Álex Palou was the first-time winner many were not expecting at IndyCar's season opener from Barber Motorsports Park, but Palou was the first-time winner we got. Speaking of first-time winners, a famous name won on his European Le Mans Series debut. Marc Márquez made his MotoGP return and was respectable, but not flashy. Mercedes drivers were running into one another and running off course. Aston Martin is becoming a nuisance and not in the good ways. NASCAR did something. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
Should the Indianapolis 500 Remain Double Points?
Another IndyCar season is here and as has been a custom to most seasons over the last decade, it is a chance to resurrect the double points debate.
This season is a bit different from the last few, as a change to the IndyCar rulebook has the Indianapolis 500 listed as the only double points race under rule 12.6.2.1.
Last year, Indianapolis was the only double points race, but the pandemic and uncertain end date of the season had something to do that. The season finale was not set in stone. With all the changes, we couldn't say a certain race would be the season finale. In theory, the season could have ended at any point. The last thing IndyCar needed was the finale being cancelled, a legal kerfuffle ensuing where the rulebook says the finale awards double points and potentially having to retroactively award points and awarding a champion who initially wasn't the championship leader after the checkered flag at a race that initially wasn't the season finale.
It made sense last year, and there has already been some uncertainty over this season's calendar. Long Beach was supposed to be yesterday, but the pandemic has delayed that race to the final Sunday in September, the final race of the 2021 season. There is no guarantee Long Beach will happen. It very well could be cancelled again. We are hopeful Long Beach takes place and things should get better over the course of the year. There is a good chance Long Beach could take place and perhaps allow a capacity crowd, but it is not a lock.
Regardless of what the finale is, the 2021 season is set to be closer to a normal season. This season is not pieced together trying to get in enough races with races slotting into open weekends on a whim. IndyCar made the choice to only list Indianapolis under the double points section of the rulebook. It is scaling back from the "500" and the finale, after both were double points from 2015 to 2019, but should have IndyCar dumped double points altogether?
Let's go back to when double points were first introduced in 2014. The 2014 season saw Pocono increased to 500 miles and along with Indianapolis and Fontana, the three 500-mile races, were all raised to double points as the three Triple Crown races. Historically, IndyCar series have weighed races differently based on mileage. During the days of USAC, the winners points total was double the mileage, hence the Indianapolis 500 winner got 1,000 points while the winner of the 150-mile race at Milwaukee got 300 points.
That point system was phased out when CART became the top series, and a uniform system has remained in place for basically the last 40 years. One thing double points did in 2014 with the Triple Crown races is it made the number of maximum possible points on ovals closer to equal to the number of maximum possible points on road and street courses, despite there being half the number of ovals. A total of 515 points were available on the oval races while 648 points were available on the road and street courses.
In a series that promotes schedule diversity, IndyCar has seen the balance tipped in favor of road/street courses two-to-one and double points made both disciplines close to level. After only one year, double points were then awarded only to Indianapolis and the finale.
There has been some debate over fairness and whether the finale should specifically be worth double points. There has been a resistance to IndyCar ginning up the championship battle and diminishing a full season of results. I was not a fan of the finale specifically being a double points race, especially when it was just a normal road course race such as Sonoma, but I understood it, and a driver could still clinch a championship early. It just required a driver to win by more points, basically a two-race advantage instead of one.
However, now that the finale appears to be back to normal points, is there any reason Indianapolis should remain worth double points?
People will point to its prestige and length. It is the one IndyCar race people know about and it is the only 500-mile race on the calendar since Pocono fell off the schedule after 2019. However, it does weigh one race over the rest in the championship. Should success in the Indianapolis 500 mean more toward the championship?
Even in its current iteration, it is not like the 1950s or 1960s where Indianapolis 500 victory almost guaranteed a driver a top five championship finish. Rodger Ward won the 1962 title by 510 points over A.J. Foyt despite starting four fewer races than Foyt. Ward won Indianapolis while Foyt lost a wheel after 70 laps and was classified in 23rd. Dan Gurney was fourth in the 1969 championship despite starting only nine races compared to Mario Andretti's 24 starts, Al Unser's 19 starts and Bobby Unser's 21 starts. Gurney's second at Indianapolis accounted for 35% of his points total.
However, with Indianapolis being the only double points race in 2020, Scott Dixon won the title by 16 points over Josef Newgarden. If Indianapolis had been normal points, Newgarden would have won the title by one point over Dixon. It is not like Dixon had a great day while Newgarden ran poorly or had an accident. Dixon was second and Newgarden was fifth.
Many will argue Dixon was the best driver all season in 2020 and he deserved the championship and that is fair. Double points have not tainted any championships since 2014. Every champion passes the eye test and there have usually been 15 other races that factor into deciding who is champion. None of the champions had two strong double points races and ended up on top. The system is set up where because there are so many other normal points races a driver can't just get lucky, win both double points races and end up champion.
Double points might gift a driver an extra two or three spots in the championships, but Takuma Sato was still only seventh in 2020. If Indianapolis had been normal points Sato would have been ninth. We haven't seen double points lift a driver nine or ten spots in the championship, nor is it likely that would ever happen.
Indianapolis already awards more points for qualifying and I can live with that because it is a different process that involves increased risk. I can even live with IndyCar having the same number of maximum possible points for oval races and road and street courses, which would mean different points payouts as there are 13 road/street courses and four oval races, but in its current form, if 16 races are going to be worth the same then Indianapolis mind as well award the same points as well.
No driver needs more incentive to win Indianapolis. Some drivers even think Indianapolis shouldn't count toward the championship. If drivers want no points for winning Indianapolis, then prestige alone does not justify it remaining the only double points race on the schedule.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Álex Palou, but did you know...
Max Verstappen won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Fabio Quartararo won MotoGP's Portuguese Grand Prix, his second consecutive victory. Raúl Fernández won the Moto2 race. Pedro Acosta won the Moto3 race, his second victory of the season.
Linus Lundqvist and David Malukas split the Indy Lights races from Barber. Braden Eves and Hunter McElrea split the Indy Pro 2000 races. Yuven Sundaramoorthy and Prescott Campbell split the U.S. F2000 races
Alex Bowman won the NASCAR Cup race at Richmond. John Hunter Nemechek won the Truck race, his second victory of the season.
Shane van Gisbergen, Jamie Whincup and Chaz Mostert split the Supercars races from Symmons Plains.
The #41 Team WRT Oreca-Gibson of Robert Kubica, Louis Delétraz and Ye Yifei won the 4 Hours of Barcelona. The #19 Cool Racing Ligier-Nissan of Matt Bell, Niklas Krütten and Nicolas Maulini won in the LMP3 class. The #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Matteo Cressoni, Rino Mastronardi and Miguel Molina won in the GTE class.
The #54 Dynamic Motorsport Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Matteo Cairoli and Christian Engelhart won the 3 Hours of Monza.
Coming Up This Weekend:
IndyCar heads southeast to St. Petersburg.
Formula E makes its Valencia debut with a doubleheader.
NASCAR will be in Talladega.
Super Formula has its second round of the season from Suzuka.
The World Rally Championship contests the Croatia Rally for the first time.
Supercross has its penultimate round of the season from Salt Lake City.
