Is Chip Ganassi Racing the Greatest Team in IndyCar History?

It has likely been a modest championship celebration at the Chip Ganassi Racing shop in the aftermath of Álex Palou clinching his fourth IndyCar championship with two races remaining. Everyone is happy, but there are still two races to go. The focus will be winning those races. A larger celebration can follow in September when there will be at least six full months until the next race. 

While partying responsibly and noting what Palou's title means for the his legacy amongst the greatest drivers of all-time, it has quietly been ignored that this is Chip Ganassi Racing's 17th championship as a team, and that is level with Team Penske for the most all-time. 

For the last 20 or 25 years, we have been comparing Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. Penske has long been the standard in American open-wheel racing. It has done everything with the utmost attention to detail. It is not only the best team on the track but the best operating team off the track, "Penske Perfect" if you will. 

As we moved deeper into the 21st century, Chip Ganassi Racing started to take the fight to Penske. It soon became clear every championship came down to who would be better, Ganassi or Penske? After all, the two teams have combined to win the last 13 championships and 17 of the last 18. We go into every IndyCar season asking who will be champion, but inside we know it will be one of five or six drivers. 

The records Team Penske had set felt further out of reach. After all, Team Penske has been competing in IndyCar for over 50 years. The numbers are staggering. From race victories to pole positions, they are numbers no other team is truly close to. Most organizations are barely over a decade old. Almost a third of the teams only started competing full-time in IndyCar in the last five years. It is hard to hit triple-figures in some of these categories when your organization has competed in fewer than 100 races. 

Team Penske's mark at the top appeared to be safe for a very long time. Except, it appears, in one category. 

We never really acknowledged Chip Ganassi Racing's success on a historical level. We knew Ganassi was winning championships and head and shoulders above most of the competition. It almost became anticipated that on the stage at the end of the season would be Ganassi with Dario Franchitti or Scott Dixon or now Álex Palou. What we didn't realized was what all these Astor Cup presentations meant. We weren't really counting and until this weekend it went largely unnoticed how close Gannasi was to Penske. 

Now they are equal. 

Not only are they equal, but Ganassi has reached 17 championships in a little over half the time it took Penske to hit that mark. This is only Ganassi's 36th season in IndyCar. That still makes it the third-oldest team (hello, Dale Coyne Racing in second), but that means Ganassi has been winning a championship at a rate of nearly one every other year.

Team Penske's 17th championship came only three years ago in what was the organization's 55th season competing in IndyCar. 

When it comes to championship, not only are the organizations level, but Ganassi is winning them at a much faster rate, and it does not appear likely the Ganassi organization will be slowing down anytime soon. 

Anytime you see a record for most championships matched or surpassed, the question becomes about who is the greatest team. It is easy to look at who has the most champions and declare that is the team that is best. 

Last year, the Boston Celtics surpassed the Los Angeles Lakers for most NBA championships with 18, a swing in the favor for the folks from Bean Town against their long-time, cross-country foes. 

This past May, Liverpool won the Premier League title, its 20th time winning the championship in England's top league, moving it into a tie all-time with Manchester United. Soccer is a little more nuanced as there are the domestic competitions in each country as well as continental competitions, and Liverpool has been the European champions six times, more than any other English club.

American football is a little messy as the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots are tied for the most Super Bowl championships (six), but when you consider the entire 100-plus year history of the NFL, the Green Bay Packers have the most championships (13). Bragging rights exist for both.

Motorsports is different, the same way soccer differs from basketball and both differ from American football. Championships matter, but there are races within championships and those totals matter. Then there are more prestigious races and victories in those carry more weight than 10 or 20 victories in lesser celebrated races, and in some cases those prestigious race victories are seen as greater than a championship. This is the case for multiple disciplines of motorsports, IndyCar include. 

Is Chip Ganassi Racing the greatest team in IndyCar history? 

It is level on championships with Team Penske, but with 17 titles in 36 seasons versus Penske's 17 in 58 seasons, it understandable to give Ganassi the edge in that department. 

The next thing people look at in IndyCar is Indianapolis 500s. Many look at that before championships, but in this context, we look at it second. Team Penske is the all-time leader and by far the all-time leader. Penske has won the race 20 times since its first attempt in 1969, though Penske has only competed in the race 51 times thanks to failing to qualify in 1995 and then the split from 1996 to 2000. 

Ganassi is pretty far off Penske in this case. Ganassi picked up its sixth Indianapolis 500 victory this past May with Palou, it was Ganassi’s 32nd year competing in the race. Even if you account for the almost two-decade difference, Penske is still ahead. Penske had 14 Indianapolis 500 victories in its first 32 Indianapolis 500s. Give a point to Penske. 

What about total race victories? 

Longevity will give Team Penske the edge. It has the most IndyCar victories with 245 after Will Power's triumph at Portland this past weekend. However, Chip Ganassi Racing is likely a little closer than you realize. With nine victories this season, Chip Ganassi Racing is exactly 100 victories behind Team Penske. It has won 145 times, comfortably in second as third is the defunct Newman-Haas Racing on 107. Andretti Global is the next closest on 77. 

When it comes to winning percentage, Penske has won 28.128% of its 871 races contested. Ganassi has won 23.237% of its 624 races contested.

If there is one last thing to consider it is since reunification in 2008, when there was finally one IndyCar series and everyone was back together competing on the same terms. In those 18 seasons, Chip Ganassi Racing has won 12 championship. Team Penske has won five. Andretti Global and Ryan Hunter-Reay are the outlier. 

Since reunification, three different Ganassi drivers have won at least three championships. Scott Dixon has won five, Álex Palou has now won four, including three consecutive, and Dario Franchitti won three consecutive championships. Penske's five titles have come from three different drivers. Josef Newgarden and Will Power each won it twice. Simon Pagenaud won it once. 

Ganassi has now won six of the last eight championships. Penske's last six championships stretch back to 2006. The only stretch that rivals what Ganassi has done is what Penske did almost 50 years ago. It won six championship in seven years over 1977 to 1983, which spanned the USAC-CART split. Penske would win seven of nine championships if you extend that period to 1985, and it would win eight of 12 titles from 1977 to 1988. 

There is a bit of a difference in those time periods, as the championships have changed from oval-heavy series to road/street course-heavy series and teams are now all using the same chassis while Penske was building its own chassis for most of those championship seasons and sometimes competing against three or four or five different chassis manufacturers. 

There doesn't have to be one right answer. The fate of humanity is not relying on us coming to a consensus on what is the greatest team in IndyCar history. It is right to acknowledge how great these two organizations have been, and how each stand out in their own greatness. At this moment, Chip Ganassi Racing has gone on a run that cannot be ignored and has placed itself at the top, which we long assumed would only have one inhabitant for a very long time.

Musings From the Weekend: Some Random Thoughts

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

There was a first-time winner in Japan, and a championship has tightened up. There was a usual winner in Germany, and a championship flipped. Grass and gravel run-off must be brought back to Watkins Glen. It was a great weekend for Antipodean drivers around the world. That does seem to be a normal thing though. Some hardware was handed out in Portland. Álex Palou clinched his fourth IndyCar championship with a third-place finish. Will Power got Team Penske's first victory of the IndyCar season, and Will Power was on my mind this weekend long before he was victorious.

Some Random Thoughts

Coincidentally, these thoughts are all driver-related as 2025 is nearing its ends and soon all that will be left to talk about is what will 2026 look like. There has been a lot of noise but no action when it comes to next season, but with all the talk something must be true. 

Are We Really Watching the End of Will Power?

I still cannot get over that we are in the middle of August and we are not sure if Will Power will have a ride for the 2026 season. 

Contract negotiations have been at the forefront of the 2025 season for Power, and they have only become more in focus as the championship was essentially clinched in May and we were left with three months of deadrubber events. 

What we know is Power does not have a contract for the 2026 season, and Team Penske's unofficial development driver David Malukas is the intended replacement. 

This has not been a great season for Team Penske across the board. From the off-track issues with illegally modified pieces leading to the dismissals of Tim Cindric, Ron Ruzewski and Kyle Moyer, to the on-track struggles the team has not seen since 1999. Team Penske has been a mess in every department, and it isn't one driver that has been the disappointment. If anything, Power has been the one bright spot.

Power has been the top Penske driver in the championship for most of this season. Yesterday, he got Penske its first victory of the season in race 15 of 17. He has been the better finisher for most of this season. His qualifying form has gotten back on track and he won his first pole position in nearly two years. This is also a driver who is only three years removed from his most recent championship, which is also Team Penske's most recent championship. 

Results suggest that replacing Power will not be the winning move, but away from the results, Power will be 45 years old at the start of next season. We are closer to the end of his career than the start, and Penske's recent history has been to make a move a few years early rather than a few years too late. 

Juan Pablo Montoya was phased out of the organization after the 2016 season where he was eighth in the championship after finishing fourth in 2014 and lost the championship on tiebreaker in 2015. Montoya was 41 years old at the time.

Hélio Castroneves was transitioned to sports car racing after the 2017 season as the IndyCar program contracted to three cars and the Acura DPi program expanded. Castroneves was 42 years old, but he had finished in the top five of the championship in six consecutive seasons and in nine of the previous ten years. 

If anything, Power has been racing on borrowed time by Team Penske standards. 

It must be acknowledged that Power hasn't been the same clinical Will Power. Though his victory yesterday means Power avoids his second winless season in three years, he has only won multiple races once in the last five seasons. While he won the title in 2022, that is sandwiched between a ninth in 2021 and a seventh in 2023 when he didn't win a race. Yesterday’s victory vaulted Power up to sixth in the championship from ninth. He also went nearly two full calendar years without a pole position, and he hasn't won a pole position on a road or street course since the 2022 season finale. It is reasonable to realize there has been a dip in form. 

What doesn't sit right is Power has been swinging in the wind for months now and is about to be shuffled out for a driver who does not appear to be better on paper. 

When Montoya lost his full-time ride, it was lost to Josef Newgarden, who was competing for championships with Ed Carpenter Racing and was a multiple race winner, and he also ended up fourth in the championship despite racing half the 2016 season with screws in his shoulder holding a broken collarbone together. Castroneves lost his full-time seat when Penske scaled down to three full-time cars, a number the team was more comfortable with running than four. 

For all the flashes from Malukas, it is hazier on whether or not he will be an upgrade over Power and lift Team Penske. All the issues with Team Penske stem from the uncertainty behind the scenes. This isn’t a Team Penske with Tim Cindric leading the way where all three cars are the most prepared for success. It is doubtful Team Penske will right everything in the offseason and we can feel confident Team Penske will roll into the track and be one of the team’s to beat. 

Malukas is on pace for his best season in IndyCar. It is also a season where he has only four top ten finishes from 15 races. Marcus Armstrong, Rinus VeeKay and Christian Rasmussen all have more. While Malukas has shown good qualifying pace, the trend has seen him falling back and not running competitively. 

At some point, it will be time for Power to move on, but at Team Penske, Power does not get to make up the terms of his end. The team decides as it did for Montoya and Castroneves prior, but I don't think anyone thought Power would be shuffled out when it still feels like he is the best option out there for the organization. 

The Lack of a Silly Season

As I was thinking about this on Friday, Racer Magazine's Marshall Pruett wrote an article on silly season, and it was exactly what I was thinking. 

The only thing we have heard around silly season this year is the Power/Malukas dilemma at Team Penske. 

Have you heard rumors of any other drivers moving or any teams making a change? 

Pretty much everyone else is locked in with status quo from 2025 to 2026. The only other rumblings appear to be what happens with the three real paid seats in IndyCar (Sting Ray Robb, Devlin DeFrancesco and Jacob Abel), and does Meyer Shank Racing have the money to keep Marcus Armstrong? And I guess if Conor Daly has the funding to remain at Juncos Hollinger Racing. If Power stays at Team Penske, we are going to be looking at a rather silent offseason. 

Who is even out there? 

Dennis Hauger was dominating the Indy Lights championship, but that has become more of a fight in recent weeks. Hauger's victory at Portland certainly appears to have swung the momentum back in his favor with two races remaining. Hauger was the only Indy Lights driver anyone was considering as a full-time IndyCar option in 2026 for much of this year, and even with Caio Collet's recent success, no one has mentioned Collet as a potential IndyCar driver next year. 

Besides Hauger, the only driver on the outside getting any attention was Théo Pourchaire, and even that has been rather subdue attention, mostly limited to an acknowledgement earlier this year that Simon Pagenaud was helping Pourchaire look for a seat in IndyCar. 

That's it. That is the list of drivers on the outside looking to be in come 2026. 

There also doesn't seem to be a big wave of drivers looking to get into IndyCar at the moment. Besides Toby Sowery and Linus Lundqvist, who has competed recently that seems to want to be in IndyCar? Hunter McElrea? Has anyone been stumping for Hunter McElrea to have a full-time seat? 

I guess Sowery along with Jüri Vips are in a game of musical chairs at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing as both are reserve drivers for RLLR and that is one of the few teams where a seat could be open. But there is no buzz of young talent darting around the paddock looking for opportunities for next year. It has been all quiet on the European front in potential interest.

Maybe we get a few surprises, but it feels like outside of what could happen at Team Penske what changes do come will hardly register on the Richter Scale.

Where are the next generation of Indianapolis 500 one-offs coming from?

This is something I noticed when looking at the championship standings. 

Of the Indianapolis 500 one-offs from this year, who do you think is the youngest? 

The answer is Jack Harvey, and he is 32 years old. Then you had Kyle Larson, who will most likely never race the Indianapolis 500 ever again, at 33 years old, and then four of the other five drivers are over 40. Marco Andretti is still only 38 years old, by the way.

But you had 44-year-old Ed Carpenter, 44-year-old Ryan Hunter-Reay, 48-year-old Takuma Sato, and 50-year-old Hélio Castroneves competing at Indianapolis this year. They all probably have at least one more Indianapolis 500 in them, but there is a chance they all don't have two. 

