Musings From the Weekend: IndyCar Expansion Draft

Scott Dixon is getting into his groove. Formula One went full IndyCar and something happened for the first time since the day Michael Schumacher clinched his seventh and final world championship. Fernando Alonso and McLaren finally got its first points of the year. There were a handful of first time winners at Road America and a new manufacture ended up on top. MotoGP saw a fierce battle at the most historic circuit on the schedule. NASCAR had a unique sweep of the weekend. The World Touring Car Championship needed more walls at its street race in Portugal. A familiar race won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

IndyCar Expansion Draft
If you are a hockey fan or a very observant sports fan, you know the National Hockey League has added a 31st team, the Vegas Golden Knights. A tradition in North American sports is any time a league expands, it holds an expansion draft, where the newest team gets to take one player from each of the existing teams to build a roster. It isn't a free for all though as the existing teams are allowed to protect key players from being taken but it is a limited amount of protections and more players are going to be exposed to the expansion team than are going to be protected.

After Thursday night's NHL Expansion Draft, I started wondering what an expansion draft would look like in IndyCar. Obviously, the structure of a North America sports league and IndyCar are very different and this would never actually take place but let's just do this for fun. How could it work?

I broke it down this way: The expansion draft would be for a new two-car team. Up for selection in the expansion draft are drivers, engineers, strategists and pit crews. Like the other expansion draft, you are only allowed to make one pick from each team. So you can't raid say Team Penske and take a driver, engineer and pit crew.

As for protecting assets, I thought teams should be allowed to protect one driver, one engineer, one strategist and one pit crew. However, since Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is a one-car team, they would only be allowed to protect two of the four areas. For the two-car teams of Ed Carpenter Racing, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Dale Coyne Racing and A.J. Foyt Racing, each could only protect two areas from each entry and still had to have at least one unprotected asset from each area. So for example, if SPM protected "Driver A" than it had to leave "Driver B" unprotected and if it protected the pit crew for "Driver A" than it had to protect the engineer and strategist from "Driver B."

For the four-car teams of Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Autosport, they were only allowed one protection per entry. If Ganassi protected Scott Dixon than it had to leave his strategist Mike Hull exposed and had to protect one of the other three strategists on the team.

Who would each team protect? Let's start with Ganassi. You would have to think it has to protect Scott Dixon because he has won 41 IndyCar race, the fourth-most all-time. The rest of the team's protections would be Tony Kanaan's strategist Barry Wanser, Charlie Kimball's engineer Eric Cowdin and the #8 pit crew.

Andretti Autosport doesn't have the slam dunk driver protection like Ganassi and I think it would protect Alexander Rossi because he is only 25 years old and has a long future ahead of him. With that said, the other protections would be Ryan Hunter-Reay's engineer Ray Gosselin, Marco Andretti's strategist and fuel saving wizard Bryan Herta and the #26 pit crew.

Regardless of whom Penske protects, there are still a lot of high-grade options to select and it won't be an easy decision of who gets left exposed. I think the team has to protect its most recent champion in Simon Pagenaud. As for strategist, I think Roger Penske leaves himself exposed to protect Tim Cindric and Penske protects Hélio Castroneves' engineer John Diuguid and the #12 pit crew, which won the Carb Day pit stop competition this year.

Ed Carpenter Racing has a difficult situation but it has to protect the young stud that is Spencer Pigot and his engineer Matt Barnes, meaning the #21 pit crew and strategist for the #21 car Woody Harvey are the other protections.

SPM has two quick drivers but one is much more unpredictable than the other. That is why James Hinchcliffe would be protected and the #5 pit crew would be protect, as it finished runner-up in the Carb Day pit stop competition. This means engineer Blair Perschbacher and strategist Nick Snyder are protected from the #7 Honda.

Dale Coyne Racing has a much more difficult decision on its hands at the position of driver than it would have been five months ago. However, after all the team did to bring the band back together, it has to protect Sébastien Bourdais and his engineer Craig Hampson meaning Dale Coyne has to protect the #19 pit crew and himself because he is the strategist for the #19 Honda.

A.J. Foyt Racing hasn't had one driver stand head and shoulders above the other but I think it would protect Carlos Muñoz and his engineer Will Phillips and then protect the #4 pit crew and strategist George Klotz.

That leaves Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which can only protect two areas and I think they would protect the driver in Graham Rahal and engineer Eddie Jones.

Now onto selections. There are a lot of great options out there in terms of drivers. Three former champions are out there and so is a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner. You can either set this up for immediate success or plan a little bit more into the future and I decided you got to go young.

From Team Penske, I would take Josef Newgarden because why wouldn't you take Newgarden? He is 26 years old, he is already succeeding with Team Penske, he found success with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and ECR. You take him and you have a driver for the next ten to 15 years. While you take Newgarden, from Andretti Autosport you take Jeremy Milless, who was Newgarden's engineer at ECR. Since I have down two of three big teams, let's get Chip Ganassi Racing out of the way and take the obvious pick of strategist Mike Hull. The guy is a genius and putting him with Newgarden and Milless you have to be wondering how this team would ever lose? As for the pit crew for this car, I take the #15 pit crew from RLLR, which made the semifinals from the pit stop competition.

As for the second team, I take from Dale Coyne Racing driver Ed Jones. Jones is 22 years old and he is all business. He doesn't seem to be easily distracting like other millennial drivers who have come through IndyCar in recent years. Jones is something special and he will be winning races soon. I really wanted to take Jones' engineer Michael Cannon but as with Newgarden, Jones is a driver you could have for the better part of two decades. Since I can't have Cannon, from SPM I take engineer Allen McDonald, who won the 2007 IRL championship with Dario Franchitti and he has won two Indianapolis 500 pole positions with two different Canadian drivers. We are down to the final two selections and it is slim pickings but I will take the #20 pit crew from ECR and from AJ Foyt Racing I have to take strategist Larry Foyt.

I think this is a strong two-car team. One car is clearly a little more stacked than the other but on paper I think both this cars could finish in the top ten of the championship. Of course, when has paper ever won a race?

