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| For the first time, St. Petersburg will decide the IndyCar champion |
The 14th and final round of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season will be the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Seven and a half months ago, the IndyCar teams were set up at Alfred Whitted Airport, ready to begin another season, this one with over two-dozen entries carrying aeroscreens for the first time at a race weekend. In a blink, the 2020 season was indefinitely delayed, eventually starting at Texas in June and St. Petersburg was rescheduled to the season finale spot on October 25. This is the first time a street course has hosted the season finale since 2003 at Surfers Paradise. This year's St. Petersburg race has been shortened to 100 laps for the first time since 2012.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday October 25 with green flag scheduled for 2:32 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Marty Snider will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Saturday:
Practice: 10:55 a.m. ET (90 minutes)*
Qualifying: 3:05 p.m. ET * (NBCSN will have tape-delayed coverage at 8:00 p.m. ET)
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:40 a.m. ET (30 minutes)*
Race: 2:32 p.m. ET (100 laps)
* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.
Time: Coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday October 25 with green flag scheduled for 2:32 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Marty Snider will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Saturday:
Practice: 10:55 a.m. ET (90 minutes)*
Qualifying: 3:05 p.m. ET * (NBCSN will have tape-delayed coverage at 8:00 p.m. ET)
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:40 a.m. ET (30 minutes)*
Race: 2:32 p.m. ET (100 laps)
* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.
Dixon vs. Newgarden
The Astor Cup will either go to Scott Dixon or Josef Newgarden at the end of this weekend.
Dixon will clinch the championship with a finish of ninth or better regardless of what Newgarden does and the number of bonus points he earns. The number of possible outcomes that end with a Newgarden championship is small.
A Newgarden victory, with the minimum of 51 points, combined with a Dixon finish of 12th or worse will give the Tennessean his second consecutive championship and his third title in four seasons. If Newgarden wins with two bonus points, Dixon has to finish 11th or worse. If Newgarden wins with three or four bonus points, Dixon has to finish tenth or worse.
If Newgarden finishes second, he will need Dixon to finish 23rd or worse to win the championship.
If Newgarden finishes third, he will need to score all the bonus points, the one for pole position, the one for leading a lap and then the two for most laps led and have Dixon finish dead last, 24th, with no bonus points to take the championship.
In case of a tie, Dixon owns the tiebreaker over Newgarden with four victories to Newgarden's three. Even if Newgarden were to win at St. Petersburg, Dixon would still own the tiebreaker with two runner-up finishes to Newgarden's one.
Dixon is going for his sixth IndyCar championship, which would put him one behind A.J. Foyt's all-time record of seven championships. This would be Dixon's second title in three seasons, and it would be his fourth championship in the last eight seasons. This will be his 12th time in the last 14 seasons he has finished in the top three of the championships and it will be his 15th top five championship finish in 20 IndyCar seasons.
If Dixon wins this championship, he will be the first champion over the age of 40 since Nigel Mansell in 1993 and the oldest champion since Emerson Fittipaldi won the 1989 CART championship at 43 years old.
Newgarden is aiming for his third IndyCar championship in four seasons. He is looking to become the first driver to win consecutive championships since Dario Franchitti won three consecutive titles from 2009 to 2011. He would become the first Penske driver to win consecutive championships since Gil de Ferran in 2000 and 2001. A third title for Newgarden would put him level with Rick Mears for most IndyCar championships for a Team Penske driver.
Newgarden could become the 13th driver with at least three IndyCar championships joining Foyt, Dixon, Mario Andretti, Sébastien Bourdais, Franchitti, Louis Meyer, Ted Horn, Jimmy Bryan, Mears, Al Unser, Bobby Rahal and Sam Hornish, Jr. He would be the sixth driver to win three championships before the age of 30.
This is the 15th consecutive year with an American open-wheel series championship being decided in the final race of the season.
In those 14 previous seasons, the championship lead changed hands six times, but it has not happened since Dixon won the 2015 championship over Juan Pablo Montoya on tiebreaker. Dixon trailed the Colombian by 47 points entering the Sonoma finale and that was double points race. In the five other times a driver overcame a deficit in a finale, those were not double points races and the largest margin overcome was 17 points in 2012 when Ryan Hunter-Reay took the title from Will Power at Fontana.