Indianapolis 500 one-offs go through a natural cycle. A few age out and then there is always someone there to fill the role, whether that be another driver transitioning from full-time career to one-off in May to a young driver who has the funding for May though not a full season, but when you consider this year's group of one-offs, a great majority of them transitioned from full-time driving a while ago. 

Andretti has not been full-time since 2020. Castroneves did return to full-time driving in 2022 and 2023, but he had been a part-timer for the four seasons prior to that. Carpenter hasn't been full-time since 2013, but he stopped running all the oval races at the end of last year when he had Christian Rasmussen run the final three oval events in 2024. This was Carpenter's first season running Indianapolis only. Sato was last full-time in 2022. Hunter-Reay was last full-time in 2021, though he ran the second-half of 2023 for Ed Carpenter Racing. 

Harvey is in a limbo phase of his career. He was practically full-time last year. He has been on television this season except for Indianapolis. He is still only 32 years old. He could be an Indianapolis-only driver for the next four or five years, but of this year's group, he is the only one you can feel confident will be around in four or five years' time. 

In recent years, things have shifted away from the drivers who have some IndyCar experience but are always around for Indianapolis. It could be we are just in a part of the cycle where we don't see those drivers getting rides, but in a few years they could be back and we will go through the better part of a decade with them around. 

But think of the drivers we don't see who were once fixtures. 

Sage Karam made nine consecutive starts at Indianapolis while trying to get back in the series full-time and it has been over three years since he last competed. Karam is only 30 years old. 

It has also been three years since J.R. Hildebrand's last Indianapolis 500 attempt. Hildebrand had made 12 consecutive starts at Indianapolis while also getting a few extra races here and there and was last full-time in 2017. Hildebrand is also 37 years old, and it seems like he is fine not being in the driver seat and working on a timing stand to help a top team. 

Pippa Mann attempted Indianapolis for nine consecutive years with a smattering of other IndyCar starts over that near-decade career. She hasn't been entered for Indianapolis since 2019. 

Charlie Kimball could have fit this mold, but he failed to make the 2021 race in an extra car for A.J. Foyt Racing. It was really Kimball's only attempt as a true one-off entry. He is now 40 years old. 

Along with Kimball, there have also been lost drivers such as Spencer Pigot, Gabby Chaves, Carlos Muñoz, RC Enerson and Oliver Askew, who never became those regular Indianapolis one-offs either. You can even throw Ed Jones into that boat if you want. 

Stefan Wilson is the closest to someone being that regular. Over eight years, Wilson made five attempts at Indianapolis. He would have also made five starts if he had not suffered broken vertebrae in that Monday practice accident six days before the race in 2023, his last appearance at the Speedway. 

James Hinchcliffe could have been this driver, but he turned to broadcasting after 2021 and fully stepped away from driving. Simon Pagenaud could have also been this driver, but the effects from his accident at Mid-Ohio in 2023 linger and keep him from returning to competition. 

There will be somebody around who will get these seats. Someone will find the funding and take the chance to race in the Indianapolis 500. We are not going to have the day where we are struggling to find 33 drivers willing and able to race the Indianapolis 500. 

Jay Howard went six years between Indianapolis appearances from 2011 to 2017. Buddy Lazier was on the sidelines for three years and then returned with his own team. There is still a world where the likes of Pigot or Chaves or Askew make a return, but we are at a crossroads and we will soon see familiar faces who have been some of the best to race at 16th & Georgetown no longer there and who steps in with the plans to only race on that one weekend in May is currently unclear.

Champion From the Weekend

You know about Álex Palou, but did you know...

Jack Jeffers clinched the U.S. F2000 championship with finishes of second, first and second from Portland

Winners From the Weekend

You know about the Will Power, Dennis Hauger and Jack Jeffers, but did you know...

Max Garcia swept the USF Pro 2000 races from Portland. Thomas Schrage (race one) and Teddy Musella (race three) won the other two U.S. F2000 races.

Shane van Gisbergen won the NASCAR Cup race from Watkins Glen, his fourth victory of the season. Connor Zilisch won the Grand National Series race, his sixth victory of the seaosn. Corey Heim won the Truck race, his sixth victory of the season. 

Jack Aitken and René Rast split the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from the Nürburgring.

Broc Feeney (race one and three) and Will Brown (race two) split the Supercars races from Queensland Raceway.

Ayumu Iwasa won the Super Formula race from Sportsland SUGO, his first career victory. 

Ryan Timms won the 64th Knoxville Nationals.

Coming Up This Weekend

MotoGP returns from its summer break with the Austrian Grand Prix.

NASCAR will race in Richmond.

GT World Challenge America is at Road America.

First Impressions: Portland 2025

1. The nightmare is over (somewhat) for Team Penske as Will Power achieved a dominant victory from Portland, the first victory for both team and driver in what has been an exhausting 2025 season for both. 

Power got the lead by staying out under caution when Conor Daly spun into the barrier after contact with Christian Rasmussen. The pit window had just opened for everyone to make it on three stops, but it was still early, and everyone that stayed out could run another 20 laps or so on fuel. The leaders prior to the caution were shuffled to outside the top ten, and though they were good on a three-stop strategy, this allowed Power to fly. Over the remained of that stint, Power opened a gap that allowed him to make his first pit stop and come out ahead of the likes of Christian Lundgaard and Felix Rosenqvist. From there, the advantage was Power's until the very end, even with a stint on the primary tire still to run. 

As long as Power held the track position, he was going to win this race. Lundgaard made it tight on the penultimate stint when Lundgaard had the tire advantage running the alternate tire to Power's primary tires. On the final stint, Power had used set of alternate tires while Lundgaard had a fresh alternate set. For almost that entire final stint, Power had Lundgaard breathing down his next, and it would not be long until Álex Palou was there as well. 

Despite the tire situation and traffic holding up Power, he was able to keep the competition at arm's length even at the end of the race when tire conditions should have swung to the favor of his competitors. It was a throwback race for the 44-year-old. He won this race through shear pace and once ahead he dared the rest of the field to beat him. They came close but they could not overcome the Australian. 

Over this weekend, I was thinking about how we could be seeing the final days of Will Power in IndyCar, and I have more on the subject that can be read tomorrow, but Power should have locked down an extension after this race. His fastball might not be at 100%, but it is still better than about 90% of the grid. Power has been the bright spot for Team Penske this season. 

To extinguish the brightest light when the team will still be going through a transition in 2026 could be the most foolish decision Roger Penske has made as a car owner.

2. Christian Lundgaard had to start seventh today after serving a six-spot grid penalty for taking on his fifth engine of the season. This knocked Lundgaard from pole position, and if he had only started first, maybe this would have been Lundgaard's race to control, but it all hung on what tire he started on. Power stayed out under the Daly caution because he was on the alternate tire. Perhaps Lundgaard would have stayed out even if he had started on the primary tire from pole position, but the only other drivers to stay out on the primary tire were Álex Palou and Devlin DeFrancesco. One guy can run whatever strategy he wants and will still be there at the finish. The other is just throwing up Hail Marys.

The most frustrating thing from this race was the amount of fuel Lundgaard had to save to make it, and he ran out of fuel just after he took the checkered flag in second. I hate to point this out but the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet had a few notable issues with fuel mileage last season with Alexander Rossi as the driver. That timing stand might want to take a look at some of its decisions because it almost cost the driver today and it cost the previous driver.

3. Álex Palou didn't need to finish third to clinch the championship. It was clinched on lap 21 when wiring issues caused Patricio O'Ward to slow on track and effectively end O'Ward's race. 

It was inevitable that Palou was going to win this championship. He entered this weekend needing to only score 41 points over the final three races, something he could have easily done in this race alone. I was wishing for it end today so we could end the false hope that the title was alive. It hasn't been alive since April. Palou has been that ruthless and no one has come close to rivaling his output. 

Even though he finished third, Palou was probably the best driver today. At one point, he was over 20 seconds behind Power, and traffic helped close the gap, but a great majority of that deficit was overcome through Palou's driving alone. That ninth victory of the season was within touching distance. It didn't come today and sole-possession of the single season record for victories is gone, but Palou still has a chance at a share of the record. We are going to have plenty of time to recognize Palou's greatness. Today, he has locked himself a place in history that few have reached before and few will reach after. 

4. There was a caution on lap three when Santino Ferrucci spun exiting the final corner, and it allowed some drivers to take a gamble. Six drivers made a pit stop to get off of the primary tire. It was still going to require three more stops to make the finish, but Graham Rahal drove an excellent race to remain at the front and have that four-stop strategy cycle to a point he was level with the leaders. 

Rahal was seconds off the top three, but he was legitimately fourth with his pace matching though on a different strategy. For a second, it looked like it was going to backfire, but Rahal had good pace to keep the car at the front. He never got shuffled into traffic that cost him. It helped that Rahal had three sets of new alternate tires for this race. For all the struggles Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has had this year, and over the last few years, it can put together races like this where they do not look that far off and actually look better than a good number of teams ahead of them on paper. 

5. Alexander Rossi gets his first top five finish of the season on what was his and Ed Carpenter Racing's best race weekend of the season. Rossi had good speed all weekend. He just missed out on the final round of qualifying but was still starting sixth after the grid penalty to Lundgaard. Rossi was holding his own all race. He didn't quite have the stuff to compete with Power, Lundgaard and Palou, but he was a top five car all race. This should be a good boost for him, and it comes at a good time as the final two races are ovals, where he and ECR likely think they can end on a high note.

6. Like Rahal, Callum Ilott stopped on lap four under the Ferrucci caution, and for the third consecutive race, Ilott held his own on an alternate strategy. He matches Prema's best finish of sixth, which Ilott set at Laguna Seca two weeks ago. It required a gamble as neither Prema car started better than 24th, but both Prema cars were on this strategy. Ilott ended up sixth and Shwartzman was 15th. Ilott had to do some special driving today to make this work. It has been a tough year, but he is ending on a high note.

7. Scott McLaughlin was seventh on a day where Power was victorious. McLaughlin ran the same tire strategy as Power but he did not have the same pace to match Power. I bet McLaughlin wishes he finished a little higher because he restarted third after the Daly caution. It is one thing that you are not going to maintain that spot and a driver or two who stopped under that caution will cycle ahead, but at that point the aim should be for a top five. I think what McLaughlin and the rest of us did not count on was two cars that stopped on lap four making that strategy work into a top six finish. 

It is a moral victory but McLaughlin did finish four spots better than where he started. Take it when you can get it.

8. Marcus Armstrong did nothing impressive but started and finished eighth, and I think that is still a good day. It is another top ten for Armstrong and Meyer Shank Racing. It has been a banner year for both driver and team. I do not understand how these two parties cannot find a way to continue into 2026. If Team Penske was beating down the door for Armstrong, I would get how they would part, but Armstrong is running more consistent than a great number of drivers who are more celebrated than him, and there are almost no takers lining up for this New Zealander. That is a big miss. It is even bigger if MSR let him walk.

9. Even better for Armstrong is he beat his teammate as Felix Rosenqvist was ninth. For a moment, we thought this race was lining up for Rosenqvist to compete for a victory, but as we too often see in IndyCar, Rosenqvist can start in the top five but he has trouble finishing in the top five. Rosenqvist was ahead of Lundgaard after the first round of pit stops, and Rosenqvist had a chance to control this race or at least control the drivers on the strategy of stopping under the Daly caution. Instead, Rosenqvist lost ground on each stint and ended up behind his teammate, who did good but not great today. 

If MSR had to Sophie's choice its two drivers, it should keep Armstrong over Rosenqvist. Both have done great this year. There is a good chance both MSR drivers will finish in the championship top ten, something that was absurd to think about two years ago, but after seven seasons in IndyCar, Rosenqvist's shortcomings are too apparent to ignore.

10. Colton Herta was tenth in a dismal day for Andretti Global. I am going to cover all the Andretti cars here. Herta was mid-pack all race, and he was fortunate Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden got together to gift him two spots. 

Kyle Kirkwood was hanging with Herta for most of the opening stint, and it is unclear how Kirkwood lost all the ground to the point he finished a lap down in 20th. 

Even worse, Marcus Ericsson blew a top ten starting position for Andretti, and Ericsson was a lap down in 22nd, with all his screen time in this race being because he was holding up Power and allowed Palou to close in on the top two. Ericsson was the best starting Andretti car in this race and he spent most of the race running as the worst Andretti car. 

We haven't really seen this race from the Andretti Global group this season where none of the three cars look competitive. It happened today, and the team is not trending in the right direction as we approach the end of the 2025 season.

11. Despite the contact and penalty for avoidable contact, Scott Dixon was still 11th after the drive-through penalty when he spun Newgarden in turn two. Without it, Dixon may finish in the top five. Otherwise he would have been sixth or seventh. 

Newgarden was just coming out of the pit lane and on cold tires as he was slow through the chicane. Newgarden did nearly come to a complete stop in turn two and Dixon had nowhere to go but through him. I think Dixon should have had the wherewithal to back up that corner and get the run on exit especially since Newgarden was a sitting duck on cold tires.

As for Newgarden, he kind of put himself in a spot to get run over. What is worse is it took Newgarden almost two laps to get the car re-fired after a pretty lazy spin. It was a top ten finish lost, but if he gets the hybrid working immediately that car is re-fired and he is still going to finish 14th or 15th. Instead, it is 24th and another abysmal day for Newgarden in one of the worst years of his career.

12. Let's tackle the Christian Rasmussen and Conor Daly incident because Rasmussen ended up 12th in this race and never got a penalty for the contact with Daly. 

It all started with Daly's attempt to pass on the outside of turn seven. Rasmussen drove off the road, forcing Daly off as well. We saw this a little over a month ago between Daly and Santino Ferrucci at Mid-Ohio. Ferrucci drove off the road and took Daly with him. It was clearly a block and Ferrucci was penalized. Rasmussen should have gotten the same penalty today. 

What doesn't help is Daly, in all his anger, clearly went into the chicane and was fine if he hit Rasmussen and took him out. Daly didn't quite do that but it was obvious what he attempted. Rasmussen remained ahead and then we got to turns 10 and 11 and Daly spun after contact with Rasmussen, flying into the barrier. 

