Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Saturday July 30 with green flag scheduled for 12:20 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 9:30 a.m. ET (90 minutes)
Qualifying: 1:00 p.m. ET
Saturday:
Warm-Up: 8:15 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:20 p.m. ET (85 laps)
* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock
Tighter Championship Picture
Entering the Iowa doubleheader, Marcus Ericsson's championship lead over Will Power in second was 35 points with seven races remaining.
Entering the Brickyard weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar's second race on this course, 36 points cover the top five drivers with five races to go and the top six are within 44 points of one another.
Ericsson did not do much wrong at the Iowa doubleheader. He was eighth and sixth over the two races and he has eight consecutive top ten finishes, ten top ten finishes total this season. The only driver with more top ten finishes this season than Ericsson is his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon with 11. Ericsson's five top five finishes are also tied for fourth most this season. However, credit must be given to the competition.
Will Power was on the podium of both Iowa races. Power started on pole position for both races and led laps in each races, meaning he picked up four bonus points over the course of the Iowa doubleheader. In the last six races, Power has one victory and four podium finishes while Ericsson has only one podium finish, a runner-up result at Road America.
The championship lead could have been Josef Newgarden's exiting Iowa. It was shaping up that way until Newgarden's lap 236 accident while leading when his right rear suspension failed. Instead of leaving Iowa up ten points in the championship lead, the two-time champion is tied for third with Scott Dixon, 34 points back. Newgarden owns the tiebreaker with four victories to Dixon's one.
In the last six races, Newgarden has won twice, the only driver to win multiple times in this stretch. He does have five top ten finishes with his Iowa accident being his lone blemish in this summer stretch of races.
Newgarden fainted and suffer a fall after his Iowa accident in the bus lot. He suffered a head abrasion and was airlifted to a Des Moines hospital for further evaluation. All scan came back negative, but Newgarden was kept overnight out of precaution on Sunday and released Monday morning. He is scheduled for further evaluation Thursday by the IndyCar medical team. Santino Ferrucci is on standby for Newgarden this weekend.
Newgarden has made 163 consecutive starts. The only race he has missed in his IndyCar career was the 2012 Grand Prix of Baltimore after he suffered a broken wrist in the Sonoma race the weekend prior. Bruno Junqueira substituted for Newgarden that weekend in the #67 Fisher Hartman Racing Honda. It was Junqueira's final IndyCar start.
Dixon is up to fourth in the championship, his highest championship position in 2022. Dixon has four top five finishes on the spin, the first time he has had consecutive top five finishes this season and this is his longest top five streak since he had five consecutive top five finishes between the 2020 St. Petersburg season finale and the first four races of the 2021 season.
Patricio O'Ward's second victory of the season has him back int he top five of the championship. The double podium finish for O'Ward snapped a three-race skid and he now has four podium finishes and six top five finishes this season. The only problem is O'Ward's top five finishes are his only top ten finishes this year. He has six results outside the top ten this season.
While the top five are under a blanket, hovering above the covers is the 2021 IndyCar champion, Álex Palou. Palou was 13th in the second Iowa race, only the third time he has finished outside the top ten this year. He has five top ten results in the last seven races, but only one of those was a top five result, his runner-up finish at Mid-Ohio. He opened the season with three podium results in the first four races. Palou has a similar issue to O'Ward. Palou's four podium finishes are his only four top five finishes this season.
On Wednesday, Chip Ganassi Racing filed a civil lawsuit again Álex Palou in Marion County, Indiana in response to Palou's contract situation. Earlier this month, Ganassi announced it would exercise its option to retain Palou for the 2023 season. Later that evening, Palou said he did not agree with the extension and quotes the team used in its release were fabricated. Minutes later, McLaren Racing announced it had signed Palou for the 2023 season.
At the moment, Palou is expected to race this weekend and finish the season in the #10 Honda.
Power's Potential Pole Record
An incredible Saturday morning at Iowa Speedway has put Will Power within touching distance of history, and there is a great chance Power will tie a motorsports legend this weekend at the IMS road course.
Sweeping the Iowa pole positions gave Power career pole positions #65 and #66 and Power is one behind Mario Andretti's IndyCar record of 67 pole positions. There is some symmetry between these two drivers.
Andretti's first pole position came on June 20, 1965 at Langhorne Speedway, still a one-mile dirt oval, and practically a home race for Andretti as Langhorne was located only about 90 minutes southeast of Andretti's Nazareth home. It was his 15th career start. He shared the front row with Jim McElreath, and he and McElreath were the only two drivers to lead in that 100-mile race. McElreath led 67 of 100 laps, including the final 24 laps to take the victory ahead of Andretti in second.
