Maybe even a sacred one in auto sports—-
—-because many have hoped to reach eight and haven’t made it.
The road has suddenly turned uphill for Scott Dixon, the reigning INDYCAR champion who hopes to get to seven and for Lewis Hamilton, the reigning champion of Formula 1, who wants to get beyond it.
Dixon hopes to equal A. J. Foyt’s seven championships in INDYCAR. Hamilton wants to break his tie with Michael Schumacher and become the first eight-time champion in Formula 1.
Early trouble for Dixon in the Indianapolis 500 left him 17th at the end in a double-points race and dropped him out of the series point lead to 36 points behind young Alex Palou, who was second at Indianapolis. Dixon is only one point up on another fast-developing youngster, Pato O’Ward. All three have one victory so far this year.
Dixon has a chance to re-establish himself this weekend when IndyCar races twice at Belle Isle Park in Detroit, on Saturday and on Sunday. Those will be races seven and eight on the INDYCAR on the 16-race INDYCAR schedule. One will be Saturday, August 28 at Gateway International (Worldwide Technology Raceway), just across the river from St. Louis.
Hamilton had lost the points lead at Monaco to Max Verstappen and was in danger of falling 15 points behind him as the laps wound down last weekend at the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan when Verstappen blew a left rear tire and went into the wall. Hamilton was running second at the time with an excellent chance to take the lead when the race was restarted. But Formula One cars have a switch that cars in many other series don’t have and Hamilton used it, causing him to crash, too.
The switch turned off the brakes on his car, forcing Hamilton to take an escape road while the rest of the field roared past him. The switch is used to change the balance of the brakes on grand prix cars. Hamilton wound up 16th, failing to score a point in a race for the first time in 54 events, a record.
Hamilton has plenty of time to recover. The Azerbaijan race was only the sixth in a 23-race schedule. He’ll have his first chance to regain his dominance on June 20 at the Grand Prix of France.
Only a few drivers either in INDYCAR, NASCAR, or Formula 1 have claimed seven championships. The eighth has been elusive. Richard Petty won his seventh NASCAR title in 1979. He raced until 1992 but was never higher in the standings than fourth.
Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was the second NASCAR driver to claim seven titles. He won his seventh in 1994 but finished second in 1995 and 2000. He was looking for that eighth crown when he was killed in the season-opening race at Daytona in 2001.
Jimmie Johnson became the third NASCAR driver to win the title seven times. He won five titles in a row, 2006-2010, with single titles in ’13 and ’16. He retired after four more years with a best finish of tenth in the standings.
- J. Foyt won his seventh INDYCAR crown in 1979, the same year Petty reached seven. He stepped out of his car for the last time in 1995, never finishing higher than fourth in the standings after his seventh title.
Michael Schumacher reached seven by winning five Formula 1 titles in a row, the last coming in 2004. He raced through 2012, finishing third in ’05 and second in ’06. A skiing accident late in 2013 left him with severe head injuries. His condition has been closely-guarded by his family.
Here are some others who never got to seven or never got past it:
Jack Nicklaus won six Masters Tournaments.
Tom Brady has quarterbacked six Super Bowl champion teams.
Roger Clemens won the Cy Young Award seven times.
Barry Bonds won seven Most Valuable Player awards.
Michael Jordan won the NBA MVP only five times, one more time than LeBron James has won it. Nobody has reached six.
However, Wayne Gretzky won NINE NHL MVPs, including eight in a row. There’s always an exception, isn’t there?