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Scott Dixon but did you know...

Daniel Ricciardo won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from tenth position on the grid. He is first winner from tenth on the grid since Kimi Räikkönen won the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix.

Valentino Rossi won the Dutch TT. Franco Morbidelli picked up his fifth victory of the Moto2 season. Arón Canet won in Moto3.

Adderly Fong and Patrick Long split the Pirelli World Challenge GT races from Road America. Ian James swept the GTS races for Panoz.

Matheus Leist and Zachary Claman DeMelo split the Indy Lights races from Road America. It was DeMelo's first career victory. Victor Franzoni and Anthony Martin split the Pro Mazda races. Rinus VeeKay swept the U.S. F2000 races.

Charles Leclerc and Norman Nato split the Formula Two races from Baku.

Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR Cup race from Sonoma. Harvick also won the NASCAR West Series race from Sonoma. William Byron got his first career victory in the NASCAR Grand National Series from Iowa. John Hunter Nemechek won the Truck race from Iowa, his second consecutive victory.

The #8 Bentley Team M-Sport of Andy Souček, Vincent Abril and Maxime Soulet won the Blancpain Endurance Series 1000km Paul Ricard.

Mehdi Bennani and Norbert Michelisz split the WTCC races from Vila Real, Portugal.

Romain Dumas won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for the second consecutive year and third time overall.

Coming Up This Weekend
NASCAR returns to Daytona.
IMSA is back on track for the first time in a month at the 6 Hours of the Glen.
DTM heads to the Norisring.
MotoGP makes is a busy motorsports weekend in Germany as it returns to the Sachsenring.
The World Rally Championship will be in Poland.

First Impressions: Road America 2017

1. The weekend Team Penske sweeps the top four positions in qualifying is of course the weekend Scott Dixon gets his first victory of the season. He was able to do 14 laps on the first two stints of the race to put him into second position and he jumped by Josef Newgarden on the first restart and never looked back. He had to hold off a hard charging Newgarden at the end but he didn't put a wheel wrong in the closing laps and picked up his 41st career victory. Dixon entered the weekend leading the championship and had yet to win a race this year. Now he has his first victory of the season in a race where it looked like he would be lucky to get a podium finish. The rest of the field must be thinking uh-oh with seven races remaining in the season.

2. Josef Newgarden was the third of the four Penske cars in qualifying and while he was up at the front with all his teammates, he didn't blink and fall. He embraced the fight and ended up on top of what is a very experienced and very successful group of drivers. He isn't scared of this situation and he heads to Iowa, a place he dominated last year, looking to cement himself back in the championship fight. It might be his first year with Team Penske but he could be the top Penske driver in the championship fight entering Sonoma in September.

3. This was an Hélio Castroneves-esque race. Win pole position, dominate the first stint and then fall out of it. He got leapfrogged in pit stops and couldn't make it back up. He stopped a lap earlier than planned for the final stop but that ended up putting him in third position. It's been three years since his most recent victory. He has won 11 pole positions since that victory. If life is a numbers game than Castroneves is bound to get a victory but if he hasn't gotten a victory by now, when will he? 

4. Simon Pagenaud finished fourth and had the quietest day of the four Penske drivers. He never really challenged for the lead but never put his nose in a bad situation. 

5. Will Power finished fifth and had the most hectic day of the Penske drivers. He had to give up positions at least twice for blocking. He had a terrible start to the race and found himself just hanging on to the top five after starting on the front row. A good day for Power but definitely disappointing. 

6. I don't know how Charlie Kimball finished sixth but he did. He had a good day after having a mechanical failure ended what seemed to be a promising night at Texas a few weeks ago. 

7. Ed Jones gets another top ten finish, his fifth top ten finish in ten career starts. He didn't light the world on fire but he ran a solid three-stop strategy and came home seventh. 

8. Graham Rahal looked like a stud through turn one on the opening lap going from sixth to fourth on the outside but he fell like a rock after than that and switched to a four-stop strategy. It worked out and he was helped by a few cars getting knocked out of the race. Eighth doesn't seem like a great day but considering how it started, I am sure he will take it. 

9. Max Chilton quietly ran a three-stop strategy and finished ninth. He was in the fight for the top six but he lost a handful of spots after a slow final pit stop. He is coming into his own.

10. Mikhail Aleshin was nowhere near a top ten finish until the end when a handful of cars lost positions because of damage. He had a rough weekend and he leaves with a respectable finish. These days happen and Aleshin is going to run away with a tenth-place finish.

11. Carlos Muñoz finished 11th after making the decision to go to a four-stop strategy questionably late in the game.

12. Spencer Pigot finished 12th in a less than stellar day. 

13. Let's tackle Andretti Autosport all at once. Alexander Rossi appeared to have the four-stop strategy down pat. Then Takuma Sato spun and neutralized Rossi's strategy but he was still in position for a top ten finish when that didn't look likely at the start of the race. Then Rossi had a front wing failure and lost positions and his shot at a top ten finish was over. No problem, Ryan Hunter-Reay was challenging for sixth place and he was finally going to get off the snide. Then he lost a front wing end plate and dropped to 14th. Marco Andretti had a throttle stick and he had to lose a lap to get that fixed. Besides his spin, Sato had a stiff neck the last two days. 

Add to that the rumor Andretti might be going back to Chevrolet. I think Andretti is switching even though it has won the last two Indianapolis 500s. It nearly had engine failures cost the team that race and Honda-related mechanical issues cost them at least one other victory this season while costing all four Andretti drivers a handful of respectable finishes across the first ten races of the year. 

14. Quickly through the field, Conor Daly was 15th and J.R. Hildebrand was 16th. Esteban Gutiérrez looked good until he had some front wing damage drop him to 17th. James Hinchcliffe had a top ten slip away after contact with Power in turn three broke his left front suspension.

15. Tony Kanaan had a hard accident in the kink after contact with Rossi. Some thought Rossi blocked Kanaan. It is tough to rule that because that part of the track is narrow and there isn't much room for two cars side-by-side. There was definitely contact but I wouldn't say Rossi caused the contact. I thought it was a racing incident. Kanaan made a move, Rossi ran the center of the race track, there was slight contact and Kanaan ended up in the barrier. It is unfortunate.

