When the green flag waved to restart the race on lap 80, Newgarden made the move of the race, passing two cars to drive from third to first for the lead.
But another yellow flag flew on that lap when Oliver Askew crashed in turn 10.
During that caution, the pace car ran out of gas and had to park in the pits, making Newgarden the pacer of the race under caution.
When the green flag waved on lap 84, Newgarden was in front. He never looked back and scored the 18th win of his career and his second straight victory in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Over the closing laps, Newgarden had a spirited battle with second-year driver O’Ward while Dixon was content to setting in for third place, realizing it would easily clinch him the championship.
“This is one of the future stars of IndyCar, he’s already a star of IndyCar,” Newgarden said of O’Ward. “I’m a huge Pato fan, so it was fun to race him. He’s driven me so clean. Even when it was very difficult at the end of the race, all of the pickup on the tires, it was tough to clean off, he’s just a great competitor. I’ve really loved driving against him.”
It was the 219th Indy car victory for cars owned by Roger Penske. It is Team Penske’s 10th win at St. Petersburg. Its last win came with Newgarden in 2019.
Dixon won his sixth NTT IndyCar Series title over Newgarden 537 to 521. Herta was third at 421.
It is the 13th Indy car championship for Chip Ganassi Racing and the team’s second in the last three years.
“It’s all the team,” Dixon said. “I can’t thank everybody on this team enough. Obviously, Chip (Ganassi), Mike (Hull) and Barry (Wanser) and everybody involved – obviously, Honda. I’m proud to be powered by Honda and what they’ve been able to pull out this year given the deficit we’ve had going into Indy previous years. They nailed it. Big thanks to everybody.
“My family – I’m glad my girls are here. (Wife) Emma is somewhere. Unfortunately (toddler son) Kit isn’t here. It’s a big shame that he wouldn’t be here. I can’t thank everybody enough. PNC Bank, two out of three years (as champion) – that’s pretty good going.
“Credit to Josef (Newgarden) and Team Penske. They drove the last part of the season flawlessly and a lot of points, so that was pretty awesome to race them again. And we know next year is going to be the same, but huge thanks again to everyone on the team.
“Now we’re going to have a beer.”
Dixon is just 40. He is the first driver to win a season championship in his 40s since Nigel Mansell won the CART title in 1993 for Newman-Haas Racing.
Dixon remains one of the best drivers in Indy car racing and could realistically tie Foyt’s record of seven championships.
“That’s going to be the goal,” Dixon said. “But it’s tough. As you can see from the competition, even if you mess up just a little bit in qualifying, we had some problems this weekend and just couldn’t piece it together.
“Credit again to the team and just being able to pull ourselves out of that hole and stay consistent and just have a smooth race, and that’s what we did. We definitely had the speed when we needed to push. Credit to Josef. He drove a hell of a race there and put us under a lot of pressure.”