I think both drivers are at fault. I think both drivers should have been penalized. 

Rasmussen forced Daly off track. Daly was reckless. Even on the third incident, I don't think it is obvious as Rasmussen spun Daly. There was no clear replay angle of what happened, but I believe Daly committed to making a pass in that corner and was putting Rasmussen into a spot where Daly was coming through and it was on Rasmussen to decide whether or not he would back out to avoid contact.

Rasmussen didn't back out. There was contact. Daly had a heavy hit into the barriers. Rasmussen was able to continue. 

No penalty was issued, which leads me to believe the officials saw it as Daly made an aggressive move and the contact wasn't because Rasmussen initiated it but because Daly put Rasmussen into a position where unless Rasmussen backed out there would be contact. 

The unfortunate thing is there should have at least been a callback to Mid-Ohio and some thought that Ferrucci was penalized for running Daly off the road, which meant Rasmussen would see the same fate. But race control has been a little too inconsistent, which led Daly to boil over and take matters into his own hands. 

That isn't good because all that will lead to is incidents like this. Daly drove at an aggression level that was too far over the edge. He clearly had no problem making contact with Rasmussen. I get the sense Daly made that move thinking if there was contact both cars would have been out of the race. Instead, it was only Daly out and Rasmussen got to finish 12th.

 

I don't think Daly is as much the victim as he has made himself out to be in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Rasmussen isn't innocent either. 

Two wrongs do not make a right, and race control cannot let the driver's police themselves if they are going to be so recklessly wrong. 

13. That was a lot on the 12th-place finisher. Let's blast through the rest of the field.

Louis Foster overcame being spun on lap eight to finish 13th. It was a good race when you consider he was facing the wrong way at one point. 

Sting Ray Robb stopped on lap four and finished 14th. Ok. Robb didn't do anything notable to get that result. 

Robert Shwartzman gets his first top fifteen finish on a road/street course in 15th. Considering Shwartzman and Ilott started a position a part on track and were on the same strategy, stopping on lap four, finishing nine spots a part is a little hard to swallow. If Shwartzman could have pulled off tenth or 11th in this race, it would have been a much more positive result.

Nolan Siegel started 17th and finished 16th, and I don't think he was mentioned once on the broadcast.

14. Along with Foster being spun on lap eight, Rinus VeeKay was also spun on lap eight, but the difference is Kyffin Simpson spun Foster and got a penalty. No one else was penalized for the contact VeeKay received, and I am pretty sure one of the Prema cars got into VeeKay. That is a bit harsh. VeeKay did finish 17th, but there is nothing to celebrate with such a result.

15. Devlin DeFrancesco stayed out until lap 32, and going long on the first stint did not do DeFrancesco wonders like it did for Power and Palou. DeFrancesco dropped like a rock and at the finish he was 18th. That sounds about right for him.

David Malukas had to make an extra pit stop late in the race and it took away what was going to be a tenth-place finish. However, Malukas would have been in Colton Herta's shoes and been tenth thanks to Dixon and Newgarden's contact. Malukas spent much of this race outside the top fifteen. He lost spots at the start and wasn't holding his own against the other cars that started in the top ten. 

And Malukas is in the catbird seat to replace Will Power at Team Penske. Are you kidding me? Are we sure Roger Penske is of sound body and mind?

16. The only two finishers we have not touched upon are Kyffin Simpson, who was 21st and his day was ruined after the penalty for the contact with Foster, and Jacob Abel, who was 23rd but Abel held up Rosenqvist and Lundgaard as Power was able to cover the pit delta to make his first stop and exit the pit lane ahead of those two. If it wasn't for Abel, who stopped on lap four and ended up being a roadblock to Rosenqvist and Lundgaard, I don't think Power wins this race. 

17. Let's cover the retirees. This season was always likely going to finish with Patricio O'Ward being one spot short of a championship. If you are going to lose, you mind as well have it be one through the skull rather than a death by a thousand cuts. 

The last month has been false hope that O'Ward could take the title fight to Palou. Even if O'Ward won today, he wasn't going to win the championship. Even if he made up 48 points to Palou, the gap would still be 60 points with two races to go and O'Ward would still need to make up at least 12 more points at Milwaukee to have a sliver of a chance at Nashville. We are talking about a collapse of historic proportions just for O'Ward to have a prayer at the finale. It might have been best that the car broke down not even a quarter of the way into this race to end up the aimless hype of something that was never going to happen. 

It sucks that this is how it ended for O'Ward, but it was always going to end this way. Now the focus can be on ending on the highest note possible in the final two races and not get distracted with an unobtainable prize.

18. Santino Ferrucci's race didn't even make it two laps, and Ferrucci's spin is a little puzzling. Something happened to Ferrucci because he started 21st but he was in 26th at the end of lap one. On the exit of the final corner, Ferrucci lost the rear, and as the broadcasters said, Ferrucci decided to light it up in hopes that he would just power through the spin. Instead that led to him getting into the inside barrier on the main straightaway.

That just seems like the most immature decision to make in such a spot. It was the end of lap two. Ferrucci was in 25th. Deciding to floor it in hopes that you will spin and hit nothing is just a bad strategy. Even if he spins and hits nothing, Ferrucci is now back in 27th and with garbage tires, meaning he would need to stop next time by, and it likely would not have drawn a full course caution because Ferrucci would have continued and he would be at no risk of another car hitting hit because he would be in dead last. The closest car would have been 45 seconds away. The right move would have been to lift and live to fight another day even if it meant dropping back to 26th or 27th. 

Watching it and listening to the booth explain Ferrucci's thinking just made the entire accident appear to be unnecessary and completely avoidable. 

19. And from the final road course race of the season we head into the final off-weekend of the season. We all get a breather. Chip Ganassi Racing and Álex Palou get a week to celebrate. After that, it is Milwaukee and Nashville in consecutive weeks to close out the season. Rest up. 

Morning Warm-Up: Portland 2025

Christian Lundgaard set the fastest lap in the final round of qualifying for the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland at 58.393 seconds, but Lundgaard had a six-spot grid penalty for taking on his fifth engine of the season, relegating the Dane to seventh on the grid. 

Lundgaard's Arrow McLaren teammate Patricio O'Ward will move up to first on the grid after the penalty. This will be O'Ward's best starting position ever at Portland. His previous best was fifth in 2022. This is the second consecutive race O'Ward is starting on the front row. He was 0.1404 seconds off winning pole position outright and earning that bonus point for the fastest qualifier. The Mexican has finished in the top five in five consecutive races, the longest streak of his IndyCar career. He has finished in the top five in the 15th race of the season the last four years. Absent of what Álex Palou must do, if O'Ward finishes ninth or worse, his championship hopes will end in Portland.

Felix Rosenqvist was 0.0240 seconds off O'Ward and Rosenqvist will start on the front row, also his best start ever at Portland. It is the sixth time this season Rosenqvist has started in the top five. In two of those races, he finished in the top five. He started and finished fourth at Long Beach, and he started fifth on his way to finishing fourth in the Indianapolis 500. Portland is one of two circuits where Rosenqvist has multiple podium finishes. He was second in 2019 and second in 2023. The other track is Road America where he picked up his second podium finish earlier this season. It has been 89 starts since Rosenqvist's only career victory.

Will Power was 0.1081 seconds off O'Ward and Power will start third. Power has not won a race since last year's visit to Portland, 17 starts ago, a race in which he started second. After having three top five finishes in the first five races, Power has only two top five finishes in the last nine races. He has only led four laps this season. His fewest led in a season was 14 in his rookie season in 2006. Power has not won a race from third starting position since the 2018 Indianapolis 500. 

David Malukas takes the outside of row two as Malukas was 0.0133 seconds slower than Power in qualifying. This will be the ninth time Malukas has started in the top ten this season. The only time he has started in the top ten and finished better than his starting position was the Indianapolis 500 where he went from seventh to second. In three Portland starts, Malukas has an average finish of 14th. This will be Malukas' 59th career start.

Álex Palou caused a local yellow in the final round of qualifying, which cost Palou his fastest lap. He still starts fifth for Portland. This is Palou's worst starting position since he started ninth at Gateway. Palou will clinch his fourth IndyCar championship with a runner-up finish with at least one bonus point scored. He won from fifth starting position at Portland in 2023.

Alexander Rossi missed out on the final round of qualifying by 0.0163 seconds, but after Lundgaard's penalty, Rossi moves up to sixth on the grid. It will be Rossi's best starting position since he started sixth at Thermal Club. He had started outside the top ten in nine consecutive races. Rossi's top ten finish drought is up to seven consecutive victories. He has five top ten finishes in six Portland starts.

Christian Lundgaard slides back to seventh after the grid penalty. This is the sixth time since 2012 the pole-sitter is serving a grid penalty. It happened in 2012 with Ryan Briscoe at Long Beach and Ryan Hunter-Reay at Edmonton. In 2013, it happened with Dario Franchitti in the first Detroit race and Hélio Castroneves at Iowa. The most recent example was in 2023 with Scott McLaughlin at Gateway. It has been 38 starts since Lundgaard's only IndyCar victory. He has six podium finishes since he won at Toronto in 2023. 

Marcus Armstrong is eighth in the championship and he will start eighth for today's race. This is the ninth time Armstrong has started in the top ten this season. He has converted five of his first eight top ten starting spots into top ten finishes and on three occasion has he finished better than his grid position. Armstrong was fifth in last year's Portland race after starting seventh. 

Scott Dixon starts ninth for the second time this season. Dixon started ninth at Mid-Ohio, which he went onto win. While Dixon has six top five finishes this season, including in the last race at Laguna Seca, he has not finished in the top five in consecutive starts since a three-race stretch over the Iowa doubleheader and Toronto last year.

Marcus Ericsson rounds out the top ten, the seventh time Ericsson has started in the top ten in 2025. This is the third time in the last five races Ericsson has been the best Andretti Global starter, however, Ericsson has yet to be the best Andretti Global finisher in a race this season. In four Portland starts, Ericsson's average finish is 7.75.

For the third consecutive race, Scott McLaughlin was one spot off advancing out of the first round of qualifying. McLaughlin was 0.0848 seconds off making the second round. After grid penalties, McLaughlin moves up to 11th on the grid. This is his sixth consecutive race starting outside the top ten. McLaughlin enters this weekend with 49 top ten finishes in his first 81 IndyCar starts.

Devlin DeFrancesco takes a surprising 12th on the grid, though he was the first car to miss out on advancing from group two by 0.0625 seconds. This is the first time DeFrancesco has started in the top fifteen since he started fifth for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May. DeFrancesco has finished outside the top fifteen in eight consecutive races. He has finished 16th and 17th in his two previous visits to Portland.

Colton Herta has his worst starting position ever at Portland as Herta will start 13th. He was 0.1235 seconds from advancing from group two in the first round of qualifying. He had made it out of the first round of qualifying in each of his first five appearances in Portland. Though he has four top ten finishes in five Portland starts, Herta has never finished better than fourth in the Rose City. 

Louis Foster elevates to 14th on the grid after grid penalties. This is the sixth time in the last seven races Foster has started inside the top fifteen. After finishing in the top fifteen in four consecutive races, Foster has finished outside the top fifteen in the last two races. He won at Portland in Indy Pro 2000 in 2022 and Indy Lights in 2023. 

Josef Newgarden qualified ninth, but a six-spot grid penalty bumps him down to 15th after the team changed to its fifth engine of the season prior to qualifying. Newgarden has not had a top five finish on a permanent road course since he was third last year at Portland. His most recent permanent road course victory was at Road America in 2022. 

Christian Rasmussen will start on the outside of row eight. It is the 13th time in 15 races Rasmussen will start outside the top fifteen. Rasmussen has three top ten finishes in his last four starts. Prior to this stretch, he had three top ten finishes over his first 24 starts. His ninth at Laguna Seca two weeks ago was only his second top ten finish on a permanent road course. The other was ninth at Mid-Ohio in 2024.

Nolan Siegel starts 17th. Siegel has finished 18th in the last two races. Earlier this season, he finished 13th in consecutive races at Indianapolis and 19th in consecutive races at Detroit and Gateway. His only top ten finishes this season were on permanent road courses. He was eighth at Road America and ninth at Barber Motorsports Park.

Kyffin Simpson did make the second round of qualifying, but Simpson drops to 18th on the grid after having a six-spot grid penalty for his contact with Felix Rosenqvist on the opening lap at Laguna Seca. This is the eighth time this season Simpson will start outside the top fifteen. He started 18th in the second Iowa race and finished 13th.

Kyle Kirkwood is going to start 19th, the fourth time in the last five races Kirkwood will be starting 18th or worse. He started 18th or worse in only three of the first ten races this season. Only once has Kirkwood finished in the top five in one of the final four races of the season. That was last year at Nashville where he finished fourth. Kirkwood has not finished in the top five in his last five starts.

Sting Ray Robb moves up to 20th on the grid, his best starting position since he was 19th at Mid-Ohio. Robb had started 24th or worse in the last four races. This is the first time he has been the top Juncos Hollinger Racing qualifier since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May. Robb has finished outside the top fifteen in six consecutive races. He has finished 23rd and 18th in his two previous visits to Portland. 

Santino Ferrucci has a six-spot grid penalty for taking on a fifth engine, which knocks Ferrucci from 15th on the grid down to 21st. This is the 14th time in 15 races he has started outside the top ten this season, and it is the fourth time Ferrucci is starting outside the top twenty. Last year, Ferrucci scored his best Portland finish of eighth after starting on pole position.

Graham Rahal has his worst starting position on a road or street course race this season in 22nd. Rahal had started in the top ten in three consecutive races prior to this weekend. This will also be his worst starting position ever at Portland. In the last four Portland races, Rahal has three top ten finishes. He has only two top ten finishes this season.

Rinus VeeKay went off course on his final qualifying lap in round one, and that leaves VeeKey 23rd on the grid. VeeKay has finished in the top ten in four of the six permanent road course races. The only races he finished outside the top ten were the two California races, a 17th at Thermal Club and 23rd at Laguna Seca. 

