1. Will Power has finally won the IndyCar championship. He did it by playing it smart in the final race. He didn't panic. He didn't try to stand the car on it's bloody ear. He drove an intelligent and safe race and methodically worked his way toward the front. Three victories, seven podiums, eight top fives, fifteen top tens and four pole positions for Power in 2014. After so much heart break, Power finally joins the ranks of Foyt, Andretti, Unser, Mears, Mansell, Zanardi, Hornish, Bourdais, Franchitti, Dixon and Hunter-Reay as IndyCar champion.
2. Tony Kanaan picked up his first victory with Ganassi Racing and his seventeenth career victory. It was an up and down year for Kanaan. He very well could have won three or four races in 2014 but at least he got one. He became the eleventh different winner in 2014 meaning this season ties 2000 and 2001 for most different winners in a season. IndyCar is in one of it's most competitive eras, now if only people can acknowledge that.
3. Second place vaulted Scott Dixon to third in the championship. After winning a title, anything but a repeat is a disappointed. Dixon ended 2014 strong, similar to Power ending 2013 on a very high note. Ganassi won three races in the month of August after not winning any from March through July. Let's see how they carry this momentum to 2015.
4. Ed Carpenter comes home in third and the #20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet comes home 8th place in the entrant championship. A very great season for Carpenter and Mike Conway. With the team merging with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing in 2014, you wonder if they can possibly better three victories and the Indianapolis 500 pole position. We'll have to wait and see.
5. Juan Pablo Montoya ends his return season in IndyCar in fourth place in the race and the championship. This is by far better than I thought Montoya would do. I expected him to be around tenth, a few top fives and that's it but he had a jaw-dropping comeback to open-wheel racing.
6. James Hinchcliffe got the result he needed to end 2014. A fifth-place finish. Hopefully the Canadian can take this result and turn it into momentum for 2015. After three victories last year, one podium is a big disappointment and he will finished twelfth in the championship.
7. At the beginning of the year I though Takuma Sato would be fired before we reached Fontana. He wasn't and finished sixth, a week after finishing fourth at Sonoma. I'm not sure if Sato is ever going to be the guy, especially since he is 37 years old. He ended 2014 with two really good results but come 2015 he could be back to a pair of 17th place finishes despite possibly being one of the fastest five drivers on the track.
8. Ryan Briscoe's season ends with a seventh place finish. Ten top tens for Briscoe but only one top five in 2014. Briscoe is a decent driver but he needs to take that next step, especially when Kanaan and Dixon are finishing first and second.
9. Carlos Muñoz captures the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year by finishing eighth in the championship with a eighth place finish in the race. He didn't win but he held his own with his veteran teammates. This wasn't unexpected considering what he did in one-offs last year and the team he is with.
10. A top ten for Josef Newgarden to round out the year. He will be entering his fourth season in 2015 and with SFHR merging with ECR, the expectations should go up for the Tennessean. He will have full-time teammates, more resources and possibly be driving a Chevrolet, which won the final six races in 2014. All the pieces are in place for him to break into victory lane in 2015, he just has to talk advantage and seize the day.
11. Marco Andretti misses out on a top ten in the race but finishes ninth in the championship. I am sure he expected more after finishing fifth in the championship last year. I think Andretti Autosport and Honda will all be going to the drawing board to figure out what they have to improve on after being outscored 12-6 in the win column.
12. Hélio Castroneves drove an Hélio Castroneves-type season. He's not going to win four or five races. He isn't going to dominant week in and week out. He is going to finish fourth, fifth or sixth and bring the car home in one piece. Will that be enough to ever get Castroneves a championship though? Let's not forget to mention he ended 2014 with five consecutive finishes outside the top ten.
13. It wasn't Simon Pagenaud's night. He dealt with handling issues all night and finished twentieth. It was a great season for Pagenaud, unfortunately he will finish fifth in the final championship standings. He is still a free agent. Will he stay or will he go. He has made Schmidt Peterson Hamitlon a formidable championship contender and if you throw in Ed Carpenter's team, those team each have shown they have what it takes to compete with the big three.
14. Remember last year when nine cars finished and only five were on the lead lap? This year, 20 cars finished and ten were on the lead lap. The lone retirement was Carlos Huertas for driver illness (to be honest, I think he was out of his comfort zone, did 21 laps and ended his season early). Got to give Chevrolet, Honda and the teams credit after the attrition last year. Also note, one caution tonight for a simple spin by Ryan Hunter-Reay who did a great job keeping the car from hitting anything. Only 18 cautions on ovals in 2014
15. Look for a full recap of yesterday and the IndyCar season tomorrow. Look for team-by-team reviews in the days to come. It's nearly 2:00 a.m. ET. Congratulations Will Power. Congratulations Roger Penske. Congratulations IndyCar. It was a great season. I am sad it had to end so soon.
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