Donny Schatz won the Knoxville Nationals for the tenth time and Kyle Larson finished second. It didn't rain in Austria, which meant Cal Crutchlow got to race. Two part-timers got victories this weekend in NASCAR-sanctioned races. Pirelli World Challenge ran the penultimate Sprint X round of the season at Utah Motorsports Campus. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Scripting 2017-18 IndyCar Silly Season
This is the third time I have done this. Every year we reach the point of IndyCar silly season where a handful of seats will be switching and now we are waiting to see where the pieces will fall. However, most of the time it feels like divine intervention should come into play and give a little direction over who goes where in IndyCar.
It seems every other year we say we are looking at a silly season that has never been seen before and then it ends up being a pretty tame period and the new season starts. This year feels different to the point it might make many uncomfortable. Currently, there are more open seats than filled seats and I doubt we will be opening presents on Christmas morning this year knowing the entire IndyCar grid is set for the upcoming season. This feels like it is going to be the year where at least one household name in IndyCar will be on the outside and perhaps it could be as many as two.
Here are the drivers we feel certain will still be in the same seat in 2018: Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Sébastien Bourdais and Ed Carpenter will have some type of seat within the Ed Carpenter Racing stable.
Other than that it is a game of musical chairs that is more of a race car driver battle royal with as many as three-dozen drivers from every corner of this godforsaken planet trying to fill at most 15 seats. Where do we begin when it comes to scripting an IndyCar Silly Season fantasy? Do we start at the top? Do we get the bottom out of the way? This whole process is absurd. Remember, this isn't fact. This isn't what is going to happen. This is a pure fanatical exercise to stretch the mind's creativity.
Let's start with someone who I think should stay put and that is James Hinchcliffe. The Canadian has a good thing going at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and I don't think there is another paying option out there better than the one he currently has. He and the team have won races together; let's not ruin a good thing. As for his teammate, if Arrow Electronics is serious and is going to step up to fund two cars than I think the best option would be to reunite the 2011 Newman-Haas Racing duo and bring in Oriol Servià to team with Hinchcliffe. Servià turned 43 years old in July so he has more days behind him than ahead but Servià will have valuable knowledge with the new universal aero kit as he is one of the two test drivers. I think Servià could be one of the top five available drivers this offseason because of that experience he brings to a team. As for more cars at SPM, let's stick at two for now and see where other pieces fall.
Let's shift to another Honda team, Dale Coyne Racing to be precise. Bourdais will return. After all this team went through to get the band back together from Bourdais' championship-winning days at Newman-Haas with engineer Craig Hampson and chief mechanic Todd Phillips joining the team, Bourdais isn't bolting and I bet he has something to prove after the very successful start to this season before his accident in Indianapolis 500 qualifying. His teammate is another story. Ed Jones was the darling of the first half of the season but ever since he finished third in the Indianapolis 500 he has fallen to back earth a bit and has looked like a rookie. Dale Coyne Racing isn't known for consistent driver lineups and keeping one driver for a second consecutive season is a feat in of itself. Keeping two drivers for another season would be astonishing. The problem for Jones is Coyne will hire anybody from anywhere. Jones doesn't have to try and only beat an Indy Lights driver hoping to breakthrough. He could lose out to a Danish F4 driver or a Japanese Formula Three driver.
I think it would be best for Coyne if he kept Jones for a second year and allowed him a full year of tutelage from Bourdais, something the young Emirati driver lost out on this year after the Frenchmen was hurt in May.
Two teams down and not much change. Maybe this silly season won't be so crazy after all but we are only getting started.
Let's jump over to a Chevrolet team and Ed Carpenter Racing to be specific. J.R. Hildebrand's first year with the team hasn't been great but the entire team was going through a shake up heading into 2017 as Newgarden left for Penske and engineer Jeremy Milless left for Andretti Autosport. I think Hildebrand, as well as everyone else on that team, deserves at least a second season. As for the #20 Chevrolet, Spencer Pigot got his second year of road/street course duty and he has been impressive even in races where the results haven't been there. Pigot has made passes most drivers don't even dare attempt and he is ready for a full season. That full season opportunity should come at Ed Carpenter Racing. I don't want to say Pigot is Josef Newgarden 2.0 but he is something special that the big dogs are not ready to embrace. That makes ECR the perfect place for Pigot to show what he has got.
As for Carpenter, this is the time to step aside and only attempt the Indianapolis 500 or try to put a program together for all the ovals. Having two cars going for the championship will be best for the team and perhaps it can get the team back to championship contention.
So three teams down and still not much change. Let's dive into the deep end then.
We all have heard the rumor by now that Andretti Autosport might be returning to Chevrolet for the 2018 season. I think the team has to make the move because Chevrolet is offering a favorable deal that would financially benefit the team. It can't turn that down. A switch to Chevrolet means Takuma Sato is out as well as Alexander Rossi, as he apparently is tied to Honda. Andretti Autosport won't be down to just Hunter-Reay and Andretti. The team will have three cars and this sets up nicely for a three-car lineup with Tony Kanaan returning to the team for one final go at it. All three were teammates in 2010 and they finished sixth, seventh and eighth in the championship with Kanaan leading Hunter-Reay and Andretti.