Since the formation of CART, this is the 34th time the championship will be decided in the finale. If you include Scott Sharp coming from behind to become a co-champion in the inaugural Indy Racing League season in 1996, only eight times has a driver come from behind on the last day of the season to take the title.
This is the sixth time Dixon has led the championship entering the finale. The only time Dixon lost the championship lead on the final day of the season was in 2009. He entered Homestead three points ahead of Franchitti. Franchitti won the race and the championship while Dixon finished third and Dixon lost the championship by ten points.
Newgarden is the most recent St. Petersburg winner, but his best St. Petersburg finish prior to last year was seventh and he had never led at St. Petersburg prior to last year's victory. His qualifying record is suspect. He started second last year, but that was only the second time he has made the Fast Six in qualifying and he has failed to make it out the first round of qualifying four times in eight starts.
Dixon has had rough days at St. Petersburg. While he has ten top ten finishes and seven top five finishes, he has never won at the track and last year was the fourth time he has finished runner-up at the 1.8-mile street course. He does have five finishes of 15th or worse in this race with three retirements. The good news is he has not retired from a St. Petersburg race since 2010, however, he has not led in this event since 2012.
Dixon and Newgarden have been the top two drivers this season. They are first and second in victories, first and tied for second in podium finish with Newgarden, Will Power and Alexander Rossi all on five. Dixon and Newgarden are tied for most top five finishes with eight, but Dixon has 12 top ten finishes over Newgarden's 11, however they rank first and second again. Dixon leads IndyCar with an average finish of 5.153 to the 5.538 Newgarden sports.
The two drivers have both completed all 1,800 laps this season and prior to 2020 only twice in IndyCar history has a driver completed every lap, Tony Kanaan in 2004 and Simon Pagenaud in 2017. Newgarden does have the edge in a few categories. He does have three pole positions this year, while Dixon has not won a pole position since the 2017 Indianapolis 500. In average starting position, Newgarden has a clear upper hand, leading IndyCar with 5.307 while Dixon is sixth in IndyCar averaging a grid position of ninth.
For the third consecutive season, Newgarden will lead IndyCar in laps led, the first driver to lead in laps led for three consecutive seasons since Alex Zanardi in 1996-98. With 434 laps led, Newgarden has led 104 laps more laps than Dixon, who ranks second.
Last Chance For Success
While two drivers battle for a championship, 17 drivers are fighting to end the 2020 season with at least one victory to their name.
Patricio O'Ward is the top driver in the championship without a victory as O'Ward sits fifth in the championship. He has three podium finishes this year and in all three of those races he was a factor for victory. O'Ward has won at St. Petersburg in Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights. He is looking to give Arrow McLaren SP its first victory since Iowa 2018 and its first victory on a road/street course since NOLA Motorsports Park in 2015.
Graham Rahal's first career victory came at St. Petersburg 12 years ago, but Rahal returns in 2020 stuck on six career victories since the middle of 2017. He has finished on the podium three times this year and he has four consecutive top ten finishes entering this weekend. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has not had multiple race winners in a season since 2001 with Max Papis and Kenny Bräck.
Alexander Rossi has not won a race in his last 20 starts and Rossi is on a bit of a hot streak. He has finished on the podium in the last four races, the longest podium streak in his IndyCar career. Rossi could become the first driver with five consecutive podium finish since 2016 when Will Power had six consecutive podium finishes from the second Belle Isle race through Pocono. All those results for Power were first or second-place finishes. Simon Pagenaud opened the 2016 season five consecutive podium finishes; two runner-up finishes and three victories.
Ryan Hunter-Reay looks to avoid his second consecutive winless season and his fourth in the last five years with a victory at St. Petersburg. Hunter-Reay's most recent victory was the 2018 season finale at Sonoma. The only other time Hunter-Reay has a top five in a season finale was his first career victory at Surfers Paradise in 2003, his rookie year. Surfers Paradise became the finale after Fontana was cancelled due to wildfires.