16. Two years, two great crowds at Road America and not to forget to mention wall-to-wall on-track action. You got IndyCar, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, U.S. F2000, Pirelli World Challenge and Global MX-5 Cup. You can't ask for much more than that. 

17. And now another off weekend for IndyCar. It is nice that everyone will be off for Canada Day. After that is Iowa. Team Penske has never won at Iowa and that should change this year unless Ed Carpenter Racing plays spoiler. The Hondas will be competing for, at best, sixth-place.

Morning Warm-Up: Road America 2017

Hélio Castroneves made IndyCar history and led the Team Penske sweep in qualifying

Hélio Castroneves made IndyCar history at Road America by picking up his 50th career pole position. The Brazilian took the top spot with a lap of 101.3007 seconds. This pole position broke a tie between Castroneves and Bobby Unser for third-most all-time in pole positions. He is only the third driver to win 50 pole positions in a career behind only Mario Andretti, who won 67 pole positions, and A.J. Foyt, who won 53 pole positions. This is Castroneves' 11th pole position since his most recent victory at Belle Isle in 2014. Will Power missed out on his 48th career pole position by 0.0604 seconds. This is Power's fifth front row start of the season and this is the fourth time he and Castroneves has shared the front row this season. Power has not won from second position on the grid since Edmonton 2011. The only other time he has won from second on the grid was Toronto 2010.

Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden made it a clean sweep of the top four for Team Penske. This is the first time Penske has swept the top four spots on the grid since last year's season finale at Sonoma. Pagenaud went on to win that race from pole position while Juan Pablo Montoya started and finished third. This is only the second time in 2017 that Pagenaud has started in the top five on a road/street courses. He started and finished third at Barber. This is the sixth time Newgarden has started fourth in his career. He has finished in the top ten in four of those previous five starts. Scott Dixon is the top Honda in fifth position. It is the fifth time Dixon has been the top Honda qualifier this season. Ganassi has been responsible for the top Honda qualifier in eight of ten races. The two times Ganassi didn't have the top Honda were when Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato split the Belle Isle pole positions. Rahal joins Dixon on row three. Rahal went from sixth to third last year at Road America.

Max Chilton will start seventh for the second consecutive year at Road America. This is the ninth top ten starting position in Chilton's career. His best finish when starting in the top ten is seventh, which occurred at Phoenix last year when he started eighth, his first career top ten start. Marco Andretti joins Chilton on row four. This race comes six years to the day of Andretti's most recent IndyCar victory, which was at Iowa in 2011. This matches Andretti's best starting position of the season. He started and finished eighth in the Indianapolis 500 last month. This is the 19th time Andretti has started eighth. He hasn't finished in the top five from eighth on the grid since Watkins Glen in 2009. James Hinchcliffe and Charlie Kimball round out the top ten on the grid. Hinchcliffe has started in the top ten in every road/street course race this season. Kimball led 26 laps at Texas two weeks ago, the second-most laps Kimball has led in one race in his career.

Ed Jones will start 11th for the third time this season. He started 11th and finished 16th at Barber and started 11th and finished third in the Indianapolis 500. Not only is Jones looking for that elusive first top ten starting position but also he has yet to lead a lap in his career. Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the drivers to make the second round of qualifying in 12th position. This is the fourth time Hunter-Reay has started 12th this season. He finished fourth at St. Petersburg from 12th on the grid. Carlos Muñoz and Spencer Pigot will start on row seven. This is Muñoz's best starting position since he started 11th at the season opener. This is also Pigot's best starting position since the season opener. He started 13th at St. Petersburg. Alexander Rossi will start 15th on the grid. He finished 15th last year at Road America after starting 16th. Tony Kanaan joins Rossi on row eight. This is Kanaan's first time starting outside the top fifteen since last year's Indianapolis 500. The furthest back on the grid Kanaan has won from was 15th at Iowa in 2010.

For the first time in his IndyCar career, Esteban Gutiérrez will not roll off the grid from 19th position. In his third start, Gutiérrez has his career best starting position in 17th. J.R. Hildebrand joins the Mexican driver on row nine. This is the fourth consecutive race Hildebrand has started 18th. His best finish in the previous three races was 12th at Texas two weeks ago. Mikhail Aleshin will start 19th after arriving to the track on Saturday after immigration issues kept him in France for over a week and forced him to miss all on-track activity on Friday. Takuma Sato will start 20th. Sato had started in the top ten in the previous four races. He has four consecutive top ten finishes. Conor Daly rounds out the grid in 21st position, his second consecutive start in 21st position. This is the 15th time in Daly's IndyCar career he has qualified outside the top twenty. He has taken the green flag in 30 races.

NBCSN's coverage of the Kohler Grand Prix from Road America will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:17 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 55 laps.

Adding Laps is a Double-Edged Sword

Some aren't thrilled with the added laps to this year's Road America race

IndyCar has a trend this season and on paper it comes off as a good thing. This year's Road America race will be 55 laps in length, five laps longer than last year's race. It is the third race this season that has been extended in length. In April, Long Beach was extended by five laps to 85 laps and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis was extended by three laps to 85 laps. The intention was not only to provide race fans with more racing but also set up races to allow for alternate stop strategies. Except it might have fallen short this weekend for the Road America race.

Will Power and Graham Rahal both feel not enough laps were added and both feel it will be a three-stop race, not allowing for a four-stop strategy to be successful. Road America has hosted a 60-lap race before but it isn't as easy as it seems. Adding laps sounds great but there is such a thing as a race being too long and while IndyCar prides itself on its races being a decent length, most fitting a two-hour window and not dragging on, you don't want to risk that by adding laps.

Last year's Road America race took just over an hour and 39 minutes and that race had one caution for four laps. Adding five laps should add about eight and a half to nine minutes to the race. It appears it will still fit in to that two-hour window but that is with everything going smoothly and maybe one quick caution period. If the race has caution after caution slowing the race up, it easily will go over two hours.

