Track Walk: 2020 Harvest Grand Prix

IndyCar is back at the IMS Road Course

The antepenultimate round and the penultimate round of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season will be a first-time event, and possibly a one-time only event, the Harvest Grand Prix from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and it will be a doubleheader. This race is named after the Harvest Auto Racing Classic, held on September 9, 1916. Johnny Aitken swept the three races that made up the Harvest Auto Racing Classic in 1916. The first two races, a 20-miler and a 50-miler, were non-championship events and the 100-miler counted toward the championship. Those three victories gave Aitken 16 victories at IMS, a track record that still stands to this day. It was the final official race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway other than the Indianapolis 500 until the Brickyard 400 in 1994. 

Coverage
Time: Race one coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday October 2 with green flag scheduled for 4:00 p.m. ET. Race two coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday October 3 with green flag scheduled for 2:31 p.m. ET.
Channel: USA (Race one on Friday), NBC (Race two on Saturday)
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule 
Thursday:
First Practice: 2:25 p.m. ET (75 minutes)*

Qualifying: 6:20 p.m. ET*

Friday:
Race: 4:00 p.m. ET (85 laps)
Saturday:
Qualifying: 10:20 a.m. ET* 
Race: 2:31 p.m. ET (75 laps)

* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.

And Then There Were Seven

Three races remain and with 162 points left on the table, seven drivers are alive for the IndyCar championship. That could quickly drop to five drivers at the Harvest Grand Prix.

Scott Dixon's pair of tenth-place finishes at Mid-Ohio has cut his championship lead over defending championship Josef Newgarden down to 72 points. It was 96 points heading into the Mid-Ohio weekend. Dixon and Newgarden are the only drivers with multiple victories this season, they are the top two drivers in laps led and they are the only two drivers to complete every lap this season. 

Dixon has six podium finishes and eight top five finishes while Newgarden has stood on the podium four times with six top five finishes. Over half of Newgarden's laps led came in his victory in the second Iowa race. The only times Dixon has led over half a race was this Texas victory where he led 157 laps and 111 laps at Indianapolis. Neither driver has led a lap in the last three races. 

Patricio O'Ward finds himself 118 points off the lead and O'Ward has not finished worse than 12th this season, having taken the checkered flag in every race. He has completed all but two laps, finishing a lap down at Texas and in the second Iowa race respectively. He has been in the top four of the championship since his runner-up from pole position in the second Road America race. 

Colton Herta's Mid-Ohio victory lifted him to fourth in the championship and Herta finds himself trailing Dixon by 129 points. Mid-Ohio was his first podium finish of the season, but he has five top five finishes. Fifty-seven of his 72 laps led this season came in his Mid-Ohio victory, but he has led in the last three races and four of the last five. 

Will Power picked up his first victory of 2020 in the first Mid-Ohio race and his championship hopes hang by a thread, with Power 150 points off Dixon. Power has four podium finishes; however, he has finished outside the top ten in six of 11 races this season. He has led a lap in eight races this season, more than any other driver in IndyCar. 

Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato will head to the Harvest Grand Prix with a mathematical shot at the championship, but that could vanish in the first race this weekend. If Dixon scores at least six points in race one, Sato will be eliminated from the championship. If Dixon scores at least seven points in race one, Rahal will be eliminated. Both Rahal's and Sato's hopes also hang on Dixon possibly missing the remainder of the season and would require either driver to score the maximum 162 points from the final three races.

Dixon could clinch the championship after race one if he scores at least 36 points more than Newgarden. That means Dixon would have to finish at least second with a few bonus points and Newgarden finishing in one of the last positions. For the remainder of the championship eligible drivers, the key number to be below after the first Harvest Grand Prix race is 108 points, but with Dixon likely starting both races, a driver will have to be under 103 points heading into the Saturday race. 

In terms of keeping the championship alive heading into the St. Petersburg finale, a driver will have to be within 54 points, and with Dixon likely starting the St. Petersburg finale, which should feature at least 24 cars, a driver will have to be within 48 points of Dixon after this weekend to have the championship go to the wire.

Looks Who's Back!

There are a few familiar faces returning to the IndyCar grid for the Harvest Grand Prix. 

For the first time in the 21st century, Hélio Castroneves will make an IndyCar start for a team other than Team Penske. Castroneves will step into the #7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet in place of Oliver Askew, who is experiencing concussion-like symptoms stemming back from his accident at the Indianapolis 500.

