Al Unser passed away, aged 82. It is another legend loss in what has been a difficult year. Max Verstappen clinched his first World Drivers' Championship with a victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but this will end with lawyers in Paris. Some drivers are getting to test a Formula One car for the first time over the next few days. Takuma Sato was confirmed at Dale Coyne Racing. Richard Petty Motorsports was purchased. Corvette has committed two cars for the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the team will have a Dane in the car, but not a Magnussen! Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
It Happened This Season
We are at the end of the year. With the Formula One season concluded, we are out of motorsports for 2021. There might be a few minor events, but the next few weekends will be motorsports-less. We will have to celebrate the holiday season.
Motorsports will be back soon enough with the Dakar Rally, Supercross, and a handful of endurance races in quick succession, but before we get to 2022, we should look back over 2021. A few things happened this year that deserve recognizing.
A Bryant-sponsored car won an IndyCar race
IndyCar's inaugural Music City Grand Prix will be remembered for many reasons. After a thrilling race where Marcus Ericsson went from airborne to victorious after holding off Colton Herta before Herta collided with the barrier.
While Ericsson was on top, the one thing I noticed through the dusk of an August evening in Nashville was on the side of the winning car. Bryant Heating and Cooling Systems has long been an IndyCar sponsor, having sponsored the likes of Eddie Sachs, Len Sutton, Janet Guthrie, Arie Luyendyk, Sarah Fisher and Tony Kanaan.
For all those years Bryant has been in IndyCar, Ericsson's victory at Nashville got me wondering when was the last time a Bryant-sponsored car won an IndyCar race? There have been plenty of times Bryant had won as an associate sponsor, even with Kanaan in the 2013 Indianapolis 500, but when was the last time Bryant was a primary sponsor and won an IndyCar?
September 20, 1998. John Paul, Jr. won the Texas Indy Racing League race driving the #10 Jonathan Byrd's/Visionaire/Bryant Heating and Cooling G-Force-Oldsmobile for Byrd-Cunningham Racing.
There were 8,358 days, or 22 years ten months and 19 days, between Bryant-sponsored cars winning IndyCar races. Just taking into consideration Indy Racing League-sanctioned races, there were 356 races between Bryant-sponsored car victories.
A McDonald's-sponsored car won a NASCAR Cup race
A more followed drought was the time between McDonald's-sponsored car victories in the NASCAR Cup Series. Entering 2021, the most recent Cup victory for a McDonald's-sponsored car was on July 24, 1994 at Talladega with Jimmy Spencer taking victory driving for Junior Johnson. It was a Junior Johnson 1-2 finish with Bill Elliott finishing second.
Since Johnson's victory, the likes of Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, A.J. Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson had all driven McDonald's-sponsored cars in NASCAR Cup races. None had won.
Until October 4, when Bubba Wallace won the rain-shortened Talladega race. It was Wallace's first career victory. It was 23XI Racing's first victory. It was only the fourth Cup victory for car #23 and its first since 1954.
That was 9,934 victories between McDonald's-sponsored car victories in Cup, or 27 years, two months and ten days. Twelve drivers in this October's Talladega race were not born when the last time McDonald's won a Cup race (Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, Anthony Alfredo, Cole Custer, Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott, Quin Houff, Justin Haley, Cody Ware, Josh Bilicki, William Byron and Tyler Reddick).
An Alonso Podium
In the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso finished third and it was his first podium finish since finishing second in the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso made 101 starts between podium finishes, but what stood out the most to me was Alonso's Hungarian Grand Prix runner-up finish was on July 27, 2014.
That runner-up finish was 22 days before Max Verstappen was announced to be joining Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2015 Formula One season. Only six drivers in that 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix were still on the grid for when Alonso finished third in Qatar (Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen, Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez). Of those six drivers, only Hamilton was with the same team in 2021 as he drove for in 2014.
A driver outside the top ten in the world championship won a race
Speaking of Hungary, Esteban Ocon won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix after an interesting wet-to-drive race that saw a restart with only Lewis Hamilton on the grid as the rest of the field switched to slick tires because the track had dried out under the red flag.
With Hamilton shuffled back, Ocon went on to take the lead and held on to score his maiden grand prix victory.
However, while Ocon won the race, he ended up 11th in the championship. Who was the last driver to win a grand prix and finish outside the top ten in the world championship?
