First Impressions: Laguna Seca 2025

1. Yep. Álex Palou won again, and anyone who suggested his championship grip was slipping after Patricio O'Ward won last week at Toronto while Palou finished 12th is a fool. 

Come on, folks! 

Really? 

Really? 

One race and you thought O'Ward was starting to claw back power? O'Ward entered this weekend needing to outscore Palou by 24.75 points per race over the final four races. That is an extraordinary task. That is also assuming Palou wouldn't finish ahead of O'Ward in any of the final four races. Palou did finish ahead of O'Ward today, and it was another victory, and after losing 30 points last week, Palou gained 22 points back this afternoon. O'Ward went from needing to score 24.75 points over four races to overtake Palou to needing to outscore the Catalan driver by 40.333 points in each of the next three races. 

It's over. In two weeks, we will have a coronation ceremony. Palou's magic number is 42 points. He just needs to score 42 points combined over the next three races and the championship is his regardless of what O'Ward does. 

Even when there was a shakeup due to the cautions today, and a few drivers who stopped early to get off the primary tire were at the front of field, Palou had this race under control. He ran the fastest lap of the race. It was 0.6166 seconds faster than the next best fastest lap! Only eight drivers had their fastest lap within a second of Palou's. 

It is staggering what it takes to beat Palou. He has found a comfortable level on all the circuits that no one can match. He doesn't have a bad track. He isn't struggling with track surfaces and tire compounds. The man has damn near perfected every element of the IndyCar series. The rest of the competition is in big trouble. We have already known that. 

2. Christian Lundgaard had a damn good day. Running two new sets of alternate tires in the middle of the race launched him into a podium position, and Lundgaard took more with a bold move up the inside of Colton Herta into the final corner. Lundgaard has gone through a bit of a rough patch since the middle of May after having three consecutive podium finishes early in the season. We haven't seen this Lundgaard in a while. It has been a fantastic year for him even with the dip over June and most of July. This could be the start to a strong finish. 

3. Colton Herta rounded out the podium on a day where he was good, but he wasn't close to Palou. This was a race for second. Herta had a good start to get up to second place, but he was stuck the moment he got mixed into traffic when the first pit cycle had a caution. He was behind those on the alternate strategy. Herta had the car to make up ground, but Palou cut his way to the front quicker. Once Herta was clear, Palou was out of sight. Third is a good day, but boy does it feel deflating when the competition was never within touching distance. 

4. Patricio O'Ward salvaged this day with a fourth-place finish. O'Ward did not have a good start to the race, and running on two sets of used alternate tires before putting on the primary tire didn't help matters, but halfway through it looked like this was going to be a bad day. It turned into a top five finish. With how far O'Ward is behind Palou, anything less than gaining points cannot be considered a good day. It is hard to find moral victories in this one. 

5. Starting 19th meant Scott Dixon had to roll the dice. Starting on the primary tire was step one. Step two was stopping on lap 12. The way the cautions fell allowed Dixon to leap to the front of the field, and he ran at a good pace to keep himself up there, especially after he had to run a 27-lap stint, then a 28-lap stint and then another 28-lap stint to make it to the finish. It is the typical Scott Dixon day. He finds a way forward. 

6. Callum Ilott probably had the second-best race of all the drivers in the field, as Ilott ran the same strategy as Dixon and finished sixth from 24th on the grid. It is more impressive because we have seen Ilott's shortcomings this season, especially with Prema. It hurt him a little bit in this one as before his final pit stop, Ilott was ahead of O'Ward. After pit stops, Ilott was miles behind because of a slow stop. It was lost spots but this was still a sixth-place day and Ilott hung in the top ten running competitively. The team has work to do, but it has been much more competitive in the second half of the season.

7. Will Power was seventh and never much of a factor. Power started fifth and he lost a few spots, mostly due to strategy. Dixon and Ilott were ahead of him and that was because of another strategy. Either way, Power did nothing notable. He did nothing wrong, which is notable for Team Penske this season. That is progress.

8. It was another quiet top ten finish for Marcus Armstrong. Armstrong had a good car, he didn't make a mistake and it ended in an eighth-place finish. For a driver that moved from Chip Ganassi Racing to Meyer Shank Racing, he hasn't taken a step back. Armstrong has actually made a step forward. It is hard to imagine MSR moving away from Armstrong as the team is having its best season in IndyCar in large part because of his results.

9. Christian Rasmussen had a good day to finish ninth, and for a period it looked like it was going to be better than ninth. Rasmussen's third stint was on the primary tire and that did not do him wonders. All of his success has been on ovals this season. He needed a good day on a road course, and he got it. Rasmussen showed good pace in the entire race.

10. Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top ten, and he took tenth late from his teammate Josef Newgarden, who finished 11th. This is a bit of a disappointing result for Newgarden because he started fourth, but he got shuffled back on each stint. He didn't have a new set of tires until the final stint, and even then he lost ground. McLaughlin had better tires at the end, and got the position. 

Tenth was the best McLaughlin was going to be today. We never saw him look flashy. This was a better day for Team Penske, but it still wasn't a good day. None of them were close to being a contender today, and two of them started in the top five. 

11. Graham Rahal ended up 12th, which is a bit of a bummer considering he started eighth, but for a portion of this race it appeared Rahal was in for a bad day. I thought he was going to struggle to finish in the top twenty. His race turned around during the mid-way point and he ended up finishing 12th. Not great, but could be worse. 

12. Let's get through the field. David Malukas was 13th. He did not look good on the primary tire at the start. He made an extra pit stop mid-race. That didn't help him. It is hard to imagine Team Penske is this interested in Malukas when it feels too regular to see him start in the top ten and end up outside the top ten for most of the race. Malukas started sixth today, and at no point was he moving forward. 

Conor Daly went off on the opening lap after running into Robert Shwartzman. Daly rebounded to finish 14th. Daly ran himself and Shwartzman off the road. They were lucky that wasn't a bigger accident. It is a good drive for Daly, but he set himself up to be fighting from behind when he was already in a poor starting position.

Alexander Rossi ended up making an extra pit stop, which sucked because he stopped on lap 27 under the caution for the Rinus VeeKay and Kyle Kirkwood accident after he made his first stop on lap 20. On lap 20, Rossi removed the primary tire. He was good, but stopping at lap 27 didn't put him in a better spot to making it to the finish on fuel. It is curious why he had to make that stop. Rossi could have had a top ten finish today if the team didn't get off-strategy that much.

13. So we get to Kyle Kirkwood, who plain got it wrong and ran into Rinus VeeKay. This led to a penalty for Kirkwood. It has been a rough summer for Kirkwood. He hasn't had a top five finish since he won at Gateway, which came after he won Detroit the race before that. It didn't help that the team got everything wrong in qualifying and set Kirkwood to only have one flying lap. Kirkwood bobbled on the final corner of that lap and it kept him from advancing from the first round of qualifying. It hasn't been a disastrous period, but it didn't look like it would be this rough a month ago. 

14. Louis Foster ended up 17th. Foster's qualifying form is fabulous. The team's race form must improve. The driver isn't the sole reason why this team cannot take top ten starts and turn them into top ten finishes. You would think after all these top ten starting positions, Foster will eventually have a day where everything goes right and he just finishes ninth. He doesn't make a mistake. The team executes the most basic strategy flawlessly, and Foster spends the entire race in ninth and best to feel good when it is over. It is frustrating because Foster has been pretty encouraging every weekend in qualifying. We just haven't seen a race to cap off the weekend.

15. Nolan Siegel was the only other driver to lead today as he led 11 laps because he stopped on lap 12 under the Jacob Abel caution. The problem is Siegel didn't take his primary tire until lap 38, and it was a 12-lap stint. It was a bad strategy. It knocked Siegel down to 18th. 

16. If you have a clue how Sting Ray Robb and Devlin DeFrancesco finished 19th and 20th respectively, you are the only ones. 

Robert Shwartzman ended up a lap down in 21st. Other than going off course and being a back-marker in front of Palou late, I don't know if Shwartzman did much.

Santino Ferrucci spun off course and was beached at the top of the corkscrew. Ferrucci was probably going to finish around 15th today. He didn't have a great race. He was hardly noticed until his spin. 

17. Race control held the whistle twice in this races, and both were problematic. 

First, Kirkwood got into VeeKay and VeeKay was stopped off course. IndyCar held the caution for nearly two laps until we were through the pit cycle on lap 26.

Second, Marcus Ericsson spun going uphill to the corkscrew. Ericsson remained stationary for what felt like nearly a lap as cars were approaching at full speed, and the uphill section is blind. 

We have seen IndyCar wait to throw the caution during a pit cycle. The VeeKay incident was probably one of the longest periods they have held out for in a long time. The Ericsson one was unacceptable. IndyCar will wait if a car spins but doesn't hit anything because drivers can restart the cars with the hybrid system. They don't want to bring out the caution for a single-car incident. In this case, it took Ericsson a while and it didn't help that Ericsson could not find an opening to safely spin around and continue. 

There is an easy solution: Virtual Safety Car.

Ericsson's incident didn't need a full course caution and the pace car returning to the circuit, but it required the field slowing down so he could spin around without worrying about being t-boned by a car going 165 mph. 

It is embarrassing IndyCar has not adopted some sort of VSC system in 2025. It has been around for a decade in Formula One. For the Ericsson incident, all IndyCar needs is the cars not driving at full speed for 20-30 seconds. I understand not wanting to have a full course caution, but IndyCar should have something to slow the race without it fully resetting and bunching the field. There is a solution, and it is frustrating that for a decade now IndyCar has not even attempted to adopt it.

As for the VeeKay incident, I get not wanting a caution to completely mix up the race and the top five drivers dropping to 16th because they waited to make their pit stop. A VSC would allow pit stops to occur without having cars fly pass VeeKay's stranded race car at full speed. If you do have VSC, it can still mix up the running order because you will have drivers who catch it and do not lose as much time on an out lap. We have seen plenty of VSC periods shoot drivers up four or five spots. It isn't necessarily the driver who was in 16th jumping up to first because no one else has made a pit stop yet, but it can be a six or seven-spot jump.

It is 2025. The Virtual Safety Car conversation better be happening after this weekend. There are no more excuses.

