.

With defending champion Alex Palou - starting down in 22nd - and Will Power among the drivers to make early pit visits on an alternate strategy a few laps after the restart, the leaders soon started to head in.

Newgarden remained ahead of Rossi but were now split by rookie Malukas. Herta stopped on lap 19, a tour after Dixon and found himself being outbraked by the six-time champion into Turn 1, to effectively take the lead.

Behind them, Newgarden and now Rossi were ahead of Malukas, while Felix Rosenqvist had turned in fast enough laps at the end of his stint to emerge ahead of McLaughlin and hold off the Penske driver.

However, Dixon wasn’t yet in the lead, for Graham Rahal, Rinus VeeKay, Pato O’Ward, Jimmie Johnson and Conor Daly had risked running a long first stint on their primaries to try and make a net gain.

By the time the majority of these had finally stopped, Dixon was out front with a 2.5-second lead over Herta, the pair of them in a race of