Power's first pole position came on October 22, 2006 at the Surfers Paradise street course, still on the Champ Car schedule, and practically a home race for Power as Surfers Paradise is located about two hours southeast of Power's hometown of Toowoomba, Queensland Australia. It was Power's 15th career start. He shared the front row with Sébastien Bourdais. Power led the first 13 laps but gave up the lead to pit under the first caution of the race. On lap 28, Bourdais made contact with Power, damaging Power's car and he ended up in the tire wall limping back to pit lane for repairs. Power ultimately finished a lap down in 12th while Nelson Philippe took his lone IndyCar victory. Bourdais clinched his third championship that afternoon.
It took 34 races for Andretti to reach ten pole positions while Power didn't reach double-figures until his 57th career start. Andretti's tenth was at Langhorne, again, while Power's tenth was at Barber Motorsports Park. In Andretti's first 57 starts had 17 pole positions, a number Power did not reach until his 71st start.
By the end of the 1968 season, Andretti's fifth full season in IndyCar, Andretti had 25 pole positions in 86 starts. Strong 2010 and 2011 seasons saw Power rack up 23 pole positions through the first 87 starts of his career.
In 1969 and 2012 respectively, Andretti and Power each won five pole positions, but Andretti's 1969 seasonwas nine races longer than Power's 2012 season. Andretti won four pole positions in 1970 and Power won four pole positions in 2013, but the batting average swings into Power's favor. Andretti had 34 pole positions from 129 races, 26.35% of his races. Power had 32 pole positions from 121 races, 26.44% of his races, and Andretti's pole positions prowess would dip in the early 1970s.
Andretti did not win a pole position in 1971. He won only three pole positions over the next three seasons and by 1975, Andretti had turned his focus to Formula One with occasional cameo appearance in IndyCar for the better part of the next decade.
Power kept up his form. Four pole positions in 2014 and six pole positions in 2015 brought him up to 42 career pole positions in 155 starts. Andretti's 155th start came on July 1, 1973 at Pocono, and he had only 35 pole positions to his name.
Andretti went six years, five months and 13 days between IndyCar pole positions, from Trenton on April 7, 1974 (pole position #37) until Michigan on September 20, 1980 (pole position #38). That Michigan race was the 201st of Andretti's career. Through 201 starts, Power had 55 pole positions, and like Andretti, Power started on pole position in his 201st IndyCar start, which also happened to be a 500-mile race, but this was at Pocono for Power.
Power's 66th pole position came in his 263rd start this past Sunday. Andretti's 263rd start was on October 6, 1985 at Laguna Seca and he had 54 pole positions at that time.
The 60th pole position for Andretti was for the ill-fated 1987 Indianapolis 500, a race he dominated only for a harmonic imbalance in the engine to cause his car to fail while in the lead. It was Andretti's 285th start. The 1987 season was incredible for Andretti. He opened the season with three consecutive pole positions and he ended the season with eight pole positions, his most in a season since 1968. Andretti was 47 years old and had won eight pole positions.
Through 1987, Andretti had 65 pole positions in 297 starts. The final two took some time. Andretti went another four years, nine months and a day before he was on the point for another IndyCar race. Pole #66 was on August 2, 1992 at Michigan, he shared the front row with his son Michael. Three hundred and 64 days later, Andretti was on pole position for the 67th and final time. It was his 385th start, and he shared the front row with Nigel Mansell. Mansell won the race, his fourth of the season. Andretti led 27 laps and finished second.
Andretti would make 22 starts after his 67th pole position. He did not start on the front row in any of those races, but started in the top five four times and started in the top ten 16 times.
Andretti won pole position at 24 different tracks. The track where he won pole the most was Phoenix with eight. He had 25 different drivers start second to him. The most frequent driver to his outside was Al Unser, who flanked him nine times. Power has won pole position at 25 different tracks with his most coming at St. Petersburg, where he has qualified first on nine occasions. Josef Newgarden has started 11 times in second position to Power, one of 24 drivers to do so.
Power has won six pole positions out of a possible 12 on the IMS road course in IndyCar competition.
When We Were Last Here
The last time IndyCar went to the IMS road course, Chevrolet had won the first four races of the sesaon, Team Penske had three victories, IndyCar was coming off one of its youngest podiums in series history at Barber and there was only one Honda driver in the top five of the championship.
For the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Will Power started on pole position, his first of the season while Álex Palou started second ahead of Josef Newgarden and Conor Daly. Rookies swept row four with Callum Ilott having an outstanding qualifying run and Christian Lundgaard started in eighth. Colton Herta was starting 14th after poor qualifying strategy cost him in round one of qualifying.
