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| IndyCar returns to the low banks and blue walls of Milwaukee |
The antepenultimate round of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season and penultimate oval of the season takes place at the Milwaukee Mile. Will Power took the championship lead at Mid-Ohio with a sixth place finish while his Team Penske teammate Hélio Castroneves suffered a throttle issue dropping him from fifteenth to nineteenth. The Australian holds a four point edge over the Brazilian. Three time Milwaukee winner Ryan Hunter-Reay is third in the championship, 63 points behind Power. Hunter-Reay has won the last two Milwaukee races. Simon Pagenaud is a point behind Hunter-Reay, fourth in the championship.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins Sunday August 17 at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag at 3:45 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, David Hobbs, Townsend Bell, Kevin Lee, Kelli Stavast, Marty Snider and Robin Miller.
Championship Contenders at Milwaukee
Will Power scored his best career Milwaukee finish last year when he rounded out the podium behind Ryan Hunter-Reay and Hélio Castroneves. Prior to last year's podium, the Australian had only one top ten in his prior four Milwaukee starts. He finished fourth in 2011. Despite only two top tens in five starts, Power's average finish at Milwaukee is 8.8.
Hélio Castroneves has been snake-bitten at Milwaukee. After many races with great cars running at the front of the field, the Brazilian has failed to make it to victory lane. While averaging a starting position of 6.3, his average finish is 12.3 on the mile oval. His second place finish last year was his first podium at Milwaukee since his first IndyCar appearance at the track in 1998. Qualifying at the front has been a curse for the Brazilian. Castroneves has started on the front row six times at Milwaukee. His best finish when starting on the front row is ninth and average finish in those six races is 17.83.
Ryan Hunter-Reay leads all active drivers at Milwaukee with three victories at the track. However, outside those three victories, Hunter-Reay's next best Milwaukee finish is twelfth. His average Milwaukee finish is 11.125 and he has led 399 laps in his career at Milwaukee. His average starting position at Milwaukee is 8.5 and has started in the top ten in his last three Milwaukee appearances.
Simon Pagenaud has only two starts at Milwaukee. He started seventh and ninth and ended thirteenth and twelfth in those races. The Frenchman has finished a lap down in both his Milwaukee starts.
Andretti Autosport Short Track Dominance
If Scott Dixon owns Mid-Ohio, Andretti Autosport has a conglomerate in short tracks. Michael Andretti's team has won seven consecutive short track races and eight of the last nine short track races. The lone loss for Andretti Autosport being Milwaukee 2011 when Dario Franchitti took the victory and the highest finishing Andertti driver was Danica Patrick in fifth.
The eight of nine streak dates back to 2010 when there was only one short track on the 2010 schedule. The lone short track was Iowa and Tony Kanaan picked up the victory after Franchitti suffered a mechanical failure late in the race. Marco Andretti began the seven consecutive short track winning streak the following year at Iowa with Ryan Hunter-Reay winning the controversial wet race at New Hampshire later that season. Hunter-Reay would go on to sweep the short track races in 2012 with Hunter-Reay winning a second consecutive race at Milwaukee last year and James Hinchcliffe getting his first oval victory at Iowa.
Last month at Iowa, Andretti Autosport and Honda struggled most of the night while Chevrolet, more specifically Team Penske and Ganassi Racing dominated, with the teams combining for the top five positions and six of the top seven at one point. Andretti Autosport benefitted from a late caution, allowing Hunter-Reay to get on new tires and chase down Kanaan for the victory. That strategy probably won't work a second time. If Andretti Autosport want to continue their streak, they are going to have to step up their game from a month ago.
Looking For Their First Win of 2014
Speaking of Tony Kanaan, the Brazilian is a two-time winner at Milwaukee and one of six former Milwaukee winners in this race (Hunter-Reay, Montoya, Bourdais, Briscoe, Dixon are the others). He has four podiums this year but has yet to get to the top step of the podium and sits ninth in the championship. In fourteen Milwaukee starts, Kanaan has four podiums, six top fives and nine top tens.
James Hinchcliffe won three races in 2013 and through fifteen races in 2014 has only one podium and three top fives. The Canadian has a respectable track record on short tracks with a win at Iowa and seven top tens in eight career short track starts. In three Milwaukee starts, Hinchcliffe has finished sixth, third and fifth. Canadians have won five times at Milwaukee. Paul Tracy has four Milwaukee victories with his last being in 2005. Greg Moore scored his first career victory at Milwaukee in 1997.
