Track Walk: Fontana 2012

The final and championship deciding round of the 2012 Izod IndyCar Series season will take place at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Will Power leads by seventeen points over Ryan Hunter-Reay heading into the five hundred mile, Saturday night race. Hunter-Reay is coming off a win at Baltimore and has won the last two oval races. This is the first race at Fontana since 2005.

Already Been Busy
Testing happened on Wednesday in California and Ryan Hunter-Reay had an accident in turn two during the day. He said the accident occurred on a mock qualifying run. He was not hurt. Scott Dixon had an engine failure and it appears he will have to take another grid penalty this week. EJ Viso also had an accident during the evening part of the test, just like Hunter-Reay in turn two. Ryan Briscoe made contact with the wall at the end of the session. According to Marshall Pruett of SPEED, unofficially Dario Franchitti was fastest during the day at 214.3MPH, followed by Power at 214.1MPH and Hunter-Reay was third at 214MPH. At night, his teammate Scott Dixon was fastest at 215.861MPH, followed by Marco Andretti (215.779MPH), Power (215.761MPH), Briscoe (215.133MPH) and Josef Newgarden (214.948MPH).

The AJ Foyt Oval Championship
I know the award is not taken that serious, many don't even realize it exists but the AJ Foyt Oval Champion will be crowned at the end of the Fontana race. Currently, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan are tied a top the oval standings with 136 points with Hunter-Reay owning the tiebreaker. 7 other drivers (Hinchcliffe, Castroneves, Wilson, Dixon, Briscoe, Rahal, Franchitti) could win the oval title. Marco Andretti and Simon Pagenaud could tie for the oval title but would have to score maximum points this weekend and would still lose the tiebreaker to Hunter-Reay.

Last Chance
If a driver wants a win in 2012, this is their final opportunity and for some drivers heading into free agency, this would be a great bargaining chip. Pagenaud and Hinchcliffe are still looking for their first career wins, Kanaan is looking for his first win since Iowa 2010 and a win would lock up the oval title for himself, Franchitti could sweep the five hundred mile races this year, Rahal is looking to make up for Texas, could somebody new step up and take a surprise win to end the season? Meanwhile other teams are just looking for good finishes. Newgarden, while being fast, has yet to score a top ten, Ed Carpenter is looking for another good oval finish, Andretti should want to end what has been a lackluster season on a high note and Simona de Silvestro, HVM and John Judd hopes the Lotus can finish the season by taking the checkered flag (granted probably a few laps down) and not in the garage.

Other Notes
Sebastien Saavedra is back for his third race of 2012. This is an identical tire to the one used at Texas. Dario Franchitti's best finish on an oval, other than his win at Indianapolis is fourteenth. The Lights champion will be decided on Saturday as will the U.S. F2000 champion. Either Tristan Vautier and Esteban Guerrieri will be Lights champion, while Matthew Brabham looks to hang on and hold off Spencer Pigot in U.S. F2000. While the Lights title will be decided at Fontana, the U.S. F2000 will be determined at Virginia International Raceway as the series is with the American Le Mans Series this weekend.

Prediction
I hope this comes down to final laps and both Hunter-Reay and Power are in the top five, both pushing hard for the title. There are reasons why I would like to see Hunter-Reay win the title, there are reasons why I would like to see Power win the title. Who do I think will win? Hunter-Reay averages 15.5 points more than Power on ovals. Can Hunter-Reay get that 15.5 points needed and win on tiebreaker? He sure can, will he though? I think he will make the comeback on bring home the title. Marco Andretti will get a top ten to wrap up his 2012 season, Dario Franchitti will be a bigger factor for the race win, Hinchcliffe has a good day. Sleepers: JR Hildebrand and Justin Wilson.