Askew had started the four races following Indianapolis, a pair of doubleheaders at Gateway and Mid-Ohio. In the four races, he completed 549 of 550 laps and had finishes of 14th, 17th, 19th and 15th. His finishing position was worse than his starting position in the last three races. 

Castroneves last drove for a team other than Team Penske at the 1999 CART finale with Hogan Racing, where the Brazilian spent the first two years of his IndyCar career. In 39 starts with Hogan Racing, Castroneves' best finish was second at Milwaukee in 1998 and at Gateway in 1999. In those two seasons, he never had a top five finish on a road or street course, with his best result being seventh at Belle Isle and Mid-Ohio in 1999. Castroneves missed the Grand Prix of Indianapolis for the first time in his career in July. In six IMS road course starts he has two podium finishes, three top five finishes and five top ten finishes. He has completed 499 of 501 laps. 

James Hinchcliffe will drive the #26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Autosport, in place of Zach Veach and Hinchcliffe will be in the car for the St. Petersburg finale at the end of the month. Veach had decided to step away from the car after it was decided he would not return to the team for the 2021 season. Veach opened 2020 with a fourth-place finish at Texas, matching his career-best, but he has finished outside the top ten in the last ten races and eight of those were results outside the top fifteen. 

Hinchcliffe had made three starts with Andretti Autosport in the #29 Genesys Honda this season, including an 11th-place finish in Grand Prix of Indianapolis and seventh in the Indianapolis 500. Hinchliffe's best finish on the IMS road course was third in 2016. 

Sébastien Bourdais will be making his 2020 debut with A.J. Foyt Racing in the #14 Chevrolet. Bourdais will drive the #14 Chevrolet in the two Harvest Grand Prix races and the St. Petersburg season finale ahead of a full-time ride with the team for the 2021 season. 

Bourdais had been originally scheduled to drive at St. Petersburg, Barber, Long Beach and Portland in the #14 Chevrolet before the pandemic shook up the schedule. He has spent his 2020 season driving the #5 Mustang Samplings Cadillac for JDC-Miller Motorsports in IMSA's DPi class with João Barbosa. He also drove the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Risi Competizione Ferrari in the GTE-Pro class with Olivier Pla and Jules Gounon. Risi Competizione ended up fourth in class. 

Dalton Kellett will drive in the #41 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing at the Harvest Grand Prix. Kellett has started five races this season with his best finish being 20th. He made his IndyCar debut at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis back in July and finished 21st.

Sage Karam will be back for his third race weekend of the season in the #24 Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Karam's other two race weekend were at Indianapolis. He had finishes of 23rd and 24th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500 respectively. 

Another Two Trips Around IMS

With the Harvest Grand Prix weekend taking place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, this gives the drivers two more races on the track the series has visited once a year since the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2014. 

The IMS road course is the first track to host three races in one season since 1979 when Atlanta, Michigan and Trenton each hosted three races in the inaugural CART season. Each track hosted a doubleheader first before hosting a single race later that year. 

This is the first time a road course has hosted separate race weekends on an IndyCar schedule since 1915 when the American Grand Prize and the William K. Vanderbilt Cup race were held on successive weekends at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. 

Scott Dixon won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis back in July ahead of Graham Rahal and Simon Pagenaud. It was Dixon's first victory on the IMS road course, it was Rahal's second runner-up finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and it was Pagenaud's fourth podium at the track. 

Dixon's victory snapped Team Penske's winning streak in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis at five consecutive races. It was Honda's first victory at the track since 2014 when Pagenaud won with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. 

Dixon had three runner-up finishes on the IMS road course prior to his victory earlier this year. He has led the third-most laps at the track with 66 led and he has the best average finish at 5.6. 

Will Power and Simon Pagenaud are tied with three victories apiece at the track, but Power has the most laps led, having led 210 out of 581 laps run in seven IMS road course races. Pagenaud is second all-time in laps led with 68 laps led. Power has won the pole position four times at this track, including back in July.

Pagenaud has one top ten finish in the last five races, and he has not had a top five finishes since he was fourth in the second Iowa race. The IMS road course is the track where Pagenaud has won the most at. The only other track he has multiple victories is Sonoma, which is no longer on the schedule. 