In that race of changing conditions, Herta rolled the dice switching off the wet tires to the slick tires almost immediately and it vaulted him into contention. He notably made a breathtaking save going through the turn eight and nine section of the course before passing on Patricio O'Ward a corner later.
The weather conditions changed multiple times during the race and saw multiple strategies come into play. While Herta led the race, Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Ericsson both had alternative strategies take them to the lead as the teams juggled more storms and the threat of the race ending under a time limit as they searched for the right time to make their final pit stop.
It was a physical race with many cars suffering damage or making contact with another driver at some point. Outside of race winner Herta, the only other driver that appeared to avoid any entanglements was Simon Pagenaud, who went from 18th to second. Will Power overcame losing ground on the slick tires to finish third. Ericsson's strategy lifted him into the top five and for a moment a sequence of events was lining up for him to take the race victory. Ultimately he wound up fourth. Conor Daly's team nearly ruined the strategy, calling for him to conserve fuel massively in the first third of the race only to watch the rest of the field drop him down the order. The return of the rain and the number of cautions brought Daly back into contention and he pulled out a top five.
Of the drivers who had less stellar days, Patricio O'Ward spun on a restart and his Arrow McLaren SP teammate Felix Rosenqvist hit him. Scott Dixon ran out of fuel on his first stint and salvaged a tenth-place result. Alexander Rossi switched to wet tires too eagerly when the rain was returning to the circuit and he had to make an additional pit stop to switch back to slicks before putting on wet tires for a third time when the rain finally did come. Graham Rahal, David Malukas and Jimmie Johnson were all caught in this same pickle as Rossi.
Jack Harvey made contact with three drivers, including Josef Newgarden, who also had contact with his teammate Will Power during the race. Rahal put on wet tires too soon and also spun out Kyle Kirkwood, costing him a top ten result. Harvey's contact with Romain Grosjean took away a possible top five from the Frenchman.
Scott McLaughlin spun under a caution. Rinus VeeKay spun and collected Devlin DeFrancesco. Dalton Kellett even spun. Álex Palou spun on slicks into wet grass, motored his way back to the racetrack only for the car to stall out once he returned to the blacktop, which brought out a caution!
Despite all this mayhem, this May's Grand Prix of Indianapolis had 471 total passes, 362 of which were passes for position. In 2021, the two IMS road course races had a combined 417 passes and 298 passes for position. Weather forecasts call for cloudy skies and a 6% chance of precipitation of rain on Saturday. The three IMS road course races in 2020 had the following totals for passes/passes for position:
Grand Prix of Indianapolis (July): 191/161
Harvest Grand Prix Race One (October): 247/175
Harvest Grand Prix Race Two (October): 181/129
Honda's Lack of a Heartbeat
The last time IndyCar arrived at the IMS road course Honda had zero victories and Chevrolet had controlled the first four races.
The month of May was kind to Honda. Herta picked up the manufacture's first victory of the season on the road course, Honda led 166 of 200 laps in the Indianapolis 500 and Ericsson gave Honda its third consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory, the first manufacture since engine competition returned to IndyCar in 2012 to win the race in three successive years.
Since May, Honda somewhat fell into early season form. In the last six races, Honda has one victory, Scott Dixon at Toronto. Team Penske has won four times and Arrow McLaren has another victory to its name. Chevrolet has taken four of six pole positions during this stretch and out of the 840 laps run between Belle Isle and the second Iowa race, Chevrolet led 721 of those laps. Honda teams combined for 25 laps led at Iowa, 19 for Jimmie Johnson in race one, five Takuma Sato in race two and one for David Malukas in race two. Chevrolet swept the podium in each Iowa race.
Despite this hard run of form, Honda still has three drivers in the top six of the championship, albeit Chip Ganassi Racing is responsible for all three of those drivers.
Andretti Autosport has one top five finish and three top ten finishes over the last four races. The team's average finish in month of July is 15.375. It is not like they are wasting qualifying results either. While having a pole position and three top five starting spots, the team's average starting spot over this four races is 13.25.
Somehow, Andretti Autosport drivers have gained ground in the championship with these results. Colton Herta has gone from 11th to eighth in the championship in the last four races. Alexander Rossi did open the month in seventh and dropped to 11th, but his finishes of 13th and 18th at Iowa somehow brought him back into the top ten.