IndyCar can continue adding laps but there eventually comes a point where adding laps stops solving the issue and becomes the issue. If anything, it can be argued that the race distance is exactly where everyone wants it to be. Everyone from fans to drivers to team owners to writers say they don't want fuel mileage races. We have that with the current Road America distance. Everyone has to make three stops. If you want to make four stops, go ahead but it will likely leave you behind the eight ball. At the end of the day, in racing, there is no need to make unnecessary pit stops and those who make the fewest stops are going to win 99 times out of 100.

If IndyCar and the teams want to create alternate stop strategies in a race then it should look at something other than adding laps. The first thing is having a tire that falls out in the blink of an eye. If it is believed that everyone can do 14 laps on a fuel stint than make it so the alternate tire is junk after five laps and is losing a second a lap from that point on and make it so the primary tire is losing a second a lap after ten laps on a stint. You force the teams to tough it out and risk losing times on degrading tires or come in and continue to chase after fresh rubber and potentially not be able to fight back to the front.

The second thing IndyCar could do is say all the cars have to start with a full tank of fuel at the start of qualifying and not allow refueling during the session. Those who make it to the final round of qualifying will likely start the race needing to pit almost immediately while those that don't advance from the first round of qualifying would have closer to a full tank. Last year, Will Power ran 12 laps in qualifying and Scott Dixon ran 11 laps and that was the front row. They would be going like hell for the first two or three laps of the race to open a gap and set themselves up to lose as little time as possible when making their first pit stop. And if you are wondering what will happen if a team runs out of fuel during qualifying, force them to serve a one-lap penalty at the start of the race. Don't let teams think they can play the system just for a full tank of fuel at the start of the race.

Forcing full tanks at the start of qualifying however will set up a new game in qualifying where some teams will try and win pole position by running as few laps as possible. If someone could win pole position and only run four laps in qualifying than more power to them. It would be a game of cat and mouse. A team might plan to run only four or five laps and make it to the final round of qualifying but if after two laps in round one a team is tenth than it is going to force them to run more laps or accept starting 18th or worse on the grid. I think we all know what that team is going to do.

More laps sounds great because it sounds like more racing but it doesn't necessarily solve the problem. IndyCar could shake up races and force multiple strategies within the currently framework of its races. It is just going to take more than just adding laps to a race.

Track Walk: Road America 2017

The summer portion of the IndyCar season starts at Road America

The tenth round of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season is the Kohler Grand Prix from Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Scott Dixon leads the IndyCar championship with 326 points despite having yet to win a race this season. Thirteen points behind Dixon is the defending IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud, who will be the famed Menards livery this weekend and this year's Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato is a point behind Pagenaud. Hélio Castroneves rounds out the top four in the championship, 21 points behind Dixon. This year's race will be five laps longer than last year's race at 55 laps in distance.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday June 25th. Green flag will be at 1:17 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN.

Announcers: Kevin Lee is in the booth with Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy in the booth with Jon Beekhuis, Marty Snider, Katie Hargitt and Robin Miller working the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice- 11:45 a.m. ET (45-minute session).
Second Practice- 4:15 p.m. ET (45-minute session).
Saturday: 
Third Practice- 12:00 p.m. ET (45-minute session).
Qualifying- 4:00 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have taped coverage of this session at 5:00 p.m. ET).
Sunday:
Warm-Up- 9:00 a.m. ET (30-miunte session).
Race- 1:17 p.m. ET (55 laps)

Robert Wickens Subs in for France Stranded Mikhail Aleshin (Update: Or Not)
Mercedes-Benz DTM driver Robert Wickens will make his IndyCar debut this weekend in the #7 Lucas Oil Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, as Mikhail Aleshin has not been able to leave France due to immigration issues after he raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last weekend. Aleshin will not make it to Road America in time for Friday's activities.

Wickens is in his sixth season in the DTM. He has won four races in 72 starts and finished fourth in the championship last year, the top Mercedes-Benz driver. This season he finished second and third in the two Lausitzring races and he finished eighth at the Hungaroring last week. Prior to his DTM career, the Canadian won the 2006 Formula BMW USA championship, finished third in the 2007 Atlantic Championship, second in the 2009 Formula 2 Championship, second in the 2010 GP3 Series championship and he won the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series championship over the likes of Jean-Éric Vergne and Alexander Rossi. Wickens drove in a free practice at the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for Marussia Virgin Racing. He also won a A1GP sprint race on the streets of Durban in 2008.

This is not the first time Wickens and his fellow Canadian Hinchcliffe have been teammates. They shared time driving for Team Canada in A1GP in 2007-08. Wickens tested an IndyCar with SPM at Sebring on February 28th in a ride-swap with James Hinchcliffe, who in turned tested Wickens' DTM car at ACI Vallelunga Circuit just north of Rome on March 17th. Wickens made one start at Road America. He finished seventh at the track in the Atlantic Championship in 2007.

Update: Mikhail Aleshin has been approved to leave France and he is on his way back to the United States and Road America for this weekend's race. It appears Wickens will participate in the two Friday practice sessions but confirmation over who will be in the #7 Honda for the rest of the weekend is still to come.

Power and Rahal in Great Form Heading to Top Track
Few left Texas Motor Speedway in a happy mood but two drivers who are heading in the right direction as the IndyCar schedule turns to the final half of the season are Will Power and Graham Rahal.

Power sits fifth in the championship on 286 points, trailing Dixon by 40 points but Power is coming off his second victory of the season as he took victory at the Texas round and he finished third in the race before that at Belle Isle. Rahal is three points behind Power in the championship. He is the only other repeat winner this season after he swept the Belle Isle doubleheader and Rahal finished fourth at Texas. The good news for Power and Rahal is they look to continue their respective runs at a track both have had respectable success.

