1. Lando Norris came. Lando Norris saw. Lando Norris conquered. This was close but Norris, the invitee, had this one in the bag. If it wasn't for a spin exiting the final corner while running in fifth during the pit cycle, Norris would have won this race by at least ten or 15 seconds.
Norris had the field covered from the first practice race on Thursday. No one touched him that day. Today started with another pole position and blistering race pace. Norris was regularly lapping in the 1:04-range. No one else was doing that. Patricio O'Ward got down to 1:04 late but at that point the race was over.
The McLaren F1 driver is another animal when it comes to iRacing. Add to it the natural ability behind an actual race car. The combination led to stepping into the IndyCar pool and bullying the regulars. Norris almost beat himself but that was the only thing that was going to stop him today.
How should IndyCar feel about another outside winning its iRacing event? It is not real. It doesn't matter. It is only for fun.
2. Patricio O'Ward was strong and was going to be in the top five but had a bit of help to get into a runner-up position. O'Ward was strong and didn't put a wheel wrong. He found some pace late but Norris was out of reach. This was a good day and O'Ward really hasn't had a great iRacing event yet.
3. Take Norris out of the field and Felix Rosenqvist wins this race. Rosenqvist was on the one-stop and leading the way. If there is no Norris, Rosenqvist wins this by about five or six seconds. Instead, Norris is in the field, running about 7/10ths faster than Rosenqvist every lap and under the pressure Rosenqvist clips a curb and spins. He loses the lead; he loses the gap to O'Ward and he settles for third.
The way this race was laid out, 32 laps with a competition caution on lap 12, was going to mix up the strategies. Teams were only getting 15-16 laps on fuel. Stopping under caution was not going to get you to the end unless you were really conservation. Rosenqvist stayed out before the caution, did not come in under the caution and ran to lap 18. This nearly worked.
Even if Rosenqvist doesn't spin, Norris was likely going to pass him with two or three to go but Rosenqvist still would have had second.
4. Another strong day from Scott McLaughlin in fourth. I can't say much more than that but McLaughlin has been great in every race.
5. Santino Ferrucci rounded out the top five, running the same strategy as Rosenqvist. Ferrucci was good. That's about it.
6. The only way Norris spins and doesn't win is if Will Power doesn't spin on his own while leading before Power makes his one and only stop at the end of lap 18. Power was in the catbird seat after Norris spun and within a lap Power coughed it up.
Similar to Rosenqvist, he just lost it and there went the victory. Power was closer to Norris and the gap was there after Norris spun. If Power keeps it straight, he pits and gets out ahead of Rosenqvist and might have an extra second or two on Norris. In that case, Norris might fall a lap short in his charge.
Another trip to Austin and another one that got away from Power, settling for sixth.
7. Rinus VeeKay was seventh, which is actually great, considering last week was his first event. I am happy for him.
8. Rounding out the top ten was Marcus Ericsson, Álex Palou, who went the furthest of the two-stoppers, getting a splash-and-go with four to go and Josef Newgarden was tenth, after being one of the first to commit to the two-stop strategy.
9. I will be honest, there is no one that stands out that was outside the top ten.
Simon Pagenaud was 14th after winning the last two races. That was a little worse than expected.
Sage Karam had some problem and it shuffled him from sixth on the grid to dead last. I don't think Karam was going to match Norris' pace but I think he could have had a shot for a podium position.
And then there are a few drivers who are being way too hormonal. Guys, calm down and just have fun with it.
10. Honda teams are 0-for-5 going into the final race. Does that matter?
Rosenqvist has been the closest Honda driver to victory on a regular basis. Scott Dixon, who was 11th today, had a shot at Motegi, but week-to-week Rosenqvist has been carrying the Honda flag and no one else has been close.
Outside of Scott Speed at Barber, has there been a time where an Andretti Autosport driver has been in the top five?
I know this is a video game and just because Andretti Autosport drivers are struggling now doesn't mean the team will be outside the top fifteen at every race. Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta will be fine. Everyone is at a different level when it comes to iRacing. For some guys, it is a daily exercise. For Rossi, it is brand spanking new and he is years behind and that is fine.
The fact that is seems 85% of the Honda drivers are behind is a little bit of a surprise. There have been some rough races and Honda probably should have had a win by now. Rosenqvist was looking good at Barber and had a good shot at winning today but Rosenqvist has been it.