Santino Ferrucci heads to St. Petersburg on four consecutive finishes outside the top ten. Ferrucci has never finished outside the top ten in five consecutive races. Last year, he was ninth at St. Petersburg, his best finish on a street course.
Jack Harvey has six top ten finishes this season, including three in the last four races. Last year, Harvey picked up his first career top ten finish when he was tenth at St. Petersburg. He did have three podium finishes at St. Petersburg in Indy Lights.
Rinus VeeKay scored his first podium finish with a third-place result in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. In six Road to Indy starts, VeeKay's worst finish at St. Petersburg was fifth in Indy Lights. He has three victories at the track (one in Indy Lights and two in Indy Pro 2000) and he has five podium finishes.
Marcus Ericsson has one final shot to do something that has never been done in Chip Ganassi Racing history: Have three different drivers win an IndyCar race in one season. The only drivers that have more top ten finishes this season than Ericsson are Dixon, Newgarden, Colton Herta and Patricio O'Ward.
Conor Daly has not finished in the top ten on a road course this season and Daly has not had a top ten on a road course since finishing tenth in the 2017 season finale at Sonoma. When it comes to street courses, Belle Isle is the only one where he has a top ten finish. He was sixth in the second Belle Isle race in 2015. In 2016, Daly was runner-up to Sébastien Bourdais in race one and sixth in race two.
Álex Palou will be making his first street course start in IndyCar and it is coming off a ninth-place finish in the second Harvest Grand Prix race. The only street course Palou has competed on is Macau. He first ran the Macau Grand Prix in 2014 and finished 16th while Rosenqvist took the victory and Ferrucci finished eighth. In 2017, he was 11th and in 2018 he was involved in a first lap accident.
After missing the Harvest Grand Prix due to concussion-like symptoms, Oliver Askew will be back in the #7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. This will be Askew's final race with the team and it will come in his backyard. Askew is from Melbourne, Florida. No Florida-born driver has ever win an IndyCar race. In six Road to Indy starts at St. Petersburg, his only victory was in U.S. F2000.
The last driver to have his only victory come in the season finale was Tony Kanaan, who won the 2014 season finale at Fontana.
Besides the Battle at the Top
All eyes will be on the championship battle, but there are plenty of other battles for championship positions.
Colton Herta is third on 401 points, 13 points ahead of Will Power, but these two drivers are also fighting for most road/street course points this season. Herta leads with 244 road course points, seven markers clear of Power. Power has been the top road/street course driver in five of the last ten seasons. The only other drivers to lead road/street course are Dixon in three seasons, Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud.
Newgarden, Dixon and Rossi are also in contention for most road/street course points this season. Newgarden is 25 points back, Dixon is 38 points behind Herta, and Rossi trails his teammate by 42 points.
O'Ward is 12 points off Power in fifth of the overall championship. O'Ward is attempting to be the first Arrow McLaren SP driver to finish in the top five of the championship since Pagenaud was fifth in 2014. Graham Rahal has breathing room around him in sixth, 22 points off O'Ward and 26 points ahead of Sato. This could be Rahal's sixth consecutive season in the top ten of the championship. Sato is 17 points clear of Pagenaud with Pagenaud six points ahead of Rossi.
A seventh-place championship finish would be the best for Sato in his IndyCar career, and it would be his third top ten championship finish in the last four seasons. Sato did not have a top ten championship finish in his first seven years in IndyCar.
Rosenqvist sits in tenth on 294 points, 11 points off Rossi. Rosenqvist is nine points ahead of Hunter-Reay with Ferrucci 11 points outside the top ten. Harvey is 17 points outside the top ten and VeeKay is 20 points out. Ericsson sits in 15th on 265, nine behind VeeKay, but with a 41-point gap ahead of Daly.
Hunter-Reay has finished in the top ten of the championship in nine of the last ten seasons. He was 12th in the 2016 championship. Ferrucci, Harvey, VeeKay and Ericsson have all yet to finish in the top ten of the championship and are all looking for career-best championship finish.