For the second consecutive race, Callum Ilott is starting 24th. It is Ilott's eighth time starting outside the top twenty this season. He enters this weekend with consecutive top ten finishes for only the second time in his career. In the last two races, Ilott has set Prema's best finish in IndyCar. At Laguna Seca, he went from 24th to sixth.

Robert Shwartzman brought out a red flag with just over a minute left in the first qualifying group, and that meant Shwartzman could not advance from the first round. This will place the Israeli driver in the 25th grid position. Shwartzman's average finish on permanent road courses this season is 22.333, and his only top 20 finish was 18th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

Conor Daly has his worst starting position of the season in 26th, though this is the third consecutive race Daly is starting outside the top twenty. Daly makes his 129th start this weekend at Portland. If he wins, Daly would match Michel Jourdain, Jr. for the record of most starts before a first career victory. 

Jacob Abel rounds out the grid in 27th. It is the fifth time Abel has started in last this season. Only once has he started in the top twenty this season, and that was 20th at Detroit. Abel has failed to finish three of the last four races. He won last year's Indy Lights race in Portland. 

Fox's coverage of the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland begins at 3:00 p.m. with green flag at 3:22 p.m. The race is scheduled for 110 laps.

Track Walk: Portland 2025

The 15th NTT IndyCar Series season will run at Portland International Raceway for the final road course race of the season, as we are entering the final days of the IndyCar season. Through 14 races there have been only four different winners. IndyCar has had at least seven different winners in 15 consecutive seasons. The last season with fewer was 2009, which had only six different winners. Since returning to the IndyCar schedule in 2018, only once has the Portland winner been a driver scoring his first victory of the season. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday August 10 with green flag scheduled for 3:22 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 5:30 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 12:00 p.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 

Final Practice: 8:30 p.m. ET (25 minutes)
Sunday:
Race: 3:22 p.m. ET (90 laps)

FS2 will have coverage of Friday practice session while FS1 will have coverage of second practice and qualifying on Saturday. FS2 will show the final practice session Saturday night. Fox will have race coverage.

Palou's Pending Coronation

The question does not seem to be if Álex Palou will win the 2025 IndyCar Series championship, it is when, and all Palou needs to clinch the championship is score 41 points over the final three races. He doesn't even need all three races to hit that total. It could be locked up in Portland.

A second-place finish with at least one bonus point this weekend will be enough for Palou to take the title with two races remaining regardless of what Patricio O'Ward does this weekend. 

Palou and O'Ward are the only drivers alive for the championship with three races remaining, and they have combined to win the last four races. Palou sits in 590 points, 121 points clear of O'Ward. For O'Ward to remain alive for the championship beyond Portland he will need to score at least 18 points more Palou this weekend. 

This season, O'Ward has scored more points than Palou in only four of the first 14 races. Two of those occurred during the month of June at Detroit and Gateway respectively. The other two are O'Ward's victories in the first Iowa race and Toronto. 

When it comes to Portland, not many drivers are better at the circuit than Palou. In four starts in the Rose City he has finished first, 12th, first and second. He has led 101 of 440 laps run. He has never started outside the top five at the track. 

O'Ward has also made four starts at Portland, but his results have been more up-and-down. He led 28 laps in the 2021 Portland race, one lap fewer than Palou that day, but O'Ward got stuck in traffic after his opening pit stop and he kept losing ground to the leaders. He was unable to get out of the middle of the field and ended up finish 14th. O'Ward would finish fourth in the next two years at Portland, but last year he qualified 22nd on a day when none of the three Arrow McLaren cars started better than 17th. In the race, all O'Ward could climb up to was 15th.

Palou could become the first driver to clinch a championship with multiple races remaining since Cristiano da Matta clinched the 2002 CART championship with three races remaining. Since 1946, 23 times has the championship be claimed with multiple races to spare. However, the only other time in the last 40 years the championship was sealed with multiple races left was in 1998 when Alex Zanardi won the CART championship with four races to go.

This would be Palou's fourth championship and his third consecutive. He could become the sixth driver to win at least four championships in a career, and he would become only the fourth driver to win three consecutive championships. He would have four championships in six seasons in IndyCar. The only other driver to reach four championships in fewer seasons was Sébastien Bourdais, who won four consecutive championships to close out his first five seasons in American open-wheel racing.

Besides championships, Palou is a victory away from another milestone. The Catalan driver enters this weekend on 19 career victories in his first 95 starts. He is one victory away from becoming the 24th driver to reach 20 career victories. Another victory this season would make Palou just the fourth driver to win at least nine races in a single season. If he wins two of the final three races, he will tie the single season record. If he wins all three, he will set the single season record with 11 victories.

The Battle for Third

In all likelihood, Álex Palou will finish first in the championship and Patricio O'Ward will finish second. The battle will be for third, and there are two key contenders for that spot.

Scott Dixon is currently third on 392 points, 77 points behind O'Ward in second. Kyle Kirkwood is fourth and only 15 points behind Dixon. In recent weeks, the momentum has swung in Dixon's favor in the fight for third. 

After Gateway, Kirkwood was third in the championship on 75 points off Palou in the championship lead after the American won for the third time in the first eight races. Dixon was fifth, 54 points behind Kirkwood.

In the last six races, Dixon has finished in the top ten in all six, and that includes a victory, a second and another two top five finishes. Dixon's only finish worse than 12th this season was 20th in the Indianapolis 500. These results have been coming despite Dixon's qualifying woes. He has started in the top five of only one race this season, and that was fourth in the Indianapolis 500. Only twice has he started in the top ten on a road or street course, sixth at St. Petersburg and ninth at Mid-Ohio. In six races he has started outside the top fifteen. In four of those races, Dixon has finished inside the top ten with two of those being fifth-place results.

For Kirkwood, he has only one top ten finish and three top ten finishes in the last six events, and he has finished outside the top fifteen in three of the last four races. After leading 104 laps in the first eight races of the season, Kirkwood has led only ten laps over the last six races, and his five-race top five finish drought is his longest since a nine-race stretch that spread over the final four races in 2023 and the first five races of 2024. During this slump he has started 18th or worse in all three races he has failed to finish inside the top fifteen. He has not started in the top five since he started third at Road America.

Dixon has lived in a top three championship spot for nearly 20 year. Since 2007, Dixon has finished in the championship top three in 14 seasons with two finishes in fourth and two finishes in sixth. While he is a six-time champion, he has finished third in the championship on six occasions as well. Only three times has he been championship runner-up. 

Whether it be third or fourth, Kirkwood is in line for his best championship finish in his four-year IndyCar career. His championship finish has improved each year after finishing 24th as a rookie in 2022. Two years ago he was 11th, and last year he was seventh. Andretti Global has produced at least one driver in the top five of the championship in five of the last seven seasons. 

At Portland, Dixon has finished on the podium in three of his last six starts with another top five finish. In three Portland starts, Kirkwood has finished 13th, tenth and tenth. Last year, Dixon and Kirkwood made contact on the opening lap, which led to Dixon going off circuit and hitting the barrier, ending his race before he could register a lap completed. 

At Least One of These Drivers Will Go Winless

Time is running out in the IndyCar season and there are a great number of drivers without a victory with only three races remaining, 23 drivers to be specific. At least 20 regular competitors will be without a victory when this season is all said and done. Keep in mind only four drivers have won through the first 14 races this season.

Christian Lundgaard is the top driver in the championship without a victory this season. Lundgaard is fifth in the championship on 357 points, 20 points behind three-time race winner Kyle Kirkwood in fourth. Lundgaard was second at Laguna Seca, his best finish since he was runner-up at Barber Motorsports Park in May. While he had three consecutive podium finishes and was second in the championship after four races, Lundgaard has only two top five finishes in the last ten races. He has finished outside the top ten in five of the last ten races. 

Felix Rosenqvist is sixth in the championship on 315 points, two points ahead of Colton Herta, but Rosenqvist has finished outside the top fifteen in three of the last four races. His 24th-place result at Laguna Seca is his worst finish of the season. Last year, he had five top ten finishes in the first six races but he ended the season with one top ten finish in the final 11 races. Rosenqvist has finished in the top ten in three of the last six races.

Herta is coming off two consecutive top five finishes, the first time he has had consecutive top five finishes this season. Last year, he closed out the season with six top five finishes in the final seven races. Five of his nine career victories have come within the final four races of a season, and he has won three of the last seven season finales. 

Marcus Armstrong is the top driver in the championship with zero career victories, and it has been over two years since our most recent first-time winner. Armstrong has seven top ten finishes in the last eight races. He is tied for the fourth-most top ten finishes this season with Kirkwood and Lundgaard. Four times has a driver had their first career victory come in Portland. Those drivers are Al Unser, Jr. in 1984, Alex Zanardi in 1996, Mark Blundell in 1997 and A.J. Allmendinger in 2006.

Unless a Team Penske driver wins this weekend, we will be guaranteed that at least one of them will go winless in 2025. Will Power is ninth in the championship while Scott McLaughlin is 12th and Josef Newgarden is 16th. 

Power has one top five finish in the last seven races. He has led only four laps in the first 14 races. Power is hoping to avoid his second winless season in the last three years. 

McLaughlin got back into the top ten at Laguna Seca, but he has finished outside the top ten in seven of the last nine races after he opened the season with four top ten results in the first five events. McLaughlin did win at Portland in 2022.

Newgarden is looking to avoid his first winless season since 2014, but his only top five finish on a road or street course this season was third in the St. Petersburg season opener. His best finish on a natural-terrain road course was 11th at Laguna Seca two weeks ago. The good news for Newgarden is he has finished in the top ten in all six of his Portland starts and he has four top five finishes at the circuit.

Cautions

At the start of the IndyCar season, everyone marveled at the lack of cautions, and it became a running joke that there would never be another caution in the series. 

Through the first five races, there had only been two total caution periods for a combined eight caution laps out of the first 430 laps run in the 2025 season. The pendulum has swung completely in the opposite direction. 

Seven of the last nine races have featured at least five cautions, including the last four consecutive races. Only one race in the last nine has featured fewer than three cautions. That would be Mid-Ohio, which had two caution periods. After having only 1.86% of the first 430 laps run under caution, we have had 18.68% of the last 1,440 laps run under caution. We have also had two races finish under caution in that span after going over two years without a race finishing behind the pace car.

In what could be somewhat of a surprise, IndyCar is trending downward on the amount of caution periods compared to last season. Despite this nine-race run, only 14.873% of all laps run in 2025 have been under caution. Last season, 16.9602% of the total laps run were under yellow. That is 414 of 2,441 laps run. In the final three races of last season, a grand total of 126 of the 706 laps run were under caution, or 17.847%.

Over its entire existence on the IndyCar schedule, Portland has averaged 2.1 cautions per race with a median of one. Since it returned to the IndyCar schedule in 2018, three races have featuerd two cautions or fewer. The other three races have featured three cautions or four cautions. 

Four of the last six Portland races have had an opening lap caution, and five of the six races have had the first caution come within the first three laps. Of the four opening lap cautions, last year's was the only one not for an incident in the chicane that makes up the first three turns. It was for Scott Dixon going off after contact in turn eight. The 2022 race is the only one to get through the first three laps cleanly, and that race went 84 laps before Jimmie Johnson and Rinus VeeKay had contact in the chciane. That proved to be the only caution of that race.

Of the 15 cautions at Portland since 2018, seven have been in the chicane, but there have been no cautions for incidents at the chicane in the last two visits to Portland. The next most troublesome spot has been turn 11, which has been the location for three cautions. No other place on the circuit has caused multiple cautions over the last six races. 

On average this season, the first caution has come around lap nine in a race. In six of 14 races has the first caution come on the opening lap and in another three races has the first caution come within the first four laps. In seven consecutive races has there been a caution within the first four laps. Besides the three caution-free races, the only two other races to see at least the first five laps run uninterrupted were the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, which did not see a caution period until lap 70, and Detroit, which ran the first 13 laps before the first incident of the race. 

Road to Indy

Portland marks the season finale for two of the three Road to Indy Series, but for Indy Lights it is the antepenultimate round in a championship that has tightened up over the last few races. 

Dennis Hauger's championship lead is 42 points with three races remaining as Caio Collet has leaped up to second after Collet swept the Laguna Seca doubleheader. Hauger was second in the first race but contact in race two left him with a 16th-place result. Lochie Hughes has dropped to third as he has finished 15th or worse in two of the last three races. Hughes is 89 points behind Hauger. 

Two other drivers are still mathematically alive for the championship. Myles Rowe is 127 points behind Hauger in fourth and Josh Pierson has some air left in the lungs of his championship hopes as Pierson is 152 points back with 162 points left on the table.

There will be a few driver changes in Portland. Michael d'Orlando will return for the final three Indy Lights races to drive the #3 Andretti Cape Motorsports entry, which Ricardo Escotto had driven in the first nine races. D'Orlando ran the seven Indy Lights races last season for Andretti Cape and he had three finishes in the top six with his best result being fourth at St. Petersburg. He won at Portland in U.S. F2000 in 2022 to cap off his championship season, and he won here in USF Pro 2000 in 2023. 

Nicholas Monteiro will drive the #24 HMD Motorsports entry at Portland, and Monteiro will become the fourth different driver to run this car in 2025. Monteiro has spent the last three seasons in USF Pro 2000. His best finish in 52 starts is sixth, which has occurred on six occasions and they have all come this season. 

Indy Lights will race at 1:06 p.m. ET on Sunday August 10 for 35 laps.

The USF Pro 2000 championship was wrapped up in Toronto when Max Garcia finished first and ninth. Garcia has won seven races this season and his ninth at Toronto was his first finish outside the top four this season. 

The battle will be for second as 13 points cover second to fourth, and 25 points is covering second to fifth. 

Ariel Elkin has 315 points, three more than Mac Clark. Alessandro de Tullio is fourth on 301 points and Jacob Douglas is fifth on 290 points. 