I don't think it matters but if we have learned anything from the last five weeks, this ends up mattering in one way or another.
11. Indianapolis is going to be next week... so how about that dream?
I am not going to say too much because a lot of people lack imagination and are going to love it and it is probably going to be a fun race but if IndyCar is going to promote theme weekends at the start of this series and then not see those out IndyCar should just come up with the schedule at the start and release it like IMSA did.
Don't tease something for four weeks and then completely renege.
12. If there is one fun thing IndyCar is doing with this it will determine the final spots in the field via a qualifying on Wednesday. All full-time teams, the iRacing winners (Sage Karam, Scott McLaughlin and Lando Norris) and Indianapolis 500 winners are locked in so I don't know how many spots will be available but just counting Hélio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti could be up to do this and that rough counting suggests there could be very few spots available. This could be the first misstep IndyCar has made in this entire process, but hey, five weeks is a great run.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
Showing posts with label Austin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Austin. Show all posts
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Sunday, March 24, 2019
First Impressions: Austin 2019
1. For the first half of this race, Colton Herta was hanging with Power and Rossi and it seemed like he could pull off his first career victory in his third career start. He faded in the third stint on primary tires but Herta made it to the pit lane before Felix Rosenqvist had an accident after contact with James Hinchcliffe exiting turn 19 while Will Power and Alexander Rossi didn't. Herta inherited the lead and it was over from there.
Herta had the third best car today and with Power and Rossi both caught off it is fitting Herta ran away with this one. Power and Rossi pulled away from Herta but Herta hung with them long enough that he had miles of space behind him and no one was pressuring him. He is now the youngest winner in IndyCar history. It has been composed and outside a last second debut at Sonoma Herta has never seemed out of his element in IndyCar, granted he has only done three races.
We need to be calm. He won his third career start but that doesn't mean he will be Scott Dixon. He turned 19 years old in six days. Herta still needs time and patience. He will continue to develop and mature. Today was just one great day for a teenager.
2. Josef Newgarden used tire strategy on the first stint to make up a handful of positions and it appears he would be doing the reverse of St. Petersburg. Instead of clawing the gap before making a pit stop, Newgarden was making up time after a pit stop. Unfortunately, he didn't have to legs to break into the fight for the lead but he got a break and went from fourth to second.
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay did well today but did not have the pace of his teammate Rossi and pseudo-teammate Herta. This is the kind of day he needed after St. Petersburg. After losing an engine in the first 20 laps it is good to have a podium finish come when it appeared he was going to be fourth or fifth. He had to pick up some points and some ground on his competition and he did just that.
4. Graham Rahal did not have an outstanding day but he was able to run longer on stints than most. That extended tire life worked out and he was able to make moves through the field despite time lost at the end of a stint. The caution helped him out but this was going to be a top ten result that turned into a top five.
5. This was a tough weekend for Sébastien Bourdais and it did not seem like he was going to break the top ten. He really wasn't making moves in the early part of the race but it seemed to come to him as the race went along. He again made a timely restart and what may have at best been ninth or tenth turned into a top five. Like Hunter-Reay, he needed this result.
6. Marco Andretti was making some moves but he didn't really have what it was going to take to race into the top ten, similar to Bourdais, but he got a sixth place finish out of it.
7. Takuma Sato was not in the top ten for most of this until the caution. It was not an impressive day but you take what you can get and he got seventh.
8. Patricio O'Ward did it again. Sure, he wasn't the best finishing rookie but he had zero seat time in this Carlin entry and zero seat time at Circuit of the Americas in an IndyCar and he was in the top ten for most of this race, running with the big boys. His pit stops let him down a bit and he faded on the final stint after the restart but eighth is a great day for him.
9. This was the second time in four races Alexander Rossi had a podium finish snatched from him because of a caution. Rossi probably would have won at Portland had it not been for a caution. He set himself up to fight for a victory today and it was taken from him again. Rossi deserves better than ninth. It is unfortunate the results are not coming for him but he is always at the front and with his pace the results will come to him.
10. Jack Harvey was at the back for most of this one but he made his pit stop at the right time and he got another top ten finish out of it. This was a nice turn around after he caused a red flag in qualifying.