With Kanaan returning to Andretti Autosport, what does that mean for Chip Ganassi Racing? This is where I think things get interesting. Dixon will be there but Max Chilton will be walking. The Brit has ties to Carlin but more on that in a moment. If Chilton is going, Ganassi has to keep Kimball and not lose that money, even if it is less than Kimball has brought in past seasons. I don't think Ganassi would drop to two entries for 2018 and while it loses Chilton and Kanaan, Ganassi brings in Felix Rosenqvist. The Swede has won everywhere he has gone (he still has a half dozen races to get a win in Super Formula and he didn't win in DTM, but I digress). He is the future for Chip Ganassi Racing.
As for Chilton, he is going to be the one to bring Carlin to the big time that is IndyCar. How is he going to do that all on his own? He isn't going to do it by bringing Kimball along with him from Ganassi. Carlin is going to need an engine deal to get onto the grid and there is only one driver who swings a ball and chain that big. That is Takuma Sato. Carlin signs Sato, reuniting the pairing that won the 2001 British Formula Three championship and the 2001 Macau Grand Prix and Carlin has a Honda engine deal that allows it to enter IndyCar.
Quick recap: SPM keeps Hinchcliffe and adds Servià, no change at DCR, only change at ECR is Pigot full-time and Carpenter in a third part-time entry, Andretti Autosport to Chevrolet and Kanaan enters while the last two Indianapolis 500 winners leave, Ganassi keeps Dixon and Kimball and adds Rosenqvist, Carlin completes its rise to IndyCar with help from Chilton and Honda's boy Sato.
That leaves Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Team Penske and A.J. Foyt Racing.
With Andretti leaving Honda and Ganassi dropping a car, that leaves a few open Honda engine leases and it finally allows Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to expand its operation. With Rossi still hanging out there, an all-American two-car line up seems fitting for RLLR. A Rossi-Rahal partnership seems like a tag team capable of overthrowing the IndyCar overlords of Penske, Ganassi and Andretti.
This year has not been easy for A.J. Foyt Racing but after cleaning house coming into 2017, you can't expect cleaning house at the end of 2017 to be the answer to the problems. The team has two capable drivers in Carlos Muñoz and Conor Daly and both have got to get another season.
On to Penske. With the end to Hélio Castroneves' full-time IndyCar career seeming eminent, it appears Penske will be set to shrink to three cars with three strong drivers in Pagenaud, Power and Newgarden. The team is taking on Acura's DPi program. Those workers have to come from somewhere and shifting them over from an IndyCar program.
We have gone through all the existing IndyCar teams, plus one and let's take a look at the grid: 11 Honda, 10 Chevrolets full-time with another one possibly for all the oval, the only rookie would be Rosenqvist but we aren't done just yet. Carlin isn't the only team joining IndyCar in 2018 though there is a catch.
Juncos Racing will also join the IndyCar grid but it is dependent on Kyle Kaiser winning the Indy Lights title. Kaiser wins the Indy Lights title, he and Juncos will be full-time in IndyCar with a Chevrolet engine package. The team might need some additional funding for a second seat. While Sebastián Saavedra isn't the sexiest option, Gary Peterson for some reason funds him wherever he goes and a second car, even if it is Saavedra, would benefit Juncos Racing as it enters IndyCar full-time and Saavedra was respectable with Juncos Racing at Indianapolis in May.
This would see IndyCar up to ten teams, 23 full-time entries and with two rookies on the grid. Who is still on the outside? Harding Racing has done well in its first two races and might be back for Pocono but it is a new team and I am not sure if it is ready for the big time of a full-time IndyCar schedule. Unlike Carlin and Juncos, Harding Racing doesn't have years of operating as a racing team to fall back on. It is still learning and it doesn't need to be in IndyCar full-time in year two. It would be better to have a second year to stretch its legs and continue to learn how to walk than try to sprint with the big boys.
Besides Harding Racing and in all likelihood Gabby Chaves, also on the outside would be Mikhail Aleshin, Esteban Gutiérrez, Zach Veach, Jack Harvey, Tristan Vautier, Sage Karam, Santiago Urrutia, Matthew Brabham and a handful of drivers from international series that have yet to publicly throw their hat into the IndyCar ring. There are always more drivers than seats. It never seems fair. Even in a fantasy world I can't find places for them all and maybe I don't have the imagination I once had. I didn't include off the wall ideas like Kasey Kahne or Ricky Taylor entering IndyCar. Maybe I am too grounded in the real world.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Donny Schatz but did you know...
Andrea Dovizioso won MotoGP's Austrian Grand Prix, his third victory of the season. Franco Morbidelli won in Moto2, his seventh victory of the season. Joan Mir won in Moto3, his third consecutive victory and seventh of the season.
Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Cup race from Michigan. Sam Hornish, Jr. won the Grand National Series race from Mid-Ohio. Darrell Wallace, Jr. won the Truck race from Michigan.
The #93 Acura of Peter Kox and Mark Wilkins and the #31 TR3 Racing Ferrari of Daniel Mancinelli and Niccolò Schirò split the PWC Sprint X races. Rodrigo Baptiste and Ian James split the GTS races.
Coming Up This Weekend
The Pocono 500.
NASCAR will be at Bristol.
World Superbikes are back in action and they head to EuroSpeedway Lausitz one final time.
The DTM will be at Zandvoort.
Supercars head to Sydney Motorsports Park.
Super Formula is back for the first time in six weeks and is at Honda's backyard, Twin Ring Motegi.
The World Rally Championship contest Rally Deutschland.
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