Takuma Sato might be the most fluid driver in IndyCar but if there is one track the Japanese driver has been consistently quick and toward the front, it is Milwaukee. In three Milwaukee starts, Sato has finished eighth, twentieth and seventh. Last year, Sato charged to the front from fifteenth on the grid and led a race high 109 laps but lost time in lapped traffic and, after nearly brushing the wall, got caught in the pit lane when a caution came out for an Ana Beatriz accident, putting him a lap down.
Marco Andretti started on pole last year at Milwaukee but had a poor pit stop and engine failure end a promising run. Andretti has had decent rides at Milwaukee but has rarely had the finish translate that. He has two top tens in seven starts. He has two poles at Milwaukee and has finished twentieth and twenty-first in those races. Andretti started the season off strong and while he has eight top tens in fifteen races, his best finish since the Indianapolis 500 is eighth in Houston 1 and Toronto 2. He is currently tenth in the championship but will need better results if he hopes to finish in the top ten for a second consecutive year.
Indy Lights
Gabby Chaves has a firm grasp on the Indy Lights championship as they will have their penultimate round of 2014 at Milwaukee. Chaves has won the other two oval races this season having won the Freedom 100 and Pocono 100. The Colombian has an 18-point lead over Jack Harvey who swept the Mid-Ohio weekend two weeks ago. Harvey jumped Zach Veach with his two victories and Veach is third in the championship, trailing Chaves by 24 points. Matthew Brabham is 106 points behind Chaves with Luiz Razia rounding out the top five, 118 points back. The Indy Lights race will take place at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday August 17th.
Pro Mazda
Like Indy Lights, Pro Mazda has their penultimate round of the 2014 championship this weekend at Milwaukee. American Spencer Pigot holds a 14 point lead over Canada's Scott Hargrove in the championship standings. A distant third in the championship, 73 points back is Neil Alberico. Shelby Blackstock is 85 points back. Both Alberico and Blackstock are looking for their first wins of 2014. Two-time winner in 2014, Garrett Grist is fifth in the championship, 87 points behind Pigot. The Pro Mazda race will take place at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday August 16th.
Fun Facts
This will be the 112th Milwaukee IndyCar race.
This will be the first race on August 17th since 2003 when Sam Hornish, Jr. won at Kentucky.
This will be the third Milwaukee race to occur on August 17th. The last was in 1975 when Mike Mosley won from sixth on the grid. It was Mosley's first of three Milwaukee victories. Al Unser won at Milwaukee on August 17, 1969 from pole position with his brother Bobby finishing second, the only other car on the lead lap.
The pole sitter has won at Milwaukee 31 times with the most recent occurrence being Dario Franchitti in 2011.
Twelve times has a Milwaukee winner come from outside the top ten on the grid. The most recent time was 2008 when Ryan Briscoe won from eleventh on the grid.
The furthest back a winner has come from at Milwaukee is 25th when Mike Mosley was granted a promoter's option and added to the field on June 7, 1981. Mosley led the final 45 laps and won by a lap over Kevin Cogan.
The average starting position for a Milwaukee winner is 4.49.
Ed Carpenter's average finish at Milwaukee is 13.33 with two top tens in nine starts and his best finish being seventh in 2007.
In his first four oval races, Mikhail Aleshin has finished 21st, 7th, 7th and 21st.
Scott Dixon needs to lead 183 laps to become the eighth driver to reach the 4,500 laps led club.
Will Power needs to leads 138 laps to become the twenty-first driver to join the 2,500 laps led club.
Juan Pablo Montoya needs to lead 152 laps to become the twenty-third driver to join the 2,000 laps led club.
Ryan Briscoe needs to lead 65 laps to become the twenty-seventh driver to join the 1,500 laps led club.
More facts can always be found at the Telemetry Center.
Predictions
Ryan Hunter-Reay keeps his championship hopes alive and gets his third consecutive Milwaukee victory. Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan give him a run for his money though. Marco Andretti gets his first top five since Indianapolis. Juan Pablo Montoya will be the top Penske driver. No rookies will finish in the top ten. No Frenchmen will finish in the top ten. Sleeper: Graham Rahal.
