First Impressions: Phoenix 2018

1. Penske finds a way to win races and Josef Newgarden has been something special in his two seasons with Team Penske. This is the third time in two seasons he has won from seventh on the grid despite being the worst Penske qualifier. He did it at Barber and Toronto last year and he did it at Phoenix. He has done it on a road course, a street course and an oval. Who else can do that? Will Power was labeled at the start of his Penske career as a guy who could only succeed if he started at the front. Newgarden isn't winning from the back but he isn't dominating races from the point. He has not be fazed by the change of scenery nor by the shoes he filled.

He has had some breaks. In that Barber race, Power had to make an unscheduled stop for a tire puncture and he caught a timely yellow at Toronto. Tonight he made a pit stop at the right time and leapfrogged the leaders. Then he made the right call to get tires before the final restart and on a tricky track for passing he made a move to the outside of Robert Wickens to get the victory. Last year, he won in the third race of the season. This year he won the second race of the season and he already has the championship lead. He isn't going to relinquish the crown easily.

2. Second career start and first career podium finish as Robert Wickens finishes second in what was a bit of a stunning race for him. I expected him to be off a bit. He had been out of single-seater racing for over six and a half years. That hasn't stopped him from competing with the big boys of IndyCar. He should have had a podium in the first race of the season and probably should have won it. He deserved a podium tonight. When is he going to have an off day? And the next race is at Long Beach, one of the tracks Wickens has experience at.

3. Alexander Rossi hit a pit crew member on a pit stop, restarted outside the top twenty, was then handed a drive-through penalty, fell a lap down, got his lap back under green flag conditions, made two passes for position in the successive laps after getting back on the lead lap and within three minutes was within nine-seconds of the leader. This was a hell of a drive and third is incredible considering where he was after his first stop. He was the one guy who could make passes tonight and he was balls out for the entire race. Two races, two podium finishes and he was in contention for the podium last year at Long Beach. Look out for Rossi.

4. Scott Dixon started 17th and finished fourth as his crew had a great first pit stop to get him into top ten. From there he waited and waited and made his pit stops at the right time to leapfrog drivers. You cannot be surprised when Dixon does this because he does it once a season.

5. Ryan Hunter-Reay did what he does on starts and restarts and made up at least two positions each time on the outside and he ran in the top five for most of the race and he finished fifth. He stayed out probably five laps too long before the second round of green flag pit stops and that cost him a lot of track position. He might have deserved a podium finish but this is only the second time in his career he has started a season with two consecutive top ten finishes and this year starts with a pair of fifth place finishes. He should take the result and run with it.

6. James Hinchcliffe restarted in second with seven laps to go and he was the only one to fall like a rock on the older tires. Despite that, it was a good day for Hinchcliffe. He probably deserved a top five but sixth is respectable. The good news is he has a teammate that will keep him honest. No longer does Hinchcliffe have a teammate that is lagging behind in 15th most race weekends. Or so it appears. This was only Wickens' second race.

7. Ed Carpenter did next to nothing all night and finished seventh, matching his career-best finish at Phoenix, which he set last year. This is what Carpenter needed, a night where he kept his nose clean, completed all the laps and got a top ten finish. Ed Carpenter Racing didn't look competitive this weekend. The team has to make up ground to return to contending for race victories.

8. Tony Kanaan finished eighth and that seems right. He really didn't factor in this one.

9. Graham Rahal finished ninth and that has to be a bit disappointing consider how good Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was in the test. It could have been worse but the team knows this weekend could have been much better.

10. Simon Pagenaud had a slow first pit stop, it dropped him to the middle of the field and he couldn't get out of that rut and the same thing happened at St. Petersburg. The difference is he gets a top ten finish this week. This could have been a much better night for the Frenchman.

11. Takuma Sato finished 11th, kept his nose clean, completed all 250 laps but like his teammate Sato should be ticked off a bit because this team was on top of Phoenix in February.

12. Marco Andretti had a fuel issue and handling issues before qualifying and he started 20th but like Hunter-Reay he made up four spots right at the start. He ran well but one of these races he has to qualify near the front to get a respectable result.

13. Sébastien Bourdais stalled before rolling off for the pace laps. Fortunately, he got the car fired and led comfortably. Then he slid into a crew member on the first pit stop. He didn't lose as much ground as Rossi but still had to serve a penalty. He didn't have the car Rossi did but he did get to the front of the lapped cars. He lacked that extra bit to get back on the lead lap.

14. Quickly through the field: Spencer Pigot was off all night. Gabby Chaves was 15th. Zach Veach was stuck in at the back. Carlin has a long way to go. Matheus Leist has already been poisoned by A.J. Foyt Racing.

15. Four retirements in this one: Ed Jones was second after the third round of pit stops and he was trailing Newgarden but got into the marbles when behind the lapped car of Pigot. Ganassi doesn't like wrecked race cars in general but to tear one up while running in a podium position is an extra mark against Jones. Kyle Kaiser was doing well and then brushed the wall in turn four. He completed 174 laps so it is a good start to a career. Will Power got caught in the marble when Rossi blew pass him. Power was upset by the move but what else could Rossi do? Pietro Fittipaldi's debut ended after 40 laps. He was running 11th when it happened. Not sure we can take much away from this one for Fittipaldi.

16. The first 150 laps were a dud but the final 100 laps made it interesting. IndyCar was saved by Rossi and the game of cat and mouse over fresh tires. I am disappointed in how IndyCar has handled Phoenix. The first year was acceptable. It was the first time the series had been to the track since 2005 and you are not sure how it is going to race but after year one it was clear something had to be done to improve the racing. Nothing was done in year two and while the introduction of the universal aero kit was a massive overhaul compared to the previous two years IndyCar still had to take a swing and try something different.

IndyCar has two different boost levels for road/street course races and oval races but half of the ovals run the same high downforce aero package as the road/street course races. It would make sense to me if instead of assigning boost levels based on track configuration the series would pair it with aero packages or IndyCar should make the low downforce package mandated at all ovals instead of Indianapolis, Texas and Pocono.

The series also tried to lay down rubber in the top groove in the corners but when you look at what it used and compare the results to NASCAR at Texas it is disappointing how far IndyCar was off. Texas used the tire dragon and before Friday practice the turns were black even the back straightaway was rubbered in. At Phoenix, you couldn't tell anything had been done to the track at all. I understand there needs to be a preseason test but next to nothing can be taken from an afternoon session in February. Would it make more sense for IndyCar not to have the February test but give the teams all the tires they need to run for four consecutive hours starting at 5:00 p.m. local time the Thursday before the race to rubber in the racetrack? Something has to be done in year four because it is frustrating to watch the top three be covered by a second or a second and a half for 50 consecutive laps but nobody attempting to make a pass.

Even after tonight, I am not sure IndyCar gets a year four at Phoenix. IndyCar needs Phoenix more than Phoenix needs IndyCar and the track says it wants IndyCar but is it really worth it after the initial three-year deal was wasted? IndyCar's future at Phoenix will not be decided tonight, tomorrow or by the end of April but if things are quiet in August and September then I think it will be safe to say there will be an opening in the 2019 calendar.