It helps when Meyer Shank Racing has Simon Pagenaud finish 23rd in both Iowa races. Not to gloss over that Hélio Castroneves has finished outside the top fifteen in three consecutive races and in five of the six races since the Indianapolis 500, where the team had a double top ten day. In the last four races, MSR is averaging a grid spot of 17.75 and the team has not started in the top fifteen of the last three races.
Dale Coyne Racing might have found good form in recent weeks, but the team has been far from competing for a podium let alone a race victory this season. While DCR had double top ten finishes in the second Iowa race, the team has a combined five top ten finishes out of 24 starts between its two drivers. Both DCR drivers are ranked outside the top fifteen in the championship.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at least has one driver in the top fifteen of the championship, but the three-car outfit has a combined 11 top ten finishes out of 36 opportunities. RLLR has one top five finish. Qualifying has been worse for the team with no top five starting positions and only six top ten starts this season.
Honda is the most recent winner on the IMS road course, but this isn't the track it likely has banked to lift its spirits. In 12 IMS road course races, Honda has won only three times.
Combination Weekend
While IndyCar has five races left in its season, the NASCAR Cup Series has five races left in its regular season, and the playoff picture is tighter than it has ever been before. With 14 race winners, the playoff spots are vanishing quickly and at a rate of 0.667 new winners every race, the Cup Series is on pace for at least three more new winners in the next five races.
Chase Elliott leads the way in points and race victories. Elliott is 105 points clear of Ross Chastain in second while also having four victories after being awarded first for the Pocono race after the disqualification of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch for failing post-race inspection. Chastain is one of four drivers other than Elliott with multiple victories this season. Joey Logano, William Byron and Denny Hamlin all have won twice this season.
Kyle Larson had four victories through 21 races last year and he currently has not won since the second race of this season at Fontana. Christopher Bell won at Loudon two weeks ago and is sixth in the championship. Kyle Busch's only victory was the Bristol dirt race and he is eighth in the championship. Alex Bowman won at Las Vegas in March while Daniel Suárez picked up his first career Cup victory at Sonoma in June. Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe also scored their first career victories this season while Kurt Busch is the lowest driver with one victory in the championship, two points behind Briscoe.
Busch will miss his second consecutive race due to concussion-like symptoms. He suffered an accident at Pocono last week in qualifying. Ty Gibbs will deputize the #45 Toyota in place of Busch for the second consecutive weekend.
Currently, two playoff spots are available for drivers on points. At the moment, Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex, Jr. occupy those spots as they are third and fifth in the championship. Kevin Harvick is the first driver on the outside on points, 83 points behind Truex, Jr. Aric Almirola is 57 points behind Harvick and without a victory. Erik Jones (18th), Austin Dillon (19th), Bubba Wallace (21st) and Justin Haley (22nd) are the next four drivers in the championship on points without a race victory.
The NASCAR Cup race will be at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday July 31. A.J. Allmendinger won last year's race and he will be back in the #16 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing. Joey Hand will drive the #15 Ford for Rick Ware Racing. Former Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat will make his NASCAR debut this weekend in a second entry for Team Hezeberg in the #26 Toyota.
After the IndyCar race on Saturday afternoon will be the NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
A.J. Allmendinger leads the championship in NASCAR's second division with two victories and Allmendinger is 16 points ahead of Justin Allgaier, who has won three times. Ty Gibbs has the most victories with four, but Gibbs is 22 points behind Allmendinger. Josh Berry has won twice, but is 87 points off the championship lead. Noah Gragson won for the third time last week at Pocono and Gragson trails the championship lead by 90 points.
Austin Hill has won twice, but Hill is 147 points off the championship lead, while Brandon Jones is the only other playoff eligible driver with a victory this season. Jones is 173 points back.
Sam Mayer has yet to win and Mayer is 204 points off Allmendinger while Riley Herbst is a further 25 points off Mayer. Defending champion Daniel Hemric rounds out the top ten in the championship but Hemric trails Allmendinger by 250 points. Hemric has only two top five finishes through 19 races. Ryan Sieg and Landon Cassill occupy the final two playoff spots. Sieg has 461 points and Cassill has 451 points. Cassill is 296 points behind his Kaulig Racing teammate Allmendinger.
Sheldon Creed is the first driver on the outside of the playoff, 47 points on the outside. Brandon Brown is the next driver out, 66 points behind Cassill. Anthony Alfredo is 77 points out directly ahead of his Our Motorsports teammates Brett Moffitt, 89 points outs, and Jeb Burton, who is 123 points out.