Last year, Power won in dominant fashion from pole position and led 46 of 50 laps in the first Road America race in nine years. The Australian's first two starts at Road America did not got to plan after having an off course excursion in 2006 and having a gearbox failure after starting second in 2007. Power could become the first driver to win consecutive Road America races since Jacques Villeneuve in 1994-95. Power has not won consecutive years at one track since 2012 when he won at Barber for the second consecutive year and he won at São Paulo for the third consecutive year.

Road America was at the start of a summer swing of success for Power in 2016. His Road America victory was his second consecutive after he won the second race of the Belle Isle doubleheader. After Road America, Power alternated runner-up finishes and victories from Iowa to Pocono. It was the best six-race stretch of Power's career with an average finish of 1.333.

Rahal finished third last year after starting sixth on the grid and he led two laps during a pit cycle. It was Rahal's second consecutive podium at Road America, as he finished third in the 2007, his only other IndyCar start at the track. Rahal is coming off three consecutive top five finishes and he is looking to match his career best streak of four consecutive top five finishes, which occurred in 2015.

Can Anyone Claw Back Into the Championship Picture?
This year's IndyCar season is much tighter than the year prior. Simon Pagenaud entered last year's Road America race with an 80-point lead over Dixon, and Hélio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden were the only other drivers within 100 points of the Frenchman. This year the top nine in the championship are covered by 72 points and 12 drivers are within 100 points of Dixon.

Josef Newgarden is only six points behind Rahal in the championship but he let valuable points slip through his hands at Texas after an ambitious move in turn four put him in the wall and the Tennessean has failed to finish in the top ten in three of the last five races after starting the season with four consecutive top ten finishes, including a victory at Barber.

Tony Kanaan is coming off an unpopular runner-up finish and he finished runner-up to Power last year at Road America, which was Kanaan's first podium on a natural-terrain road course since he finished third at Sonoma in 2008. Kanaan's last five runner-up finishes have come in the month of June. Only once has Kanaan won the race immediately after a runner-up finish. That was in 2004 when he won at Texas the race after he finished second in the Indianapolis 500. He sits eighth in the championship on 264 points.

Ten points behind Kanaan is Alexander Rossi. Rossi had a streak of four consecutive top ten finishes end at Texas after contact with Dixon and Kanaan caused Rossi to spin and hit the wall in turn four. That was Rossi's first finish outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career. Rossi had his first visit to Road America in an IndyCar hampered by a poor starting position after a red flag in his qualifying group and a front wing change during the race, leaving him with a 15th-place finish.

While Power and Rahal head to Road America on a high, James Hinchcliffe heads to Wisconsin on a slump. While he remains in the top ten in the championship, sitting on 232 points, he has fallen five spots since the Barber round and he has failed to finish in the top ten in five of the last six races with three retirements from the last four races. Before this stretch, Hinchcliffe had been running at the finish of 37 of the previous 38 races. He has never retired from three consecutive races in his IndyCar career.

Max Chilton and Ed Jones are just outside the top ten in the championship, three points and four points behind Hinchcliffe respectively. Chilton set fastest lap for last year's Road America race but he ran out of fuel at the end of one of his stints and finished two laps down in 20th. Jones ran in Indy Lights last year at Road America where he finished fourth and finished 13th after a collision with his then-Carlin teammate Félix Serrallés.

Road to Indy
While IndyCar was nose to the grind nose for the better part of two months, the three Road to Indy series have had an extended break but that all changes this weekend as for the first time since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend all three series will be at the same race track.

Kyle Kaiser left the Freedom 100 with the Indy Lights championship lead on 151 points. The Juncos Racing driver had scored four consecutive podiums, including a victory on the IMS road course prior to a ninth-place finish in the Freedom 100. Tenth in the Freedom 100 and 14 points behind Kaiser is Andretti Autosports' Nico Jamin. Colton Herta had a May to forget with finishes of 12th, tenth and 13th after a turn two, lap one accident in the Freedom 100. Herta dropped to third in the championship, trailing Kaiser by 22 points.

Belardi's Aaron Telitz and Carlin's Neil Alberico are tied on 122 points but Telitz, a Wisconsin-native, holds the tiebreaker with a victory and Telitz finished second in the Freedom 100. Alberico has five top five finishes in seven races this year. A point behind the pair of Americans is the Freedom 100 winner and Carlin's Matheus Leist. The Brazilian driver has finished on the podium in the last two races. Belardi's Santiago Urrutia finished outside the top ten in three of the first four races but has recovered with three consecutive top ten finishes and he is on 105 points, three ahead of Carlin's Zachary Claman DeMelo.

Shelby Blackstock sits on 90 points, four ahead of third-place finisher at the Freedom 100, Dalton Kellett. Nicolas Dapero is two points behind Kellett and six points ahead of Ryan Norman. Juan Piedrahita and Garth Rickards are tied on 68 points.

Last year at Road America, Zach Veach and Urrutia split the Indy Lights races while Telitz swept the Pro Mazda races.

Race one of the Indy Lights weekend will take place at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday and the second race will be at 9:45 a.m. ET on Sunday.

Pro Mazda hasn't been on track since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend in the middle of May and that weekend saw a change in the championship lead as Victor Franzoni swept the weekend and the Juncos Racing driver has 116 points, six ahead of Cape Motorsports' Anthony Martin, who finished second and fourth that weekend. Martin swept the U.S. F2000 races at Road America last year.

T.J. Fischer is the only driver other than Franzoni to stand on the podium in all four races this year but the Team Pelfrey driver sits on 91 points. Fischer's teammate Carlos Cunha Filho sits on 71 points and he finished third in the second race on the IMS road course, his first career podium finish. Nikita Lastochkin sits on 66 points, five ahead of Sting Ray Robb and Phillippe Denes.

Pro Mazda will race at 2:35 p.m. ET on Friday and at 3:05 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Oliver Askew has won five consecutive U.S. F2000 races and he finished second in the season opener, giving the Floridan 188 points and a 60-point lead over the Dutchman Rinus VeeKay, who has four podiums from the first six races. Kaylen Frederick has three podiums this season but a disqualification in the first IMS road course race cost him a second-place finish and he is 78 points behind Askew.