17. Remember how everyone was peeved about the off time between St. Petersburg and Phoenix? Well there is a race in a week from Long Beach and the week after that is Barber. You are going to be tired of IndyCar before you know it. Sweet dreams.

Morning Warm-Up: Phoenix 2018

Sébastien Bourdais stays on top through qualifying in Phoenix

IndyCar championship leader Sébastien Bourdais will start the second race of the season from pole position. The Frenchman ran a two-lap average at 188.539 MPH in qualifying from Phoenix, giving him his 34th career pole position. This is Bourdais' first pole position since Mid-Ohio 2014 and his first pole position on an oval since Milwaukee 2006. This is his fourth career pole position on an oval and he has won all three oval races he has started on pole position. His first career victory came from pole position at Lausitzring in 2003. In 2004, he won from pole position at Las Vegas and he led 117 of 197 laps on his way to victory at Milwaukee in 2006. Bourdais leads all active drivers with 18 victories from pole position in his career. This was Dale Coyne Racing's second pole position in team history. Mike Conway won the first pole position for DCR at the second race of the Belle Isle doubleheader in 2013.

Simon Pagenaud joins Bourdais on an all-French front row. The Penske driver missed out on pole positions by 0.0811 seconds. Pagenaud is looking for his second career oval victory after he won at Phoenix last year. This is the second time Bourdais and Pagenaud will share a front row. Bourdais and Pagenaud started 1-2 at Cleveland in 2007. Bourdais led 27 laps but retired due to an engine failure while Pagenaud finished fifth. Paul Tracy won the race from seventh on the grid. Pagenaud has not won a race from second on the grid and his best finish from second on the grid was fourth at Pocono last year.

Will Power starts third in his third Phoenix start. Power finished third from ninth on the grid at Phoenix in 2016 and he started and finished second last year. Power has five career oval victories and his first two oval victories came from third on the grid in the second race of the Texas doubleheader in 2011 and at Fontana in 2013. Alexander Rossi will start next to Power on row two. This is the third time Rossi has started inside the top five on an oval in his career. He started third at Indianapolis and Texas last year. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports swept row three with James Hinchcliffe starting fifth ahead of his rookie teammate Robert Wickens. This will be the 29th time Hinchcliffe has started inside the top five in his IndyCar career and four of his five victories have come from starting inside the top five. Pagenaud won last year's race from sixth on the grid. Only once has a Canadian won at Phoenix. Scott Goodyear won the 1999 race from third on the grid.

Josef Newgarden finished seventh in the season opener at St. Petersburg and he will start seventh for the second race of the season at Phoenix. Newgarden won twice from seventh on the grid last year. He did it at Barber and Toronto and in both occasions Newgarden was the worst Penske qualifier as he is for this race. Ryan Hunter-Reay makes it an all-American row four and this is Hunter-Reay's best start at Phoenix after qualifying 12th each of the last two years. Tony Kanaan will start ninth in his first oval race for A.J. Foyt Racing. This will be Kanaan's 345th IndyCar start, putting him into third all-time. He will trail A.J. Foyt by 24 starts for second most starts in IndyCar history after this race. While Kanaan continues to climb up the record book, Pietro Fittipaldi etches his name in the record book as the Miami-native will make his IndyCar debut from tenth on the grid. A Florida-born driver has never won a IndyCar race. His grandfather Emerson won at Phoenix in 1994.

Ed Jones starts on the inside of row six. Jones finished 11th last year at Phoenix. Graham Rahal will start 12th, his best career start at Phoenix. Rahal went from 19th to fifth in the 2016 race while he did not make it through the first turn from 17th on the grid last year. Takuma Sato follows his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate in the 13th position. Like Rahal, this is Sato's best career starting position at Phoenix. He has finished 15th and 16th in his two Phoenix starts. Kyle Kaiser will make his IndyCar debut from 14th on the grid. It is the best starting position in the short history of Juncos Racing. Kaiser could become the first driver to win in Indy Lights and IndyCar at Phoenix. Spencer Pigot rounds out the top fifteen in what is his first Phoenix appearance. This is only the fifth time Pigot has started in the top fifteen in his career. Matheus Leist rounds out row eight. A.J. Foyt Racing's best finish at Phoenix the last two years is tenth.

Scott Dixon qualified 17th. Dixon's previous worst starting position at Phoenix was eighth on two occasions. He started 17th last year at Iowa and finished eighth. Dixon is tied with Bourdais, Al Unser, Jr. and Dan Wheldon for most victories from starting positions outside the top ten at four. He won from 17th on the grid at Pocono in 2013. Ed Carpenter starts next to Dixon on row nine. This is the fourth time in five Phoenix appearances Carpenter has started outside the top fifteen. His seventh place finish last year was Carpenter's first top ten finish on the one-mile oval. Gabby Chaves and Marco Andretti will start on row ten. This will be the 16th time in 28 IndyCar starts Chaves has started 19th or worse. In the 15 other starts he has finished better than his starting position 14 times and matched his starting position once. Four times has the Phoenix winner started outside the top ten, including twice from outside the top twenty.

Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball make it an all-Carlin row 11. Chilton and Kimball started 20th and 21st in the season opener at St. Petersburg. This is the second time Chilton has started outside the top twenty in his career. He started 22nd in the Indianapolis 500 two years ago. This is the first time Kimball has started outside the top twenty in consecutive races since he started 23rd and 26th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500 in 2014. Kimball was the fastest driver in the night practice after qualifying. Zach Veach will round out the grid in 23rd position. This is the most starters in a Phoenix race since 26 cars started in 2002.

NBCSN's coverage of the Desert Diamond Phoenix Grand Prix begins at 9:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.

Track Walk: Phoenix 2018

Spring sees IndyCar return to Phoenix

After three weeks off, IndyCar starts a three consecutive week stretch with races on three different types of courses. The first race of the hectic month of April is the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at the famed one-mile oval in Phoenix. Chevrolet has won the last two races at Phoenix but in February testing Honda had the fastest time and led all four sessions. Team Penske's four drivers combined to lead all 250 laps last year with Simon Pagenaud taking the victory. Sébastien Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing lead the championship entering the second race of the season for the second consecutive year. Bourdais lost the championship lead at Phoenix last year when he was caught in the turn one lap one accident but Phoenix was the fourth race of the 2017 season.

Coverage:
Time: Coverage begins at 9:00 p.m. ET on Saturday April 7th with green flag scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, Katie Hargitt and Robin Miller will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 5:00 p.m. ET (60-minute session)
Qualifying: 8:00 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have live coverage of this session)
Second Practice: 11:00 p.m. ET (60-minute session)
Saturday:
Race: 9:30 p.m. ET (250 laps)

Will There Be More Passing?
IndyCar's first two races back at Phoenix were remembered more for the lack of passing.

The 2016 race had only two lead changes and both occurred when the leader suffered a tire puncture. First was Hélio Castroneves on lap 40 and that handed the point to Team Penske teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. The Colombian would lead 56 laps before a cut tire forced an unscheduled pit stop. Scott Dixon would take the lead from there and the New Zealander led the final 155 laps on his way to victory.