Rahal is one of three drivers with six top ten finishes on the IMS road course. Dixon and Pagenaud are the other two. With an average finish of 7.57, the IMS road course is Rahal's best track in terms of average finish with at least three starts. 

Sato is the most recent winner at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking his second Indianapolis 500 victory back in August. He was tenth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in July, his fourth top ten finish in that race, but he has never finished better than ninth at this track. 

Andretti Autosport got its first victory of 2020 with Colton Herta at Mid-Ohio last month, and the team picked up its first podium sweep since 2005 with Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay finishing directly behind Herta. Rossi retired from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis due to fuel pressure issues while running in the top ten. It was his second consecutive finish outside the top twenty at the IMS road course. Hunter-Reay has finished outside the top ten in the last three IMS road course races. 

Santino Ferrucci has finished in the top ten of both his IMS road course starts with finishes of tenth and ninth. Ferrucci sits tenth in the championship, five points ahead of Felix Rosenqvist and 19 points ahead of Rossi and Marcus Ericsson. Rosenqvist has finishes of eighth and 15th in his two IMS road course starts while Ericsson has finishes of 24th and sixth.

Jack Harvey has started third and second in his two IMS road course starts. Harvey was third in 2019 but was 17th in July after getting caught out during a caution before he made his second pit stop. 

Rinus VeeKay extended his lead in the rookie of the year battle at Mid-Ohio and with Oliver Askew out for this weekend, the battle is down to two drivers. VeeKay is 39 points ahead of Álex Palou. Palou has not had a top ten since the second Road America race. VeeKay was fifth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis earlier this year and Palou started 21st and finished 19th.

Final Doubleheader

This will be the fifth doubleheader of the 2020 season, the most doubleheaders in a season in IndyCar history. The 1968 season had four doubleheaders at Mosport, the Indianapolis Raceway Park road course, Langhorne and Mont-Tremblant.

No driver has finished in the top ten of all eight races apart of the four doubleheaders to take place, but Dixon leads the way with seven top ten finishes. The only blemish on the Kiwi's résumé was a 12th in the second Road America race. Dixon leads all drivers with five top five finishes from doubleheader weekends. 

Dixon and Newgarden have each won twice on doubleheader weekends, but Power leads the way with four podium finishes on doubleheader weekends.

Dixon has the best average finish at 5.75 ahead of O'Ward's 6.375, Newgarden's 6.5 and Power's average finish of eighth. The Andretti drivers of Herta and Rossi are fifth and sixth with average finishes of 8.5 and 9.625 respectively. Ericsson is averaging a tenth-place finish from doubleheader weekends and he is one of five drivers with at least six top ten finishes from these weekends along with Dixon, O'Ward, Newgarden and Herta. Pagenaud and Hunter-Reay round out the top ten with average finishes of 11.125 and 11.25 respectively. 

Team Penske leads the way with four victories, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing's three and Andretti Autosport's one. In terms of podium finishes, Team Penske leads with eight while Andretti has five, three of which came in the most recent race. Ganassi and Arrow McLaren SP are tied on four. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has two podium finishes and Dale Coyne Racing has one. 

Of the 21 drivers that contested all four doubleheaders, 20 drivers had at least one top ten finish from the eight races. The exception was Zach Veach, whose best finish was 16th in both Road America races. Of the 20 drivers with at least one top ten finishes, only Ferrucci, Harvey, Conor Daly, Charlie Kimball and Marco Andretti do not have a top five finish in one of those eight races.

Manufacture Battle

With three races remaining, the manufactures' championship continues, and it is advantage Honda in more ways than one. 

Honda has 910 points; 86 points clear of Chevrolet with three races remaining. Honda has won seven of 11 races, meaning Chevrolet can only match Honda's victory total for the 2020 season. On top of that, the Honda teams are doing better on their number of engines used versus the Chevrolet teams. 

Every Honda team has only used two of three engines allowed for this abbreviated 2020 season entering this weekend, while all but one full-time Chevrolet team is on its third engine with three races to go. The #4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet is the only team that has yet to use its third engine. 

Earlier this year, IndyCar announced the return of grid penalties for any entrant that exceeds the engine allotment, meaning any team that uses a fourth engine will have to fall back on the grid. With the final three races being road and street courses, if a team uses a fourth engine, a six-spot penalty will be assessed. 

It should be noted that once an entry exceeds the engine allotment that entrant cannot score points for the manufactures' championship, meaning top Chevrolet teams could no longer be able to contribute to the manufactures' effort, while a vast majority, if not all the Honda entries could be eligible to score points. 