VeeKay will clinch 2020 Rookie of the Year honors simply starting at St. Petersburg. He is 54 points clear of Palou, who sits 17th in the championship, entering the finale. VeeKay will make it six different nationalities for the last six IndyCar rookies of the year and Ed Carpenter Racing will become the sixth different team in the last six seasons to field the rookie of the year. VeeKay will also be the first Chevrolet driver to win rookie of the year since Chevrolet returned to IndyCar in 2012.
Long-Awaited Debut
The season finale will be the IndyCar debut for three-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin, who will make his long-awaited IndyCar debut with Team Penske.
McLaughlin wrapped up his ninth Supercars season last week with a fifth-place finish in the Bathurst 1000. He won the championship for the third consecutive season this year with 13 victories from 30 races. He had finished in the top ten of the championship in all eight of his full seasons. In 2012, he competed as a co-driver at Sandown and Bathurst before running the final race on the Homebush street circuit in Sydney for his solo debut.
He is one of nine drivers with at least three Supercars championships and he is fourth all-time in victories with 56. Forty-eight of his 56 victories came with DJR Team Penske and he is ranked third all-time in Team Penske victories behind Brad Keselowski (66) and Mark Donohue (59).
McLaughlin was originally supposed to make his debut at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis when it was scheduled for May. He did participate in the preseason test at Circuit of the Americas and he ended up third fastest behind only Power and Rossi and ahead of Newgarden, Herta, Pagenaud, Askew, Dixon, Palou and O'Ward.
McLaughlin also participated in all six iRacing events IndyCar held during the lockdown. McLaughlin won the events at Barber and Indianapolis while he was runner-up at Michigan and fourth at Watkins Glen and Austin. He was 24th in the Motegi event, but he was taken out while in second after contact from Askew when the American was fighting to get back on the lead lap late in the race.
With McLaughlin sliding behind the wheel of the #3 Chevrolet, he will be the first driver other than Hélio Castroneves to drive car #3 since the 2009 season opener at St. Petersburg when Will Power drove the car while Castroneves was sidelined due to his tax evasion case. McLaughlin will become the seventh New Zealander to start an IndyCar race. He will be the second New Zealander to drive for Team Penske. Mike Thackwell made his only two IndyCar starts with Team Penske in 1984 at Laguna Seca and the Caesar's Palace street course.
Scott Dixon has made 334 starts but none of the other New Zealanders have made more than five starts. Wade Cunningham is the second most experienced Kiwi with five starts. Denny Hulme made four starts and Matt Halliday and Graham McRae each started three races.
Since 1946, only three drivers have won their first career start: Graham Hill in the 1966 Indianapolis 500, Nigel Mansell in the 1993 season opener at Surfers Paradise and Buzz Calkins in the inaugural Indy Racing League race held at Walt Disney World Speedway in 1996.
Road to Indy
Both Road to Indy championships were claimed on October 11 at New Jersey Motorsports Park, as each Indy Pro 2000 and U.S. F2000 ran triple-headers to bolster their 2020 schedules. Each season will end with a doubleheader at St. Petersburg.
Idaho-native Sting Ray Robb clinched the Indy Pro 2000 championship with a second, first and third in New Jersey. This was Robb's fourth season in the series and his second with Juncos Racing. He has five victories and eight podium finishes from 13 starts. His worst finish was tenth in the first Mid-Ohio race back in July. Robb is the third Juncos Racing driver to win the Indy Pro 2000 championship in the last four seasons.
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport driver Devlin DeFrancesco will fall short of the championship, sitting 73 points behind Robb entering the final round. He has finished tenth or worse in four of the last five races after starting the season with a victory, five podium finishes and eight top five finishes from the first ten races with his worst result being eighth.
Artem Petrov and Danial Frost are tied on 292 points, 20 points behind DeFrancesco. Petrov won two of the first four races but has not won since. Frost won the first race of the season and opened with three consecutive podium finishes. Since the first three races, his only podium finish was second in the first Mid-Ohio race of the September weekend.
Hunter McElrea and Parker Thompson are each looking for their first victories of the season. McElrea has four runner-up finishes, the most this season. Thompson has not won in Indy Pro 2000 since the second St. Petersburg race last year. Manuel Sulaimán is ending 2020 on a strong note. He has won two of the last five races and sits seventh in the championship, nine points behind McElrea and five points off his DEForce Racing teammate Thompson.