Last year's race had double the lead changes from 2016 but two of those occurred during the first round of green flag pit stops. Castroneves led the first 73 laps before Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud each led a pair of laps. Will Power led 59 laps after that with Pagenaud retaking the lead from the Australian and leading the final 114 laps on his way to his tenth career victory and first on an oval. Four of the top five starters finished in the top five of last year's race with Newgarden finishing ninth from fourth on the grid.

In ten Phoenix races prior to IndyCar's return to the track in 2016, seven races had seven lead changes or more with the fewest in that period being four lead changes.

The good news for IndyCar is the series is coming off an impressive debut for the universal aero kit at St. Petersburg. The race saw 366 overtakes occur, smashing the previous event record of 322 overtakes set during the wet and time-shortened 2008 St. Petersburg race. Some drivers were optimistic during testing that tire degradation would allow more overtaking and IndyCar will attempt to rubber in the up groove by rolling tires in the top lane of the turns leading up to the event Thursday, Friday and possibly before the race on Saturday.

Will Andretti Autosport Regain Short Track Dominance?
From 2008-2014, Andretti Autosport won nine of 16 short track races including seven consecutive from Iowa 2011 to Iowa 2014. In the three seasons of the aero kit-epoch, Andretti Autosport won one of six short track races, had two podium finishes and three top five finishes.

Ryan Hunter-Reay led the way for the team on the short ovals with the 2012 champion having won six short track races for Andretti Autosport and Hunter-Reay had a stretch where he won at least one short track race for five consecutive seasons from 2011 to 2015. He has yet to have a breakthrough at Phoenix with Hunter-Reay having started 12th in both of his starts at the track and he finished tenth in 2016 but retired from last year's race with suspension damage after brushing the wall.

Dating back to last season Hunter-Reay has three consecutive top ten finishes and seven top ten finishes in the last eight races. He has finished in the top five in three consecutive season openers but Hunter-Reay has not finished in the top ten in the second race of the season since he won at Barber in 2013. Only once in his career has Hunter-Reay started a season with consecutive top ten finishes. In 2004, he opened the season with three consecutive top ten finishes.

Alexander Rossi has been alternating between podium finish and non-podium finish since last year at Toronto with Rossi having four podium finishes in the last seven races. Rossi had a good outing in his first Phoenix appearance before brushing the wall late in the race dropped him from a top ten finish and he retired from last year's race after contact with the barrier. Rossi's best finish in four short track starts is sixth while he has yet to start in the top ten on a short track.

This weekend has been billed as a special weekend for the Andretti family as Phoenix celebrates the 25th anniversary of Mario Andretti's final IndyCar victory, which occurred at the track. Marco Andretti will run a special commemorative livery, matching the car his grandfather won with in 1993.  This will be Andretti's 111th start since his most recent IndyCar victory at Iowa in 2011. He finished 13th in his first trip to Phoenix in 2016 but didn't make it through a lap last year. He has not finish in the top ten on a short oval the last two seasons and his most recent top five finish on a short oval was a second place finish at Iowa in 2012.

Like his teammate Hunter-Reay, Andretti has only started a season with consecutive top ten finishes once in his career. He had five consecutive top ten finishes to start the 2013 season.

Zach Veach will make his Phoenix debut this weekend. Veach finished 8th and completed all 90 laps in his only Indy Lights start at the track in 2016. He finished 16th at St. Petersburg, a career-best finish for the Ohioan. The most recent driver to score a maiden victory at Phoenix was another Ohioan, Sam Hornish, Jr. in 2001. Veach made five short track starts in his Indy Lights career, which included a victory at Milwaukee and three podium finishes.

Will The Short Track Trend Continue?
The aero kit epoch ended Andretti Autosport's short track dominance and in the six short track races from 2015-2017, five different teams were victorious. Sébastien Bourdais won the Milwaukee race in 2015 with KV Racing before Hunter-Reay's victory at Iowa. In 2016, Scott Dixon won at Phoenix with Chip Ganassi Racing with Josef Newgarden winning that summer at Iowa with Ed Carpenter Racing. Last year, Team Penske swept the short track races with Pagenaud taking Phoenix and Castroneves taking Iowa.

The team most likely to continue the trend of different short track winners has to be Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Takuma Sato was fastest in the February test at the track with at 19.3790 seconds (189.855 MPH). His teammate was fifth fastest at the test at 19.4574 seconds (189.090 MPH) and Rahal enters second in the championship after a runner-up finish at St. Petersburg. Sato has not had a top ten finish in the last nine short track races with his last top ten finish being a seventh at Milwaukee in 2013 and he has finished outside the top ten in five consecutive races, his worst stretch since he had nine consecutive races outside the top ten in 2014. While he has not been getting the finishes, Sato has started in the top five of six consecutive races.

Rahal had four top five finishes in six short track races during the aero kit epoch. However, Rahal has only led 24 laps in his career on short tracks with most he has led in one race being 11 laps at Iowa in 2010 while substituting for an injured Mike Conway at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

A.J. Foyt Racing could be another team that keeps the parity on short ovals. Tony Kanaan was third fastest in the February test and he is the only active driver with multiple victories at Phoenix. A.J. Foyt Racing has three Phoenix victories but the team has not won at the track since 1975. Matheus Leist has never been to Phoenix but he was 13th at the test, top rookie. Leist won his only short track start in Indy Lights last year at Iowa.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports did not have a stellar test at Phoenix with Robert Wickens and James Hinchcliffe 16th and 22nd respectively but both drivers outperformed preseason testing at St. Petersburg. Wickens' story has been well covered. He took pole position on debut, led 69 laps and he was driver of the day only to have contact with Alexander Rossi in the final laps dropped him to an 18th place finish. This will be Wickens' first career oval race. Hinchcliffe started seventh and finished fourth at St. Petersburg. Hinchcliffe has not had a top five finish on a short track since his dominating victory at Iowa in 2013 where he led 226 of 250 laps and Phoenix has been a difficult track for him with an finish of 18th, two laps down in 2016 and four laps down in 12th last year.

A Pair of Debuts
Two junior formula series champions will make their IndyCar debuts this weekend and one has won at Phoenix previously.

Kyle Kaiser's IndyCar debut occurs at the track where the California-native picked up his first career Indy Lights victory in 2016. He led every lap from pole position in that 2016 Phoenix race. That was not only Kaiser's only oval victory in Indy Lights but his only oval victory in his entire Road to Indy series career. Kaiser won four more Indy Lights races in his three-year stint in the series. In nine oval starts in Indy Lights, along with his one victory, Kaiser had four top five finishes.

Kaiser's debut comes in the #32 Chevrolet for Juncos Racing, the team Kaiser has driven for since the 2014 Pro Mazda season. Juncos Racing finished 22nd at St. Petersburg with René Binder in what was the Austrian's IndyCar debut. This is only the third race for Juncos Racing with its best finish being 15th with Sebastián Saavedra in last year's Indianapolis 500. Kaiser was the slowest of 23 cars during the February test.