Parker Thompson sits on 100 points and he is still looking for his first victory this year. He had three victories at this time last year. Unfortunately, Dakota Dickerson, who is fifth in the championship, has had his season end prematurely with Newman Wachs Racing due to funding issues. Robert Megennis won the season opener at St. Petersburg but he has not stood on the podium since and he has 82 points.

The first U.S. F2000 race is scheduled for 12:45 p.m. ET on Friday with race two of the weekend scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Pirelli World Challenge
After three consecutive SprintX rounds, two of which took place during the month of May, Pirelli World Challenge returns with its first traditional sprint round since Long Beach in April.

Cadillac's Michael Cooper leads the overall GT Drivers' championship on 145 points, ten ahead of Patrick Long of Wright Motorsports Porsche and K-PAX Racing McLaren's Álvaro Parente. Parente is the top driver in the Sprint Drivers' championship as he has won two of the first three sprint races this season. Cooper's only victory this season was the lone SprintX race at Mosport after rain cancelled the second race, which will be made up at Circuit of the Americas on Labor Day weekend. Long is the only driver to have won a Sprint and SprintX race this season. While Cooper leads the overall GT Drivers' championship, he is eighth in the Sprint championship.

Parente sits on 70 points in the Sprint championship, Long is on 69 points and Alex Riberas is third on 54 points but he will miss this race after he missed the last two SprintX rounds due to damage suffered to his R. Ferri Motorsports Ferrari at Mosport. Parente's teammate Bryan Sellers sits on 50 points while Cadillac's Johnny O'Connell rounds out the top five on 43 points. GMG Racing Porsche driver Alec Udell is a surprise sixth in the championship on 41 points while TR3 Racing Ferrari's Daniel Mancinelli is tied with Cooper on 38 points but holds the tiebreaker with a fourth-place finish at Long Beach.

Ryan Dalziel and James Sofronas round out the top ten with the CRP Racing Mercedes driver Dalziel on 34 points and Sofronas on 26 points. Michael Schein is the top GT-A driver in the championship in 11th on 25 points. Ryan Eversley swept the Road America races last year and the Acura NSX GT3 driver is currently tied with Jon Fogarty of Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Porsche on 23 points.

The first GT race will be on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET and the Sunday race will take place at 10:55 a.m. ET.

This weekend features a unique sight for Pirelli World Challenge, as the GTS series will be joined by ten invited drivers from the TC series for two races this weekend.

Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro GT4 driver Lawson Aschenbach leads the GTS championship with 173 points but he has yet to win this season. He has seven podium finishes from the first eight races with four runner-up finishes and his worst finish has been fifth. Forty-six points behind Aschenbach is another driver yet to win this season, Martin Barkey. The Mantella Autosport KTM driver hasn't even stood on the podium this year but he does have four top five finishes.

Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche's Rodrigo Baptista is coming off sweeping the Lime Rock Park weekend and he is now third in the championship on 117 points, 13 points ahead of his teammate Nate Stacy, who finished second and third at Lime Rock Park. Anthony Mantella rounds out the top five in the championship on 100 points but he will not be at the Road America round. Ian James is coming off a second-place finish in the first Lime Rock Park race and the Panoz driver sits on 82 points, one point ahead of Tony Gaples, the top GTS amateur driver.

ANSA Motorsport swept the Virginia International Raceway weekend with Nico Jamin and Austin Versteeg, last year's IMSA Prototype Lites vice-champion will drive the #13 KTM this weekend. Jade Buford swept the Mosport weekend in the #45 SIN R1 GT4 for Racers Edge Motorsports but Chris Beaufait will be in that car this weekend.

Parker Chase and Harry Gottsacker return for the first time since the St. Petersburg weekend in Ginettas for Performance Motorsports Group. Wisconsin's own Jeff Courtney scored two runner-up finishes at VIR and he is back in a Maserati for JCR Motorsports.

The first combined GTS/TC race will follow the GT race on Saturday at 6:45 p.m. ET with the second race at 3:45 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Fast Facts
This will be the tenth IndyCar race to occur on June 25th and first since Iowa in 2011, which is Marco Andretti's most recent victory.

Five previous Road America races went over 50 laps in length, most recently the 2007 race was 53 laps in length.

The longest Road America race in distance was in 2002, which was 60 laps and covered 242.88 miles. Cristiano da Matta won that race on his way to the championship.

Will Power's victory last year was Team Penske's and Chevrolet's first Road America victory since Paul Tracy won at the track in 1993.

Honda has not won at Road America since Paul Tracy won with Team Green in 2000.

The last six Road America races have been won by six different drivers (da Matta, Bruno Junqueira, Tagliani, A.J. Allmendinger, Sébastien Bourdais and Power). Power is the only driver in this year's field with a Road America IndyCar victory.

Esteban Gutiérrez returns to the #18 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing after skipping the Texas round. He won at Road America in Formula BMW USA in 2007. Alexander Rossi won the other Formula BMW USA race that weekend. Mexican Héctor Rebaque won the inaugural IndyCar race at Road America in 1982 for Forsythe Racing. It was Rebaque's final IndyCar start.

Canadians have won more at Road America than any other IndyCar track with six victories from four drivers (Uncle Jacques Villeneuve in 1985, Tracy in 1993 and 2000, Jacques Villeneuve in 1994-95 and Tagliani in 2004).

Mikhail Aleshin had finished in the top five in the tenth race of his prior two full-time seasons. He finished second in the second Houston race in 2014 and fifth last year at Iowa.

J.R. Hildebrand won at Road America in the 2006 U.S. F2000 season. It was the final race of the season that year and Hildebrand comfortably took the title over Dane Cameron.

Carlos Muñoz finished tenth last year at Road America. A.J. Foyt Racing entries' average a finish of 17.7 at Road America with the team having only two top ten finishes at the track. A.J. Foyt finished tenth at the track in 1988 and Mike Groff finished eighth in 1991.

Charlie Kimball enters Road America with his best finish this season being eighth. Kimball has had at least one top five finish in the first ten races of the season every year in the DW12-era.