Colin Kaminsky is coming off a runner-up finish from pole position in New Jersey. He is eighth in the championship ahead of Antoine Comeau and Braden Eves. Eves has missed the last seven races after his accident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Eves had a victory, two podium finishes, four top five finishes and two pole positions in his eight starts this season.
Kory Enders and Moisés de la Vara are 20 points and 21 points respectively behind Eves for that final spot in the top ten of the championship.
Indy Pro 2000 will race at 5:40 p.m. ET on Saturday October 24 and 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday October 25.
Christian Rasmussen's two victories in New Jersey locked up the 2020 U.S. F2000 championship for the Danish driver, but Rasmussen has something to race for this weekend. If Rasmussen will sweep the weekend, he will become the all-time leader in U.S. F2000 victories with 14 victories. Current Chip Ganassi Racing performance director Chris Simmons holds the record of 13 victories.
Nine of Rasmussen's 12 career U.S. F2000 victories have come this season. He has stared on pole position for eight of 15 races and he is 69 points clear of Eduardo Barrichello and Reece Gold, who are tied for second. Rasmussen's championship is also the first for Jay Howard Driver Development, which is in its second U.S. F2000 season.
Barrichello has three victories this season while Gold has two, though Gold has more podium finishes this season, holding the advantage at nine to seven over the Pabst Racing driver. Michael d'Orlando is the only other driver to win a race this season and he is on 259 points in fourth, 47 behind Barrichello and his Cape Motorsports teammate Gold.
Exclusive Autosport driver Christian Brooks has nine top five finishes this season and he is eight points behind d'Orlando for fourth. Josh Green has two runner-up finishes this season and he is sixth on 216 points, eight points ahead of Cameron Shields, who had a runner-up finish in the second race in New Jersey.
Matt Round-Garrido opened the season with four consecutive top five finishes but has only one top five result in the last 11 races. He is on 199 points. Jack William Miller was third at Indianapolis Raceway Park and second on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, however he has only four top five finishes from 15 races and sits on 186 points in ninth.
Yuven Sundaramoorthy rounds out the top ten on 164 points. Sundaramoorthy picked up his first top five finish in New Jersey, while Prescott Campbell scored his first top five result and a podium finish. Campbell is 19 points outside the top ten. Nolan Siegel is three points off Campbell and has two podium finishes and a pole position this season.
The U.S. F2000's first race will be at 4:40 p.m. ET on Saturday October 24. The season concludes on Sunday October 25 at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Fast Facts
This will be the fifth IndyCar race on October 25 and first since A.J. Foyt won at Sacramento in 1964.
This will be the fifth IndyCar race on October 25 and first since A.J. Foyt won at Sacramento in 1964.
Other October 25 winners include Tommy Milton at Charlotte in 1924, Jimmy Bryan at Sacramento in 1953 and Jim Hurtubise at Sacramento in 1959.
Last year, Josef Newgarden became the first driver to win the championship after winning the season opener since Will Power in 2014.
Last year, Josef Newgarden became the first driver to win at St. Petersburg in IndyCar and Indy Lights. He won the 2011 Indy Lights race at St. Petersburg.
Five other drivers entered for this year's IndyCar race have won at St. Petersburg in Indy Lights (Marco Andretti, Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta, Patricio O'Ward and Rinus VeeKay).
Last year's St. Petersburg race was the fastest since the race expanded to 110 laps, 198 miles with an average speed of 95.572 MPH.
Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe are the only drivers to have their first career IndyCar victory come at St. Petersburg.
Graham Rahal and Josef Newgarden are the only two American drivers to have won the IndyCar race at St. Petersburg.
The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 5.6875 with a median of fourth.
Last year, Josef Newgarden became the first driver to win the championship after winning the season opener since Will Power in 2014.
Last year, Josef Newgarden became the first driver to win at St. Petersburg in IndyCar and Indy Lights. He won the 2011 Indy Lights race at St. Petersburg.
Five other drivers entered for this year's IndyCar race have won at St. Petersburg in Indy Lights (Marco Andretti, Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta, Patricio O'Ward and Rinus VeeKay).