Pietro Fittipaldi won last year's Formula V8 3.5 Series championship and the American-born driver will make his IndyCar debut in #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. The grandson of Emerson Fittipaldi won six of 18 races on his way to the title last year and he had ten podium finishes. Prior to that, Pietro Fittipaldi won the 2015-16 MRF Challenge Formula 2000 championship, a series where Conor Daly was champion in 2012-13. He was 15th fastest at the February test, second-best rookie, but this will not be his first time on an oval. Fittipaldi won the 2011 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championship at Hickory Motor Speedway when he was 15 years old.

Fast Facts
This will be the fifth IndyCar race to take place on April 7th and the first since Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Barber Motorsports Park in 2013.

One Phoenix race has taken place on April 7th. Bobby Unser won on that day in 1968. Bobby Unser also won on April 7th, 1974 at Trenton while the year prior his brother Al Unser won on April 7th at Texas World Speedway.

Hélio Castroneves set the track record last year with a two-lap average of 194.905 MPH.

Sébastien Bourdais has won three times in the month of April. All three of those victories occurred at Long Beach.

Bourdais' victory at St. Petersburg was his fourth when starting outside the top ten. He is tied with Scott Dixon, Al Unser, Jr., and Dan Wheldon for most victories from starting outside the top ten.

Scott Dixon has finished in the top ten in 12 consecutive races, the longest streak of his career.

The last time the winner of the first oval race of the season went on to win the championship was Scott Dixon in 2008.

Simon Pagenaud has completed 2,834 consecutive laps dating back to Texas 2016.

Ed Carpenter did not have a top five finish in 18 starts during the aero kit epoch and only had three top ten finishes during that stretch including a seventh place finish last year at Phoenix.

Charlie Kimball has not had a top five finish in the last 28 races, the longest drought of his career.

Last season, five of six oval races were won from inside the top five with the worst starting position for a winner being ninth at Texas by Will Power.

The average starting position for a Phoenix winner is 4.34 with a median of three.

The last three Phoenix races have been won from row three while the four races prior to that were won from the front row.

The average number of lead changes in a Phoenix race is 5.25 with a median of five.

The record for most lead changes in a Phoenix race is 11, which occurred in the spring race in 1986 with Kevin Cogan taking the victory and in 1995 with Robby Gordon winning the race.

The average number of cautions in a Phoenix race is 4.705 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 35.97 with a median of 32.5.

Last year's race had two cautions, the fewest in a Phoenix race since the autumn race in 1986, which Michael Andretti won.

The Phoenix winner has lapped the field ten times and the most recent occurrence was Mario Andretti in 1993.

The closest margin of victory at Phoenix was Tony Kanaan winning by 0.5344 seconds over Scott Dixon in 2004.

Possible Milestones:
Simon Pagenaud needs to lead 95 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

James Hinchcliffe needs to lead nine laps to reach the 700 laps led milestone.

Takuma Sato needs to lead 33 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Ed Carpenter needs to lead 90 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Graham Rahal needs to lead 50 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Predictions
To round out the celebration of his grandfather, Marco Andretti will win the race with at least two Team Penske cars finishing in the top five. However, there will be at least one lead change within the final 50 laps of the race. At least one Foyt car finishes in the top ten but the other finishes outside the top fifteen. Sébastien Bourdais finishes in the top ten but does not retain the championship lead. Robert Wickens will not be the top finishing rookie. More than four cars finish on the lead lap and there will be fewer retirements in this race than last year. Sleeper: Spencer Pigot.

First Impressions: Phoenix 2017

1. Let's start with the aero package. It is disappointing that after last year's Phoenix race IndyCar didn't say, "let's make sure that doesn't happen again." I am sure enough drivers and fans are going to express dissatisfaction and changes are going to come and hopefully before the next two short oval races later this year at Iowa and Gateway. That isn't good enough for the series and everyone within the series knows it. I have faith that changes will be made in the right direction and they will be done quickly.

2. I don't want to say Simon Pagenaud didn't deserve this victory but it felt like whoever ended up in front was going to win because you needed to have a death wish if you wanted to attempt a pass tonight. However, with passing being excruciatingly difficult Pagenaud and his team found a way to the lead and won the race, his first oval victory and tenth in his career, and that is all that matters at the end of the day. For the second consecutive year, Pagenaud leaves Phoenix as championship leader. He didn't concede it once he got it last year.

3. Will Power finished second and he finally had a fine day. He wants more horsepower and less downforce on short ovals and he has been preaching that for over a year. Let's listen to the man.

4. J.R. Hildebrand made the most passes on the night and he finished third and gave Power a run for his money for second. This is a great way to come back after missing a race due to a broken hand. Hopefully that momentum carries over to the remaining races.

5. Surprise! Hélio Castroneves finished fourth after starting on pole position and leading, I don't know, the first 77 laps? This is what he does. He finishes fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh every race but can't keep up with the leaders.

6. Scott Dixon finished fifth and did nothing. There aren't many races where you can say Scott Dixon did nothing.

7. Tony Kanaan finished sixth and did nothing.

8. Ed Carpenter went from 21st to seventh and may have made one pass all night.

9. Charlie Kimball finished eighth and did nothing. He didn't even hit anybody.

10. Josef Newgarden was contending for a podium but he had to make two wing changes and contact with the lapped car of Ryan Hunter-Reay forced him to stop from third. He went from being on Pagenaud's rear in the championship to being much further back after a ninth-place finish.

11. Carlos Muñoz finished tenth and didn't do a damn thing. Congratulations to A.J. Foyt Racing on finally getting a top ten finish.

12. Ed Jones finished 12th in his first IndyCar oval race and completed 247 of 250 laps. Not bad. He has been fun to watch this season.

13. James Hinchcliffe had horrible fuel mileage and it cost him a top ten finished and he finished 12th.

14. Ryan Hunter-Reay brushed the wall while in the top ten and he called it a night 80 laps early but still finished 13th. Conor Daly was 70 laps down the entire night after a gearbox issue but was still running at the finish 14th

15. I have no idea what happened to Alexander Rossi. I think he brushed the wall and he finished 15th. Takuma Sato smacked the wall and brought out a caution. Andretti Autosport keeps finding a new way to get hit in the crotch.

16. Mikhail Aleshin, Marco Andretti, Sébastien Bourdais, Max Chilton and Graham Rahal all failed to complete lap one. I tweeted just prior to the race that I thought there would be an accident lap one because I thought Aleshin would lose it or Hunter-Reay would lose it by going to the outside on the start. I was right on the former. Aleshin gets a lot of praise but 50/50 chance is he bins it. The other four drivers were collateral damage and unfortunately it ended the fairy tale start to the season for Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing.

17. A few off-track things I want to get to. If you didn't know, ESPN has been laying off a ton of people and included in those are Allen Bestwick and Dr. Jerry Punch. If they are gone, two men who did more than just IndyCar but also college football, college basketball and college hockey, I have to think Eddie Cheever, Scott Goodyear, Jon Beekhuis and Rick DeBruhl have all also been handed their walking papers. Bestwick and Punch have both said they will continue through Belle Isle but when Bestwick signs off after that Sunday race, he and likely all of them are gone.