There are a number of one-off entries this weekend in NASCAR's second division. Chase Briscoe will drive the #07 Ford for SS-Green Light Racing while Andy Lally will be in his teammate in the #08 Ford. Alex Bowman will drive the #17 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports with Bubba Wallace in the #18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. While Santino Ferrucci is on standby for Josef Newgarden in IndyCar, Ferrucci is entered for this race in the #26 Toyota for Sam Hunt Racing. If Ferrucci does replace Newgarden, he will not run the NASCAR race. Sage Karam is back in the #45 Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet. Austin Dillon takes over the #68 Chevrolet while Brandon Brown moves to the #47 Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet. Ross Chastain will drive the #92 Chevrolet for Mario Gosselin.
With 42 entries, four cars will fail to qualify for this race. The NASCAR Xfinity Series race will be at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday July 30.
It should also be noted the NASCAR Truck Series returns to Indianapolis Raceway Park for the first time since 2011 this Friday night at 9:00 p.m. ET.
IRP is the first playoff race for the Truck Series. Zane Smith has three race victories and Smith was the regular season champion. He leads with 2,037 points. Chandler Smith is second, 15 points behind of a driver he has no relation with, after winning twice in the regular season. Defending Truck champion Ben Rhodes is 20 points behind Smith and he has one race victory. John Hunter Nemechek is a point behind Rhodes, and surprising Nemechek has only won once as well. Stewart Friesen is the last race winner in the playoffs. Friesen is 24 points off the championship lead.
Christian Eckes is 30 points behind Smith with Ty Majeski a point behind Eckes. Carson Hocevar is a point behind Majeski and three points ahead of Grant Enfinger. Three-time Truck champion Matt Crafton rounds out the playoff drivers, 36 points behind Smith. Crafton has only one top five finish from the first 16 races.
Fast Facts
This will be the ninth IndyCar race to take place on July 30 since 2017 when Josef Newgarden won at Mid-Ohio.
Hélio Castroneves also won this day in 2006 at Michigan.
Two drivers have had their first career victory come on July 30. Scott Pruett's first career victory came on this day in 1995 at Michigan driving for Patrick Racing. Pruett won by 0.056 over Al Unser, Jr. Cristiano da Matta's first career victory came on this day in 2000 at Chicago Motor Speedway by 1.69 seconds over Michael Andretti.
Rinus VeeKay is the only driver to have a first career IndyCar victory occur on the IMS road course.
Will Power and Kyle Busch both have six victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, tied for the third most all-time with Louis Chevrolet, Joe Dawson and Eddie Hearne.
Eight drivers have won on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They are Alex Lloyd, Jack Harvey, Dean Stoneman, Colton Herta, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden.
A list of possible drivers who could become the ninth driver to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend are Hélio Castroneves, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato, Marcus Ericsson, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Justin Allgaier and Tyler Dillon.
Marcus Ericsson could join Will Power and Simon Pagenaud as the only drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 and an IMS road course race in the same season.
Rinus VeeKay, Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta are the only drivers to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indy Lights and IndyCar. VeeKay and Herta is the only driver to win on the IMS road course in both Indy Lights and IndyCar.
The average starting position for an Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course winner is 4.08333 with a median of second.
Colton Herta's victory in May was the first time an IMS road corse winner started outside the top ten.
Seven of 12 IMS road course races have had a top five finisher start outside the top fifteen.
No IMS road course winner has ever started third or on row three.
The third-place starter has finished on the podium five times in 12 IMS road course races (2014, 2016, 2019, 2020 Harvest Grand Prix race two, 2021 Brickyard weekend).
The third-place starter has not won since the Gateway last year with Josef Newgarden.
The average number of lead changes in an IMS road course race is 8.667 with a median of ten.
Seven of 12 IMS road course races have had a double-digit number of lead changes. Only two IMS road course races have had fewer than five lead changes.
The average number of cautions in an IMS road course race is two with a median of 1.5. The average number of caution laps is 7.8333 with a median of 4.5.
May's Grand Prix of Indianapolis had eight cautions for 31 laps, double the previous most number of cautions in an IMS road course race and 63.1% more caution laps than the previous most caution laps in an IMS road course race.
Prior to May's race, five consecutive IMS road course races had two cautions or fewer.
Predictions
Álex Palou cuts through the noise and gets his first victory of the season. Will Power ties Mario Andretti's record this weekend. Marcus Ericsson loses the championship lead this weekend. Scott Dixon will be closer to the championship leader after this race. There will be under 215 passes this weekend. Colton Herta will not finish more than six spots better than his starting position. Jimmie Johnson will finish at least 14 positions worse than his average finish at Iowa. Josef Newgarden will race this weekend and be respectable. Kyle Kirkwood will finish on the lead lap. There will be no curbing issues for any of the series competing. Sleeper: Callum Ilott.