Last year's St. Petersburg race was the fastest since the race expanded to 110 laps, 198 miles with an average speed of 95.572 MPH.
Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe are the only drivers to have their first career IndyCar victory come at St. Petersburg.
Graham Rahal and Josef Newgarden are the only two American drivers to have won the IndyCar race at St. Petersburg.
The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 5.6875 with a median of fourth.
The pole-sitter has not won at St. Petersburg since Will Power in 2010. The only other time the pole-sitter won at St. Petersburg was Hélio Castroneves in 2007.
Fourth starting position has produced five St. Petersburg winners, more than any other starting position.
A St. Petersburg winner has never started third.
Sébastien Bourdais is the only driver to win at St. Petersburg from a starting position outside the top ten. Bourdais won from 21st on the grid in 2017 and from 14th in 2018.
Since 2012, Chevrolet has won six of eight St. Petersburg races. Sébastien Bourdais is the only driver to win for Honda at St. Petersburg since 2012.
The average number of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race is 6.5625 with a median of seven. The most lead changes were 11 in 2018. The fewest lead changes was two in 2003.
The average number of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is 4.25 with a median of five. The average number of caution laps is 18.8125 with a median of 18 laps.
Every St. Petersburg race has had at least two cautions. Four of the last six St. Petersburg races have had exactly two cautions. The fewest caution laps in a St. Petersburg race was eight in 2017.
Possible Milestones:
Will Power is one victory away from being the fifth driver to reach the 40 victories milestone.
Fourth starting position has produced five St. Petersburg winners, more than any other starting position.
A St. Petersburg winner has never started third.
Sébastien Bourdais is the only driver to win at St. Petersburg from a starting position outside the top ten. Bourdais won from 21st on the grid in 2017 and from 14th in 2018.
Since 2012, Chevrolet has won six of eight St. Petersburg races. Sébastien Bourdais is the only driver to win for Honda at St. Petersburg since 2012.
The average number of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race is 6.5625 with a median of seven. The most lead changes were 11 in 2018. The fewest lead changes was two in 2003.
The average number of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is 4.25 with a median of five. The average number of caution laps is 18.8125 with a median of 18 laps.
Every St. Petersburg race has had at least two cautions. Four of the last six St. Petersburg races have had exactly two cautions. The fewest caution laps in a St. Petersburg race was eight in 2017.
Possible Milestones:
Will Power is one victory away from being the fifth driver to reach the 40 victories milestone.
If Scott Dixon wins at St. Petersburg, he would tie Mario Andretti's record of 26 different tracks with a victory.
Scott Dixon needs to lead 59 laps to reach the 6,000 laps led milestone, the fifth driver to reach that milestone.
Scott Dixon needs to lead 97 laps to surpass Hélio Castroneves for fourth all-time.
Sébastien Bourdais needs to lead 47 laps to reach the 2,700 laps led milestone.
Josef Newgarden needs to lead 22 laps to reach 2,500 laps led milestone.
Ryan Hunter-Reay needs to lead 51 laps to reach the 1,600 laps led milestone.
James Hinchcliffe needs to lead 21 laps to reach the 800 laps led milestone.
Graham Rahal needs to lead 73 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.
Predictions
Alexander Rossi holds off Will Power for his first victory of the season. Josef Newgarden rounds out the podium. Scott Dixon will cross the final line in fifth with Colton Herta in fourth. Scott McLaughlin will qualify and finish ahead of Simon Pagenaud. One of the rookies will finish in the top ten, but not better than eighth. Sébastien Bourdais will finish at least in the top 12. Marco Andretti will finish in the top twenty. There will be a record-low number of cautions. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist.
Predictions
Alexander Rossi holds off Will Power for his first victory of the season. Josef Newgarden rounds out the podium. Scott Dixon will cross the final line in fifth with Colton Herta in fourth. Scott McLaughlin will qualify and finish ahead of Simon Pagenaud. One of the rookies will finish in the top ten, but not better than eighth. Sébastien Bourdais will finish at least in the top 12. Marco Andretti will finish in the top twenty. There will be a record-low number of cautions. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist.