11. Spencer Pigot and Tony Kanaan were 11th and 12th. That is it.
12. This was not Scott Dixon's greatest day but he fought through it and this was turning into a beautiful result. At the start, it seemed like Dixon was going to fall back, he was going to be lucky to get a top ten out of it but he is brilliant. He figured it out as the race went on and with plenty of young drivers around him; he picked them off as he dealt with degrading tires. It looked like he was going to get a top five out of it Unfortunately, like Rossi, Power was caught out by his teammates spin and he only has 13th to show for it.
13. If being caught out as the leader wasn't bad enough for Will Power, having a driveshaft break while making the final pit stop was salt in the wound. Power was set to be racing for a $100,000 bonus for the final 20 laps and instead he sat in pit lane, without an answer and all that cash and a truckload of points vanishing. It is another race with a mechanical component breaking on Power while he had a fast race car. He can't have it happen again but most seasons it appears to happen to him two or three times.
14. Quickly through the rest of the field: Ed Jones did well with a broken wrist. Marcus Ericsson would have been in the top ten and maybe gotten into the top five if it were not for an unsafe release into the path of Pigot on his final pit stop. Other than that, it was a great day for him.
James Hinchcliffe got into Rosenqvist and in turn it cut down his right front. Both could have finished in the top ten. Rosenqvist struggled as the tires went away and he will learn from this day.
Matheus Leist was doing well until the final caution shuffled him back. Kyle Kaiser finished on the lead lap. Simon Pagenaud tried to go off strategy but it didn't make a big gain for him. Then he had contact with Rossi in the final lap and it forced him to make another stop. It was not a great weekend for him.
I don't know what happened to either Santino Ferrucci or Max Chilton. Ferrucci could have finished in the top ten and Chilton lost a lap early. This was a promising weekend for Chilton.
Zach Veach spun on lap one and never made up the ground. To add insult to injury, he had contact with Dixon while a lap down and that damaged his front wing.
15. Track limits! I wish there was more grass around Circuit of the Americas and that would have prevented this conversation for the entire weekend but with FIA standards and this being a T1 circuit that hosts Formula One, it can't be that way. I think it looks ridiculous watching cars run 50-feet off track but IndyCar didn't want the headache of enforcing this and so be it. My worst fear occurred with the Hinchcliffe-Rosenqvist accident. Does IndyCar do something to make sure it doesn't happen again and try to prevent a driver or two from getting hurt?
16. I was critical of Circuit of the Americas for its ticket pricing and I stand by that but the track promoted this race and it stepped up for the inaugural race. It is hard to gauge a crowd at a facility this larger but if the track is happy then the track is happy. This was year one and it will learn. It needs a chance to grow and hopefully we see more people coming in 2020.
17. There is still part of me that wishes this race was Saturday afternoon after Formula One qualifying during the United States Grand Prix weekend because it would be in front of at least 70,000 people and in front of about 20 times the international media. It is a different race and I think it would catch the eye of people. If anything, IndyCar should run an exhibition race this year during the United States Grand Prix weekend to show the series to a group of people who otherwise would not consider it. There was plenty of jockeying for position. A 40-lap sprint race with 16 cars in November could bring more people back to the track in March 2020.
18. IndyCar didn't make Austin put a $100,000 bonus on the table if the pole-sitter won the race. The track choose to do that and I think that was a great decision. IndyCar needs these little things every now and then. It adds another element to the races and I wish more would do it. Austin has set the bar. It put an extra $100,000 toward an IndyCar race. What do other events do? What does Texas Motor Speedway do? Eddie Gossage has to be looking south. He is about to lose at his own game in what was formerly his backyard.
19. We end March and April will see IndyCar return to Barber, from one beautiful road course to another.
Morning Warm-Up: Austin 2019
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| Will Power will be gunning for an extra $100,000 in Austin |
Power has won three inaugural races in his career but all three of those were street circuits with victories at Las Vegas, São Paulo and Baltimore. In the five inaugural road course races Power has participated in his best finish is fourth, which came at Zolder and Barber. He finished 14th at Assen and he had finishes of eighth and seventh in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis and at NOLA Motorsports Park respectively.
Alexander Rossi will start second after he missed out on pole position by 0.1584 seconds. This is the first time Rossi has qualified second in his IndyCar career. He started second last year at Gateway but that field was set by points after qualifying was rained out. He has won or finished second in four of his five front row starts with the exception being last year's second race at Belle Isle when he suffered a flat tire after he locked up while leading and dropped back to 12th. Rossi has made the Firestone Fast Six on seven consecutive occasions after Saturday's session and he has now made it out of the first round on 15 consecutive occasions. The last time he has not made it out of round one was at Road America in 2016.