Elkin won three of the first nine races but he has gone winless in the last seven races. He does have two podium finishes and five top five finishes in that time. Clark remains winless this season, but he does have ten podium finishes, which is only one fewer than champion-elect Garcia. De Tullio won three of the first four races, but hit a bit of a slump in the middle of the season before he won the second Toronto race. Douglas has three consecutive podium finishes and five podium finishes in the last seven races.

USF Pro 2000 will hold its first race at 1:20 p.m. ET on Saturday August 9 with the final race of the season scheduled for 5:50 p.m. ET on Sunday August 10. Both races will be 30 laps or 50 minutes. 

The U.S. F2000 season will conclude with a triple-header from Portland and with 99 points left on the table, one of four drivers could leave as champion.

Jack Jeffers has 353 points and a 52-point championship lead over Thomas Schrage after Jeffers has won four consecutive races. Jeffers had one victory in the first 11 races, but he has a total of ten podium finishes this season. Schrage won twice and had seven podium finishes in the first nine races, but in the last six races he has finished on the podium twice and outside the top ten on the other four occasions. 

Teddy Musella is 56 points behind Jeffers in third. Musella has finished in the top five in seven consecutive races, which includes his only victory of the season at Road America. G3 Argyros has an outside chance at the championship. Argyros trails Jeffers by 93 points, but Argyros will be eliminated if Jeffers finishes 14th or better in the first race of the weekend. Argryos did win last year at Portland in U.S. F2000.

The first U.S. F2000 race will be Friday August 8 at 8:50 p.m. ET with the second race scheduled for Saturday at 6:35 p.m. ET, and the final race is scheduled for a 6:55 p.m. ET start on Sunday. All three races will be 25 laps or 40 minutes.

Fast Facts

This will be the fifth IndyCar race to take place on August 10 and the first since 2003 when CART and the Indy Racing League each held an event. Paul Tracy won at Mid-Ohio, and Hélio Castroneves won at Gateway. 

Four times has a driver won consecutive Portland races (Mario Andretti 1985-86, Michael Andretti 1990-92, Al Unser, Jr. 1994-95, Gil de Ferran 1999-2000).

Michael Andretti and Al Unser, Jr. are tied for most Portland victories. They each won three times. 

Of the three active Portland winners, Álex Palou and Will Power have each won twice.

Power has won at least three times at six different circuits (Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Belle Isle, Pocono, São Paulo, Sonoma, Toronto).

Palou has won at least three times at three different circuits (Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Laguna Seca, Road America).

Ten times has the Portland winner won the championship in the same season. Palou has done it in two of his three championship seasons.

The average starting position for a Portland winner is 3.833 with a median of second. 

Five consecutive Portland races have been won from a top five starting position. Four of those five have been from the front row.

Twice has a Portland winner started outside the top ten (Mark Blundell from 11th in 1997, Takuma Sato from 20th in 2018).

Prior to last year's race, five consecutive Portland races had at least one top five finisher who started outside the top ten.

The average number of lead changes in a Portland race is 6.233 with a median of six. 

Nine consecutive Portland races have featured at least seven lead changes.

Every Portland race has featured at least two lead changes.

The only Portland race to feature less than three lead changes was the 2001 race, which had two lead changes.

The average number of caution laps in a Portland race is 7.933 with a median of 5.5.

There have been six caution-free races at Portland, most recently in 2007.

Predictions

At this point the averages say you must pick Álex Palou, and we will select Palou to get his ninth victory of the season this weekend to cap off what will be another clinched championship in the Rose City. Patricio O'Ward's top five finish streak will end. Scott Dixon will make it beyond turn eight on the opening lap. Kyle Kirkwood will have his best finish in over a month. At least two Team Penske drivers will gain at least one spot in the championship. We will run at least 25 laps before the first caution. Alexander Rossi will finish in the top ten. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.

IndyCar's 300th Post-Reunification Race Spectacular

You might not have realized it, but this weekend at Portland will be a milestone event for the NTT IndyCar Series. It will be the 300th race held since reunification. 

Back in 2008, the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series merged in late-February, on the precipice of the 2008 season. A scurry was underway to have the Champ Car teams equipped with the correct chassis and engines for the new season, ending a tumultuous period in American open-wheel racing. 

It has been almost 18 full seasons since peace was found and there was one IndyCar Series. There have been highs and lows along the way, but the series is better than where it was and the headaches of two series and split talent are over. 

How do we honor such an occasion? We are grasping at low-hanging fruit and ranking all 160 driver who participated in IndyCar since reunification occurred. This only takes into account everything that has happened since reunification. Victories and championship that happened prior to 2008 do not impact this list.

The very top and the very bottom are the easy bits to sort out. It is the large middle that is difficult to arrange. Where do you place a driver who only made 19 starts over three seasons but had nine top ten finishes? What about the driver who made less than seven career starts but had one or two top ten finishes? Which career is better, one podium finishes and six top ten finishes in 27 starts or one podium finish and 24 top ten finishes in 100 starts? 

These are all examples that came up during the ranking process, and I am going to tell you right now, you aren't going to like this list. There will be drivers higher than you would like, but at some point, somebody has to be 42nd. You rank them if it is so easy!

(Special shoutout to the following drivers who entered an IndyCar race post-reunification but who did not make a start either because of withdrawal, failing to qualify, injury or pandemic. Those drivers are Larry Foyt, Phil Giebler, Max Papis, Patrick Carpentier, Scott Speed, Rocky Moran, Jr., and Felipe Nasr).

We are going to start at #160 and work to #1. Enjoy!

The Very Bottom

160. Milka Duno

159. Francesco Dracone

158. Marty Roth

157. Cody Ware

156. Stanton Barrett

155. Benjamin Pedersen

These are some of the worst drivers we have ever seen in IndyCar.

In 36 starts post-reunification, Duno never finished on the lead lap, neither did the four drivers ahead of her. Her best finish post-reunification was 14th at Chicagoland in 2008. 

Dracone made two starts in 2010 and then got five more starts five years later because Dale Coyne. Never finished on the lead lap, bowled over some pit green members. His best finish was 20th. 

Roth made 12 starts post-reunification but that doesn't account for the four races he withdrew from due to practice accidents. Somehow, he qualified three times in the top ten. He only finished five races.

Ware was disqualified from the 2021 Nashville race for driving too slow. He did finish 19th on debut and on the lead lap at Road America.

Barrett made four starts in 2009. He failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and withdrew from Milwaukee after a practice accident. 

Pedersen's best finish in his only IndyCar season was 15th in second career start at Texas in 2023. However, he was a minor hazard at times on track, and he too was disqualified in the second Iowa race for being too slow.

They Only Ran the 2008 Grand Prix of Long Beach

154. Juho Annala

153. Roberto Moreno

152. Antônio Pizzonia

151. Alex Figge

Technically, these four drivers are among some of the last drivers to run in fractured IndyCar. The 2008 Long Beach race was the same weekend as the Motegi race. The IRL teams went to Motegi. The Champ Car teams ran Long Beach. A few teams needed to fill seats with one-off drivers. Here, we rank these drivers based on finishing position. 

Figge was 14th, Pizzonia was 16th, Moreno was 17th and Annala was 18th. 

How Annala got the call after only running International Formula Master the year prior is an unsolved mystery. The Finn disappeared and appears to have last raced in Finnish touring cars. 

This was Moreno's final start at 49 years old. He had run the Indianapolis 500 the year prior.

Pizzonia and Annala were teammates at Rocketsports. Pizzonia had run four races with the team two years prior.

Figge ran Champ Car the year before. He had moderate Atlantic Championship success. Ovals did not intrigue Figge hence Pacific Coast Motorsports' not transitioning to IndyCar full-time. Figge went on to race sports cars, notably in Pirelli World Challenge.

They Only Made One Start and It Wasn't Their Fault

150. Jean Alesi

149. Dillon Battistini

148. Lucas Luhr

147. Ho-Pin Tung

146. Jeff Simmons

145. Kosuke Matsuura

144. João Paulo de Oliveira

143. Michel Jourdain, Jr.

142. Hunter McElrea

All these drivers made one start, but it did not go well.

Jean Alesi started the 2012 Indianapolis 500 with a Lotus, ran 11 laps and then was penalized two laps for not pulling off the track when told. One start, 33rd in the Indianapolis 500, and Alesi is little more than a trivia question.

Battistini won four races in the 2008 Indy Lights season but it took over three years for his one IndyCar start. At Kentucky 2011, he pulled in after 124 of 200 laps due to fatigue.

Did you remember Luhr ran one IndyCar race? He was Josef Newgarden's teammate at Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing for the 2013 Sonoma race. Luhr had not run a single-seater since 1998. He qualified 24th out of 25 cars at Sonoma, and his race ended four laps early due to a mechanical issue. Luhr did finish ahead of Newgarden, who retired 25 laps earlier due to a mechcanical issue.

Tung attempted to make the Indianapolis 500 in 2011 with Panther Racing, but had an accident in qualifying that left him concussed. Tung made his only start later that year at Sonoma. He had an accident with 12 laps remaining in a day where he ran mostly outside the top twenty.

Simmons took over the #41 A.J. Foyt Racing entry for Larry Foyt at the 2008 Indianapolis 500. He ran 112 laps before an accident ended his race.

Matsuura made one start post-reunification. He was five laps down in the 2009 Motegi race in 17th.

De Oliveira ran the 2011 Motegi race, which was on the road course after the oval was damaged in the Tōhoku earthquake. The Brazilian was a champion in Formula Nippon and race winner in Super GT, and he had won a few races at Motegi prior to this chance with Conquest Racing. He qualified 12th but a fuel pump failure ended his race after 19 laps.

Jourdain, Jr. is likely remembered more for failing to qualify for the 2013 Indianapolis 500 than him completing 199 laps and finishing 19th in the 2012 Indianapolis 500.

McElrea made his debut last year at Toronto. He only completed 57 laps before hitting the barrier.

I Don't Know How To Sort These Guys

141. René Binder

140. Alfonso Celis, Jr.

139. Richard Antinucci

138. Nelson Philippe

137. Roger Yasukawa

136. Ben Hanley 

135. Jüri Vips

134. Jaques Lazier

133. Buddy Lazier

132. Jay Howard

131. Tatiana Calderón

Binder and Celis, Jr. each ran for Juncos Racing in its first endeavor into IndyCar racing. Neither were that good, but neither were terrible either. They each could have been worse.

Antinucci took over Stanton Barrett's entry on road and street courses in 2009. His best finish was 15th at Sonoma. It was Antinucci's only chance at IndyCar despite finishing second in the 2008 Indy Lights championship.

Philippe ran the 2008 Long Bech race and the 2009 Indianapolis 500. He was 15th and 25th in those races. Philippe's career is most remember for the accident with Will Power at practice for the 2009 Sonoma race. Philippe suffered a concussion and broken ankle. He returned to competition in 2010 driving a Daytona Prototype in Grand-Am for three races with Starworks. The highlight was leading 18 laps at Mid-Ohio. It appears these were his final professional races, and his career was over before he was 24 years old. 

Yasukawa ran Motegi from 2008 to 2010, never finishing on the lead lap. He was 14th in the 2008 race, which only featured 18 cars. Yasukawa's biggest contribution to IndyCar since reunification was guiding Álex Palou to the series. 

Hanley joined IndyCar with DragonSpeed over a decade since his last single-seater experience. The team made the second round of qualifying on debut at St. Petersburg in 2019 thanks to mixed conditions. He made two Indianapolis 500 starts. A broken driveshaft ended his 2019 race. In 2020, he and DragonSpeed were called upon to fill the field of 33. They ran 198 laps and finished 23rd.

Vips was signed as a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing reserve driver and on multiple occasions has been passed over for a full-time seat. The Estonian has started three races. He ran Portland and Laguna Seca in 2003, and last year he ran Portland again. His finishes have been 18th, 24th and 19th, none were lead lap finishes.

Jaques Lazier ran five races in 2009 replacing Stanton Barrett, all ovals. His best finish was 13th at Iowa. Bubby Lazier started five Indianapolis 500 (2008, 2013-14, 16-17). He was 17th in 2008, but five laps down. He finished 29th or worse in his other four starts, completing 100 laps or more in only his final two starts.

Howard never finished on the lead lap in 14 career starts. He is unfortunately more remembered for taking himself out of the 2010 Indianapolis 500 when having a time that would have been good enough to make the race, and being the ramp that launched Scott Dixon's car in 2017. His best finish was 13th in two races, Motegi and Kansas in 2008.

Calderón was not the fastest in her seven races during the 2022 season with A.J. Foyt Racing, but she was 15th and on the lead lap in mixed conditions for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. She never retired from a race due to an accident. A gearbox failure ended her final race at Mid-Ohio.

A Quartet of Dale Coyne Racing Drivers

130. Ryan Norman

129. Jacob Abel

128. Colin Braun

127. Luca Ghiotto

Norman completed 79 of 80 laps at Mid-Ohio in 2021. We have been watching Abel struggle this season, though he was 11th at Iowa. Braun's only official IndyCar start was St. Petersburg last year, though he also ran the Thermal Club exhibition race. Ghiotto came into IndyCar out of nowhere and finished on the lead lap on debut at Barber Motorsports Park before making three other starts. 

I Don't Know How To Sort These Guys & Gals - Part II

126. Bryan Clauson

125. Pippa Mann

124. Davey Hamilton

123. Tom Blomqvist

122. Sarah Fisher

121. Dalton Kellett

120. Zachary Claman De Melo

119. Stefan Wilson

118. Kyle Kaiser

117. Jamie Camara

116. Mario Romancini

115. Ana Beatriz

114. Devlin DeFrancesco

113. Esteban Gutiérrez

112. Toby Sowery

111. Adam Carroll

110. Matthew Brabham

This is where it gets messy.

Clauson only made three starts in his career, all at the Indianapolis 500. The first two ended early due to accidents. The final saw him run 198 laps and bring the car home in one piece.

Mann was never blisteringly quick, but she kept her nose clean for the most part. Her final start saw her qualify a car for Clauson-Marshall Racing into the Indianapolis 500 over McLaren and Fernando Alonso. Mann ran all 200 laps and finished 16th. 