Honda has won the manufactures' championship the last two seasons after Chevrolet won it for six consecutive seasons after rejoining the series in 2012. 

Welcome to October

This will be the first time IndyCar has raced in October since the 2013 season finale at Fontana, which Will Power won. That 2013 season's month of October started with a doubleheader at Houston, which Dixon and Power split.

There have been 150 IndyCar races held in the month of October. A.J. Foyt and Bobby Rahal are tied for the most October victories at six apiece. Foyt had four of those victories come at Sacramento with one at Phoenix and another at Silverstone. Rahal had four of those victories come at Laguna Seca with one at Phoenix and one at Nazareth.

Four active drives have victories in October. Power has won the last two October races at Houston and Fontana in 2013. Along with Dixon winning the first race in October 2013, he won at Homestead in October 2010. Bourdais' two October victories were at Surfers Paradise in 2005 and 2007. Hunter-Reay's first career victory was at Surfers Paradise in October 2003. 

Thirty drivers have won multiple October races with 13 drivers having won at least three times in the month and seven drivers with at least four victories. 

This will be the first natural-terrain road course held in October since the 2003 CART race at Mexico City, which Paul Tracy won. The 13 October races since have been held at Surfers Paradise, Texas, Fontana, Homestead, Kentucky and Houston.

Indianapolis 8 Hours

IndyCar is running on Friday and Saturday this weekend because the doubleheader was added to the already scheduled inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hours, the second round of the 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge season.

Twenty-two cars are entered for this race, 13 GT3 entries ten GT4 entries. 

The #7 Bentley of Jules Guonon, Maxime Soulet and Jordan Pepper won the 2020 IGTC season opener, the Bathurst 12 Hour back in February and they lead the drivers' championship. 

While Bentley won at Bathurst, Mercedes-AMG left with the manufactures' championship lead on 30 points, five ahead of Bentley. There are three Mercedes-AMG's entered for Indianapolis. George Kurtz, Colin Braun and Richard Heistand will be in the #4 Mercedes-AMG for DXDT Racing while David Askew, Ryan Dalziel and Ben Keating will be in the sister car, the #63 Mercedes-AMG. SunEnergy1 Racing is back with the #75 Mercedes-AMG for Kenny Habul, Martin Konrad and Mikaël Grenier. 

Porsche is tied with Bentley for second in the manufactures' championship on 25 points. Wright Motorsports will field the #20 Porsche for Fred Poordad, Max Root and Jan Heylen. 

Audi will field one car in a partnership between Team Hardpoint and WRT. Mirko Bortolotti and Markus Winkelhock will join Spencer Pumpelly in the #31 Audi. 

Honda, BMW and Ferrari all failed to score points at Bathurst and all three manufactures have multiple entries this weekend. 

Honda has three entries. The factory Team Honda Racing will have Mario Farnbacher, Dane Cameron and Renger van der Zande in the #30 Honda NSX. Racers Edge Motorsports will field two cars, the #80 Honda for Ziad Ghandour and Kyle Marcelli and the #93 Honda NSX for Trent Hindman, Shelby Blackstock and Robert Megennis. 

Walkenhorst Motorsport will field the pair of BMWs. Augusto Farfus, Nicky Catsburg and Conor De Phillippi will be in the #34 BMW with Martin Tomczyk, Nick Yelloly and David Pittard in the #35 BMW. 

Squadra Corse will have Martin Fuentes and Rodrigo Baptista in the #1 Ferrari. Vital Speed will field the #6 Ferrari for Trevor Baek, Jeff Westphal and Ryan Briscoe. 

Lamborghini and Aston Martin are championship-eligible entrants that are not entered for Indianapolis. 

Notable GT4 entries include Jason Bell, Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell in the #2 GMG Racing Audi, Michael Cooper in the #3 Motorsport USA McLaren with Michael McAleenan and Dan Rogers, James Sofronas, Elias Sato and Andy Lee in the #8 GMG Racing Audi and Andy Lally in the #17 TRG Porsche with James Rappaport and Derek DeBoer. 

Parkers Chase will be in the #25 CCR Team TFR BMW with Cole Ciraulo and Tim Barber and Bill Auberlen will be in the #82 Bimmerworld BMW with James Clay and Chandler Hull. 