Ryan Hunter-Reay will start third and this is his seventh consecutive top five start. He has nine top five starts in the last ten races with his worst start in that stretch being sixth. Hunter-Reay is the only Texan-born driver in the field. The last Texan-born driver to win in Texas was A.J. Foyt on August 5, 1979 at Texas World Speedway. Hunter-Reay's 18 victories are second most for a Texas-born driver, behind only Foyt's 67 victories. Hunter-Reay has twice won from third on the grid, at Watkins Glen in 2008 and at Barber in 2014. Colton Herta will turn 19 years old six days after this race and he will start a career-best fourth position. Herta could become the first driver to win in the third start of a career since Scott Dixon at Nazareth on May 6, 2001. Dixon started 23rd that day. The most recent IndyCar race won after a driver qualified fourth was Takuma Sato at the Indianapolis 500 in 2017. Power won last year at Gateway from fourth on the grid but that field was set by points. The last road/street course won from fourth was James Hinchcliffe at Long Beach in 2017.
Josef Newgarden missed out on the Fast Six by 0.0363 seconds and he will start seventh. Three of Newgarden's 11 IndyCar victories have come from seventh on the grid, tied with second for most victories from a starting position. Last year, he won the second race of the season at Phoenix from seventh on the grid. Newgarden led a lap in five of the six natural-terrain road course races in 2018. The lone race he did not lead a lap in was Mid-Ohio. Newgarden has started in the top ten in 14 consecutive natural-terrain road course races after this qualifying result with his most recent start outside the top ten being 12th at Watkins Glen in 2016. Patricio O'Ward will make his long-awaited second career start in IndyCar and he will start a career-worst eighth. The best finish for a Mexican driver in the state of Texas is third. Mexican-born Memo Gidley finished third in the 1999 Houston race and Mario Domínguez finished third in the 2007 Houston race.
Zach Veach and Graham Rahal form an all-Buckeye row five. Veach has finished outside the top ten in the last three races after having four consecutive top ten finishes prior to that. Rahal did not have a top five finish on a natural-terrain road course last year and he finished 23rd in the last two natural-terrain road course races. His most recent top five finish on a natural-terrain road course was fifth at Watkins Glen in 2017. Santino Ferrucci will start a career-best 11th. Ferrucci's finish has not gotten worse over his IndyCar career. After finishing 23rd on debut at Belle Isle, he finished 20th in the next Belle Isle race and 20th at Portland but he has finished 11th and ninth in his last two races. Matheus Leist made it to the second round of qualifying for the third time in his career and for the first time since last year at Toronto, though it came with a timely red flag in group two's session in round one. Leist will start 12th. Prior to this result, Leist had started on row nine or worse in six consecutive races and in 11 of the 12 races since the 102nd Indianapolis 500.
Both groups in round one were ended prematurely due to red flags and the drivers just on the outside were Max Chilton and Takuma Sato. Chilton missed out on advancing by 0.0007 seconds. This will be Chilton's 52nd start and he has yet to score a podium finish. Only 13 drivers have taken more than 52 starts to score their first career podium finish in IndyCar. Scott Brayton holds the record at 121 races and Ed Carpenter is second at 94 starts. Sato has never finished in the top ten in the second race of the season in his IndyCar career. His best finish in the second race of the season came last year at Phoenix when he finished 11th. His average finish in the second race of the season is 18.333 with four finishes outside the top twenty.
It will be an all-Schmidt Peterson Motorsports row with James Hinchcliffe and Marcus Ericsson on row eight. Two of Hinchcliffe's five career victories came in the second race of the season. He won the second race in 2015 at NOLA Motorsports Park and in 2017 at Long Beach. He has also finished outside the top twenty in the second race of the season on three occasions. In four Formula One starts at Austin, Ericsson's best starting position was 13th with an average starting spot of 14.8. Austin was Ericsson's third best track in terms of average finish amongst tracks with multiple starts at 13.5.