18. Let's round out the rest of the field, and it can be done in two incidents.

At the start, Kyffin Simpson plowed into the back of Felix Rosenqvist. Simpson's race was over after six corners. Rosenqvist continued, but he lost a lap and had no chance to contend in this race. It is a shame because Rosenqvist should have been in the Fast Six if it wasn't for causing a local yellow when he had a qualifying lap that was already safe to making the last round. Rosenqvist was poised to be going forward in this race, and that opportunity never arose.

Jacob Abel ran off in the hairpin and Abel's race was over after ten laps. I don't know if it is the car. Rinus VeeKay has been making Dale Coyne Racing look good, but this is the same team that couldn't get a car to finish better than 13th last year. There are still deficiencies with this team, but Abel's struggles suggest it is more than the car. 

19. It was a good race, and this feels like it was the best Laguna Seca crowd since it returned to the schedule in 2019. It wasn't spectacular, but it was better. I think Laguna Seca should move to March if IndyCar needs to fill the gap early in the season. Prior to this weekend, the crowds at Laguna Seca have been so dismal that I don't think it mattered if the race was held in September, June, July or March, it would be what it was. If you aren't packing the place in June, then why not run it in March? The date wasn't making a difference.

I still feel Laguna Seca should move to March because it looks like IndyCar's early season gap will be a problem in 2026, and IndyCar doesn't need to race four consecutive weekends in July with it culminating in a trip to California. I know the issues with Laguna Seca in March. It is the rainy season, 90% of the parking is dirt, it will be muddy and a mess and a negative experience for most in attendance. 

I say it is worth it. I am sure we can figure out a way to park as many people as possible on paved surfaces. There is a chance the weather isn't terrible and it isn't a mud bowl and 2,000 people aren't requiring a tow truck to get home. You weigh the risks. For IndyCar, it loses too much at the start of the season because mostly absent over the first two months to think a month of consecutive races makes up for it. It doesn't.

IndyCar needs to be present early in the season, and run races on a regular basis. It cannot take three weeks off or four weeks off between the first two races. That is fucking stupid. Fill the gap with Laguna Seca. Spread the summer races out so teams aren't working four consecutive weekends and going all across North America. Let's not act like IndyCar making this adjustments will hurt the series. The adjustments to the current schedule are how we got to our current situation.

20. There was not a single person between Laguna Seca management and IndyCar who remembered the marine layer in Monterey doesn't burn off until about 10:00 a.m. each morning? I have only been to Laguna Seca once in my life, and it is probably the thing that stuck out the most. Twice in three days on-track activity was held because the medical helicopter could not get clearance. That was avoidable. 

We should note that part of this schedule is down to television, and it isn't about a practice being held at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning. It is a practice being held at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. Eastern time dictates the schedule. IndyCar could have waited, but it wouldn't get the broadcast window it desired. The series wanted the FS1 window. It got it, but no practice took place. How beneficial was that schedule after all? The same thing occurred with the second Indy Lights race, which was postponed from Sunday morning to 6:30 p.m. ET.  

This is a learning situation that shouldn't be a learning situation because there are enough adults making these decisions that should know better.

21. We get a week off, and then we are onto Portland for what will be Álex Palou's crowning weekend. 

Morning Warm-Up: Laguna Seca 2025

Álex Palou won his fifth pole position of the season with a lap of 68.3413 seconds around Laguna Seca in the final round of qualifying ahead of today's Grand Prix of Monterey. It is the 11th pole position of Palou's career. He has won from pole position seven times, including last year at Laguna Seca. He has never finished worse than fourth when starting one pole position. Palou could become the seventh driver to win consecutive Laguna Seca races. Each of the previous six consecutive winners did it for different teams, and none of those teams were Chip Ganassi Racing. A victory would be Palou's third at Laguna Seca. Only one driver has won more than twice at Laguna Seca. That is Bobby Rahal, who won four consecutive times at the track.

Patricio O'Ward was 0.2867 seconds slower than Palou in the final round of qualifying, but O'Ward makes its a clean sweep of the front row for the top two drivers in the championship. This is the first time O'Ward has started second in a race since Mid-Ohio last year, a race where Palou started on pole position. Palou led 53 laps that day, but O'Ward took the lead through the final pit cycle and led the final 24 laps on his way to victory. With his victory at Toronto last week, O'Ward has four top five finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career.

Colton Herta will start third after falling 0.5411 seconds off Palou's best lap in the final round of qualifying. This is Herta's seventh time starting on one of the first two rows this season. His best finish in 2025 was third at Detroit, and he has finished fourth on three other occasions. Herta has finished on the podium in three of five Laguna Seca starts. In the other two, he finished outside the top ten. Herta has never finished better than or equal to his starting position when starting third in a race.

Josef Newgarden qualified fourth, Newgarden's best starting position on a road or street course since he started third at Detroit in June 2024. This is his third time starting in the top five in the last four races. The other two races were at Iowa. After finishing in the top ten in his first three Laguna Seca starts, Newgarden has finished 21st and 19th in his last two trips to Monterey. His only top five finish on a road or street course this season was third at St. Petersburg.

Will Power is a spot behind his Team Penske teammate in fifth. Power opened the season with four top five finishes and five top ten finishes in the first seven races. In the last six races, he was third in one race, but he has finished outside the top ten in the other five, and Power's average finish during that span is 17.5. The Australian has four top ten finishes in five Laguna Seca starts. That includes two podium finishes and three top five results

David Malukas will start sixth. This is the seventh time in the last nine races Malukas has qualified in the top ten. With finishes of fourth and ninth in the last two races, Malukas is aiming for his first three-race top ten finish streak of his career. His best Laguna Seca finish was 13th in 2022. Malukas has finished on the lead lap in 12 of 13 races this season. His lone retirement was due to a mechanical failure in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Christian Lundgaard has car #7 starting seventh after falling 0.0202 seconds short of making the final round of qualifying. Lundgaard had started 19th or worse in the last three races. Lundgaard had finished in the top ten in his first two Laguna Seca starts before he finished 15th last year. The Dane's average finish over the first seven races this season was 6.714. His average finish over the last six races is 13.5.

Graham Rahal starts eighth, Rahal's third consecutive race starting inside the top ten. It is the first time Rahal has started in the top ten for three consecutive races since a five-race streak starting in the 2019 season finale and stretching through the first four races of 2020. In five Laguna Seca starts, Rahal has an average finish of 17th, and he has finished 18th or worse in the last three visits. In the last two years, Rahal has been caught in an opening lap accident. 

Louis Foster is a spot behind his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate in ninth. Foster is one of five drivers entered in this race with Indy Lights victories at Laguna Seca. Three drivers have won at Laguna Seca in Indy Lights and IndyCar. They would be Bryan Herta, Cristiano da Matta and Scott Dixon. Jimmy Vasser and Patrick Carpentier are the only driver to win in Atlantics and IndyCar at Laguna Seca.

Marcus Armstrong rounds out the top ten, his best starting position in three trips to Laguna Seca. Last week, Armstrong was 14th at Toronto after starting third. That is his best finish from a top five starting position. In his previous three starts inside the top five, he failed to finish better than 24th. Though he has started in the top ten in seven races this season, only four of those races ended in top ten finishes. Armstrong had finished on the lead lap in seven consecutive races, the longest streak of his IndyCar career. 

Christian Rasmussen will start 11th, his second-best starting position of the season and only the second time he has started inside the top fifteen in 2025. The Dane started tenth at Detroit. This is only the sixth time Rasmussen has started inside the top fifteen in his IndyCar career. While Rasmussen has finished in the top ten in his last four oval starts, he has failed to finish in the top ten in 14 consecutive road/street course races.

Felix Rosenqvist caused a local yellow late in the second round, and it cost Rosenqvist his fastest qualifying lap, which was second fastest in the round. Instead, Rosenqvist was relegated to 12th on the starting grid. In five Laguna Seca races, Rosenqvist has two top five finishes, two finishes of 19th, and an 11th. In 2019, he started 14th and finished fifth after causing a local yellow prevented Rosenqvist from advancing from the first round of qualifying. 

Scott McLaughlin was 0.1101 seconds from making it out of the first qualifying group, and McLaughlin will start 13th at Laguna Seca. This is his fifth consecutive race starting outside the top ten. McLaughlin has finished outside the top twenty in three of the last four races. Laguna Seca is the 14th race of the season. He has finished in the top ten of the 14th race of the season in the last four season.

Kyffin Simpson fell 0.0405 seconds shy of advancing from the second qualifying group, placing the Caymanian in 14th starting spot. Simpson is coming off his first career podium finish as he was third in Toronto. It was Simpson's 30th career start. Prior to Simpson, the last driver to have a first career podium finish in the 30th start of a career was Josef Newgarden. 

Marcus Ericsson is starting 15th. Ericsson had started 18th in his last two visits to Laguna Seca. The Swede scored his first top five finish in 13 races after he was fifth in Toronto last week. Ericsson has not had consecutive top five finishes since 2022 when he was fourth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and then won the Indianapolis 500. His best finish at Laguna Seca is sixth.

Nolan Siegel will be on the outside of row eight as Siegel was 0.0784 seconds slower than the time needed to make it out of the second qualifying group. He had qualified in the top fifteen in the five races prior to this weekend. Siegel made his Arrow McLaren debut last year at Laguna Seca. He went from 23rd to 12th in that race. 

Rinus VeeKay will be 17th on the grid. VeeKay was second last week at Toronto, Dale Coyne Racing's best finish since the 2022 Gateway race. The last time Dale Coyne Racing has had consecutive podium finishes was the first two races in 2017 with Sébastien Bourdais winning at St. Petersburg and finishing second at Long Beach.

A bobble in the final corner of Kyle Kirkwood's final qualifying lap cost Kirkwood over two-tenths of a second, and instead of advancing to the second round, Kirkwood will start 18th as he was 0.1124 seconds off advancing. After three consecutive top five finishes in the month of June, Kirkwood does not have a top five finish in month of July. Last season, Kirkwood finished in the top five in all three June races, and he had only two top five finishes in the nine following races.

Scott Dixon has his worst starting position at Laguna Seca with Dixon taking 19th spot. This is the third time in four Laguna Seca races he is starting outside the top ten. He won from 11th in 2023.  This is the ninth time in 14 races this season Dixon is starting outside the top ten. Prior to last year's opening lap accident at Portland, Dixon had finished on the podium in the 14th race of the season in six consecutive seasons. 