Hamilton mostly ran only the Indianapolis 500, but also ran at Chicago in 2010 and the Texas doubleheader in 2011. While he was 14th in the 2008 Indianapolis 500, he did not finish on the lead lap in his other six starts.

Blomqvist took a risk joining IndyCar after spending most of the previous decade out of single-seater racing but finding success in sports cars. Though he was improving, the experiment ended after eight career starts, six of which were results outside the top twenty.

Fisher started her own team and overcame an accident in Sarah Fisher Racing's first race at Indianapolis. Her best finish over 16 starts was 12th at Kentucky in 2009. As a team owner, she became a race winner with Ed Carpenter and Josef Newgarden. 

Kellett never finished in the top ten in 41 career starts, the second-most in IndyCar history. Though a back-marker, he was generally good at staying out of the way. His best result was 12th at Gateway in 2021.

Claman De Melo came and went. He made nine starts in the 2018 season with Dale Coyne Racing as the car was intended to be split between him and Pietro Fittipaldi. When Fittipaldi was injured in a FIA World Endurance Championship weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Claman De Melo got a few extra opportunities. He made a start at the Indianapolis 500 and qualified 13th before finishing 19th. His best result was 12th at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Wilson made his debut as Dale Coyne Racing teammate to his brother Justin at the 2013 Grand Prix of Baltimore. Stefan Wilson would go on to start four Indianapolis 500s, leading a few laps and finishing 15th in 2018 being his highlight. In 2023, Wilson qualified for the "500" but a practice accident left him with broken vertebra. He has not attempted an IndyCar race since.

Kaiser will be forever remembered as the driver who bumped Fernando Alonso out of the 2019 Indianapolis 500. Though an Indy Lights champion, Kaiser only had six career starts. His best finish was 16th in the 2018 Grand Prix of Long Beach. In the 2019 Indianapolis 500, Kaiser made it 71 laps before an accident in turn four.

Camara ran most of the 2008 season. He led a surprising number of laps at Richmond but an accident late while in the top five ended his dream night. He was classified in 14th in that race and finished 14th later that year at Mid-Ohio.

Did you know Mario Romancini was the best rookie finisher in the 2010 Indianapolis 500? Romancini was 13th after starting 27th. Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year went to Simona de Silvestro, who went from 22nd to 14th. We didn't hear much outcry over such a thing back then. Romancini started 11 races that season. He was also 13th at St. Petersburg.

In 29 career starts, Beatriz was on the lead lap nine times. She ran well and finished 13th on debut in São Paulo. Her best finish was 11th at Toronto in 2011. In four Indianapolis 500 starts, her best finish was 15th with all 200 laps completed in 2013.

I struggled on where to put Devlin DeFrancesco. He is approaching 50 starts without a top ten finish. He already has made the most starts in IndyCar history without a top ten finish, but he has finished on the lead lap 17 times. He has been more competitive than most of the drivers were consider the worst of all-time. He was 11th in this year's Indianapolis 500. He has somehow qualified in the top five twice in his career. He was 12th at Gateway in 2022. He has done better than a fair number of previous drivers.

Gutiérrez ran seven races in 2017 with Dale Coyne Racing when Sébastien Bourdais was sidelined after he fractured his pelvis in an Indianapolis 500 qualifying accident. Gutiérrez did ok. He debuted at Belle Isle, and he was 14th in the second race of the doubleheader, and he was on the lead lap. He was 13th at Iowa and only a lap down. Bourdais returned for Gateway and Gutiérrez did not compete in another motor race from the 2018 Pocono race until the 2022 1000 Miles of Sebring. 

Sowery was Dale Coyne Racing's best driver last year despite only getting to run three races. He went from 24th to 13th at Mid-Ohio. He had another good day at Toronto and his best race was Portland, where he ran well against others, but it was his worst finish of his three races in 17th.

If you forgot Adam Carroll made two starts in 2010 at Andretti Autosport, you are forgiven. He started tenth and finished 16 at Watkins Glen, and he stared 17th and finished 19th at Mid-Ohio. It would have been fun to see more of Carroll considering his A1GP success just prior to this cameo in IndyCar.

It will always baffle me that Matthew Brabham never got more than two IndyCar starts. Brabham blitzed the junior series into Indy Lights, where results were respectable. He was 16th in the 2016 Grand Prix of Indianapolis and 22nd in the Indianapolis 500.

They Only Started One Indianapolis 500 and They Each Finished 14th

109. Scott Sharp

108. Jacques Villeneuve

Sharp made his final IndyCar start at the 2009 Indianapolis 500 after a year out of the series. Villeneuve returned unexpectedly in 2014 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. I give Villeneuve the nod for the better spot because the 2014 race was one of the greatest Indianapolis 500s ever and the competition was deeper in that race.

Yeah, I am Putting These Guys This High 

107. Martin Plowman

106. Jordan King

Plowman made five career starts. The first three were in 2011 with AFS Racing, in partnership with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, and Plowman finished 18th, 12th and 11th in those race, and all on the lead lap. He did not run another IndyCar race until 2014 when he ran the two Indianapolis races with A.J. Foyt Racing. He was 18th and 23rd in those. I wish Plowman had a greater chance at IndyCar.

King was the road/street course driver for Ed Carpenter Racing in 2018. He qualified fourth on debut at St. Petersburg. Though he fell short of a top ten finish, King had six finishes between 11th and 15th in 11 starts. He ran the 2019 Indianapolis 500 and that was it for his foray into IndyCar.

They Were/Are Competitive

105. Giorgio Pantano

104. Agustín Canapino

103. James Davison

102. Louis Foster

Pantano might be one of the greatest "what could have beens" in IndyCar. Prior to reunification, he impressed with Chip Ganassi Racing before Pantano decided to remain in Europe and run GP2, where he won a championship. After that, he was a super-sub in 2011 replacing Justin Wilson at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. The finishes didn't necessarily go his way, but Pantano showed incredible speed. He was back with Ganassi at Mid-Ohio in 2012 after Charlie Kimball broke his wrist. Pantano started 24th and finished 14th in what was his final IndyCar outing. 

We will wait and see how history remembers Agustín Canapino, but he was 12th in each of his first two races when many didn't think he would come that close to being competitive. He had a handful of other encouraging results. His debut Indianapolis 500 was going well until he was caught in a late accident. The Argentine did make a few errors on his own, and it led to Canapino being pulled with five races remaining in the 2024 season. 

Davison was a bit of a firecracker in his eight IndyCar starts, most of which came at the Indianapolis 500. His first two starts were in 2013 with Dale Coyne Racing, and he finished 15th on debut at Mid-Ohio. At the Indianapolis 500, he was 16th in 2014 and 12th in 2019, both lead lap finishes. 

Foster's career is still young, but it is somewhat mirroring that of Jordan King's. Foster has made the Fast Six in three races and he has made the second round of qualifying in seven races. Foster has also won a pole position already in his career. That first career top ten finish was been elusive, but he feels close to it. 

The Name Helps

101. Kevin Magnussen

Magnussen made one IndyCar start. He filled in for the injured Felix Rosenqvist at McLaren for the 2021 Road America race. Magnussen started 21st but he went forward and led six laps through a pit cycle. Then his car broke down with 22 laps remaining and the promising day was over. 

They All Had at Least One Top Ten Finish

100. Sting Ray Robb

99. Sebastián Saavedra

98. A.J. Foyt IV

97. Roberto González

96. Enrique Bernoldi

95. Matheus Leist

Robb hasn't been that great of a driver, but he has a few top ten finishes, mostly down to strategy or attrition. He has at least shown reasonable pace.

Saavedra's best IndyCar moment was his first IndyCar moment, making the 2010 Indianapolis 500 from his hospital bed after a practice accident and Paul Tracy and Jay Howard withdrawing times good enough to make the race. He had a few top ten finishes. He had one Iowa race where he caught fire until he had an accident.

Foyt IV did not come close to matching his grandfather. He did finish fifth at Iowa on pace in 2008. For the most part, it was not a memorable career.

González ran five races over the 2015 season with Dale Coyne Racing. The first four races were not great with finishes of 20th, 21st, 22nd, 18th and 20th. The fifth race saw him finish ninth. It was his final IndyCar start.

Bernoldi had two top five finishes in his first three starts. One was a fourth in the 2008 Long Beach race. In his other 13 starts, he finished in the top fifteen once, a 15th in the Indianapolis 500. Bernoldi is not held in high regard with the fan base after comments belittling the series well after his last race. We have mostly forgotten.

Leist was an Indy Lights driver A.J. Foyt Racing rushed into IndyCar. He took a fourth in the 2019 Grand Prix of Indianapolis as the conditions changed from wet to dry and back to wet, but Leist was hardly a threat over his two seasons. His final start came only two weeks after his 22nd birthday.

They Only Ran the 2008 Grand Prix of Long Beach - Part II

94. Jimmy Vasser

93. David Martínez

Another pair of drivers who technically never ran in a reunified IndyCar. Martínez was eighth and Vasser was tenth at Long Beach. Vasser had not run a race since the 2006 Long Beach race prior to coming back for one more farewell. Martínez had made three starts prior in Champ Car, mostly as a substitute at Forsythe Racing. Martínez would make a few starts in Grand-Am and Indy Lights afterward. 

They Ran the 2008 Grand Prix of Long Beach and a Few Other Races

92. Franck Perera

91. Mario Domínguez

90. Franck Montagny

Perera started the first three races of the 2008 season, including Long Beach where he finished sixth. The Frenchman ran nine Indy Lights races later that season and won at Sonoma. He got a ride with A.J. Foyt Racing for the 2008 season finale at Chicagoland and was 15th after running out of fuel. Perera has since had a outstanding sports car career with Lamborghini in GT3 competition.

Domínguez was third in the Long Beach race with Pacific Coast Motorsports, but he was most remembered for attempting to make the 2008 Indianapolis 500 and spinning in turn one on his final qualifying run. He did run six other races that season, finishing 13th at Watkins Glen and he qualified 11th for Sonoma.

Montagny was second to Will Power in the 2008 Long Beach race. Montagy would drive for Andretti Green Racing the following year at Sonoma. He qualified eighth but finished 20th. Five years later, he ran the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis for Andretti, which ended after 47 laps due to an accident. Montagny's career effectively ended after failing a drug test in Formula E in late 2014.

I Don't Know How To Sort These Guys & Gal - Part III

89. Katherine Legge

88. Wade Cunningham

87. Pietro Fittipaldi

86. Stefano Coletti

85. John Andretti

Legge didn't run in a reunified IndyCar until 2012, and she had to suffer with a Lotus engine for her first four races that season. She did end 2012 with a ninth at Fontana. Legge ran the 2013 Indianapolis 500 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, but she would not run again in IndyCar until 2023. In 2024, she made seven starts with Dale Coyne Racing. Despite the team's lack of pace, she was 15th in the second Milwaukee race.

An outstanding Indy Lights driver, Cunningham started three races in 2011. He qualified eighth for his debut in the first Texas race, but he was caught in an accident. In the second race, he drew second but the backup car was not properly setup for Texas and he finished 26th. At Kentucky, he went from 15th to seventh. His only Indianapolis 500 start was in 2012, and it lasted 42 laps due to electrical issues. Cunningham was a late call-up for the Fontana finale later that season and he finished 14th on short notice.

Fittipaldi qualified tenth for his debut at Phoenix in 2018. Then he was injured in a sports car accident and did not return until July. He did finish ninth at Portland despite not being 100%. The Brazilian would not return to IndyCar until 2021, where he ran three oval races. His best finish was 15th at Texas. It would be another three years until he was full-time in IndyCar. With Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, his best finish was 13th.

Most people likely forget Stefano Coletti ran in IndyCar. His only top ten finish was eighth in the 2015 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Monegasque driver had two other top fifteen finishes over the rest of the season. His best finish was 12th at Fontana. Coletti only ran the 2015 season with KV Racing. 

Andretti returned to IndyCar competition after nearly 13 years away in 2007. He was a late call-up for Roth Racing at the 2008 Indianapolis 500 where he finished 16th. He ran four other races for the team that season and he was 11th at Iowa. He attempted the Indianapolis 500 in each of the next three years. In 2010, he also raced at Kansas with Andretti Autosport and finished ninth. His final start was the 2011 Indianapolis 500, where Andretti started 17th and finished 22nd, three laps down.

He Won a Race But We Cannot Rank Him That High

84. Carlos Huertas

The only true fluke winner since reunification is Huertas. The Colombian entered the 2014 IndyCar season without much expectation. He had two top ten finishes in his first six starts. In his ninth start, Huertas stretched fuel in a timed race after a wet start for the first race of the Houston doubleheader. Late cautions bled the clock and Huertas held on to win. However, he was found with a fuel cell that was larger than the illegal limit. The only penalty was a fine.

One fewer caution or slightly drier conditions likely means Huertas makes the Dale Coyne quartet above a quintet. His career ended at the 2015 Indianapolis 500. Huertas qualified for the race, but an inner ear condition prevented him from starting the race. He has not competed in any other series since then.

A Few Bright Spots in a Few Starts

83. Robert Shwartzman

82. RC Enerson

Shwartzman has an Indianapolis 500 pole position in his pocket in one of the greatest stunners in the history of qualifying for the "500." He has scored a pair of top ten finishes, both coming on ovals, though he has some work to do. 

For a brief moment in 2016, Enerson looked to be a star in the making. Leaving Indy Lights early, he scored three races with Dale Coyne Racing. On debut with Dale Coyne Racing, he was on the verge of a top ten finish until he ran out of fuel coming to pit lane at Mid-Ohio. Then he finished ninth in his second start at Watkins Glen. He would not race again until 2019. In 2021, he ran on the IMS road course and then returned two years later for the Indianapolis 500.

A NASCAR-Heavy Section

81. Jimmie Johnson

80. Kyle Larson

79. Bruno Junquiera

78. Nolan Siegel

77. Kurt Busch

76. A.J. Allmendinger

75. Bertrand Baguette

Johnson's IndyCar tenure will be remembered for struggles on road and street courses and a few good days on ovals when he finally gave them a shot in 2022. He was fifth in an Iowa race, but he still finished outside the top twenty in 16 of 29 starts.