The Indianapolis 8 Hours will begin at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday October 4. For teams entered in the GT World Challenge America, points will be awarded at the end of the third hour to make up for the lost round at Mosport. GTWCA teams could pull off the track after the third hour and have it in no way impact their points total earned or they could choose to continue for an overall result. 

Fast Facts

Saturday's race will be the seventh race to take place on October 2 and the first since Ed Carpenter won at Kentucky in 2011. It was Carpenter's first career victory.

Sunday's race will be the seventh race to take place on October 3 and the first since Adrián Fernández won at Fontana in 2004. It was Fernández's final career victory. 

Saturday will be Max Papis' 51st birthday. 

Scott Dixon could become the first champion to lead wire-to-wire since Sébastien Bourdais in 2006.

In July,  Scott Dixon became the seventh driver to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, joining Alex Lloyd, Jack Harvey, Dean Stoneman, Colton Herta, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud.

Josef Newgarden, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi or Takuma Sato could all become the eighth driver to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Marco Andretti, Rinus VeeKay, Newgarden, Herta or Harvey could become the first driver to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indy Lights and IndyCar.

Patricio O'Ward could become the first driver to win in Pro Mazda/Indy Pro 2000 and IndyCar at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Will Power leads all active IndyCar drivers with four victories at IMS (three Grand Prix of Indianapolis victories and one Indianapolis 500). 

Twelve competitors have at least five victories at IMS, including Michael Schumacher, Marc Márquez, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

If Power sweeps the weekend, he would become sixth driver with six IMS victories joining Aitken, Ray Harroun, who has eight victories, Louis Chevrolet, Joe Dawson and Eddie Hearne, who all have six victories.

Scott Dixon or Takuma Sato could become the first driver with three victories in a year at IMS since Sting Ray Robb swept the Indy Pro 2000 races at the track just prior to Labor Day weekend. Prior to Robb, the last driver to win three races at IMS in one year was Aitken when he swept the Harvest Auto Racing Classic in 1916.

Andretti Autosport could become the first team with consecutive 1-2-3 finishes since Team Penske at Mid-Ohio and Loudon in 1994.

An American driver has never won an IndyCar race on the IMS road course with the best finish being second on three occasions (Ryan Hunter-Reay 2014, Graham Rahal 2015, Rahal 2020). Hunter-Reay and Rahal are the only American drivers to finish on the podium in IndyCar races on the IMS road course. Hunter-Reay was also third in 2017. 

The only other American drivers to finish in the top five for an IndyCar race on the IMS road course are Charlie Kimball, Alexander Rossi, Spencer Pigot and Colton Herta. Kimball has three top five finishes.

The average starting position for an IMS road course race winner is 3.285 with a median of one. 

The last two winners on the IMS road course started on the fourth row. 

The average number of lead changes at the IMS road course is nine with a median of ten. The fewest number of lead change was four in 2017. The most was 12 in 2014.

The average number of cautions at the IMS road course is 1.857 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 7.857 with a median of eight.

Possible Milestones:

If Hélio Castroneves starts one of two races this weekend, he will become the fourth driver to reach 350 starts in IndyCar history, joining Mario Andretti, Tony Kanaan and A.J. Foyt in reaching that milestone.

Scott Dixon is two victories away from tying Mario Andretti for second all-time on 52 victories.

Will Power is one victory away from tying Al Unser for fifth all-time on 39 victories.

Ryan Hunter-Reay is two victories away from becoming the 22nd driver in IndyCar history to reach 20 victories.

Scott Dixon needs to lead 59 laps to become the fifth driver with 6,000 laps in an IndyCar career. 

Scott Dixon needs to lead 97 laps to surpass Hélio Castroneves for fourth all-time in laps led.

Josef Newgarden needs to lead 56 laps to become the 23rd driver to lead 2,500 laps in an IndyCar career.

Predictions

Alexander Rossi and Will Power split the weekend. Scott Dixon will lock up the championship early. Josef Newgarden will get his best finish on the IMS road course. Jack Harvey will get at least one top five finish and he will challenge for a podium finish. Sébastien Bourdais will get A.J. Foyt Racing its best finish on a road course. Patricio O'Ward will finish ahead of Hélio Castroneves in both races. Conor Daly will finish ahead of Rinus VeeKay in at least one race but Daly will be behind Castroneves in race one. Sage Karam will get at least one lead lap finish. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.