Santino Ferrucci is starting 20th, the 13th time in 14 races he has qualified outside the top ten. Ferrucci's ninth-place finish last year at Laguna Seca was A.J. Foyt Racing's best result at the circuit since it returned to the calendar in 2019. The team's best finish at the track is eighth, which came in 1992 with Mike Groff. Ferrucci started 17th in last year's race. Seven of his last eight top ten finishes have come from starting spots outside the top ten. 

Jacob Abel has his second-best starting position of the season in 21st. Abel's best qualifying effort was 20th at Detroit last month. The only other time he has started better than 25th was at Thermal Club where he rolled off from the 23rd position. Abel's best finish on a permanent road course this season was 22nd at Mid-Ohio earlier this month. 

Alexander Rossi has his worst starting position at Laguna Seca as the Californian will start 22nd, the ninth consecutive time Rossi is starting outside the top ten this season. Rossi has finished outside the top fifteen in the last three races. This is the first time Rossi has finished outside the top fifteen in three consecutive races in his career.

Conor Daly finds himself in 23rd grid position. This is Daly's second worst starting position of the season. He started 25th at Detroit last month. This is the seventh time he has started outside the top twenty this season, but it is the first time he has started outside the top twenty in consecutive races in 2025. In three Laguna Seca starts, Daly has an average finish of 20.667 with his best result being 16th.

Callum Ilott is to Daly's outside on row 12. Ilott scored his first top ten finish of the season last week with an eighth in Toronto. Only once has Ilott had consecutive top ten finishes. That was in the first two races of the 2023 season at St. Petersburg and Texas. Ilott was fifth in his last Laguna Seca appearance two years ago.

Robert Shwartzman had started in the top twenty in the last three races, but that streak ends with Shwartzman qualifying 25th for this race. Shwartzman is looking for his first top fifteen finish on a road or street circuit. His best starting spot on a road course was 17th at Road America. Shwartzman has finished better than his starting spot in six of nine road/street course races this season.

Sting Ray Robb is starting 26th. This is the fourth consecutive race Robb is starting outside the top twenty, and his ninth time starting outside the top twenty this season. Robb has finished in the top twenty in both his Laguna Seca starts. He was 12th in 2023 before finishing 20th last year. His only victory in Indy Lights came at Laguna Seca in 2022.

Devlin DeFrancesco had a spin in qualifying and the Canadian will take 27th on the grid, matching his worst starting position of the season. DeFrancesco started 27th at Barber Motorsports Park in April. DeFrancesco had finishes of 15th and 22nd in his first two Laguna Seca starts. He has retired from the last two races.

Fox's coverage of the JavaHouse Grand Prix of Monterey will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:22 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 95 laps.

Track Walk: Laguna Seca 2025

The 14th round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season will be run at Laguna Seca as IndyCar wil be spending a few weekends on the west coast this summer. Though Chevrolet scored its second victory of the season in the most recent round at Toronto, it is likely not thrilled heading to Monterey. Honda is five-for-five at the circuit since it returned to the schedule in 2019. During that time, Chevrolet drivers have combined to led 71 of 470 laps. The most laps a Chevrolet driver has led in a single Laguna Seca race is 17. Chip Ganassi Racing has won the last three Laguna Seca races. Only one team has won four consecutive Laguna Seca races. That was Truesports when Bobby Rahal won four consecutive years from 1984 through 1987.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday July 27 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: 5:00 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 11:30 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 12:02 p.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 3:22 p.m. ET (90 laps)

FS2 will have coverage of Friday practice session while FS1 will have coverage of Saturday's sessions. FS2 will show the Sunday morning warm-up. Fox will have race coverage.

Championship Picture

We haven't considered the championship picture much in IndyCar because it has been pretty clear since the middle of May. This is Álex Palou's championship. Everyone else is competing for second. 

With four races remaining in the 2025 season, it is only right to lay out the picture even if the result seems inevitable. 

IndyCar will enter Laguna Seca with four drivers mathematically alive for the title. Behind Palou, who has scored 536 points, an average of 41.2307 points per start, is Patricio O'Ward on 437 points. O'Ward trimmed the deficit to 99 points after his victory in Toronto while Palou finished 12th, only the second time Palou has not finished inside the top ten this season. 

Kyle Kirkwood sits on 363 points while Scott Dixon is point behind Kirkwood on 362 points, deficits of 173 points and 174 points respectively to the championship leader.

The top four in the championship are the only four race winners this season. We are at least guaranteed the champion will have a race victory this season. 

In the case of Palou, it is looking at a magic number, and that number is currently 117. That is the number of points Palou must score over the final four races to clinch the championship. 

If O'Ward were to sweep the final four events and score the maximum of 54 points in each race, O'Ward would end on 653 points. Despite what would be a tremendous end to the season, such a streak would leave O'Ward with only six victories, and Palou's seven victories means the Catalan driver has the tiebreaker locked up. 

The good news for Palou is 117 points is not entirely difficult for him to achieve over the final month-plus of the season. That is an average of 29.25 points per race. That is just worse than a fifth-place finish in each of the final four events. In the previous four races alone Palou scored 150 points, and that is including his 12th-place finish in Toronto. 

There is no combination of four races this season in which Palou has not scored at least 117 points. His worst four-race stretch is the Indianapolis 500, Detroit where he was 25th after being knocked into the barrier from contact with David Malukas, Gateway where he was eighth, and Road America. In those four races, Palou still scored 138 points thanks to victories in the bookend races. 

Palou could be second to O'Ward in each of the final four races with no bonus points to help in the effort, and Palou would still claim the championship by 43 points with the title still sealed before we get to the Nashville finale.

As for Kirkwood and Dixon, their championship hopes are on their last legs limbing into Laguna Seca. Both drivers will need to outscore Palou in Northern California to remain alive onto Portland. Any driver 162 points or greater behind Palou after this weekend will be mathematically eliminated from the championship. 

Laguna Seca is likely the last track everyone wanted to see on the schedule. In four starts, Palou has won twice, and he has finished second and third in the other two races. His average points scored in a Laguna Seca race is 46.25.

The Unsung Drivers of the Season

While Palou has been getting all the attention at the top, and O'Ward, Kirkwood and Dixon have all had respectable seasons in their own ways, there are a few drivers who have not been getting the love and attention they deserve. Two drivers are hard to ignore after Toronto. 

In Canada, Rinus VeeKay pulled off a second-place finish after running a 44-lap second stint of the race. The Dutchman led 16 laps before O'Ward leaped ahead of him in the final pit cycle. Though a position short of victory, Toronto was VeeKay's first podum finish in 59 starts. It was Dale Coyne Racing's first podium finish in 31 races, but it was Coyne's first street course podium finish since Sébastien Bourdais won the 2018 season opener at St. Petersburg.

This season has been more than one result for VeeKay and Coyne. Toronto was VeeKay's seventh top ten finish of the season. Last year, Dale Coyne Racing's best finish was 13th. VeeKay had seven top ten finishes all of last season, and this year has matched his most in a single season. Through 13 races, he has more top ten finishes than all three Penske drivers, Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi and Marcus Ericsson. VeeKay's average finish of 12.923 ranks 11th in IndyCar and is also better than all three Penske drivers. 

All these results have VeeKay 11th in the championship on 252 points, seven points outside the championship top ten. VeeKay has never finished better than 12th in the championship in five seasons, and Dale Coyne Racing hasn't had a driver finish in the championship top ten since Bourdais in 2018.

VeeKay wasn't the only surprise on the podium in Toronto. Kyffin Simpson was third, his first career podium finish in his 30th career start. It was also Simpson's second top five finish of the season as he was fifth at Detroit last month. In four street races in 2025, Simpson had an average finish of ninth, but he was in the top ten in three of the four races with 18th at St. Petersburg skewing the average. If you go based on median position, Simpson's was 7.5. On average finish, Simpson was tied for the sixth-best on street courses this season. Last year, he ranked 22nd out of drivers who started at least three street races.

Ranked 14th in the championship on 226 points, Simpson has already surpassed his 2024 points total by 44 points with four races remaining in the season. He actually beat his 2024 points total of 182 when he finished 13th at Iowa the week before Toronto. 

Meyer Shank Racing is having a banner season across the board. Both its drivers are ranked in the championship top ten entering the final four races. Felix Rosenqvist is in sixth with Marcus Armstrong in seventh. Both MSR drivers are ahead of all three Team Penske drivers and they are ahead of 2/3rds of the Andretti Global organization as well. 

Rosenqvist has four top five results and eight top ten finishes. Prior to finishing 14th at Toronto, Armstrong entered on a string of six consecutive top ten results, which included a third at Toronto. This season, Armstrong has eight top ten finishes, one fewer than he had all of last season with Chip Ganassi Racing. 

The results aren't only coming in the race for MSR. Rosenqvist has the second-best average starting position this season at 8.923, behind only Palou's 3.538. Armstrong is sixth at 10.615.

The Rookies

We are nearly through the rookie season for a trio of drivers in 2025, and let's just say it has been a learning experience for all three. 

No rookie ranks in the top twenty of the championship, and we are on the verge of a historic first. There has not been a season where the rookie of the year did not finish in the top twenty of the championship since the 1986 CART season.

In that 1986 season, Chip Robinson was the top rookie in 26th, but Robinson competed in only two races and he scored six points for his seventh-place finish in the season finale in Miami. Only five rookies made a start that season, and none of them started more than nine races. Dominic Dobson made the most starts and he was 30th in the championship on three points, the same points total as rookie Mike Nish, who was tenth at Portland, but Nish made only two other starts that season. The other rookies in that 1986 season were Rick Miaskiewicz, who made five starts, and Rocky Moran, who started eight races.

In 2025, the top two rookies are tied on points with four races remaining. 

Robert Shwartzman and Louis Foster have each scored 159 points through the first 13 races. The tiebreaker goes to Shwartzman though. The Prema driver has two top ten finishes this season. He was ninth in the second Iowa race and tenth at Gateway. Foster is still looking for that first carer top ten finish, and he has finished 11th in two races while he was the top finishing rookie in the Indianapolis 500 in 12th. Shwartzman, however, took Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors after winning pole position though he ended up 26th in the results after an accident on pit lane. 

Foster has finished in the top fifteen in more races this season with seven such results. Shwartzman's only top fifteen results are his two top ten finishes. He best finish on a road or street course this season is 16th. Foster's 11th-place finishes were in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and at Mid-Ohio, where Foster started on pole position. 