Larson was quick in his Indianapolis 500 debut in 2024. A few errors caused him a better result. In 2025, the speed was not at that same level, and Larson struggled in the middle of the field before spinning in turn two. The weather and his day job in NASCAR were on his mind as he was likely going to be forced to abandon the Indianapolis 500 before the finish to make the Coca-Cola 600 start on time. 

Junqueira ran one full season with Dale Coyne Racing in 2008. He had a pair of top ten finishes. He mostly ran at Indianapolis. Twice he was replaced by a driver who was bumped out of the race. In 2010, he ran one of the seven fastest qualifying runs and started 25th only to have an accident seven laps in. His final race was the 2012 Baltimore race after Josef Newgarden was sidelined due to a wrist injury at Sonoma.

Siegel has three top ten finishes in his first 25 starts. There have been brief moments, but Siegel has not been the cleanest driver. He has stepped over the line on a few occasions. McLaren is behind him... for now. Let's check in on in him in a year.

Busch made one IndyCar start. It was the 2014 Indianapolis 500. After starting 12th, Busch ended up finishing sixth. He spent a fair amount of the race outside the top ten, but he got up there as accidents happened ahead of him. Never spent a lap in the top five, but he ran well and saw the checkered flag. A second "500" attempt never came for Busch. 

Allmendinger came back in 2013 for a brief stint with Team Penske. He qualified tenth at Barber for his return, but a bad pit stop knocked him back to 19th. He qualified fifth for his Indianapolis 500 debut, and his race was disrupted due to loose seat belts. He rallied to finish seventh, but Allmendinger never had another great day. At Belle Isle, he was swept into two opening lap incidents. He returned for the Fontana finale, started second but was caught in another accident.

Baguette was three laps away from winning the 2011 Indianapolis 500. He wound up finishing seventh. It was his final IndyCar race. He did finish tenth at Kentucky in 2010 after starting sixth. Baguette came in as a Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion. There is another era where he would have stayed in IndyCar and not gone to sports cars. He won in the LMP2 class at Le Mans in 2013 (with Martin Plowman as one of his co-drivers and amazingly neither Baguette nor Plowman has not run at Le Mans since. It remains Plowman's only start in the race) before heading to Japan to race in Super GT, where he won a GT500 championship. 

I Guess These Guys Will Go Here

74. Théo Pourchaire

73. Robert Doornbos

72. Tomas Scheckter 

McLaren has gone through a few drivers in its brief spell in IndyCar. Pourchaire made his debut on late notice and finished 11th at Long Beach last year. He started to get a hang of things and finished tenth at Detroit. He was preparing for his first oval starts and he was looking forward to racing at Laguna Seca. Then the rug was pulled out from underneath the Frenchman and outside of a late call to substitute for Alexander Rossi at Toronto, he has been absent from the IndyCar grid.

Reunification left Doornbos without a ride in 2008. In 2009, Newman-Haas Racing hired him. The Dutchman had four ninth-place finishes, plus a tenth at Sonoma. He never quite got back to the level of his 2007 Champ Car season where he won a pair of races.

We had to put Scheckter somewhere. Seventy-second looks high but he had a few top ten finishes and a few memorable moments and passes on the outside. He did do it with some of the smaller teams. Luczo-Dragon Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Conquest Racing, SH Racing. Not really murder's row, eh?

They All Had at Least One Top Five Finish

71. Tristan Vautier

70. Raphael Matos

69. Paul Tracy

68. Buddy Rice

67. Townsend Bell

66. Zach Veach

65. Max Chilton

64. Darren Manning 

63. Kyffin Simpson

62. Gabby Chaves

Vautier has done something with nothing every time he was in an IndyCar. He was the only rookie in 2013 and canned after a year. In 2015, Dale Coyne Racing hired him with Huertas had to step away with his inner ear condition. In three starts, Vautier had a top five finish. He would finish sixth later that year. It would be two years until he was back in a car and he qualified fifth at Texas. It would then be nearly another seven years until his next start, and last year at Detroit, he ran well for a driver coming in and close to zero preparation.  

After his success in Indy Lights and Atlantics, I thought Matos was bound to be a force in IndyCar. He had a few top five finishes and his career lasted a little more than five seasons. He has found success in Trans-Am. 

After Forsythe Racing did not transition to IndyCar after reunification, Tracy spent the next four years wandering around in one-off entries. He had a few good days, but never got close to victory. His best race post-reunification might have come driving for Tony George and Vision Racing at Edmonton in 2008. Imagine that.

Rice ran the 2008 season with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing where he had seven top ten finishes and he was fourth at Watkins Glen. He did not race again until 2011. He qualified seventh for the Indianapolis 500 before finishing 18th. He was ninth at Kentucky later that year. He started the abandoned Las Vegas finale and never attempted an IndyCar race after that.

Bell mostly ran the Indianapolis 500 only post-reunification. He did have a good run in his few races with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 2008. His best finish was fourth in 2009 Indianapolis 500. He had a car capable of winning the 2016 "500" but collided with Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay in the pit lane. It was Bell's final IndyCar start.

Veach had good moments, mostly on ovals, but his overall form wasn't enough for him to continue beyond his 47th career start in 2020. He was only 25 years old when he made his final start.

Chilton did ok driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, and he led the most laps in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 after cautions mixed up the pit cycle. However, Chilton is a great example that the drivers at the back of the Formula One grid are not going to waltz into IndyCar and dogwalk the competition. Chilton did good, but let's not mistake that for great.

Manning ran the entire 2008 season with A.J. Foyt Racing and took a surprise runner-up finish at Watkins Glen, one of seven top ten finishes that season. He ran two races with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in 2009 and he finished eighth at St. Petersburg. That was it for Manning. He was a character that IndyCar could use now. Sneaky good at television. 

Simpson has made big strides in his sophomore season, showing more speed and scoring legitimate top ten finishes. He has also picked up a podium finish and a top five mostly because strategy fell his way. It has been a promising period for the Caymanian driver. 

Chaves was about five laps away from winning in his rookie season at Pocono in 2015. After one full season, he spent the next three seasons bouncing around. He scored sensational results with upstart Harding Racing in 2017, finishing ninth in the Indianapolis 500 and fifth at Texas. Avoiding a few accidents likely boosted those results, and gave Harding Racing owner Mike Harding the wrong impression. Chaves was the full-time driver when the team elevated itself to IndyCar in 2018. They never recreated the magic of 2017. Chaves was replaced for a few races and he hasn't run an IndyCar race since Portland 2018.

They All Had at Least One Top Five Finish - Part II

61. Alex Lloyd

60. Mario Moraes

59. James Jakes

58. Oliver Askew

57. Sage Karam

56. Jack Harvey

55. Conor Daly

54. E.J. Viso

53. Christian Rasmussen

52. Callum Ilott

Who was responsible for Dale Coyne Racing's first top five finish in the Indianapolis 500? That was Lloyd, who was fourth in the 2010 race, largely because of stretching fuel. Lloyd was incredible in Indy Lights. The opportunity never really came in IndyCar. He left dissuaded after Dan Wheldon's accident in 2011. Lloyd was another good personality that would have worked on television. 

Moraes came out of nowhere in 2008 with Dale Coyne Racing. From 14th in the British Formula Three championship to IndyCar. He learned a lot in his rookie season and with KV Racing in 2009, he became competitive, scoring three consecutive top five finishes at one point, including a third at Chicagoland. Results dipped in 2010 and Moraes was out of IndyCar at 21 year old. 

James Jakes had two podium finishes in his IndyCar career. His rookie season was rough with Dale Coyne Racing in 2011 (Dale Coyne Racing might be responsible for 40% of the drivers on this list making their debuts). However, he did a little better at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He did sit out the entire 2014 season before Schmidt Peterson Motorsports hired him for 2015. Jakes was third at the infamous NOLA Motorsports Park race. Outside of that, he never really made much waves.

For about six races, Oliver Askew looked like he was going to be a star. Three top ten finishes. A podium at Iowa. Askew was holding his own at Arrow McLaren SP against Patricio O'Ward. Then he suffered a concussion in the Indianapolis 500, raced with it after it sounded like he was pressured into racing, and was soon let go. Askew did well in a few opportunities filling in for the injured Rinus VeeKay at Road America in 2021 and with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing later that year, but no one gave him a serious second opportunity. He almost feels like he was blackballed from IndyCar.

Karam's rookie season saw sparks of promise and errors of youth. Unfortunately, he did those with Chip Ganassi racing. Strong days at Iowa and Pocono, leading before he spun exiting turn one, left him destined to be an Indianapolis 500-only entrant for the rest of his career, where he didn't always score the best results. He had some good news, but not enough for anyone to give him another break.

At Meyer Shank Racing, Harvey took a new team and had it fighting at the front when few expected it. The pairing struggled for consistency as MSR became a full-time operation. Harvey moved to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing but could never find that higher level. 

Daly has driven for everyone but Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing (and Prema, though they just joined the series) in IndyCar. He has gone from full-time to part-time and back to full-time. Though he had podium finishes with Dale Coyne Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing, he has never been able to put up consistent enough results to draw a bigger opportunity. 

Viso was fourth in his second career start with HVM Racing at St. Petersburg in 2008. He tore up his fair amount of equipment between HVM and KV Racing. It led to a year at Andretti Autosport where he ran respectably well, but after 2013, he was gone. Just as the Venezuelan petroleum dollars dried up.

Rasmussen has been on a surge in his sophomore season in 2025 with great finishes on ovals and results starting to come on road and street courses. It could be Ed Carpenter Racing has taken a step forward. There is a lot of time to see where Rasmussen shakes out. 

Ilott's record isn't stellar, but he has done more with less driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing and Prema. If he had been made available earlier in the 2023 offseason, there is a good chance McLaren would have signed Ilott from the start. In his two starts with the organization in place of the injured David Malukas, Ilott was 11th both times. It is surprising a bigger team has not signed him. 

Let's Remember How Big of a Deal This Was

51. Fernando Alonso

Alonso's first Indianapolis 500 start remains staggering to think about. Remember, it wasn't announced until April 12, 2017, just over a month before the start of practice! That was a Wednesday between the Chinese Grand Prix and the Bahrain Grand Prix, the second and third rounds of the Formula One season. It took everyone by surprise. Over two million people watched his rookie orientation test on a YouTube live stream. This has been IndyCar's apex since reunification.

Alonso blew us all away in 2017. He was one of the fastest cars as Andretti Autosport was the top team that year. If it wasn't for an engine failure in the closing laps, he would have finished in the top ten, maybe the top five. Of course, Alonso and McLaren's failed attempt in 2019 is stuff of legend as the mighty organization could not beat Juncos Racing. It is almost forgotten that Alonso returned in 2020 and competed in the race behind closed doors. Only 33 cars showed up, so he was locked into the field, but the car was never competitive, and he finished a lap down in 21st.

We Have to Start the Top 50 Somewhere

50. Luca Filippi

49. Rubens Barrichello

48. Simona de Silvestro

47. Alex Tagliani

A strong driver in GP2, Filippi was constantly teased as a potential full-time IndyCar driver. He ran some races with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing before a chance as the road/street course driver in the #20 Chevrolet with Ed Carpenter driving the ovals. Filippi was second at Toronto in 2015 behind teammate Josef Newgarden. He had a brief run with Dale Coyne Racing, but he only made one oval start in his career, Phoenix in 2016. The full-time chance never came and it has been nearly a decade since his last start. 

I really wonder how well Barrichello would have done in a second year of IndyCar. In his only season, he had two top five finishes and seven top ten results in 2012. He had good days on ovals as well. The only race he had an accident with Long Beach. He could have been a race winner had he stayed. 

De Silvestro was always driving the oldest cars on the grid or a Lotus. She performed better than most would have at HVM and pushed Tony Kanaan for a podium spot at St. Petersburg in 2011. With KV Racing in 2013, she was a semi-regular in the top ten and even was second at Houston. Sadly, poor business decisions with her sponsors led her to be a Sauber affiliated driver in Formula One, which was little more than driving a two-year-old car in testing. Shew as dropped in less than a year and never got another firm chance at IndyCar right when she was knocking on the door of being a contender.

Tagliani had big speed at Indianapolis and a few other ovals, but he rarely performed better than the car. I am still surprised of all the drivers Chip Ganassi called to substitute for Dario Franchitti in the 2013 finale, he went with Tagliani, a driver who I think we all knew never had a shot at the full-time gig. 

Everyone From Here Had at Least One Podium Finish

46. Jack Hawksworth

45. Spencer Pigot

44. Hideki Mutoh

43. Linus Lundqvist

42. Vitor Meira

Hawksworth fells like a driver that got away. He did great with Bryan Herta Autosport and he led a fair amount of the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He took a ride at A.J. Foyt Racing as the team expanded to two cars, but the machines were never there to let Hawksworth shine. He has found a home with Lexus' GT program in IMSA.

Pigot slowly gain an opportunity at Ed Carpenter Racing and had good days, but he might have joined the team about two years too late. He had a runner-up finish at Iowa and another strong run at Portland, but he never got a second opportunity after ECR. He ran two races in 2020 with a third car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and he has not raced again since his accident at the end of that year's Indianapolis 500. 

Mutoh was a darling of Honda and after finishing eighth in the 2007 finale at Chicagoland, he got a chance with Andretti Autosport. He ran well over two seasons with a fair number of top five results, but he was soon dropped though he was tenth and 11th in the championship in his two seasons. He spent another year at Newman-Haas Racing when it was on its last legs. His final race was the 2011 Motegi race. 

It was an extended wait for Lundqvist to get his first IndyCar opportunity, but he turned enough heads in a three-race audition at Meyer Shank Racing that Chip Ganassi Racing plucked him for the 2024 season. He had two podium finishes, won a pole position and was then kicked to the curb where his career remains in limbo. 