Sébastien Bourdais missed out on advancing and he will start 17th. He has not finished behind a teammate in consecutive races since Phoenix and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2017. Bourdais has not finished in the top ten of a race but behind a teammate in a IndyCar race since Surfers Paradise 2006 when Bruno Junqueira finished sixth and Bourdais finished eighth while both were driving for Newman-Haas Racing. Ed Jones joins his former teammate on row nine. Ed Jones has retired from two of the last three races due to accidents. Jones has yet to make it to the final round of knockout qualifying in his IndyCar career.
Spencer Pigot will start 19th. Five of Pigot's top ten finishes have come on natural-terrain road courses and four of those have come with him starting outside the top ten. Pigot has finished in the top ten two out of the three times he has started 19th in his career. Marco Andretti makes it an all-American row ten. Andretti could do something this weekend the Andretti family has never done before. The Andretti family has never won an IndyCar race in the state of Texas. His grandfather Mario only made two starts in the state of Texas, both at Texas World Speedway and both in 1973. In those races, Mario had finishes of 25th, after a broken piston, and 17th, after a broken valve. His father Michael's best finish in the state is third in the 1999 Houston race. Marco's best finish is third in the 2010 Texas race.
Kyle Kaiser will make his first start of 2019 from 21st position. This will be the fifth start of Kaiser's career. He is still looking for the first lead lap finish of his career. The red flag in group two caught out Simon Pagenaud and he will have to start 22nd. This is the fifth consecutive race Pagenaud has not started in the top five. The last time he did not start in the top five in five consecutive races was from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis to Texas in 2017. Pagenaud's longest streak without a top five start is 18 races from Sonoma 2012 to Sonoma 2013. This is the 11th time in Pagenaud's career he has started outside the top twenty and this will be his 137th start. Pagenaud's best finish when starting outside the top twenty is fifth, which happened at Iowa in 2012 and Long Beach in 2017.
NBCSN's coverage of the IndyCar Classic will begin at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 60 laps.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
Track Walk: Austin 2019
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| After seven years, IndyCar makes its Austin debut |
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 24th with green flag scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBCSN
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, Kelli Stavast, Marty Snider and Robin Miller will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 11:15 a.m. ET (45 minutes)*
Second Practice: 3:05 p.m. ET (60 minutes)*
Saturday:
Third Practice: 11:00 a.m. ET (45 minutes)*
Qualifying: 3:00 p.m. ET (Live coverage on NBCSN)
Sunday:
Race: 1:40 p.m. ET (60 laps)
* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.
Will Testing Results Carry Over?
IndyCar has already been to Circuit of the Americas on an official capacity, as the track hosted IndyCar's official preseason test in the middle of February.
During those two days, one driver was on top for three of the four sessions and Colton Herta was that driver. The Harding Steinbrenner Racing driver topped the preseason test with a time of 106.6258 seconds in the second session of the weekend and his top time was 0.2277 seconds faster than Alexander Rossi. Rossi's top time came in the final session of the two-day test and Herta was second to Rossi in that session by 0.1466 seconds.
Rossi and Herta both had top ten finishes at St. Petersburg, they both advanced to the second round of qualifying and had it not been for an interference penalty on Herta, both drivers would have started in the top six. While Rossi had a less than spectacular race going from sixth to fifth, Herta started 11th and worked his way to an eighth place finish in his second career start.
To the surprise of no one, Will Power was third fastest at the February test but he was a half-second behind Herta's top time. Power is coming off a third place finish at St. Petersburg, his first podium finish in a season opener since he finished second at St. Petersburg in 2015. Power has finished in the top five in first two races of a season four times in his career and on all four occasions both finishers were on the podium.
Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top five at the Austin test with Felix Rosenqvist, Graham Rahal, Scott Dixon, James Hinchcliffe and Santino Ferrucci rounding out the top ten.
Hunter-Reay is coming off his fifth mechanical retirement since the 2016 season. His engine expired after 19 laps at St. Petersburg. His 23rd place result at St. Petersburg is his first finish outside the top twenty on a road/street course since he finished 21st in the first Toronto race in 2014 and it is his worst road/street course result since he was classified in 23rd after an accident at Long Beach in 2013. Only twice in Hunter-Reay's career has he not had a top ten finish in the first two races, his rookie year in 2003 and 2011.