Foster will have a slight advantage over the final four races. He has raced at all these circuits in Indy Lights, and not only has he raced at them, he has won at them. His first career Indy Lights victory came at Portland in 2023. Foster swept a doubleheader at Laguna Seca last year before capping off his season with victories at Milwaukee and Nashville. He was second at the Portland race last year for good measure.

Jacob Abel is bringing up the rear in the three-horse rookie race. Abel is 27th in the championship on 95 points. Though his best finish was 11th in the second Iowa race, Abel has finished outside the top twenty in ten of 12 starts this year, and he did fail to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. 

Shwartzman and Foster have each been the best finishing rookie in six races this season while Abel's 11th at Iowa was his only time as the best rookie through 13 races.

All three will have some work to do if they look to avoid making history for the first time in 39 years. Shwartzman and Foster are currently 36 points outside the top twenty. Marcus Ericsson and Graham Rahal are tied for 19th in the championship on 195 points. Ericsson holds the tiebreaker with his best finish being fifth to Rahal's best finish being sixth.

The End of the Marathon

July has been a busy month for IndyCar. The series did not take a weekend off and Laguna Seca concludes a four-week, five-race marathon that began in Ohio, went west to Iowa for a doubleheader, crossed the border into Toronto, and will now make a 2,734-mile trek to Laguna Seca. All five races all have occurred in a 22-day period.

When this stretch began, IndyCar had only seen two race winners in the 2025 season. During this marathon, the number of race winners has doubled. Honda started this run unbeaten. It has since lost twice. Álex Palou had only one career victory on an oval. Palou now has two. Scott Dixon had won a race in 20 consecutive seasons. Dixon has now won in 21 consecutive seasons. 

The marathon did not slow Palou. He has finished in the top five three times. Only Patricio O'Ward has finished in the top five of all four races. Dixon joins Palou and O'Ward as the only drivers with multiple podium finishes over this period. 

Other than Palou, everyone in the top six of the championship has a different position. O'Ward and Kyle Kirkwood have flipped with O'Ward now in second while Kirkwood is third. It has gone from Kirkwood up 18 points on O'Ward to O'Ward leading Kirkwood by 74 points. Kirkwood has not finished in the top five in the month of July. Dixon has moved from fifth to fourth while Christian Lundgaard is up to fifth from sixth. Felix Rosenqvist has dropped two spots in the championship to sixth. 

Marcus Armstrong's strong July has shot him up to seventh in the championship from 11th to seventh. Colton Herta has gained two spots to move up to eighth. Along with Palou, O'Ward and Dixon, Herta is the only driver with multiple top five finishes in July. Meanwhile, Will Power has fallen two spots to ninth while David Malukas is up two spots to tenth. Rinus VeeKay is up three positions to 11th while Santino Ferrucci is down three positions to 12th. Missing the Toronto race after his accident in the morning warm-up session cost Ferrucci two positions alone in the championship. He was tenth when he entered Canada.

Scott McLaughlin and Alexander Rossi will be looking forward for this stretch to end. McLaughlin was eighth in the championship at the start of July. He has now dropped to 13th in the championship as his average finish this month is 19.75. Though he was fourth in the first Iowa race, McLaughlin has finished 23th or worse in the other three races.

Rossi was 13th in the championship heading to Mid-Ohio. Heading to Laguna Seca, he is down to 18th in the championship as his average finish in July is 20.5 with his best result being 15th. 

It has been a rough year in general for Josef Newgarden, but he has actually made some gains in July. He was 17th in the championship but he is now 16th thanks to a pair of top ten finishes in Iowa. 

After Laguna Seca, there will only be 35 days remaining in the 2025 IndyCar season.

Indy Lights

There are actually more races remaining in the Indy Lights season than the IndyCar season. That is partially down to a doubleheader for the junior series held this weekend at Laguna Seca.

Dennis Hauger extended his championship by a good margin after Hauger was runner-up at Iowa while his nearest championship rival Lochie Hughes was 16th after a spin in the race. Hauger has 414 points, a 76-point advantage over his Andretti Global teammate Hughes.

Caio Collet is 18 points behind Hughes after the Brazilian was fourth in Iowa, Collet's seventh consecutive top five finish this season. Collet has finished in the top five of all but one race this year, and that was 19th at Barber Motorsports Park. 

Myles Rowe won at Iowa, his first career victory in the series, and he now has 287 points in fourth. Through nine races, Rowe has seven top five finishes and eight top ten results. Last year, Rowe opened the season with five consecutive top ten finishes, but he ended with only two in the final nine races and he finished outside the top fifteen in five of the final nine races. 

Salvador de Alba was third at Iowa, and de Alba is fifth in the championship on 258 points, 15 points clear of Josh Pierson. Callum Hedge extended his streak of sixth-place finishes to three consecutive races after Iowa. This has Hedge seventh in the championship on 217 points. 

There is a 41-point gulf from Hedge to Jordan Missig in eighth. Missig has finished in the top ten in the last two races after having not finished in the top ten since the St. Petersburg season opener. Niels Koolen's fifth-place finish at Iowa lifted him to ninth in the championship, tied with Jack William Miller on 169 points. Miller's best finish this season is seventh. 

With 270 points left on the table, Bryce Aron and James Roe are still mathematically alive for the championship with 160 points and 148 points respectively. Ricardo Escotto sits exactly 270 points behind Hauger in the championship, and Escotto could match Hauger on five victories, however, Hauger would own the tiebreaker as Hauger has a pair of runner-up finishes while Escotto's best result from the first nine races is ninth.

The first Indy Lights race will be 4:36 p.m. ET on Saturday July 26 with the second race Sunday July 27 at 1:06 p.m. ET. Both races are scheduled for 35 laps or 55 minutes.

Fast Facts

This will be the seventh IndyCar race to take place on July 27 and the first since 2003 when CART and the Indy Racing League each held an event. Paul Tracy won at Vancouver and Alex Barron won at Michigan. 

On that day in 2003, Louis Foster was born. 

Foster could become the 11th driver to win on his birthday in IndyCar history.

The ten birthday winners are Dario Resta (August 19, 1916), Joe Boyer (May 30, 1924), Lou Moore (September 12, 1931), Tony Bettenhausen (September 12, 1953), Al Unser (May 29, 1971), Nigel Mansell (August 8, 1993), Sam Hornish, Jr. (July 2, 2006), Scott Dixon (July 22, 2007), and Dan Wheldon (June 22, 2008).

At 22 years old, Foster would become the youngest birthday winner in IndyCar history. 

The youngest age for a birthday winner is 27, and it has happened three times. Moore, Hornish, Jr. and Dixon all won on their 27th birthdays.

Foster would become the first driver in IndyCar history to have a first career victory occur on his birthday.

Scott Dixon was the fifth-place finisher in that 2003 IRL race from Michigan. It was Dixon's 49th career start and he had four career victories. 

The average starting position for a Laguna Seca winner is 3.111 with a median of first. 

Seventeen of 27 Laguna Seca races have been won from pole position. 

The Laguna Seca pole-sitter has never gone three consecutive races without a victory. Prior to Álex Palou's victory from pole position last year, the previous two Laguna Seca races were won from 11th.

Twenty-three of 27 Laguna Seca races have been won from a top three starting position. 

The average number of lead changes in a Laguna Seca race is 3.4814 with a median of three. 

Four of the five Laguna Seca races since 2019 have had at least six lead changes. Prior to this stretch, only three of the first 22 Laguna Seca races had at least six lead changes.

The average number of cautions in a Laguna Seca race is 2.074 with a median of one. The average number of caution laps is 8.3703 with a median of eight.

The last two Laguna Seca races have had at least five caution periods. Prior to 2023, only once in the first 25 races at the track had more than four cautions. That was the 2001 race, which had eight cautions.

The 2023 Laguna Seca race had a record-tying eight cautions and a record-breaking 35 caution laps.

There have been six caution-free races at Laguna Seca, most recently in 1997.

Predictions

We are riding the Álex Palou bandwagon into Laguna Seca, and Honda will have a glorious day with Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist finishing on the podium. All three Team Penske cars will finish in the top ten, but none will finish in the top five. Louis Foster will get his first career top ten finish on his birthday, and Foster will leave Laguna Seca as the top rookie in the championship. There will be no withdrawals on Sunday morning. There will be fewer than three cautions. Someone will start outside the top twenty and finish inside the top ten. Sleeper: Callum Ilott.

First Impressions: Laguna Seca 2024

1. It was not quite like last year’s Laguna Seca race, but cautions played a critical role. It ultimately came down to when teams decided to make their pit stops, and for Álex Palou, he did not stop under a caution in the middle of a stint for a Luca Ghiotto accident. 

Staying out allowed Palou to run flat out while those that stopped around 60 laps to go had to conserve fuel. Palou had to do some work and manage late restarts that leveled the competition, but the decision to remain on track gave Palou control of the race. That is all he needs to get victory. 

Palou was pushing Kyle Kirkwood after Palou lost the lead on the initial start of the race. It felt destined for Palou to leap forward, but stopping early was more advantageous, and Palou actually lost spots, but all those cars that stopped before Palou in that first round of green flag pit stops came under the first caution for Ghiotto.

It was mid-stint and it never made much sense to go on the defensive. This was a gift for Palou and now he has a 23-point championship lead over Will Power in second. Palou is 32 points ahead of his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon. 

This wasn’t a case of Palou entered this weekend up ten or 15 points and took advantage. Palou was trailing in the championship, five points behind Power, entering this race. This was a big swing in the championship and one the field likely wish didn’t happen. Palou doesn’t need much to run away from the competition. He has been given a golden opportunity. 

2. The late cautions brought Colton Herta into the conversation for race victory, but he could not give Palou much of a serious threat. Herta spent basically the entire race in the top five. He stopped early, and this race was reminiscent to Long Beach. Scott Dixon won that race saying fuel but everyone behind him was driving flat out. The fuel-save strategy worked for Dixon but no one else.

This was the reverse. Palou won going all out, but the cars that had to save did have good days. Herta still finished second stretching fuel. If Herta had stayed out, it would have been better for his shot at victory. Also, the cautions did make this closer than it was. Without the late cautions, Herta might be second but eight or ten seconds behind Palou. I am surprised Andretti Global didn’t split the strategies considering Herta and Kyle Kirkwood were both at the front at that time. 