Conor Daly finished seventh at Texas, his first top ten finish of the season and first career top ten finish on an oval. Daly's finishing position has improved over the last four races from 30th at Indianapolis to 22nd at Belle Isle to 12th in the second Belle Isle race to seventh at Belle Isle.

Spencer Pigot has not failed to finish in the top ten in consecutive starts this season.

The average starting position for a Road America winner is 3.69 with a median of third.

The pole-sitter has won the last two Road America races. Never has the pole-sitter won three consecutive Road America races.

Only five of the previous 26 Road America races have been won from outside the top five.

Only once has a Road America winner started outside the top ten. That was Alex Tagliani, who won from 13th starting position in 2004.

The average number of lead changes in a Road America race is 4.08 with a median of four.

The average number of cautions in a Road America race is 2.2 with a median of two.

Possible Milestones:
Scott Dixon needs to lead 47 laps to reach the 5,000 laps led milestone.

Marco Andretti needs to lead 10 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

Predictions
I am at the point where I am just going to pick Scott Dixon until he wins a race so Scott Dixon gets his first victory of the season, extends his championship lead but has Will Power on his coattails most of the race. Ryan Hunter-Reay finally has a good race. Spencer Pigot has another race where he works his way into the top ten after failing to advance from the first round of qualifying. At least one podium finisher uses a four-stop strategy. Dale Coyne Racing gets one car into the second round of qualifying. Sleeper: J.R. Hildebrand.

Musings From the Weekend: Growth or Spreading the Weight Around?

The final weekend of spring saw Porsche win at Le Mans in a come from behind fashion. Aston Martin capitalized on a Corvette flat tire. Elsewhere in the world of motorsports, there was a hectic finish in World Superbike at Misano and an Italian ended British dominance in his homeland. Team Penske's quest to take over the world continues. DTM saw a first time winner who also became a first time championship leader. There was a photo finish in Michigan. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Growth or Spreading the Weight Around?
There were a few new names at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this May. Juncos Racing made its IndyCar debut with two cars driven by Spencer Pigot and Sebastián Saavedra. Harding Racing, a team that came from nothing, made its debut and for its first race in any series the team finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 with Gabby Chaves. Michael Shank Racing finally made it to the Speedway five years after being left out in the cold during the start of the DW12-era in a partnership with Andretti Autosport to run Jack Harvey.

The new life in this series has rejuvenated the IndyCar faithful and some believe things are starting to improve for the series after watching over a half-dozen teams shut their doors since the DW12-era started in 2012.  The series started 2017 down to eight team owners as KV Racing closed its doors after just over a decade of operation. Harding Racing has even come back for its second outing and it finished fifth at Texas. Juncos Racing has made its intention to be in IndyCar in the very near future. Shank has done the Indianapolis 500 and while his desire to run IndyCar to full-time may have waned since 2012, the man hasn't said no to full-time expansion.

However, in light of the number of IndyCar teams increasing, the question has to be asked if IndyCar will be growing with these additions or will the series be spreading the weight around?

On paper, it would be growth should everything else remain consistent. If all eight current teams stay on the grid and Juncos, Harding and Shank enter than eight would become 11 but motorsports is a little trickier than that. It isn't a sports league. It isn't the National Hockey League, which is seeing the Vegas Golden Knights become the 31st franchise after 16 seasons at 30 teams. Motorsports has to be more complicated than that.

It has been very difficult for the current IndyCar teams, as they have had to take on an increased burden just to keep the grid at a respectable size the last two or three seasons. Since the start of the DW12-era, Penske has added a car, Foyt has become a two-car team, Ed Carpenter Racing has become a two-car team and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has become a two-car team. While four teams have increased their operations, the grid size has shrunk since the first race of the DW12-era at St. Petersburg in 2012 from 26 entries to 21 at most races this season as the likes of Dragon Racing, Panther Racing, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, HVM Racing and KV Racing have all left the series. Most of those teams died. Dragon Racing moved to Formula E. Dreyer & Reinbold are an Indianapolis 500-only operation. And let's not forget to mention that Bryan Herta Autosport merged with Andretti Autosport.

New teams coming into IndyCar doesn't necessarily mean bolstering the grid and giving a bunch of young faces chomping at the bit to be full-time an opportunity to show what they got. If anything, it will just ease the strain on the existing teams. This is also forgetting to mention that any grid expansion is limited to the amount of full-time engine leases Chevrolet and Honda want to give out. Chevrolet could give out a few more, as there are only eight full-time Chevrolets but Honda is pretty much tapped out at 13 full-time cars.

If Juncos comes in with two cars and Harding and Shank are both single-car operations it could mean the three four-car armadas at Penske, Ganassi and Andretti each decreasing to three-car teams, Chevrolet increasing to 10 full-time entries and Honda decreasing to a dozen and the grid growing by one full-time entry despite three new teams joining IndyCar full-time.

Some are probably disheartened by the thought of three teams coming in meaning only one more car on the grid but the current economic state of the IndyCar doesn't allow for much than that. It is expensive to sponsor race cars and currently IndyCar isn't a playground companies want to play at. Plus, with the limited engine leases the grid isn't going to explode to 28 full-time cars overnight.

You are probably upset at the thought of IndyCar only having 22 full-time cars even if the number of teams goes from eight to 11 but I would argue small growth is what the series should be aiming for. You don't want rapid expansion and in two years have teams out of money and closing their doors and end up right back where the series is currently or perhaps in a worse shape. There were 26 cars from 15 teams on the grid for the first race of the DW12-era. You can't expect to get back to that number with 11 teams. IndyCar needs to add one or two teams at a time and get to 22 full-time entries first and stabilize the series to make it a more enticing place for teams to come race.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about what happened at Le Mans but did you know...

Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Cup race at Michigan. Denny Hamlin won the Grand National series race by 0.012 seconds over William Byron. John Hunter Nemechek won the Truck race from Gateway.

René Rast won the DTM race from Hungaroring, his first career DTM victory and that victory gave him the championship lead. Paul di Resta won the qualifying race on Saturday.