A lot of people have wanted the ABC/ESPN team gutted and frankly wants the series off the network. I have been critical of the network's use of Cheever and Goodyear but I was a proponent to Bestwick taking over the reins to the IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 coverage prior to Marty Reid being fired and Dr. Punch, Beekhuis and DeBruhl are a solid pit reporting team.

There is no positive from the ESPN layoffs and it only creates more questions as the network's IndyCar deal extends through 2018 and the lead commentator and senior IndyCar broadcaster are gone and I can't imagine ESPN kept the other four guys on through 2018. I am starting to wonder if ESPN will buyout its final year but I don't think the network would do that. If the final year of the deal is honored, what does the announce team look like? I can't imagine after laying off an unfathomable number of people ESPN is going to hire a few people to do five weekends of IndyCar racing and I can't imagine ESPN bringing the NBCSN crew in on loan but it could be the easiest solution.

We knew the next IndyCar television deal was going to be negotiated over the course of this season but now a whole set of questions have arisen over 2018.

18. While one network is in flux, I have to make a comment about NBCSN's crew and in particular the pit reporters. I caught the end of the qualifying show and it featured Kevin Lee, Katie Hargitt, Robin Miller and Marty Snider all sitting on the pit wall, a somewhat common thing the crew has done after a race or session dating back to the Texas rain delay when they talked to just about everyone on pit road. It is a relaxed atmosphere and it is refreshing but NBCSN has done a great job of putting together a diverse group of pit reporters.

You have Miller, the experienced some would call curmudgeon who has seen it all, Lee and Snider, generation X-ers, Lee who got into the series during the split and Snider who has covered almost every form of motorsports and Hargitt, a millennial woman who is in the same age bracket as many of the drivers and of the demographic the series tries to attract to the broadcast and race track. They all bring different mindsets and ideas to the broadcast and that is good for the presentation of the series.

19. Finally, I want to send my prayers and thoughts to John Andretti, who is fighting stage four colon cancer. It sucks. It just sucks to hear he is going through such a thing. There is so much I want to say but for now I will say John Andretti has come off as nothing but a soft-spoken gentleman and besides that he is an underrated talent as a driver. He never lit the world on fire and dominated a championship but he raced everything and anything and was competitive in it all.

20. May is Monday.

Morning Warm-Up: Phoenix 2017

Another pole position for Team Penske and Hélio Castroneves

Hélio Castroneves picked up his 48th career pole position and his second pole position of the season as the Brazilian obliterated the track record he set last year. Castroneves ran a two-lap average of 194.905 MPH, over two and a half miles per hour faster than his pole speed from a year ago. He also broke the one-lap record with a lap of 194.975 MPH. This is Castroneves' tenth pole position since his most recent victory at Belle Isle in 2014. His average finish in his last nine starts from pole position is 11.333 with two podiums but only three top ten finishes. Will Power made it a sweep of the front row for Team Penske but the Australian was nearly a mile per hour slower than his teammate at 194.017 MPH. Power has not won from second on the grid since Edmonton 2011. He finished third last year in his Phoenix debut.

J.R. Hildebrand's return to competition will come from third on the grid after the Californian missed the Barber race due to a broken wrist. Third will be a career-best starting position for Hildebrand. His previous best was fourth at Iowa in 2011 and Fontana in 2012. This will be his fifth career top five start but he has only finished in the top ten once when starting in the top five and that was finishing fourth from fourth at Iowa in 2011. Next to Hildebrand will be the man he replaced in the #21 Chevrolet, Josef Newgarden. Newgarden is coming off victory at Barber, which was his fourth career victory. Simon Pagenaud makes it four Penske cars in the first five positions. Last year, Pagenaud went from tenth to second and took the championship lead at Phoenix. Tony Kanaan rounds out row three and he is the top Honda on the starting grid.

Mikhail Aleshin was the top Honda for most of the qualifying session but he will start seventh, next to Kanaan's teammate Scott Dixon. Aleshin has five top ten finishes in ten oval starts, including a second-place finish at Pocono last year but he only has five top ten finishes in his previous 12 top ten starts. The top seven qualifiers were faster than last year's pole speed. Dixon has never won from eighth position in his career and his only podium from eighth position was a third at Milwaukee in 2001, his fifth career start. Rounding out the top ten will be Marco Andretti and Sébastien Bourdais. This is Andretti's second top ten start in the last three races after going 17 races without a top ten start. Andretti has finished in the top ten in the last four oval races he has started in the top ten. Despite having a victory and leading the championship, this is Bourdais' best starting position of the season.

James Hinchcliffe starts on the inside of row six with Ryan Hunter-Reay next to him in 12th position. This is Hinchcliffe's worst starting position of the season while Hunter-Reay matches his worst starting position of the season. Hunter-Reay went from 12th to fourth at St. Petersburg in March and he started 12th last year at Phoenix. Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball make it an all-Ganassi row seven. Chilton finished seventh last year at Phoenix in his first IndyCar oval race. Kimball has always finished better than his starting position when starting 14th with him achieving four top ten finishes from the position. Alexander Rossi starts 15th next to Ed Jones in 16th. Rossi started and finished 14th last year at Phoenix while Jones finished second in the Indy Lights race last year at the track.

Graham Rahal will start on the inside of row eight, his worst starting position on an oval since he started 26th at Indianapolis last year. Takuma Sato will be to the outside of Rahal. This will be the fifth time Sato has started 18th in his career and he started and finished 18th at Long Beach three weeks ago. While Chevrolet swept the top five, it will also hold the final three positions on the grid. A.J. Foyt Racing teammates Carlos Muñoz and Conor Daly will start on row ten. Ed Carpenter will round out the grid in 21st position. Carpenter suffered a fuel leak in practice and the team scrambled to get the car ready for the qualifying session. This is Carpenter's 12th time starting 21st in his career. His average finish in his previous 11 starts from that position is 17.0 and his lone top ten finish when starting 21st was eighth at Iowa in 2012. Twice has a Phoenix IndyCar race been won from outside the top twenty, 1987 by Roberto Guerrero from 22nd and 2000 by Buddy Lazier from 26th.

NBCSN's coverage of the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix will start at 9:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 9:35 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.

Track Walk: Phoenix 2017

Sebastien Bourdais still leads the championship. Can he be on top come May?

IndyCar makes it back-to-back weeks with races as the series heads west for the first oval race of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season at Phoenix International Raceway. Last year, Scott Dixon led the final 155 laps to win the Phoenix Grand Prix, the first race at the track since 2005 and a race where passing was difficult due to the aero package. For the second consecutive year, the race will occur on a Saturday night.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 9:00 p.m. ET on Saturday April 28th. Green flag will be at 9:35 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN.

Announcers: Rick Allen is back in the booth (Leigh Diffey has Formula One duty) with Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy. Kevin Lee, Marty Snider, Katie Hargitt and Robin Miller will be working the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice- 7:00 p.m. ET (2-hour session).
Qualifying- 11:00 p.m. ET
Saturday: 
Race- 9:35 p.m. ET (250 laps).