3. After the first round of pit stops, this was looking like it was Alexander Rossi’s race. Rossi stopped first among the leaders and went from about fourth to first. It looked like Rossi’s team had played the right strategy for once… and then it stopped under the first caution and sacrificed control of the race. Rossi should have finished on the podium today, but if he doesn’t pit under that Ghiotto caution, I think he wins  the race. 

4. Romain Grosjean didn’t stop under the Ghiotto caution and that lifted Grosjean to a fourth-place finish. This was already a good weekend for Grosjean, but the decision mostly lifted Grosjean into the top five when he was right outside of it. He didn’t put a wheel wrong while others did. It was a good result for him and the Juncos Hollinger Racing team. It is actually JHR’s best finish in IndyCar. 

5. I don’t think Kyle Kirkwood was going to win this race even after leading all those laps at the start. With how close Palou was, this felt like a race we have seen Scott Dixon win five or six times. Stay close during the first stint, over-cut the leader by one lap, take the lead and runaway. Of course, Kirkwood did get out ahead of Palou after the first round of pit stops, but ground was lost to Rossi. Then Kirkwood lost spots on the pit stops under the Ghiotto caution. It was still a strong drive from Kirkwood, a top five is suitable.   

6. A quiet day for Scott Dixon got him sixth. Unsurprisingly, Dixon took the fuel-save strategy. He was fourth among those drivers, but he was starting behind the three drivers ahead of him. He didn’t lose ground today. Dixon made fuel and went forward. 

7. Will Power didn’t quite have a great day, but still finished seventh. With the ways the cautions fell, it benefited Power, but he was never a factor in this race and the result is rather flattering.  This was not a great weekend for Team Penske across the board. 

8. It is hard to find any faults in an eighth-place finish but Patricio O’Ward was on the same strategy as Palou, restarted third but he had to stop eight laps before Palou and that cost O’Ward positions. O’Ward had stopped about six laps earlier than the leaders on the opening stint. He was always going  to stop before Palou and he was going to have to run a little less aggressive, but it is tough to celebrate this result.

9. Santino Ferrucci used strategy again to finish in the top ten. Credit to him and A.J. Foyt Racing because it is working but he isn’t finishing ninth if he stops under the Ghiotto caution. Even with the strategy plays, Ferrucci is still picking up ninth-place results and not podium finishes or top five finishes. It is great for A.J. Foyt Racing, but we have seen this season Ferrucci make it a habit of doing stupid stuff in practice. There are plenty of drivers who could pull off this result and not bring the drama.

10. Marcus Ericsson stuck into the top ten. He wasn’t going to finish in the top ten and then he did. We will cover why in a moment. As for Ericsson, the growing pains have been a little greater than expected at Andretti Global. Not the end of the world but I don’t think we expected this many scraps to get tenth. 

11. This is coming out late because Pacific Time Zone. We will be quick here. This was another race where Felix Rosenqvist started at the front, had potential, but ended up finishing significantly behind from where he started. Don’t get me wrong, 11th is good for Meyer Shank Racing considering where it was last year, but this group cannot be losing four to eight spots every race from where it started. It doesn’t sting as much when you start in the top ten but it is still wasteful. 

Credit to David Malukas for completing all the laps and finishing 16th. Malukas should be improving over each weekend. 

12. I don’t know how Nolan Siegel ended up 12th considering he also had a spin mid-race. Chalk it up to the cautions I guess. 

13. Christian Rasmussen did make up a fair amount of spots today. It only got him 13th but that is all Ed Carpenter Racing can ask for at the moment. Rinus VeeKay had a spin on his own and then had to retire due to mechanical problems, taking 26th. One step forward, two steps back for ECR today. 

14. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had the race from hell. Pietro Fittipaldi did nothing brilliant to finish 14th. Christian Lundgaard was knocked off the road multiple times, it tarnished what was a promising starting position, and Lundgaard had his own penalty after he pushed Marcus Armstrong off track, leaving the Dane to finish 15th. Graham Rahal never had it this weekend and was collected when Kyffin Simpson spun in front of him. The next race is the home race at Mid-Ohio. It can only go up from here… right?

15. Chip Ganassi Racing’s youths did not have great days. Linus Lundqvist wasn’t competitive to begin with and hitting a pit crew member doesn’t help. Marcus Armstrong was spun and then Kyffin Simpson spun himself. These three are lucky Palou won. 

16. Agustín Canapino returned to anonymity in 18th. That is all. Sting Ray Robb was 20th though he did have a spin. 

17. Team Penske had a terrible weekend. Josef Newgarden nearly caught a break when the caution came out for Armstrong. Newgarden was on pit lane when it happened and came out in second. However, he lost about three spots when he ran slightly wide not long after the following restart. On the penultimate lap, Newgarden spun out from fifth. Newgarden shouldn’t have been fifth, but he shouldn’t have been 19th either. For a guy who spent a lot of time speaking about focus, this was an incident that showed a lack of focus, and a championship position of eighth with five results worse than 15th in the first eight races causes some questions to be raised

Scott McLaughlin had a top ten day going and then an ambitious move on Will Power caused contact and actually damaged McLaughlin’s car to the point it took him out of the race. This has been a messy season for Team Penske. It felt like it was back on track a month ago after Indianapolis. Apparently, that isn’t the case.

18. Along with Luca Ghiotto’s accident, Jack Harvey lost an engine. Dale Coyne Racing was 25th and 27th today. It is a bad team and the drivers are doing all they can to get something respectable. 

19. Summer is here and in a fortnight Mid-Ohio will take a place in IndyCar history as it will be the debut round for the hybrid system.

Morning Warm-Up: Laguna Seca 2024

Álex Palou scored his second pole position of 2024 with a lap of 67.1465 seconds around Laguna Seca on Saturday afternoon ahead of today’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey. It is the fifth pole position of Palou’s career. Palou has won from pole position on three of his first four occasions leading the grid to the green flag, including in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis back in May. Every time he has started on pole position at a road or street course, Palou has won the race. The exception was the 2023 Indianapolis 500, where the Catalan driver finished fourth. Palou has finished on the podium in all three of his Laguna Seca starts. He won the 2022 race from 11th position while leading 63 of 95 laps. It was a a rather tight qualifying session with less than a quarter of a second covering the top five times.

Kyle Kirkwood missed out on pole position by 0.0739 seconds. This is Kirkwood’s best starting position of the season, and his best since he won pole position at Long Beach in 2023, 21 races ago. Kirkwood is attempting to become the first Andretti Global driver with three consecutive top five finishes since Colton Herta ended the 2021 season with a pair of victories and opened the 2022 season with a fourth at St. Petersburg.

Felix Rosenqvist was 0.1452 seconds off Palou in third. This is the fourth time this season Rosenqvist has started in the top five. He has finished better than his starting position in only three races this season. He went from fifth to fourth at Barber Motorsports Park in April, and he started 22nd in the last two races before finishing eight and 14th at Detroit and Road America respectively. Rosenqvist has two top five finishes at Laguna Seca as well has two finishes of 19th. 

Colton Herta fell 0.1507 seconds short of pole position and will start fourth. Herta could become the second driver with at least three Laguna Seca victories. Bobby Rahal has four victories at the circuit, though all of those were on the original 1.9-mile configuration. Herta has finished in the top five of the eighth race of the season for four consecutive years, but none of those results have been podium finishes.

Alexander Rossi is the top Chevrolet starter in fifth. Rossi was 0.2129 seconds slower than Palou. This is only Rossi’s second top five starting position this season. In 15 starts in his native California, Rossi has two victories, three top five finishes and ten top ten finishes, but his average finish is 11.2. He has finished 19th or worse in the other five races.

Christian Lundgaard was a distant sixth in the final round of qualifying, 0.3647 seconds from Palou. Lundgaard has finished outside the top ten in his last three starts, his longest drought since the first five starts of his IndyCar career. This is his first time starting in the top ten since he started on the front row for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis four races ago. The Dane has finished fifth and sixth in his first two Laguna Seca visits.

Scott McLaughlin fell 0.0269 seconds short of advancing from the second round of qualifying, and the New Zealander will take seventh on the grid. McLaughlin has led the most laps in three of the last five races, but he has only won one of them. Entering this season, he had led the most laps in a race on five occasions. 

Romain Grosjean has his best starting position since the St. Petersburg season opener in eighth. Grosjean was 0.0561 seconds from advancing to the final round. Grosjean has had consecutive top ten finishes only four times in his IndyCar career. The most recent was last season when he was runner-up in consecutive races between Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park.

Patricio O'Ward takes ninth on the grid. In eight starts in the state of California, O'Ward has never finished on the podium and he has an average finish of 12.375 in the Golden State. After three consecutive results outside the top ten, O’Ward enters Laguna Seca on a streak of three consecutive top ten finishes. He has only led nine laps this season, all in the Indianapolis 500. He led 15 laps in this race last year before finishing ninth after starting ninth.  

Scott Dixon rounds out the top ten on the grid. This is a position better than where Dixon started on his way to victory last year at Laguna Seca. On seven occasions has Dixon won consecutive races at a circuit. He has never won from tenth starting position in his career. His 58 victories have come from 17 different starting positions in his career. 

Marcus Armstrong is a position behind his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and fellow New Zealander Dixon in 11th. A Chip Ganassi Racing driver has won the last two years at Laguna Seca from 11th starting position. Armstrong has made it out of the first round of qualifying at six races this season. He has finished better than his starting position in only two races this season. Armstrong has failed to finish three of seven races this year.

David Malukas starts 12th for his return to IndyCar. Malukas last competed in an IndyCar race 287 days ago in the 2023 season finale from Laguna Seca. He missed the opening six races due to a wrist injury. Malukas was contracted with Arrow McLaren but released from the team after missing the Barber Motorsports Park round at the end of April. Malukas has finished 13th and 20th in his first two Laguna Seca starts.

Speaking of returns, Agustín Canapino is back after sitting out of the Road America, and Canapino will start 13th, the best starting position of his IndyCar career. The Argentine was 0.0721 seconds from the second round of qualifying. Canapino was 14th in last year's Laguna Seca race. It is his only top fifteen finish on a permanent road course in IndyCar competition.

Josef Newgarden missed out on advancing from group two by 0.1159 seconds, and Newgarden will start 14th. This is the first time Newgarden is starting outside the top ten this season. Newgarden won the first race of summer in 2018 at Road America, however, in the first race of summer he has an average finish of 11.333 with six results outside the top ten.