Pagenaud picked up his 11th consecutive top ten finish while Rosenqvist finished fourth on debut after leading 31 laps. Rahal has only two top ten finishes in the last seven races after he had ten top ten finishes in the 11 races prior to that. The only time Dixon has won the second race of the season was when he won at Phoenix in 2016. He has only had podium finishes in the first two races of the season twice in his career and in both years both finishes were runner-up finishes. Those years were 2007 and 2012.
While Hinchcliffe and Ferrucci were both in the top ten, their teammates were not. Marcus Ericsson was 14th in the test, about two-tenths outside the top ten but Sébastien Bourdais was 18th, almost a second off Ferrucci. Bourdais' engine failure at St. Petersburg gave him his worst finish in a season opener in his IndyCar career.
Another notable strugglers in the February test were Chevrolet teams not named Team Penske.
The best non-Penske Chevrolet in the test was R.C Enerson in 16th driving for Carlin and Enerson will not be at the Austin race. Instead, Carlin will enter the #31 Chevrolet for Patricio O'Ward, who will attempt 13 races this year, including in a third Carlin entry in the Indianapolis 500.
Of the Chevrolet drivers that were at the test, Matheus Liest led the cellar dwellers in 19th and he was ahead of only one Honda, Zach Veach. The final five drivers on the timesheet drove Chevrolets. Ed Jones was 21st, just ahead of Max Chilton, Spencer Pigot, Tony Kanaan and Kyle Kaiser. Jones is coming off a broken finger suffered from his accident at St. Petersburg. Kaiser was 2.2 seconds behind Herta. Kaiser will make his season debut this weekend in the #32 Chevrolet for Juncos Racing.
Is the Top Ten Already Decided?
With one race down, it is easy to start looking ahead and see who has positioned themselves well for a championship run and what drivers are fighting an uphill battle.
Josef Newgarden won the season opener and the 2017 champion has started out ahead of the field while the annual title contenders Dixon and Power are right behind him. Rookies Rosenqvist, Herta and Ferrucci all started the year with a top ten finish and even part-time but regular competition Jack Harvey scored a top ten result at St. Petersburg.
With a mixture of notable names and new faces in the top ten in St. Petersburg, how much will change from the season opener to the season finale at Sonoma?
Last year, nine of the top ten finishes at St. Petersburg were in the top ten of the final championship standings. The one change was Ed Jones fell out of the top ten and Pagenaud moved in. While you may think that suggests the 2019 season might already be decided, it should be noted that last year was just the second time since the creation of CART in 1979 that only one spot in the top ten changed from the season opener to the season finale. The other year was the 1996 CART season where Robby Gordon dropped out and rookie Alex Zanardi ended up finishing third in the championship. There has also not been a season since 1979 where there was no change in the top ten from after the season opener to the final championship standings.
Since the 1979 CART season and including all the seasons of the split, the average number of different drivers in the top ten of the championship from the season opener to the final championship standings is 3.83 with a median of four. The largest change in the top ten has been six and that has happened on nine occasions since 1979, the most recent being in 2011.
Last season was the first time since reunification that there were not multiple changes in the top ten from the first race to the final standings. In the 11 seasons, five seasons had three changes, two seasons had four changes and two seasons had five changes.
Who falls out of the top ten? Since reunification, mostly the drivers that finish at the back of the top ten, as 21 of the drivers that finished eighth, ninth or tenth in the season opener did not finish in the top ten of the championship. In that same time period, only 11 drivers that finished in the top five of the season opener did not finish in the top ten of the championship. Of those 11 drivers, only four finished on the podium in the season opener and those four drivers were Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2009 and 2016, Vitor Meira in 2010 and Sébastien Bourdais in 2017 after he missed majority of the season due to injury.
In eight of the last 11 seasons, the driver that finished eighth in the season opener did not finish in the top ten of the championship, more than any other top ten finishing position. The three drivers that finished eighth and finished in the top ten of the championship were Tony Kanaan in 2008, Carlos Muñoz in 2016 and Josef Newgarden in 2017.
What does any of this mean in 2019? One, if you are Colton Herta you should be a little nervous. Two, it does not rule out the likes of Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti, Hunter-Reay and Bourdais, four drivers who all finished in the top ten of championship in 2018 but did not finish in the top ten at St. Petersburg, of turning their seasons around but it points that turnover could be less than anticipated and if the likes of Rosenqvist, Herta, and Ferrucci keep up their form throughout the remaining 16 races a veteran face could be looking at a less than desirable championship finish at Laguna Seca.