Tom Sykes and Marco Melandri split the World Superbike races from Misano. Sykes started the final lap in fourth place before Melandri fell and Chaz Davies fell with three corners to go and fell right into the path of Jonathan Rea. Kenan Sofuoglu won the World Supersport race, his fourth consecutive victory and he now trails Lucas Mahias by five points in the championship despite Sofuoglu missing the first two races and retiring in his first start of the season.

Team Penske swept the Supercars races from Hidden Valley Raceway with Fabian Coulthard taking race one and Scott McLaughlin victorious in race two.

Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar returns to Road America for the second consecutive year.
All three Road to Indy series and Pirelli World Challenge join IndyCar at Road America.
MotoGP heads to its Mecca in the Dutch TT from Assen.
Formula One runs the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the first time in Baku.
NASCAR runs its first road course race of the season at Sonoma.
The Blancpain Endurance Series runs a 1000km race at Circuit Paul Ricard.
The World Touring Car Championship run around some streets in Portugal.

I Can't Come Up With a Word For the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans

You thought it couldn't get any crazier than 2016 at Le Mans. The overall leading Toyota dying on the penultimate lap and coming to a halt just after starting the final lap and being passed Porsche moments later.

This year somehow found a way to top that. All six LMP1 cars broke down at some point. Two Toyotas died within the span of 90 minutes in the middle of the night while most of Europe slept. The #1 Porsche was on top and it appeared it was another year of Porsche reliability proving to be enough. During breakfast, André Lotterer had a 13-lap lead over an LMP2 car, the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca-Gibson. There was room to breathe but it wouldn't be that simple.

The #1 Porsche died after 20 hours and just like that the top four cars overall were LMP2 entries with the two Rebellion Racing Orecas and a Signatech Alpine following the leading Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca and the #2 Porsche was two laps down, fifth overall.

It proved to be enough time but you could never be certain it would be enough. The #2 Porsche took the overall lead heading into the final hour and Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber would win overall by a lap, the 19th victory for Porsche and third consecutive overall victory for Porsche. Hartley was the only Porsche LMP1 driver without an overall Le Mans victory. Bernhard had won with Audi seven years ago. Bamber won two years ago. Bamber and Hartley become the first pair of New Zealanders to win overall since Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren won in the Ford GT in 1966.

The #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca-Gibson of Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent were able to hang on and finish second overall and take the LMP2 class victory. It is a career-best overall Le Mans finish for Jarvis, who finished third overall three times as an Audi factory driver. The #13 Rebellion Racing Oreca-Gibson of Nelson Piquet, Jr., Mathias Beche and David Heinemeier Hansson finished third overall, second in class with the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca-Gibson of David Cheng, Tristan Gommendy and Alex Brundle finishing fourth overall and third in class.

Toyota would get a car to the finish with the #8 TS050 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima, the trio who had an overall victory slip away from them last year, coming home ninth overall.

If the LMP1 vs. LMP2 overall battle wasn't enough for you over than the GTE-Pro battle must have put you over the top. The #63 Corvette of Jordan Taylor and #97 Aston Martin of Jonathan Adam were covered by less than a second for most of the final 25 minutes. Adam made a lunge up the inside of Taylor at Arnage with just over five minutes to go but Adam went wide on exit and made contact with Taylor. Taylor started the penultimate lap with a 1.5 second lead and then he blew the second chicane on the Mulsanne straight and the left front tire was punctured.

Adam took the lead in the Ford chicane before the start of the final lap and the Scotsman would get the #97 Aston Martin home first in class giving Adam his first career Le Mans class victory, Daniel Serra a victory on his Le Mans debut and Darren Turner his first class victory since 2009. Taylor wasn't able to hold on to second. Harry Tincknell overtook Taylor on the final lap and while Ford doesn't go back-to-back, Tincknell, Andy Priaulx and Pipo Derani get second in class and the #67 Ford GT is looking good in the GT World Endurance Drivers' Championship. Taylor limped home in third in GTE-Pro. Jan Magnussen still hasn't won a class at Le Mans since 2009 and Antonio García since 2011.

The one class that seemed to never be in doubt was GTE-Am. The #84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari never put a wheel wrong. Robert Smith and Dries Vanthoor get Le Mans victories on both their Le Mans debuts. Will Stevens gets a class victory in his second Le Mans appearance, his first in a GT class. Stevens finished second in LMP2 last year. Two laps behind Smith, Stevens and Vanthoor was the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron, Aaron Scott and Marco Cioci. Scuderia Corsa made it a clean sweep of the GTE-Am podium for Ferrari with the #62 Ferrari of Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler and Cooper MacNiel, the only all-American line-up in this year's race, finishing third. Bell and Sweedler have finished on the GTE-Am podium the last three consecutive years.

I wrote that I couldn't come up with a word for this year's race. I think this year's race could be revolutionary. Porsche won but the LMP1 class appearances to be dying. Porsche seems to be satisfied. Toyota seems to be worn out. Both seem to unwilling to spend any more money. While the two factory efforts appear willing to say goodbye, the LMP2 class was faster than ever. This year's class winner completed nine laps, 76.221 miles more than last year's class winner. Twenty-one of 25 LMP2 starters took the checkered flag.

I am not sure the LMP2 class is about to step up and take the baton as the leading class as LMP1 falls to pieces. Now that Porsche is at 19 overall Le Mans victories, they are likely going to want to get to 20. Should Porsche come back for 2018 and get its 20th victory, what will 2019 look like? The recent months have seen a slight boom in privateer interest in LMP1. ByKolles Racing appears will still be around and Ginetta, SMP Racing and KCMG have expressed interest in privateer LMP1 programs, the former two have programs in the works. If there is one thing 2017 has showed us is that winning Le Mans doesn't require spending an unfathomable amount of money and maybe it starts a trend for years to come.

The 86th 24 Hours of Le Mans is a year away but we exit the 85th edition with loads of uncertainty surrounding this race and the entire FIA World Endurance Championship. How different will this race look in a year's time?