Will Power makes it two Team Penske drivers starting outside the top ten for the first time this season as Power will roll from 15th. Power is the most recent IndyCar winner. He has not won consecutive races since he won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500 in 2018. A podium finish at Laguna Seca would be Power's fifth in eight races. It would be the third time Power has had five podium finishes in the first eight races along with 2011 and 2014.

A race after starting on his first career pole position, Linus Lundqvist will start 16th, which is still his second-best starting position of the season. This is the seventh time in eight races Lundqvist has started outside the top fifteen in 2024. He has finished outside the top ten in six of seven races this season, and in nine of ten career starts.

Santino Ferrucci takes 17th on the grid. Ferrucci has finished better than his starting position in five of seven races this season. Only once this season has he finished more than five spots better than his starting position. Ferrucci went from 17th to seven at Barber in April. 

Marcus Ericsson is a position behind Ferrucci in the championship and a position behind him on the grid. Ericsson has started outside the top fifteen in four of eight races. He has finished in the top ten of the eighth race of the season in all five seasons he has been in IndyCar. That includes two podium finishes and three top five finishes.

Graham Rahal will start 19th, the sixth time he has started outside the top ten this season and the fifth time he has started outside the top fifteen. With his top ten result at Road America, Rahal has 142 top ten finishes in 282 career starts, 50.354% of his finishes have been top ten results.

Rinus VeeKay has the #21 Chevrolet starting 20th. It is also the fifth time VeeKay has started outside the top fifteen this season. It has been 30 races since his most recent top five result. During that span, VeeKay has five top ten finishes. The Dutchman has finished 18th, 14th and 18th in three Laguna Seca starts.

Christian Rasmussen is starting a position worse than his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate in 21st. This is the third time Rasmussen will be starting 21st this season. Rasmussen was second and first in each of the Indy Lights doubleheaders held at Laguna Seca the last two years.

Kyffin Simpson qualified 22nd, the sixth time Simpson will be starting outside the top twenty this season. Simpson has finished outside the top twenty in three consecutive races after opening the season with four consecutive finishes inside the top twenty, three of which were top fifteen results.

Nolan Siegel makes his first start with Arrow McLaren from 23rd starting position. This is the second-worst starting spot for a McLaren driver this season. Théo Pourchaire started 24th at Barber. This is Siegel’s third team in his first three starts. He drove for Dale Coyne Racing at Long Beach and Juncos Hollinger Racing at Road America.

Pietro Fittipaldi will be on the outside of row 12. Fittipaldi has qualified outside the top twenty in five races this season. He has finished better than his starting position in only three of the first seven races. He has also been the worst Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher in five of the first seven races. The only time he was the best RLLR finisher was when he was 13th at St. Petersburg. 

For the 25th consecutive time, Sting Ray Robb will start outside the top twenty, and Robb will fittingly start 25th. Robb scored his best finish of his IndyCar career at Laguna Seca last year with a 12th from 24th on the grid.

Jack Harvey ended up 26th in qualifying. This is the third time Harvey will be outside the top 25 this season. He has never finished in the top fifteen when starting outside the top 25. This is the ninth time the Briton is starting worse than 25th in his career. Harvey's best finish in three Laguna Seca starts is 15th. 

Luca Ghiotto rounds out the grid, as the two Dale Coyne Racing drivers take the final two spots on the grid. Ghiotto could become the third Italian driver to win race at Laguna Seca. Alex Zanardi and Max Papis won at this circuit in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

USA's coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey begins at 6:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 95 laps.

Track Walk: Laguna Seca 2024

The eighth round of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season is an earlier trip to Laguna Seca than the series is accustomed to. After IndyCar's last four trips were in September, three of which were the season finale, Laguna Seca moves to the first race of summer, a different but not an unusual date for a trip to Monterey. CART ran twice at Laguna Seca in June in 2002 and 2003. Since reunification, the winner of the first race of summer has only won the championship in five of 16 seasons. However, the first winner of summer has won the championship in three of the last four seasons. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday June 23 with green flag scheduled for 6:15 p.m. ET.
Channel: USA
Announcers: Kevin Lee, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Dillon Welch and Georgia Henneberry will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 5:00 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 1:00 p.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 5:15 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 3:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 6:15 p.m. ET (95 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

Can Andretti Global Have a Breakout Weekend?

Andretti Global has been knocking on the door of victory in recent races. It just hasn't been able to breakthrough. 

The team led a combined 57 of 100 laps at Detroit, but the best it could do was second and fourth. At Road America, Andretti Global drivers started in two of the top four positions. The Andretti drivers ended up finishing fifth, sixth and ninth. It has been 11 races since Andretti Global's most recent victory, not the worst streak in the world, but getting long enough to be unsatisfied, especially based on recent results. 

Andretti could not be heading to a better track. 

Andretti and Andretti-adjacent teams have won two of the four Laguna Seca races since IndyCar's return. This place was Colton Herta's playground for two years. Herta won in 2019 with Harding Steinbrenner Racing and then won in 2021 with Andretti Global. Out of 185 laps run, Herta led 174 laps in those two races. He won both races from pole position.

The last two Laguna Seca visits have not been as kind to Herta. He was 11th at in 2022 and he was caught in an accident in last year's race.

Though Herta has started on the front row in the last two races in 2024, and he opened the season with a pair of podium finishes, Kyle Kirkwood is the top Andretti Global driver in the championship through seven races. Kirkwood has 179 points, three more than Herta, and Kirkwood is tied with Scott McLaughlin for fifth in the championship with McLaughlin owning the tiebreaker. 

Kirkwood has finished in the top five in the last two races. He had two top five finishes over the entire 2023 season, his two victories at Long Beach and Nashville. Kirkwood has not finished worse than 11th this season. His average finish is 7.7142 through seven races. Last year, his average finish over the entire season was 13.059. 

In four Road to Indy starts, Kirkwood won three times at Laguna Seca. However, he has finished 21st and 25th in his first two IndyCar starts at the track. He has started outside the top fifteen on each occasion as well. 

It has been a tough season for Marcus Ericsson, but the last two races have been steps in the right direction. After having three consecutive results of 18th or worse and having four results of 18th or worse through the first five races, Ericsson has been second and ninth in the last two races. He is 13th in the championship. 

Ericsson has been good at Laguna Seca, but not great. Through four starts, he has two top ten finishes and an average finish of 10.25. He has finished better than or equal to his starting position all four years at Laguna Seca. 

Road America was the second time this season Andretti Global had all three cars finish in the top ten. Last season, Andretti had three cars finish in the top ten of only one race. Andretti has had multiple top five finishers in two races this season. Last year, the team had only one race with multiple top five finishers, and it was the same race as its only race with three cars finishing in the top ten as Andretti cars went 1-2-4 at Long Beach in 2023.

Andretti Global has had a top five finisher in the last two races. The team has not gone three consecutive races with a top five finisher since a four-race run that covered the Grand Prix of Indianapolis through Road America in 2022.

Can Chevrolet Win?

Though Laguna Seca has been on the schedule for four of the last five seasons, Chevrolet has yet to win at the circuit since its return. Honda is four-for-four at the Northern California circuit. Along with the two victories for Colton Herta, Álex Palou won in 2022 and Scott Dixon won in 2023, both victories for Chip Ganassi Racing. 

These haven't just race victories for Honda, these have been dominant performances for the manufacturer. Honda has led 319 of 375 laps run over the last four Laguna Seca races. It has taken at least two of the three podium positions in three of the four races. 

This is the only circuit that has been on the schedule since 2019 where Chevrolet has not won at. Chevrolet will be coming in with Team Penske having won three of the last five races, and Will Power as the championship leader after his victory at Road America. Power has finished on the podium four times this season. While he was 26th in 2021 Laguna Seca race, Power has finished second, third and fourth in the other three races. 

Last year was Josef Newgarden's first bad day at Laguna Seca. Contact left him in 21st, four laps down. Prior to that, Newgarden had finished in the top ten in his first three Laguna Seca starts, including a second from 25th on the grid in 2022. 

Scott McLaughlin was third at Road America two weeks ago. McLaughlin has finished in the top six in all three permanent road course races this season and he has eight consecutive top ten finishes on permanent road course dating back to last season. He was 12th in his first Laguna Seca race but he has been sixth and second the last two years here.

Patricio O'Ward is the second-best Chevrolet driver in the championship on 184 points in fourth. While O'Ward has finished in the top ten in the last three races, he has not finished on the podium on a permanent road course since the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course race last August. His only victory on a permanent road course was at Barber Motorsports Park in 2022. He has finished in the top ten in all three of his Laguna Seca visits. 

This is a home race for Alexander Rossi, and a waste gate failure led to an 18th place finish at Road America for Rossi two weeks ago. Rossi has three top ten finishes in four Laguna Seca starts, but he has never finished in the top five. It has been 19 races since Rossi has stood on the podium and 28 races since his most recent victory. This year's Laguna Seca race falls on the five-year anniversary of Rossi's dominant Road America victory where he led 54 of 55 laps and he won by 28.4391 seconds over Will Power. 

That Road America race in 2019 was Rossi's 60th career start and his seventh career victory. It was also his 17th career podium finishes. He has made 78 starts since and he has only one victory and 12 podium finishes. 

Last year, Ryan Hunter-Reay was tenth in the #20 Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing. It was ECR's first top ten finish at Laguna Seca in four races with two entries in each. The team's average finish at this track is 19.375. Last year was the first time the team had both cars finish in the top twenty. Rinus VeeKay was 18th. 

A.J. Foyt Racing has only one top fifteen finisher over the last four Laguna Seca races. Sébastien Bourdais was eighth in 2021. Its other eight entrants over the last four Laguna Seca races have all failed to finish better than 16th. Coincidentally, in three of the four Laguna Seca races, Foyt cars have finished next to one another. In 2019, Tony Kanaan and Matheus Leist were 16th and 17th respectively. In 2021, Charlie Kimball was 18th, directly ahead of Dalton Kellett. Last year, Benjamin Pedersen finished 16th with Santino Ferrucci behind him in 17th. 

Juncos Hollinger Racing had its best year at Laguna Seca last year. Callum Ilott was fifth, matching the team's best finish ever while Agustín Canapino was 14th. In the previous two Laguna Seca races, JHR had not cracked the top twenty. Ilott is gone, but Romain Grosjean has finished in the top ten in two of his three Laguna Seca starts.