First Time Visits
Since the start of the 21st century, 20 different racetracks have hosted an IndyCar race for the first time. With Austin being the 21st new track of the 21st century, let's look back at some of these other tracks and what happened in their first IndyCar race and what has happened in the the years since their first IndyCar race.
The first new track of the 21st century was Kentucky, which held its first IndyCar race on August 27, 2000 and Buddy Lazier won the race driving for Hemelgarn Racing.
The following year saw Richmond, Kansas, Nashville and Chicagoland all join the IRL schedule in that order. While Richmond did host a race in the 1946 season when the AAA sanctioned the championship and when what are now considered sprint car races counted toward the title, this was IndyCar's first trip to the paved, 0.75-mile oval and Lazier won that race. Eddie Cheever won at Kansas driving for his own team but Lazier won again at Nashville and his brother Jaques scored his only IndyCar victory in the inaugural Chicagoland race driving for Team Menard.
In CART, three new circuits were on the 2001 schedule. Cristiano da Matta won the season opener for Newman/Haas Racing at a new street circuit in Monterrey, Mexico. The other two new races were oval races in Europe. The Lausitz round is infamously remembered for the Alex Zanardi accident and Kenny Bräck won that race driving for Team Rahal. The following week CART went to Rockingham and the race was remembered for rainy conditions that washed away nearly all the practice and qualifying sessions. Despite the lack of track time and a shortened race distance, Rockingham put on what is considered one of the best races of the 2000s. Bräck led most of this race but Gil de Ferran remained on the Swede's heels. De Ferran made a daring pass on the final lap and took the victory for Team Penske.
St. Petersburg held its first IndyCar race in 2003 and Forsythe Racing's Paul Tracy won that race during a transitioning time for CART. Two years later, Edmonton and San Jose held their first IndyCar races, both of which were won by Sébastien Bourdais of Newman/Haas Racing. The 2007 season opened on a new street course in Las Vegas. In what was the first race for the Panoz DP01 chassis, Will Power took his first career victory on Easter Sunday. Champ Car returned to Europe that year with races at Zolder and Assen. Bourdais took the victory in Belgium but it was Justin Wilson taking the victory in the Netherlands for RuSport.
The IRL made its first tripped to Iowa in 2007 and in a race with many accidents, Dario Franchitti took the victory with the Andretti Green Racing driver holding off his teammate Marco Andretti by 0.0681 seconds.
In 2010, IndyCar returned to Brazil with a street race in São Paulo opening the season. Ryan Hunter-Reay led much of this race in wet-to-dry conditions but Will Power took the victory with Team Penske after his passed Hunter-Reay with four laps to go. Two races later Barber Motorsports Park hosted its first IndyCar and again, an Andretti Autosport car led a fair amount of the race with Marco Andretti's strategy change giving him the lead for 58 of the 90 laps but he was forced to make a pit stop late and it allowed Hélio Castroneves to get another victory for Team Penske.
Baltimore made its debut on the IndyCar schedule in 2011 and the course was remembered for train tracks that ran perpendicular to the front straightaway. This forced a chicane to be added to the course before practice and Power won this race leading 70 of 75 laps.
The inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis was held in 2014 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Simon Pagenaud took the victory driving for Sam Schmidt's team. The Frenchman led only six of 82 laps. The following year saw IndyCar make its debut at NOLA Motorsports Park and, in a sloppy wet race that was run mostly behind the pace car, it was again Sam Schmidt's team, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, taking the victory with James Hinchcliffe having led 16 of 47 laps and only making one pit stop.
The bad news is of the 20 new circuits since the start of the 21st century, only four of those tracks are still on the IndyCar schedule: St. Petersburg, Barber, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Iowa. Nine of the events were held four times or fewer, including four races that were held only once.
The good news is six circuits did host ten races or more. The bad news is St. Petersburg is the only one of those six races still active. Barber will host its tenth race this year.
On the results side of things, 14 different drivers won the inaugural races at these twenty tracks. Buddy Lazier, Bourdais and Power have each won three inaugural races in the 21st century. No other driver has won multiple inaugural races. Eleven different teams have won inaugural races with Team Penske and Newman-Haas Racing each having won four times. Hemelgarn Racing won three times and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has won twice. Andretti Autosport and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing are the only other active teams with a victory in an inaugural race.