Bourdais On Top But Challengers Closing
The Frenchman leads the IndyCar championship with 117 points but Sébastien Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing have plenty of top drivers on their coattails.

Scott Dixon is one of two drivers with top five finishes in all three races this season and he trails Bourdais by six points with Josef Newgarden fresh off victory at Barber seven points behind Bourdais. Dixon won last year at Phoenix while Newgarden won the other short track race last year at Iowa and two of Bourdais' five oval victories have come at short tracks.

The top three in the championship are all on impressive streaks on short tracks. Bourdais has four consecutive top ten finishes on short tracks while Dixon has three top five finishes and five top ten finishes in the last six short track races. Newgarden has six consecutive top ten finishes on short tracks, five of which have been top five finishes and three of those have been podium finishes.

Simon Pagenaud trails his fellow countryman by 11 points and he is the other driver to have three top five finishes from the first three races of 2017. He finished second last year at Phoenix and he is looking to have four top five finishes from the first four races for the second consecutive season and third time in the last four seasons.

James Hinchcliffe rounds out the top five with the Long Beach winner 15 points behind Bourdais. Hinchcliffe is coming off his first top ten finish in the race after a victory and he is looking for four top ten finishes from the first four races for the first time since 2012. Hinchcliffe has a short track victory but since winning at Iowa in 2013 he has two top ten finishes with an average finish of 13.0 in four short track races.

Chevrolet Looks to Repeat Dominance
Chevrolet dominated last year's race at Phoenix by sweeping the top ten in qualifying, taking four of the top five and eight of the top ten in the race and Chevrolets led all 250 laps. All signs from the preseason test points to Chevrolet continuing their dominance at Phoenix.

J.R. Hildebrand was fastest at the test at 193.234 MPH, the only driver to break the 193-MPH barrier at the test and faster than the track record. Hildebrand returns to the #21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet this weekend after missing Barber due to a broken hand suffered at Long Beach. Ed Carpenter was second at the test at 192.404 MPH and he will be making his season debut this weekend in the #20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet. Hildebrand has never raced at Phoenix and Carpenter qualified fifth last year before retiring after slapping the wall exiting turn four. Carpenter has never finished better than 16th in three Phoenix starts.

Hélio Castroneves led the first 39 laps from pole position last year but had to make an unscheduled pit stop after his right front tire suffered a puncture entering turn one and he could only manage to finish 11th. The Brazilian was fourth fastest at the test behind his teammate Josef Newgarden. Castroneves won at Phoenix in 2002 but he has failed to finish in the top ten in the last three short track races despite starting on pole position for two of those three races.

Will Power rounded out the top five at the preseason test. Power finished third last year at Phoenix and finished second at Iowa in July. Power has had the worst start to a season of his career and he has five consecutive finishes outside the top ten, the longest drought of his career.

A.J. Foyt Racing did not have as successful of a test in February with Carlos Muñoz in 17th and Conor Daly 20th. Muñoz had two accidents last year at Phoenix, one in qualifying and the other in the race that caused him to be the first retirement. Daly completed 249 of 250 laps last year and finished 16th.

Short Track Specialists
Short tracks have been kind to Ryan Hunter-Reay as the American has won seven times on short tracks, including at least one short track victory for five consecutive seasons from 2011-15. Last year, Hunter-Reay started 12th, the second-best Honda driver and he made a bold start that saw him go from 12th to seventh and eventually he was up in the top five by his great restarts. However, Hunter-Reay would be caught out by cautions twice and twice had to come from the back but only could manage a tenth-place finish.

Like Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan has a great record on short tracks with six victories, two of which came at Phoenix, most of all active drivers at the track, but Kanaan has not won on a short track since Iowa 2010. Kanaan finished fourth at both short track races last season and he has five podiums, seven top five finishes and nine top ten finishes in the ten short track races in the DW12-era.

Graham Rahal has had a lackluster start to the season with finishes of 17th, tenth and 13th. Rahal finished fifth at Phoenix last year and he been consistently good on short tracks. He had two podiums and five top ten finishes in his first ten short track races and in his last ten short track races he has only one podium but has seven top ten finishes. This is the third consecutive season with Rahal starting with non-top ten finishes in the first and third races with a top ten sandwiched in-between in the second race and each year Rahal has finished second in the fourth race of the season.

Ed Jones might be entering his fourth career IndyCar start and his first ever on an oval but the Emirati driver has already shown he has a bit of skill on short tracks in Indy Lights. In his four short track starts in Indy Lights, Jones had three podium finishes including runner-up finishes at Iowa in 2015 and at Phoenix last year. His worst finish on a short track was eighth at Milwaukee in 2015. Jones was 18th in the preseason test.

On the Right Path
Alexander Rossi overcame his engine failure at Long Beach with a fifth-place finish at Barber, matching his career-best finish on a road/street circuit and he finds himself in the top ten of the championship. Rossi ran well at Phoenix last year and was in position for a top ten finish before needing to pit for fuel when the pits were closed and skimming the wall with two laps to go to bring out the final caution of the race. Rossi did finish sixth at Iowa last year.

Mikhail Aleshin and Max Chilton both have improved two positions in each race this year with Aleshin finishing 14th, 12th and tenth in the first three races and Chilton going from 16th to 14th to 12th. Aleshin had a fifth-place finish at Iowa last year and he finished eighth at Milwaukee in 2014. He was also the top Honda at the Phoenix preseason test in sixth. Chilton finished seventh last year at Phoenix in his second career IndyCar start. That remains the Brit's best IndyCar finish to date. He qualified fourth at Iowa but a spin caused him to finish 19th.

Looking to Buck a Trend
Takuma Sato is eighth in the championship with finishes of fifth and ninth in two of the first three races but Sato's track record on short tracks does not boded well for him this weekend. In 14 short track starts he has three top ten finishes but his most recent was seventh at Milwaukee in 2013. His average finish on short tracks is 15.07 with six retirements.

Marco Andretti had a promising start to the season by finishing seventh at St. Petersburg but an electrical issue and a gearbox issue at Long Beach and Barber respectively have derided Andretti of building on his start and he has fallen to 17th in the championship. Since his 2011 victory at Iowa, he has one podium at a short track (second at Iowa 2012) and four top ten finishes.

Charlie Kimball completed all 90 laps at Barber but his average finish in the first three races is 17.0. Last year, Kimball had only two finishes of 15th or worse and his best finish through the first three races is 15th. Kimball's best finish in 13 short track starts is ninth with an average finish of 14.153.

Fast Facts
This will be the fifth IndyCar race to occur on April 29th and the first since Will Power won on the streets of São Paulo in 2012.

Six drivers have finished in the top ten in all three races this season (Bourdais, Dixon, Newgarden, Pagenaud, Hinchcliffe, Castroneves).

Josef Newgarden has finished on the podium in the last two races, the first time he has had successive podium finishes in his IndyCar career.

Conor Daly has never finished on the lead lap in his prior six oval starts.

A.J. Foyt Racing did not have a top ten finish on an oval last year and the team's last top ten finish on an oval was sixth at Pocono in 2015 with Takuma Sato. The team's last top five finish on an oval was fifth at Iowa with Darren Manning in 2007.