Entering Laguna Seca, Chevrolet and Honda have been trading victories. Chevrolet has won the four odd-numbered races this season while Honda has won the three even-numbered races. If the pattern holds, Honda would be the winner at Laguna Seca. Dating back to last season, there have been eight consecutive races without a manufacturer repeating as the race winner. This is the longest streak since the return of engine competition in 2012.

Welcome Back From Le Mans

It might have been an off-week for IndyCar last week, but for five drivers, they were competing across the Atlantic in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Scott Dixon, Álex Palou, Romain Grosjean, Kyffin Simpson and, a late addition to the Laguna Seca entry list, Nolan Siegel all competed at Le Mans. 

Dixon, Palou and Grosjean all ran in the Hypercar class. Siegel and Simpson competed in the LMP2 class. All five drivers will be back to their day jobs this weekend at Laguna Seca. For Siegel, he returns with a promotion. 

Siegel was announced as the driver of the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet on Tuesday afternoon, replacing Théo Pourchaire. Siegel will forgo the remainder of the Indy Lights season to compete in IndyCar. Prior to this announcement, Siegel became a class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last Sunday. Driving for United Autosports, Siegel won in the LMP2 class, finishing 15th overall, with co-drivers Oliver Jarvis and fellow American Bijoy Garg. It was Siegel and Garg’s Le Mans debut. McLaren CEO Zak Brown owns United Autosports. 

Palou was the top IndyCar representative, finishing seventh overall and completing all 311 laps in the #2 Cadillac. Grosjean was 13th driving for the Lamborghini Iron Lynx, two laps down. Simpson was 11th in the LMP2 class, 25th overall driving for Nielsen Racing. Dixon's #3 Cadillac retired after completing 223 laps due to an oil leak.

This is the most drivers entered for the IndyCar race the week after the 24 Hours of Le Mans who competed at Le Mans since 1988 when seven drivers competed in France and then ran at Portland the following weekend. That year the seven drivers were Michael Andrettti, John Andretti, Didier Theys, Kevin Cogan, Derek Daly, Danny Sullivan and Raul Boesel. 

These five drivers competed in a grueling endurance race while 22 drivers were resting. Does that extra work hurt a driver returning to IndyCar competition? By competing at Le Mans, these five drivers have spent six consecutive weekends competing at a racetrack between the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500 qualifying, the Indianapolis 500, Detroit, Road America and Le Mans, with Laguna Seca being their seventh consecutive weekend of action. 

Since 1988, 32 drivers have competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and then competed in an IndyCar race the following weekend. The average finish for those 32 drivers is 13.25. In that time frame, three times has a driver competed at Le Mans and then won the IndyCar race the following week. 

Danny Sullivan did it in 1988, finishing 16th in his Le Mans debut before winning at Portland. Sébastien Bourdais did not finish the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans driving for Pescarolo Sport, but he did win at Portland, leading 85 of 94 laps from pole position a week later. Eight years ago, Dixon left Le Mans after finishing seventh in the GTE Pro class driving a Ford GT, 23rd overall. A week after that, Dixon won at Road America with 24 laps led from fifth on the grid.

Only seven of the 32 drivers since 1988 have finished in the top five and only 12 of the 32 finished in the top ten. Twelve of the 32 drivers have finished outside the top fifteen. 

Of those 32 competitors, 12 have occurred since 2016. The average finish for those dozen drivers improves to 11.583. A third of those competitors were top five finishers while another third finished outside the top fifteen. 

Dixon has run at Le Mans five times. In each of those cases he had an IndyCar race the following weekend. His average finish in those five starts is seventh with four top five finishes. The one exception was in 2016 when Dixon suffered an engine failure after six laps at Road America to finish 22nd. 

For Palou, Grosjean, Siegel and Simpson, this will be their first time competing in IndyCar a week after Le Mans. Along with Siegel, Palou and Simpson are coming off their Le Mans debuts. This was Grosjean's first Le Mans appearance since 2010.

Intra-Team Battles

Through seven rounds this season, we have a good idea about how these drivers are doing within their own organizations, giving the picture of who is the leader, who is looking to make up ground and which teams have it pretty even across the lineup. 

Will Power leads the championship, and he has been the best Team Penske driver in four of seven races. Josef Newgarden has been the top Penske finisher twice while Scott McLaughlin's only time being the best Penske finisher was his Barber Motorsports Park victory. McLaughlin has been at least the second-best Penske driver in four of the other six races.

In qualifying, it has been pretty even. Power has been the top Penske qualifier in three races while Newgarden and McLaughlin have each been the best starter in two races. At no point has the top Penske qualifier been the same over consecutive races. 

Álex Palou and Scott Dixon have each been the best Chip Ganassi Racing finisher in three races this season. The lone exception was Barber when Linus Lundqvist was the best Ganassi driver in third. Palou has been the first or second best Ganassi driver in six of seven races. Marcus Armstrong has been the second-best Ganassi finisher only once, his fifth at Detroit. Lundqvist was the second-best Ganassi driver at Road America, though he finished 12th. 

In qualifying, Palou has been the top Ganassi starter four times while Armstrong was the best twice and Lundqvist was best with his pole position at Road America. Dixon has been the second-best Ganassi starter in four races this season. 

Patricio O'Ward and Alexander Rossi have each been the best Arrow McLaren finisher in three races. Théo Pourchaire was the top McLaren driver at Barber, but that is when Pourchaire was 22nd in a race where none of the McLaren cars finished in the top twenty. The picture is the same in qualifying. O'Ward and Rossi have each been the top McLaren starter in three races while Pourchaire has been on top once. 

Colton Herta is not the best Andretti Global driver in the championship, but he has been the top Andretti finisher in four of seven races. The only problem is Herta was the best Andretti finisher in the first four races. Kyle Kirkwood was the best at the Indianapolis 500 and Road America while Marcus Ericsson was the best with his runner-up finish at Detroit.

Herta holds a 4-3 advantage in qualifying over Kirkwood while Ericsson has yet to be the best starter for Andretti this season.

Felix Rosenqvist has Meyer Shank Racing in the top ten of the championship and he has been the best MSR finisher in six of seven races. The only time he wasn't was the Indianapolis 500 when an engine failure took Rosenqvist out before halfway and allowed Hélio Castroneves to be the best finisher. Rosenqvist has been the top MSR starter in all seven races. He has started on average 10.142 positions better than the second MSR car this season.

Prior to Road America, Christian Lundgaard had been the best Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver in four consecutive races. Graham Rahal was the best RLLR driver for the second time this season at Elkhart Lake. Pietro Fittipaldi was the best RLLR at St. Petersburg. 

In qualifying, Lundgaard has been the top RLLR starter six times. The lone exception was the Indianapolis 500 when Takuma Sato qualified tenth and the three full-time RLLR drivers all started 28th or worse. Rahal has been the second-best starter in five of the other six races.

Santino Ferrucci holds a 5-2 advantage head-to-head against A.J. Foyt Racing teammate Sting Ray Robb. The two drivers split the first four races. Each time Ferrucci has failed to finish inside the top twenty, Robb has been the best finisher. In qualifying, Ferrucci is up 7-0 on Robb. 

Rinus VeeKay is leading the Ed Carpenter Racing battle, up 5-2 over Christian Rasmussen in race finishes. Like Ferrucci, each time VeeKay has finished outside the top twenty, Rasmussen has been the best finisher. Unlike Ferrucci, it is tight in qualifying. VeeKay holds the edge 4-3, but Rasmussen has been the top ECR starter in the last two races. 

At Juncos Hollinger Racing, Romain Grosjean has been the top finisher in five races. Make it a hat trick, as each time Grosjean has finished outside the top twenty, he has not been the best JHR finisher. Grosjean also holds a 5-2 edge in qualifying. Agustín Canapino will return to the #78 Chevrolet this weekend.

Dale Coyne Racing has had six different drivers in its two cars over the seven races this season. Jack Harvey has run six of seven races and been the best finisher in four of them. Nolan Siegel bested Harvey at Long Beach and Luca Ghiotto led DCR at Road America. Katherine Legge was the only DCR car in the Indianapolis 500, making her the best finisher by default.

In qualifying, Harvey has been the top DCR starter three times. Colin Braun, Luca Ghiotto, Katherine Legge and Tristan Vautier have each been the top DCR starter once. For Braun, Ghiotto and Vautier, they were each the best DCR starter but in all three cases neither DCR car started in the top twenty. 

Indy Lights

Only one Road to Indy series will make the trek west to Laguna Seca, but Indy Lights will run a doubleheader at the famed course this weekend. 

Jacob Abel has a 19-point lead in the championship after his fifth podium finish in six races two weeks ago at Road America. Abel has yet to finish worse than fifth this season and that has him on 256 points. Louis Foster is riding three consecutive podium finishes into California. Caio Collet is up to third in the championship on 179 points as he has been in the top five in three consecutive races and in four of the last five. 

Nolan Siegel has abandoned his Indy Lights efforts to pursue the McLaren IndyCar opportunity. Siegel was fourth in the championship on 177 points. Christian Brooks will move up from USF Pro 2000 to drive the #39 HMD Motorsports entry for the remainder of the season. Brooks is fourth in the USF Pro 2000 championship with three runner-up finishes, and he is 64 points behind championship leader Lochie Hughes.

In Indy Lights, Siegel is still 21 points ahead of Callum Hedge and Reece Gold, who are tied with Hedge holding the tiebreaker as Hedge's best finish is third to Gold's best finish being fourth. 

Myles Rowe dropped to seventh in the championship after his worst finish of the season at Road America, a 19th. Rowe is on 151 points, eight points ahead of Michael d'Orlando and ten points ahead of Road America winner Jamie Chadwick. Chadwick led every lap from pole position in her first career Indy Lights victory. 

Jonathan Browne rounds out the championship top ten on 127 points, five more than fellow Irishman James Roe, Jr.

Indy Lights will race at 3:25 p.m. ET on Saturday June 22nd and at 3:55 p.m. ET on Sunday June 23rd. Both race will be 35 laps in length. 

Fast Facts

This will be the ninth IndyCar race to take place on June 23 and the first since Alexander Rossi won at Road America in 2019.

Andretti Global has won the last three races held on June 23. Along with Rossi in 2019, Andretti won on June 23, 2012 at Iowa with Ryan Hunter-Reay, and on June 23, 2013 at Iowa with James Hinchcliffe. 

This year's race falls on the 28th anniversary of Alex Zanardi's first career victory at Portland. 

