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| Scott Dixon seeks to extend historic start at Road America |
Simon Pagenaud has podium finishes in his first two starts of the season and it is the second time Pagenaud has started the season with consecutive podium finishes. He opened the 2016 season with five consecutive podium finishes, two runner-up results and three victories on his way to the championship. That is the only time Pagenaud has had at least three consecutive podium finishes in his IndyCar career. He has won the third race of a season only once in his career, in 2016 at Long Beach. The third race is the earliest he has won in a season.
Josef Newgarden has led laps in each of the first two races of 2020. It is the first time Newgarden has opened a season leading laps in the first two races. He is one of three drivers to have led a lap in every race this season. Scott Dixon and Zach Veach are the other two. Newgarden has started in the top six of 26 of the last 36 races. He has six consecutive top ten finishes. The only time Newgarden has had more than six consecutive top ten finishes was when he had 12 consecutive top ten finishes from Road America 2018 to Long Beach 2019.
Colton Herta enters Road America riding a career-best five consecutive top ten finishes. Despite starting on pole position for last year's Road America race, Herta did not lead a lap and finished eighth after tire strategy saw him losing time on the alternate tire in the closing laps. Colton's father Bryan Herta had only one top ten finish in six Road America starts, fifth in 1996. That was the only time Bryan Herta finished on the lead lap at the track.
Graham Rahal scored his first podium finish since Texas last year with his runner-up finish last week at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Rahal has not had multiple podium finishes in a season since 2017. With an average finish of 4.2, the only driver entered this week with a better average finish at Road America is Josef Newgarden at 3.5.
Zach Veach makes it two Ohioans in the top six of the championship. Last year, Veach had eighth-place finishes in both Belle Isle races. It is only the second time in his short career he has had consecutive top ten finishes on road/street circuits. He had finishes of seventh and tenth at Toronto and Mid-Ohio respectively in 2018.
Conor Daly has two starts at Road America but has not raced there since 2017. He started ninth in 2016 driving for Dale Coyne Racing, before a suspension failure took him out of the race, classifying him in 21st. In 2017, he started 21st and finished 15th driving for A.J. Foyt Racing. Daly sits seventh in the championship and he has been in the top ten of the championship after the first two races of 2020. Prior to this, his best championship position was 12th after St. Petersburg in 2016.
Patricio O'Ward made six starts at Road America across Pro Mazda, Indy Lights, IMSA and IndyCar. His only victory at the track was in IMSA in 2017 driving in the Prototype Challenge class driving with Performance Tech Motorsports with James French as his co-driver. His eighth place finish last week in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis was his first top ten finish since eighth at Austin in 2019.
Ryan Hunter-Reay has not had a top five finish in his last six starts. This is his longest top five drought since he had six races without a top five finish from Phoenix to the first Belle Isle race in 2016. He ended that streak with a third in race two of that doubleheader. The longest top five drought in his career was 15 races, his first 15 races competing in the IRL. That streak ended with a victory at Watkins Glen.
Marcus Ericsson ended a top ten drought of eight starts with his sixth-place finish on the IMS road course. The only time Ericsson has had consecutive top ten finishes was when he finished second in the second Belle Isle race and seventh at Texas last year. Last year, he started 17th and finished 13th at Road America. He has only started in the top ten twice in his career, ninth at last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis and tenth at Iowa.
Rinus VeeKay started on pole position for both Indy Lights races last year at Road America, but VeeKay finished seventh in the first race and won the second race. He has three victories in six Road America starts across the Road to Indy series. Ed Carpenter Racing's best Road America finish is eighth.
Santino Ferrucci is coming off a ninth-place finish in Indianapolis, his first top ten finish on a road/street course since finishing tenth in the second Belle Isle race last year. In Ferrucci's first ten starts on natural-terrain road courses, his average finish is 15.7 and his only top ten finishes have come on the IMS road course.
Charlie Kimball has made 98 starts since his only IndyCar victory at Mid-Ohio in 2013. The only driver with most starts between victories is Graham Rahal, who went 124 starts between his victories in 2008 at St. Petersburg to Fontana in 2015. The only active driver with a longer drought is Marco Andretti at 145 starts since his most recent victory at Iowa in 2011.
Will Power has been outside the top ten in the championship for the first two races of 2020. It is the first time Power has been outside the championship top ten for consecutive races since he started the 2017 season outside the top ten in the championship for the first three races. Only twice has Power won the race after consecutive finishes outside the top ten. The first time was at Edmonton in 2011 after finishes of 21st and 24th at Iowa and Toronto respectively. The other time was the second Houston race in 2013 after finishing 18th at Baltimore and 12th in the first Houston race.
Jack Harvey has not finished in the top ten in his last four starts. Harvey did fail to score a top ten finish in his first nine IndyCar starts. This is the first doubleheader weekend of Harvey's IndyCar career. Last year, he started 19th and finish 15th in his Road America debut.
Oliver Askew is coming off the first retirement of his IndyCar career after qualifying fifth in his second career start. The bottom five finishers at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis were American drivers and Askew was on the very bottom of that pile.
Felix Rosenqvist looks to turn around his season after finishing 20th and 15th in the first two races of 2020. Rosenqvist has never had more than two consecutive finishes outside the top ten, but to counter that, he has never had more than three consecutive top ten finishes in his brief IndyCar career.
Marco Andretti was 22nd in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last week, Andretti's worst finish since he was 23rd at Road America last year. He has not finished on the lead lap in either race this season. The only time Andretti has not had a lead lap finish in the first three races of a season was his rookie year in 2006.
Takuma Sato picked up a tenth-place finish in his first start of 2020 at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Sato has finished in the top ten of his last two Road America starts. He has picked up three consecutive top ten finishes at Belle Isle, Toronto, Barber and São Paulo. Belle Isle is the only track where he has four consecutive top ten finishes.
Alexander Rossi finds himself 23rd in the championship, on 20 points and behind three drivers who have started only one race entering Road America. Rossi has not had three consecutive finishes outside the top ten since 2017. Rossi has finished in the top five of the third race of the season the last three years. He could become the fourth driver to win consecutive races at Road America joining Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti and Jacques Villeneuve. No driver has ever won three consecutive Road America races.
Álex Palou looks to get his first IndyCar top ten finish at Road America. Palou was 19th last week at Indianapolis. Dale Coyne Racing's best finish at Road America was sixth with Oriol Servià in 2004. Dale Coyne Racing has one top ten finish in the last four Road America races, a seventh with Ed Jones in 2017.
Max Chilton opened up his 2020 season with a 16th place finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Chilton has never finished in the top fifteen in his first start of a season and three times he has finished 16th. He has finished outside the top fifteen in three of his four Road America starts.
Dalton Kellett is the lone Canadian on the IndyCar grid for this race at Road America. Canadians have won six of 29 Road America races. No track has seen more Canadian race winners than Road America. Three of the four Canadians to win at the track scored their first career IndyCar victory at the venue.
There will be practice and qualifying ahead of today's race. Practice will be at 11:30 a.m. ET. Qualifying will be at 2:15 p.m. ET and NBCSN will have coverage of the session.
NBCSN's coverage of REV Group Grand Prix at Road America race one begins at 5:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 5:15 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 55 laps.
