Motorsport: Scott Dixon slams IndyCar driving standards after crashing in Illinois

Champion Scott Dixon has slammed some of the IndyCar driving standards after he was taken out of the latest race in Illinois.

His fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin had one of his best races since switching from Australasian Supercars, finishing fourth in the last oval race of the 2021 season.

McLaughlin had his best result on the Texas Motor Speedway oval in May, finishing second behind Dixon, but has struggled to build on that.

Meanwhile Dixon remains in the hunt to retain his IndyCar title, despite today's disaster, sitting in fourth with three races remaining. But the crash has certainly put a decent ding in his chances of a seventh title.

After being hit by Rinus VeeKay, previous series leader Alex Palou then spun into teammate Dixon, with both hitting the wall early in the race.

Palou was immediately forced out while Dixon tried to continue after a long spell in the pits but was eventually forced to retire.

"It's unfortunate. I feel really bad for Alex and myself," Dixon said.

"I really don't know what VeeKay was trying to do there. He took us both out of the race.

"We'll have to see if race control will do anything about this.

"We've had some pretty crazy and erratic driving this season but it just seems to go unnoticed."

By the end of the race Dixon was left in fourth overall, 43 points behind new series leader Pato O'Ward, who finished second to Josef Newgarden who scored his third Gateway victory in Illinois.

Newgarden, who led for 138 of the 260 laps, pushed himself back into title contention and now lies third in the standings, behind O'Ward and Palou.

Dixon's car suffered extensive left rear damage. He returned to the race 83 laps down but didn't last long before retiring.

But with Palou among the casualties, Dixon still has some hope of keeping his title, although he didn't sound overly confident.

"If we have three strong races we're still in the fight," he said.

"We tried to fix everything wrong with the car to see if we could get back out there - it took almost 80 laps to fix it."

Scott Dixon was taken out in the latest IndyCar race in Illinois. Photo / AP

Meanwhile McLaughlin was delighted and leads the rookie race.

"It was an awesome day for us," he said.

"Initially I didn't pick the right holes and was a bit safe in some ways.

"But after the second or third restart, or the 10th restart or whatever we had - it was crazy the start - I got into it. I got comfortable and into a nice position there."

He said testing results were positive for himself and the team.

"It shows I am learning the car, I'm better and more comfortable in it, trusting myself and that's the biggest thing.

"Eventually when I get more laps under my belt we will get results like this."

Meanwhile, VeeKay was sorry for what happened to Palou and Dixon but said: "I cannot really give myself a lot of blame for this."