INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AFP) — New Zealand's Scott Dixon didn't get much sleep on Sunday night, but he had plenty of energy on Monday to reflect on his Indianapolis 500 triumph.
"My phone kept going off, so I didn't get any rest whatsoever," Dixon said as he conducted journalists around the fabled Indianapolis Motor Speedway describing his race on Sunday.
"Lucky enough I didn't drink too much so I'm not feeling too bad. I'm tired, just tired.
"It has been pretty crazy."
On Sunday Dixon called his triumph, by more than 1.7 seconds over Brazilian Vitor Meira "surreal."
On Monday, the soft-spoken Kiwi said it still hadn't sunk in.
"I've been so busy and when you get a break, which I haven't gotten yet, it hasn't kicked in yet," said Dixon, who collected a record winner's prize of 2,988,065 dollars at Monday night's Victory Awards Celebration.
Meira's runner-up prize of 1,273,215 dollars marked the first time anyone other than the winner earned more than one million dollars.
Dixon said the final 10 laps of the 200-lap race are what he'll remember most.
"That is when you know you are so close and when you see the pylon coming down and see lap 190, you know you are so close - but so many things can happen and are racing through your mind of what can go wrong," said Dixon, who was runner-up to Dario Franchitti in the 500 last year.
"You start hearing things and the car is making different noises and things like that.
"That is the moment you remember the most, the last few laps and you start thinking of that with 10 laps to go."
Dixon had few close calls, but one came when Brazilian Tony Kanaan, then the race leader, was pressured by his Andretti Green Racing teammate Marco Andretti which resulted in Kanaan crashing into the third turn wall, where he was hit by Sarah Fisher.
"When TK actually got caught up in that mess, the spotters coached me to lift a bit in Turn 1 and we got a good run in Turn 2 to pass TK and get through that traffic before he got collected," Dixon said.
"There were definitely many moments where they help you out."
While Kanaan again had the disappointment of leading the Indy 500 only to see his chances thwarted, Dixon was able to stay out of trouble and finish up in Victory Lane swilling from the traditional bottle of milk.
"I only just saw the paper and being on the front page drinking the bottle of milk, little things like that add to it and you start to feel the sensation of it," Dixon said. "It's pretty cool.
"It's like nothing else," he added. "The funniest part of the race is after you win, you just want to get back to the pits and enjoy it with everyone else. You feel so alone out there on that cool-down lap and you feel so alone out there."
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