Famous for being the driver with the most runner-up finishes without a victory, only one of those came for Meira post-reunification. That was the 2008 Indianapolis 500. He got the most out of the Panther Racing entry before he was kicked to the curb. A back injury cost him the 2009 season but he returned in 2010 to finish third in his first race back at São Paulo. Sadly, Panther Racing to A.J. Foyt Racing was a slight step back. It is surprising Meira never got another shot after 2011, not even a one-off at Indianapolis where he ran well.

They Came Close to Victories But Didn't Win

41. David Malukas

40. Ed Jones

39. Mikhail Aleshin

38. Marcus Armstrong

37. Santino Ferrucci

36. J.R. Hildebrand

35. Oriol Serviá

Malukas went on a charge late at Gateway in 2022 but fell short. He had another strong day at Gateway in 2023. The Illinoian has these occasional good days mixed in with his otherwise anonymous results. His qualifying record is better than his racing record. That is something that might need to be flipped.

At Dale Coyne Racing, Jones was stunning in his rookie year, and was third in the Indianapolis 500 in 2017. Chip Ganassi Racing hired him, but Jones was Ganassi's third option after Felix Rosenqvist could get out of his Formula E contract, and Brendon Hartley was snagged somewhat abruptly for a Toro Rosso seat in Formula One. Jones did well but not well enough for Ganassi. He became the #20 Chevrolet's road/street course driver where results were averaged. Another year at Coyne came in 2021, but that was all he got. 

Aleshin nearly won at Pocono in 2016 after starting on pole position. He also was runner-up in the second race of the 2014 Houston doubleheader. Though he had good speed, results were too erratic for Aleshin to establish himself in IndyCar. Plus, Russian financing issues.

Armstrong has been rather strong in his two-plus seasons in IndyCar between Chip Ganassi Racing and Meyer Shank Racing. He has finished on the podium for both teams, most recently third at Iowa a few weeks ago. It is hard to fathom his future is in doubt, but this is IndyCar! Who said talent gets you anything?

Ferrucci has made a name for himself on ovals while his road/street course results aren't the greatest but not the worst either. He has yet to put a wheel wrong on an oval, and he has been in the picture for victory, including in the Indianapolis 500, but he has yet to breakthrough. 

It isn't just the 2011 Indianapolis 500 where Hildebrand nearly won. At Iowa in 2017, Hildebrand was ahead of Hélio Castroneves after the final pit cycle. While cutting through traffic, Castroneves passed Hildebrand and went on to win. Hildebrand was second. He ran well at Indianapolis practical every year he started, but it has been three years since his last start.

Servià thinks he won a race. The 2011 Loudon race was nearly his after IndyCar made the unwise choice to restart a race as it began to rain. Officials reverted back to results prior to that restart, giving Ryan Hunter-Reay a victory while Servià was dropped to second. Servià was fourth that year in the championship with Newman-Haas Racing behind only Dario Franchitti, Will Power and Scott Dixon. 

They Won a Race... Where Were You Going to Put Them?

34. Charlie Kimball

33. Danica Patrick

32. Marco Andretti

It isn't as simple as all the winners go ahead of all non-winners. I already ranked Carlos Huertas as 84th. I don't think IndyCar has had many non-winners since reunification that were great. A lot of them were good, but not great. 

Am I really going to rank Hildebrand or Servià over Danica Patrick, who only won once but was sixth, fifth, tenth and tenth in the championship in her four full seasons post-reunification? Even Marco Andretti had a top five championship finish post-reunification. Kimball's best championship finish was ninth, but he had respectable results along with one victory after beating Simon Pagenaud straight up at Mid-Ohio in 2013.

They Won a Race But You Likely Aren't As Bent Out of Shape With Them Being This High

31. Ed Carpenter

30. Felix Rosenqvist

29. Rinus VeeKay

28. Carlos Muñoz

After the 2013 season, Carpenter became an oval-only driver. It paid off for a short period of time. There were a few Indianapolis 500s where he was in the conversation but didn't come out on top. He did win with Sarah Fisher Racing and his own team, an owner-driver at a time when it was unheard of in IndyCar. When IndyCar reunified, I doubt anyone thought Carpenter would win one race let along win three of them.

Rosenqvist came on strong with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2019. He won in his sophomore season and then jumped to Arrow McLaren, allowing Álex Palou to take over in the #10 Honda. How often do you wonder if Rosenqvist regrets that decision? The Swede has been quick, but that one victory from Road America is all that remains on his résumé.

VeeKay won young and then did his best at Ed Carpenter Racing when the team stumbled down the grid. Last year, he ended on a high note but was still shown the door. This year, VeeKay has been excelling at Dale Coyne Racing. His future should still be in IndyCar.

Carlos Muñoz has one of the best track records at Indianapolis Motor Speedway of all-time. It is criminal he never got another call after 2018. His only race victory was in a rain-shortened Belle Isle race but after Muñoz played the right strategy on tires. He really needed to win one race on pure pace to secure himself a spot on the grid for the long-term.

A Sandwich With Two Non-Winners

27. Romain Grosjean

26. Christian Lundgaard

25. Robert Wickens

Grosjean had six runner-up finishes in his brief time in IndyCar, and it is a little surprising he didn't win at least once. He nearly did as a rookie in 2021 with Dale Coyne Racing. If tire strategy goes a different way in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, we are likely telling a different story. At Andretti Autosport, Grosjean again showed good pace, but couldn't quite breakthrough for victory. He also had a tendency to step over the line and throwaway results. Grosjean did ok at Juncos Hollinger Racing, but he is now a Prema reserve driver and future opportunities at victories appear to be low.

At Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Lundgaard stormed on the scene and lifted the team up the grid. The Dane put RLLR in more competitive positions and he capitalized with a victory at Toronto in 2023. At Arrow McLaren, Lundgaard has remained a front-runner, but that second victory has just been out of his grasp, though he remains close. 

Though Wickens only competed in one season in IndyCar, he left such an impression before his accident at Pocono. He nearly won on debut. He nearly won four times in his first 14 starts. We will never know what IndyCar would look like had Wickens not been injured nearly seven years ago, but he likely still be a name we are talking about on a weekly basis. Despite his paralysis, Wickens has resumed his career in sports car racing.

Winners From Here on Out

24. Mike Conway

23. Justin Wilson

22. Ryan Briscoe

21. James Hinchcliffe

20. Graham Rahal

19. Takuma Sato

18. Kyle Kirkwood

17. Marcus Ericsson

Many thought Conway ended his IndyCar career when he decided to step away from oval races at the end of 2012. Instead, it gave his career new life. He won in his first weekend with Dale Coyne Racing at Belle Isle in 2013. That led to a shot at Ed Carpenter Racing where he won twice in 2014. Conway's sports car career with Toyota took off simultaneously and he focused his attention with Toyota, leaving IndyCar behind. 

Wilson was responsible for Newman-Haas Racing's final IndyCar victory at Belle Isle in 2008. He was responsible for Dale Coyne Racing' first victory at Watkins Glen in 2009 (and then its second at Texas in 2012). Wilson made the most of the equipment given. That big break never gave, but the gentle giant scored fantastic results others could have only dreamed of achieving. 

Spending most of his time with Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing, Briscoe won seven times in his IndyCar career, all at Penske. He had a hand on the championship in 2009, but one bobble exiting pit lane at Motegi opened the door and Dario Franchitti stormed through. Briscoe never got closer to a title. 

Hinchcliffe won in bunches with Andretti Autosport before winning with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He overcame a few injuries to have a respectable career, but Hinchcliffe never quite got over that hump. After the 2021 season, he turned his attention to the broadcast booth.

Rahal nearly won a title out of nowhere in 2015 as a single-car team. It has been just over eight years since his most recent victory, but Rahal has remained resilient, and since 2008 he has been a regular top ten finisher.

Sato stands out for his two Indianapolis 500 victories and he handful of others, but he finished in the top ten in less than 35% of his starts. He never finished better than eighth in the championship. Sato had his great moments, but he built a reputation of going beyond the limit, and it hurt him more than it helped.

This year is only Kirkwood's fifth in IndyCar, but he has developed into a regular threat and he has already won five times in his career with no signs of him slowing down. After being a street course ace, he won at Gateway earlier this year. A future championship contender is in our midsts.

Ericsson has had good consistency in his IndyCar career, and he has won a handful of races mostly through advantageous circumstances. At Chip Ganassi Racing, he did a good job bringing home top finishes, but we haven't seen him have a dominant day in IndyCar despite having won an Indianapolis 500.

The Top 10%

16. Dan Wheldon

It is a little hard to believe Wheldon is this high but in his three full seasons post-reunification he was ranked fourth, ninth and tenth, and those final two years were with Panther Racing. In 53 starts, he finished in the top ten in over 60% of them. Along with his victory in the 2011 Indianapolis 500, he was runner-up in the previous two years.

15. Tony Kanaan

Kanaan remained a front-runner with Andretti Autosport in the immediate aftermath of reunification. He continued to run well at KV Racing and won his Indianapolis 500 with the team in 2013. He had good results at Chip Ganassi Racing, but never quite got back to the mountaintop.

14. Scott McLaughlin

Moving from Supercars after hardly ever driving a single-seater, McLaughlin leaped into IndyCar and it took a season for him to get a handle on it, but after that he has become a regular front-runner and has won on every track discipline with seven total victories in his career. 

13. Colton Herta

Herta won in his third career start. Since then, he has been competitive and won some impressive races in wet and dry conditions, though he has yet to put together a full season to compete for a championship. Herta has already won nine times in his career. The potential remains there but that breakthrough must come sooner rather than later.

12. Juan Pablo Montoya

For the longest time it felt like Montoya was never going to return to IndyCar competition. In 2014, he joined Team Penske after a stint in NASCAR, and it did not take him long to win. He was one point away from winning the championship in 2015, a year that saw him claim his second Indianapolis 500 victory. Despite over a decade removed from IndyCar competition, Montoya showed he is still one of the greatest talents of his generation. 

11. Sébastien Bourdais

Though he won six races post-reunification and did it all driving for mid-pack teams, the most impressive thing Bourdais did after 2008 in IndyCar was finish ninth with a Lotus at Barber Motorsports Park in 2012. I nearly put him in the top ten for that alone.

10. Alexander Rossi

Rossi took an unexpected victory as a rookie in the 100th Indianapolis 500. He slowly grew into a championship contender only for it to slip from his hands in 2018. For a period, every Rossi victory was a beatdown. Since 2020, he has been a shadow of his former self and is now at Ed Carpenter Racing. 

9. Patricio O'Ward

Nine victories in 103 starts, O'Ward has lived up to the expectations set from the Road to Indy. He has found a knack for speed on ovals, and he has come close to winning the Indianapolis 500 on a pair of occasions. He had a shot at the title in 2021, and technically still has a shot this season.

8. Hélio Castroneves

Post-reunification, Catorneves won two more Indianapolis 500s to join the four-timers club. An excellent season in 2008 left him narrowly close to a championship, and he was the championship leader with three races remaining in the 2013 season only for it to be fumbled on the goal line. Outside of 2011, where he was 11th, Castroneves finished in the championship top five in nine of his ten full seasons post-reunification.

7. Ryan Hunter-Reay

Hunter-Reay saw a career resurgence during reunification as he went from unemployed after Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing pulled out of IndyCar to Andretti Autosport and lifted the team through rough times. In 2012, he pulled off a comeback to take the title from Will Power in the final race. Two years later, Hunter-Reay won one of the greatest Indianapolis 500s ever. 

6. Simon Pagenaud

A model of consistency, Pagenaud seldom put a wheel wrong. He was a championship contender at Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports, which led to a Team Penske opportunity. It took him a year, but after getting his bearings Pagenaud became a champion. He would later win the Indianapolis 500. Sadly, his career was cut short after an accident at Mid-Ohio two years ago.

5. Will Power

Power went through the highs and the lows post-reunification. For a while, he stood out for all the championship lost despite numerous of race victories and pole positions. Then he had his day came, and he is now a two-time champion with an Indianapolis 500 to boot, while also holding the record for most pole positions in IndyCar history.

4. Josef Newgarden

A two-time champion and a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Newgarden took Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing to the top level of IndyCar. At Team Penske, he immediately became a champion and continued his winning ways on each track discipline, but he has become renown for his oval prowess. 

3. Dario Franchitti

It has been over a decade since Franchitti's career ended after an accident in the penultimate race of the 2013 season in Houston. Franchitti wasn't even on the grid for reunification. He was trying NASCAR in 2008. The following year he returned and went on to win three consecutive championships. In the middle of that, he won two more Indianapolis 500s. He finished in the top five in over 60% of his starts post-reunification, the only driver to have that high of a top five finish percentage.

2. Álex Palou

We are on the verge of Palou's fourth championship and his third consecutive. Not to mention he has had the greatest season post-reunification this year with eight victories and he has a chance at snatching the record for most victories in a season. He hasn't even made 100 starts in his career, and Palou has won 19 times with 41 podium finishes. He is only in his sixth season in IndyCar, and Palou is already one of the greatest the series has ever seen.

1. Scott Dixon

There was only one correct answer, though when we get to the 400th post-reunification race spectacular we will likely see at least a flip between #2 and #1. Dixon has won six championships post-reunification, including the first championship after everyone came together. He won 48 times in 298 starts post-reunification (remember, he couldn't start the Long Beach race in 2008, so he has started every race he possibly could since reunification). Every season, there is a Scott Dixon moment that stands out. Pretty much every other season, he does something that leaves us floored. He has been here the entire time, and it has been special getting to see him at his best.

We are about to finish our 18th season with a single IndyCar Series. It is not perfect, but I think we can agree it is better than having open-wheel racing's highest level in North America separated. The series has improved over these nearly two decades. The racing has been rather good everywhere. We saw street races we sneered turn into some of the most anticipated races. The Indianapolis 500 evolved into a race we had never seen before. We have had champions from Formula One, NASCAR, Supercars and sports cars come to IndyCar to compete. There was a period where that wasn't happening and it never seemed likely to happen again. 

IndyCar has things it must work on, but let's acknowledge the work that has been done and the steps that have been made over the last 18 years. It is a reminder that progress can be achieved.