Chevrolet led 546 of 550 short track laps last year.

Alexander Rossi was responsible for the four laps led by Honda on the short tracks and they all came at Iowa.

Takuma Sato has not had three top ten finishes in the first four races since 2013.

Ed Carpenter retired from four of five of his starts last year and has not finished on the lead lap in his last six starts.

Teo Fabi and Arie Luyendyk are the only European drivers to win at Phoenix.

The average starting position for a Phoenix winner is 4.33 with a median of three.

The last two Phoenix races have been won from sixth position. Never has the same starting position produced three consecutive Phoenix winners.

The last oval race won from pole position was the 2014 Milwaukee race by Will Power.

In the 28 oval races in the DW12-era, only three have been won from pole position, only nine have been won from inside the top five and 11 have been won from outside the top ten, five of which have been from outside the top fifteen.

All three oval races won from pole position in the DW12-era have been by Team Penske (Power at Fontana 2013, Juan Pablo Montoya at Pocono 2014 and Power at Milwaukee 2014).

The average starting position for an oval winner in the DW12-era is 8.714 with a median of 7.5.

However, in the ten short track races in the DW12-era, eight of ten have been won by cars starting in the top ten for an average starting position of 5.7 with a median of five.

The average amount of lead changes at Phoenix is 5.274 with a median of five.

Last year's race had two lead changes, the fewest since 1992 when Bobby Rahal led all 200 laps.

The average amount of cautions at Phoenix is 4.787 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 36.09 with a median of 32.

Seven of the last ten Phoenix races have had over 50 caution laps.

Possible Milestones:
Should he start the race, Tony Kanaan will surpass Al Unser, Jr. for fourth all-time in starts with his 330th start.

Hélio Castroneves needs to lead 3 laps to reach the 5,600 laps led milestone.

Scott Dixon needs to lead 66 laps to reach the 5,000 laps led milestone.

Tony Kanaan needs to lead 4 laps to reach the 4,000 laps led milestone.

Marco Andretti needs to lead 10 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

Josef Newgarden needs to lead 7 laps to reach the 700 laps led milestone.

Ed Carpenter needs to lead 95 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Predictions
Chevrolet dominates again. Will Power gets off the snide and wins ahead of Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud. J.R. Hildebrand qualifies in the top five but only finishes in the top ten. Honda takes at least five of the top ten and gets one car in the top five and leads at least one lap. There will be at least four lead changes. Less than ten cars will finish on the lead lap. Sleeper: Ed Carpenter.

First Impressions: Phoenix 2016

1. Scott Dixon puts himself in the record books. He is the first driver to win an IndyCar race in 12 consecutive seasons. Three drivers had won in 11 consecutive: Bobby Unser, Emerson Fittipaldi and Hélio Castroneves. Dixon benefitted from Penske tire issues but no one could catch him. He didn't pull away but no one could pass him, which is another story entirely. Dixon is now tied with Al Unser for fourth all-time in IndyCar victories with 39 victories. The Andrettis are just ahead of him. Michael Andretti could be dropped in the record book before this season is over.

2. Simon Pagenaud was nowhere for the first 200 laps and then a great final pit stop vaulted him to second. He never challenged Dixon but because of the aero package he came home comfortably in second and with two second-place finishes, he now leads the IndyCar championship heading into Long Beach. 

3. Will Power passed nobody on the track all night. He made up five spots on one pit stop and benefitted as a few drivers had issues in the pits or tapped the wall. Not a bad race for Power in his return. He is going to need all the points he can get if he hopes to get a second championship in 2016. 

4. Tony Kanaan picked up right where he left off the last time IndyCar raced at Phoenix. He was up front all night and after he was caught out by the penultimate caution, he worked his way to fourth. He made a few questionable moves, such as squeezing Josef Newgarden entering turn three, but overall Kanaan deserved a fourth place finish.

5. From 19th to fifth. Graham Rahal made passes on restarts, passes on the outside and he did catch a break on one caution that vaulted him into a contender for a top five. Honda struggled this weekend but Rahal was one of the few bright spots tonight. 

6. Josef Newgarden overcame being chopped by Charlie Kimball and being caught out by a caution to finish sixth. Who knows where he would have finished had he not been snake bitten twice. Newgarden is great on the short ovals. He raced well at Milwaukee. He races well at Iowa. I am sure he hopes Phoenix stays for many, many years and perhaps another short oval or two are added sooner rather than later.

7. In his first IndyCar oval race, Max Chilton finished seventh. He made a few bold moves but more importantly he kept his nose clean and completed all the laps. This is a huge step forward for him and a huge boost of confidence heading into the rest of the season, especially the Indianapolis 500.

8. Sébastien Bourdais grazed the wall and finished eighth. He benefitted as he went slightly off strategy because of the contact and ended up in the top ten. Sometimes that happens.

9. Juan Pablo Montoya was the second of Penske's tire failures. It was just a Penske thing as no one else had tires go down. Montoya looked like a contender for the victory in the first 100 laps. What could have been?

10. Ryan Hunter-Reay earned a test with McLaren-Honda for tonight. He passed five drivers on the initial start and passed at least two drivers on every restart tonight. If only he could have caught a break with cautions. Twice he pits and the caution comes out a lap later. He should have finished in the top five and perhaps he could have stolen a spot on the podium. Frustrating but encouraging as Hunter-Reay knows he can run with the Chevrolets even when it is an up hill battle.

11. Hélio Castroneves cut a tire while leading and never really recovered. Castroneves and Montoya both did great jobs not getting into the barriers when entering turn one at about 190 MPH. 

12. Quick run through the rest of the field: Charlie Kimball was 12th after his penalty for chopping Newgarden. Marco Andretti ran just outside the top ten all day. Alexander Rossi nearly had a top ten but he had to pit to top off on fuel when the pits were closed and was sent to the back of the line. Then Rossi tapped the barrier to bring out the final caution but he ends up 14th. Takuma Sato did nothing but ended up 15th. Conor Daly did nothing but ended up 16th. Mikhail Alehsin nearly had a top ten but spun entering the pit lane under caution to make his final stop and he settles for 17th. James Hinchcliffe's oval return sees him final 18th. Jack Hawksworth was never a factor. Other than his lazy spin, Luca Filippi ran 243 laps in his oval debut. Ed Carpenter had another top ten on an oval taken away from him because he got into the marbles. Carlos Muñoz had what was probably the worst weekend of his IndyCar career.

13. It was a good race. It was interesting to see when a driver would make a move and it took a lot of skill to make a pass. I think IndyCar should listen to Will Power though and take downforce out of the cars and increase the horsepower a little bit. That and Firestone should bring a tire that is more like the Texas tire and falls off gradually but significantly over an entire stint. Dario Franchitti and J.R. Hildebrand seem to feel the same way about taking out downforce. I hope IndyCar considers it.

14. Rick Allen did a really good job in the booth on his IndyCar debut. The race went so fast that Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy lost track of how many laps were left when the final caution came out with two to go. Other than that, a solid broadcast for NBCSN in its first race of 2016.