Who else would it be? Nobody is faster than Pastor Maldonado.
Maldonado won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix and wrapped up the season 15th in the championship. Only 18 drivers scored points that season.
Prior to Maldonado, the previous driver to win and not finish in the top ten of the championship was Giancarlo Fisichella in 2003. Fisichella won the Brazilian Grand Prix, but he was 12th in the championship.
Besides the three in the 21st century, there have been ten other occasions of a grand prix winner finishing outside the top ten in the world championship.
1951: Luigi Fagioli (won the French Grand Prix sharing a car with Juan Manuel Fangio, and finished 11th in the championship)
1956: Luigi Musso (Won the Argentine Grand Prix sharing a car with Juan Manuel Fangio, and finished 11th in the championship)
1958: Jimmy Bryan (Won the Indianapolis 500 and finished 13th in the championship)
1968: Jim Clark (Won the South African Grand Prix and finished 11th in the championship)
1972: Jean-Pierre Beltoise (Won the Monaco Grand Prix and finished 11th in the championship)
1975: Vittorio Brambilla (Won the Austrian Grand Prix and finished 11th in the championship)
1976: Ronnie Petterson (Won the Italian Grand Prix and finished 11th in the championship)
1979: Jean-Pierre Jabouille (Won the French Grand Prix and finished 13th in the championship)
1982: Nelson Piquet (Won the Canadian Grand Prix and finished 11th in the championship in the season where there were 11 different race winners)
1983: Michele Alboreto (Won the Detroit Grand Prix and finished 12th in the championship)
Bowman's Season
Four victories are typically enough for a good season in the NASCAR Cup Series. It isn't spectacular, but it is far better than average. At least that is how it seems on paper.
Alex Bowman won four races in the Cup Series this year, tied for second most in the Cup Series with Martin Truex, Jr. and only behind Kyle Larson, but Bowman finished 14th in the championship. The championship format has changed in NASCAR, but even without the playoff format, Bowman would have still finished 14th in the championship.
When was the last time a driver had four victories in the Cup Series and was outside the top ten in the championship?
Well, it just happened in 2016 when both Martin Truex, Jr. and Brad Keselowski each had four victories but were 11th and 12th in the championship respectively. But without the playoff format, Keselowski would have been fourth in the championship and Truex would have been ninth.
It also happened in 2015 when Matt Kenseth was 15th in the championship with five victories, but Kenseth was suspended for two races after intentionally spinning Joey Logano at Martinsville. Without the playoffs, Kenseth would have still been 13th.
Jimmie Johnson was also 11th in the championship in 2014 with four victories. Without the playoff format, Johnson would have been ninth.
When was the last time a driver had at least four victories, finished outside the top ten of the championship and in a season where the champion was determined via a multi-race aggregate, whether that be 36 races or only ten races?
Well, again, it kind of just happened. Kyle Busch was 12th with four victories in 2011, but Busch was also parked for one race at Texas after he spun Ron Hornaday, Jr. under caution in a Truck race. Without the Chase format, Busch would have been seventh in the championship even with missing one race.
It appears to be more common than first thought.
Jacques Villeneuve won a race!
The biggest surprise of 2021 might have been Jacques Villeneuve winning a race! Not only did Villeneuve win once, he won twice, sweeping the NASCAR Euro Series races held at Vallelunga on October 30-31.
His Saturday victory was his first victory since April 27, 2008, when Villeneuve won the 1000km of Spa driving the #7 Peugeot with Nicola Minassian and Marc Gené in the European Le Mans Series. Villeneuve had gone 4,934 days between victories, 13 years, six months and three days.
Prior to that victory in Spa, Villeneuve's next most recent victory was the 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, his 11th and final grand prix victory, on September 28, 1997. In 24 years, one month and two days, Villeneuve had won two races. Then he won in consecutive days.
What a year!
Champions From the Weekend
You know about Max Verstappen, but did you know...
Oscar Piastri clinched the Formula Two championship with a third-place finish in the first sprint race from Yas Marina.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Max Verstappen, but did you know...
Jehan Daruvala, Guanyu Zhou and Oscar Piastri split the Formula Two races from Abu Dhabi.
Coming Up This Weekend
Not much as we move into the offseason. Extreme E will hold its finale, the Jurassic X-Prix in Dorest, United Kingdom. In the future will be predictions and looking back at the best of 2021.
