There is a two week break in the IndyCar schedule so it might be a good time to share some personal observations of mine about how things are progressing in 2019. With seven races still to go a lot can happen to change how the series will finish.
As usual Team Penske is in the thick of things. Simon Pagenaud owning the month of May and winning the Indy 500 was the crowning achievement of the Captain and his crew. Josef Newgarden leading the series championship point chase is certainly no surprise. It is Will Power who is causing the head scratching. The 2018 Indy winner has no wins this season and only three podium finishes. Unheard of!
Alexander Rossi and Andretti Autosports are the #2 team and the lead Honda team. Rossi has two wins and three 2nd place finishes. He and Newgarden are the new young guns and their emergence as the top contenders is the big story of 2019. Ryan Hunter-Reay is once again having a successful season as the Andretti team’s #2 man. Now we come to Marco Andretti. If Marco’s last name was anything but Andretti he would be out of open-wheel racing. He just isn’t competitive. He doesn’t race, he drives. Just think if a talented driver had the equipment that Marco is wasting. But he will continue to be an also-ran.
Scott Dixon, the defending series champ, and Ganassi Racing are having what is for them a down year. He had a win at Detroit and four podium finishes but he has struggled with a slow running car and some judgment errors. He usually pours it on in the second part of a season and could yet do so this year, but right now he is not a top five driver.
Rahal /Letterman had a win at Alabama and a 3rd at the Indy 500 with Takuma Sato, and Graham Rahal has a few top five finishes but the team hasn’t been a factor in most of the events this year. Dale Coyne and Arrow Schmidt Peterson have fallen on hard times. Sebastien Bourdais and James Hinchcliffe have barely been visible throughout the season. Ed Carpenter Racing has been invisible. Lead driver Spencer Pigot just has not cut it and Ed’s 6th at Indy is the only bright spot on an otherwise dismal season.
AJ Foyt Racing has become a sad joke. That Super Tex, one of the greatest drivers in American history, is associated with this clown show is nothing short of tragic. The team is lucky if their cars make it through the first lap of any given race. The once great Tony Kanaan needs to retire to become a color commentator. Foyt should sell the team to someone who can make it competitive again.
And now a word on this year’s rookies. This was supposed to be a great rookie class. At the beginning of the season it seemed this might be so. Felix Rosenqvist seemed to quickly grasp this car and the team. Colton Herta became the youngest driver to win an IndyCar race and later an IndyCar pole. Marcus Ericsson showed promise with a 2nd at Detroit. Santino Ferrucci was the Indy 500 Rookie of the year. But all, particularly Herta have been wildly inconsistent. Last year rookie Robert Wickens jumped into the thick of things and was a contender from the start. He was a immediate threat to win, which makes his debilitating crash at Pocono that much more tragic. There are no Robert Wickens in this year’s rookie class. Sad.
With seven races to go it looks as if it will be a battle between Newgarden and Rossi for the IndyCar championship. Newgarden was the 2017 Champ and wants another badly. Rossi has established himself as the next big thing in IndyCar. Winning a championship would confirm this. So we come to the last third of the season. Let us hope it is as exciting as the first 10 races.
snicewanger@gmail.com