Chip Ganassi Racing has not won the inaugural race at a track since Juan Pablo Montoya won at Chicago Motor Speedway, the 1.029-mile oval, in 1999.
Indy Lights
Austin also marks the second round of the Indy Lights season and it will be another doubleheader.
Zachary Claman and Rinus VeeKay split the races at St. Petersburg but Claman enters as the championship leader after he finished second to VeeKay in the second race and the Canadian has 57 points, nine ahead of the Dutchman. Toby Sowery is ten points behind Claman after finishing second and third at St. Petersburg. David Malukas had a pair of fourth place finishes and he is fourth in the championship on 38 points with Oliver Askew rounding out the top five on 37 points after he finished third in the first race and started on pole position for race two but was eliminated in turn two after contact with VeeKay.
Julien Falchero is on 30 points, one ahead of Ryan Norman and two ahead of Robert Megennis. Lucas Kohl is ninth on 26 points and Dalton Kellett rounds out the championship on 24 points.
During February testing, Askew was the fastest ahead of Falchero, who tested with Andretti Autosport, VeeKay, Norman, Claman, Megennis, Malukas, Logan Sergeant, who tested for Carlin before deciding to race for Carlin's Formula Three operation, Kellett, who tested for Carlin and Kohl.
The first Indy Lights race will be at 1:45 p.m. ET on Saturday March 23rd and the second race will be at 10:10 a.m. ET on Sunday March 24th.
Fast Facts
This will be the fourth IndyCar race to take place on March 24th and first since James Hinchcliffe won at St. Petersburg in 2013.
Circuit of the Americas will be the seventh Texas track to host an IndyCar race and Texas is now tied with Indiana and Colorado for eight most different circuits to host a IndyCar race by state.
This will be the 61st IndyCar race held in the state of Texas.
Six drivers on the IndyCar grid have raced at Circuit of the Americas. Spencer Pigot and Kyle Kasier ran in Pro Mazda at the track in 2013. Pigot finished second in race one but did not complete a lap in race two. Kaiser had finishes of eighth and sixth that weekend. Marcus Ericsson is the most experienced of the six having started the United States Grand Prix four times with his best result coming last year when he finished tenth. Max Chilton and Alexander Rossi both started the United States Grand Prix once. Chilton started and finished 21st in the 2013 race and Rossi started 17th and finished 12th in the 2015 race. Patricio O'Ward won the Prototype Challenge class with James French in the 2017 IMSA race.
This will be the first IndyCar race at Circuit of the Americas but in seven Formula One races all seven have been won from the front row with three victories from pole position and four from second position.
Between Grand-Am, American Le Mans Series and IMSA, the pole-sitter won five of six races with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas winning the 2014 race from third on the grid.
In five FIA World Endurance Championship races from Circuit of the Americas, the overall winner started first, fourth, second, third and second.
The average number of lead changes in Austin's seven Formula One races is 3.714 with a median of five.
In the six Grand-Am/ALMS/IMSA races, the average number of lead changes is 4.333 with a median of 4.5.
The average number of lead changes in the five FIA WEC races at Austin is 8.4 with a median of nine but all of those races were 6-hour events, likely close to three times longer than this weekend's IndyCar race.
The average number of safety car periods in the seven Formula One races is 0.428 with a median of zero. The average number of laps behind the safety car is 1.857 with a median of zero.
Only two Formula One races at Austin have had a safety car. In 2013, the safety car was deployed once for four laps and in 2015, it was deployed twice for nine laps.
In the six Grand-Am/ALMS/IMSA races, the average number of cautions is 1.833 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is seven with a median of 8.5.
Chip Ganassi Racing is one victory away from 107 victories, which would tie the team with Newman-Haas Racing for second most in IndyCar history.
Possible Milestones:
Ryan Hunter-Reay needs to lead 45 laps to reach the 1,500 laps led milestone.
Graham Rahal needs to lead 21 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.
Predictions
Alexander Rossi gets another victory and this one comes from the front row. Honda has at least four of the top six starters but the other two are Penske drivers and one is Will Power. Patricio O'Ward qualifies ahead of his Carlin teammate by at least four positions and he at least the third best rookie in the final results. There will be an incident in turn one on lap one but no more than three cars are involved. Ryan Hunter-Reay gets back in the top ten, as does Graham Rahal. Sleeper: Colton Herta.
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