Five times has the Laguna Seca race winner also won the championship in the same season, most recently in 2002 with Cristiano da Matta. The other four were Bobby Rahal in 1986 and 1987, Danny Sullivan in 1988, and Michael Andretti in 1991. 

Team Penske leads all teams with six Laguna Seca victories. Five of those victories came over a seven-race period from 1988 through 1994. 

Bryan Herta, Cristiano da Matta and Scott Dixon are the only drivers to win at Laguna Seca in Indy Lights and IndyCar. Jimmy Vasser and Patrick Carpentier are the only drivers to win at Laguna Seca in the Atlantics Championship and IndyCar.

On six occasions has a driver won consecutive Laguna Seca races (Bobby Rahal 1984-87, Michael Andretti 1991-92, Paul Tracy 1993-94, Bryan Herta 1998-99, Patrick Carpentier 2003-04, and Colton Herta 2019, 2021).

The average starting position for a Laguna Seca winner is 3.1923 with a median of first. 

Even with the last two Laguna Seca winners starting 11th, the median finish is still first. 

Sixteen of 26 Laguna Seca races have been won from pole position. 

The Laguna Seca pole-sitter has never gone three consecutive races without a victory.

Twenty-two of 26 Laguna Seca races have been won from a top three starting position. 

The average number of lead changes in a Laguna Seca race is 3.346 with a median of three. 

Three of the four Laguna Seca races since 2019 have had at least six lead changes. Prior to this stretch, only three of the first 22 Laguna Seca races had at least six lead changes.

The average number of cautions in a Laguna Seca race is 1.961 with a median of one. The average number of caution laps is 8.153 with a median of 7.5.

Last year's Laguna Seca race had a record-tying eight cautions and a record-breaking 35 caution laps.

There have been six caution-free races at Laguna Seca, most recently in 1997.

Predictions

Andretti Global goes four-for-four and wins at Laguna Seca, but it is Kyle Kirkwood taking the victory, and Colton Herta will be the worst finishing Andretti driver. Chevrolet will put two drivers on the podium. The championship lead will change hands. There will be fewer than five cautions and none will occur for an incident in the final corner. Everyone will let Agustín Canapino be, at least on the track. At least two rookies finish in the top ten. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist.

First Impressions: Laguna Seca 2023

1. In one of the messiest races in recent memory, Scott Dixon again showed his brilliance. As this race turned upside down, Dixon and the #9 Ganassi team used the opportunities presented and turned it into a victory. Dixon overcame a six-spot grid penalty, contact at the start, a penalty for avoidable contact that really wasn't his fault, and untimely cautions to win this race.

Dixon's team took advantage of a window to pit and make it on one final stop banking on a fortunate series of events. It worked out, and other teams were caught out, some may have been faster than Dixon today, but Dixon turned this race into his favor, and that was the theme of his three victories in the final four races.

The #9 Ganassi team found its way out of a corner, whether it be on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Gateway or Laguna Seca. Dixon won all three of these races from outside the top ten on the grid. He has won eight times when starting outside the top ten over his 23-season career. No other driver has won more than four times when starting outside the top ten. Again, brilliant.

At 43 years old, the milestones are still within reach, four victories away from 60, 11 victories behind A.J. Foyt. The all-time mark is still a massive task, but considering he went from leading only 13 laps in the first ten races this season with no victories to winning three of the final four, 11 more victories for share, 12 more victories for the outright record remains possible.

2. The opening lap incident was the wet blanket nobody wanted to start this dead rubber race. Multiple moving parts to that one.

Christian Lundgaard knocked Scott McLaughlin off the road when Lundgaard dove to the inside. Marcus Armstrong was caught in a RLLR sandwich, spinning Graham Rahal into Jüri Vips, who shot across the track and knocked Josef Newgarden off the road. After the exit of turn two, Colton Herta and Scott Dixon touched, which sent Dixon into Rinus VeeKay, spinning the Dutchman, and somewhere in the middle of all that, Kyle Kirkwood suffered damage as well.

Lundgaard and Dixon each received penalties. Lundgaard was understood. Dixon's penalty seemed like too much because Herta was in there as well. Dixon did step out, but he doesn't hit VeeKay without the contact from Herta. It wasn't Herta's fault either. That was more like Armstrong's contact, which received no penalty, than Lundgaard's.

3. Despite the opening lap mess and being in the dirt, Scott McLaughlin bounced back to finish second. That is also forgetting that McLaughlin made contact with Santino Ferrucci and had another avoidable contact penalty. This was a remarkable season for McLaughlin. Outside of Barber Motorsports Park, he didn't have that many attention-grabbing races compared to last year, but he was solid and didn't make any mistakes.

4. And now our champion, third in the race, Álex Palou caps the season with a podium. Five victories, ten podium finishes, 13 top five finishes and his worst finish was eighth! It is one of the best seasons we have seen in IndyCar history, definitely in 21st century.

After all the contractual turmoil, some of which is just getting started, Palou looks to be set for a long future in IndyCar. In four seasons, he has two championships. He has won nine races. Palou is Ganassi's future, ready to take the torch from Scott Dixon though he already has one hand on it. This partnership is destined for many more great things to come.

5. No victory in 2023 for Will Power. It was a strange season for Power. He never looked like a world beater. His qualifying pace was off, but this wasn't the strongest season from Team Penske either. He was basically seventh in the championship for the entire season. He just won the championship. Power gets one just ok season, but this certainly did not go as anyone expected.

Power gets fourth today, but he did run into a few people. He wasn't the only one with a slew of contact.

6. In this wild race, Callum Ilott pulled out his second top five finish of the season. Coincidentally, in what will probably go down as the second messiest race of this season, the season opener at St. Petersburg, Ilott was also fifth. Ilott survived some close calls today. This likely wasn't the sophomore season he wanted. Juncos Hollinger Racing didn't show any of those flashes of speed it had in 2022. The race finishes were not better, but the cars were finishing regularly ahead of the likes of Meyer Shank Racing, Dale Coyne Racing and A.J. Foyt Racing. However, the group has a long way to go.

7. Christian Lundgaard overcame his early penalty to finish sixth. For all the issues Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had, Lundgaard spent most of the season in the top ten of the championship and he won a race. I was hopeful RLLR would take a step forward this season. It is difficult to argue it made much ground, but it didn't lose any when you look at Lundgaard's result and even consider the speed Graham Rahal showed at times.

8. Alexander Rossi ended up as the top Arrow McLaren finisher in seventh with Patricio O'Ward in ninth and Felix Rosenqvist was effectively taken out after contact with Marcus Ericsson. Despite O'Ward's championship finish and the pace of the team, this was a bad season. McLaren didn't win a race.

The team came in saying it would make IndyCar's "Big Three" a "Big Four." Newsflash, there is a "Big Two" in IndyCar. You have to win a race, and with a lineup of O'Ward-Rosenqvist-Rossi, zero victories is unacceptable.

Today was a tough loss because O'Ward was in position to be the leader and caught a caution at the right time, but the team didn't use its new alternate set of tires until the final stint, which forced an extra pit stop instead of possibly staying out and stretching the fuel to the end. Even with that strategy, O'Ward may not have won, but he likely would have finished better than ninth.

9. Rookie of the Year was hardly in doubt for Marcus Armstrong, but today really tested his nerves. First, Agustín Canapino caught multiple breaks with cautions and was running well into the top five. Then it looked like the cautions would cycle into Armstrong's favor until Armstrong was spun from contact with Marcus Ericsson.

However, Canapino had damage of his own and it allowed Armstrong to get ahead and take top rookie honors with eighth.

Both drivers had impressive seasons. For Armstrong, he looks ready to be an IndyCar winner. For Canapino, the fact he was second of the rookies despite next to no open-wheel experience while competing against two winners in Indy Lights says a lot about Canapino and something about the Road to Indy system. We can touch upon that another time.

10. It was a trying spell at Ed Carpenter Racing for Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay at least gets to end his season with a top ten result. It sounds definite Hunter-Reay will not be back in the #20 Chevrolet next year. It isn't clear what to expect for Hunter-Reay's future. He likely will be of interest come May for Indianapolis, but this feels like the final chance at a full-time ride. At least it ends on a good note.

11. Notice one team that hasn't been mentioned yet? Andretti Autosport! Its best finisher was Romain Grosjean in 11th, who committed to going off strategy and this was the best he could get. But it was a terrible day for this team. Colton Herta was taken out from a promising position after Hélio Castroneves lost the car. Kyle Kirkwood was damaged at the start and Devlin DeFrancesco had the gearbox let him down.

This team has a lot of work to do because it isn't a "Big Three" anymore. Andretti Autosport at least won two races this season, but it is far from the top.

12. After taking shots at him for most of the season, the one race where Sting Ray Robb didn't run into anybody is the race where everyone else ran into everyone but Sting Ray Robb. Avoiding contact, pure survival really, earned Robb 12th, his best finish of the season. Kudos to him.

13. Due to timing, we are going to do some quick hits and a second impressions later.

Hélio Castroneves had a memorable final start as a regular for all the bad reasons. I am worried about Meyer Shank Racing because Tom Blomqvist has looked ok, but this is a massive leap into IndyCar and the team has plenty of issues on its own that a driver who has been out of single-seater racing for a period will not necessarily help solve.

Marcus Ericsson had a memorable final start as a Chip Ganassi Racing driver for all the bad reasons.

A.J. Foyt Racing had a brief glimpse at a great day, and then Santino Ferrucci was caught out with a caution and then Ferrucci made contact with Palou. And Benjamin Pedersen, on one of his cleaner days, still made unnecessary contact with Castroneves.

Tough break for David Malukas being spun off. It was the way of his season.

14. Josef Newgarden is probably happy the season is over. The last two seasons have seen Newgarden be top of the class but then get stuck in these slumps. It got a little worse this year. Granted, this result wasn't on Newgarden. He was at the wrong place at the start and was hit, but there were one too many races this season where the #2 Penske team was just average. Even with four race victories, that is not enough to win championships.

15. While Christian Lundgaard was a bright spot, RLLR's season could be captured in the dark spot that was Jüri Vips and Graham Rahal colliding at the start. Neither driver was at fault, but it was a crushing way for Rahal's season to end.

16. This is the end for now. There is plenty to talk about as we are getting pieces of the 2024 schedule. There are still rides that need to be filled. New drivers will join the series. The season is over but there is plenty to be excited about. More reviews will be coming shortly. We will go over some predictions tomorrow.