15. On to Long Beach and I guess the championship picture is jumbled up. I didn't see the championship table after Phoenix. I know Pagenaud is leading but with Montoya having a first and ninth from two races and Dixon having a seventh and first and Hunter-Reay with a third and tenth I would guess that it is pretty close from first to fifth. There are a lot of races to go. Long Beach is in two weeks. Sleep tight boys and girls. 

Morning Warm-Up: Phoenix 2016

Phoenix will have an all-Brazilian front row.

Chevrolet dominated qualifying for the Phoenix Grand Prix and two of the most-experienced drivers will start on row one. Hélio Castroneves won his 46th career pole position and his second at Phoenix International Raceway. The Penske driver had a two-lap average of 192.324 MPH. Castroneves won the 2002 Phoenix race from pole position. That 2002 race was Castroneves' first victory from pole position on an oval. Tony Kanaan will start second, his third career front row start in four Phoenix appearances. This is the eighth time Castroneves and Kanaan have started on the front row together. Both drivers are the only previous Phoenix winners in tonight's race. Kanaan could become the ninth driver with at least three Phoenix victories and Castroneves could become the 14th driver with at least two Phoenix victories.

Championship leader Juan Pablo Montoya qualified in third position, nearly a mile per hour behind Castroneves. This will be Montoya's first career start at Phoenix in an IndyCar. The Colombian made 14 Phoenix starts in the NASCAR Cup Series. His best finish in NASCAR at Phoenix was fifth. Charlie Kimball qualified on the outside of row two. This matches Kimball's best career starting position when he qualified fourth for the 2013 Fontana race. Kimball is going for consecutive top ten finishes for the first time since he finished fifth and third in the two Indianapolis races last year. Ed Carpenter will start fifth. Two of Carpenter's three career victories have come from fifth on the grid and he had won the last two races he started fifth (Fontana 2012 and Texas 2014). Scott Dixon will be on the outside of row three. Dixon is attempting to set a record for most consecutive seasons with at least one victory. Dixon has won a race in 11 consecutive seasons.

Josef Newgarden was the final driver to qualify above the 190-MPH average and he will start seventh. He finished second last year at Iowa from seventh on the grid. Newgarden has finished in the top five in the last four short oval races. Max Chilton will start eighth in his first career IndyCar oval race. Chilton finished sixth and first in his two Indy Lights oval starts last year at Milwaukee and Iowa. Will Power and Simon Pagenaud will start on an all-Penske row five. Power has won five races when starting outside the top five (Toronto 2007, Barber 2012, Long Beach 2012, Houston 2 2013, Belle Isle 1 2014). Pagenaud has never won an oval race and the furthest back he has won from was sixth at Belle Isle 2 in 2013.

Marco Andretti was the top Honda qualifier in 11th and he has gone 77 starts since his last victory at Iowa in 2011. Ryan Hunter-Reay makes it an all-Andretti Autosport row six. Hunter-Reay has won three races when starting outside the top ten and two of those have come at ovals (Indianapolis 2014, Iowa 2015). Only Scott Dixon has more victories from starting outside the top ten amongst active drivers with four. Mikhail Aleshin qualified 13th in his first oval appearance since Fontana 2014, where Aleshin was injured in a practice accident. Aleshin finished eighth at his last oval start at Milwaukee in 2014. Alexander Rossi will make his oval debut from 14th on the grid. Phoenix has been the site to the first IndyCar victory for seven drivers: Gary Bettenhausen, George Follmer, Swede Savage, Kevin Cogan, Roberto Guerrero, Robby Gordon and Jim Guthrie. It was the only victory for Follmer, Savage, Cogan and Guthrie.

Sébastien Bourdais was the slowest Chevrolet qualifier and will start 15th. Bourdais has failed to finish in the top fifteen in the last four races, the longest drought in his IndyCar career. He did finish first and ninth in the two short oval races last year. Luca Filippi will make his oval debut from 16th on the grid. Teo Fabi is the only Italian-national to win at Phoenix and Fabi was the first foreign driver to win at Phoenix in the fall of 1983. Filippi also started 16th at St. Petersburg. Jack Hawksworth qualified 17th. Hawksworth has started 17th in his only two top ten finishes on ovals. He went from 17th to tenth at Milwaukee in 2014 and from 17th to tenth last year at Fontana. Conor Daly qualified on the outside of row nine. His father Derek's best Phoenix finish was 12th in 1989. That was Derek Daly's final Phoenix start.

Graham Rahal will start 19th. He won from 19th last year at Fontana. His father Bobby won at Phoenix twice. Carlos Muñoz will start 20th after his accident in qualifying. This matches Muñoz's worst start on an oval since he started 20th at Milwaukee in 2014. Takuma Sato and James Hinchcliffe will start on the final row after both drivers suffered accidents in practice.

The 2016 Phoenix Grand Prix can be seen at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN with green flag scheduled for 9:15 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.

Track Walk: Phoenix 2016

IndyCar's first night race of the season takes place at Phoenix

IndyCar's 62nd race from Phoenix International Raceway comes 11 years after the 61st race around the one-mile oval. The wait is finally over and IndyCar's return will come under the lights for the 250-mile Phoenix Grand Prix. Juan Pablo Montoya enters as the championship leader after the Colombian won his second consecutive Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Four of the 22 drivers entered for the Phoenix Grand Prix were in the last IndyCar race held at Phoenix.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday April 2nd. Green flag at 9:15 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN.

Announcers: Rick Allen calls his first IndyCar race (Leigh Diffey is on Formula One duty) and Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy join Allen in the booth. Kevin Lee, Marty Snider, Kate Hargritt and Robin Miller will work the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice- 1:00-2:15 p.m. ET (75 minutes). NBCSN will have live coverage of this session.

Qualifying- 5:00-6:00 p.m. ET. NBCSN will have live coverage of this session.

Final Practice- 6:15-6:45 p.m. ET (30 minutes).

Saturday:

Race- 9:15 p.m. ET (250 laps).

KV Racing Transporter Fire
The 2012 Indianapolis 500 winning team KV Racing nearly had its race weekend end before the team even arrived to Phoenix International Raceway. The team's transporter suffered a fire just outside Peoria, Arizona that damaged the vehicle. Fortunately, neither of the two team members were hurt and the car and equipment was undamaged.

It appears the team will compete at Phoenix as scheduled. 

Eleven Years Later

Four drivers were in the last IndyCar race from Phoenix 11 years ago. 

Sam Hornish, Jr. won the race with Hélio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan rounding out the podium. Both Castroneves and Kanaan have won at Phoenix. Castroneves won at the track in 2002 while Kanaan won consecutive races in 2003 and 2004. Castroneves has five starts at Phoenix and finished in the top six four times. His worst start and finish at Phoenix came in his Phoenix debut in 2001 when he started 17th and finished 18th after an engine failure. Castroneves has led in four of his five Phoenix appearances. 

Kanaan has only made three starts at Phoenix so the Brazilian has perfect attendance on the podium with his two wins and third. In 2005, Kanaan went from 21st to third. He has completed all 600 laps and has led 272 of those laps. 

Scott Dixon finished 12th in the last Phoenix race, two laps down. The New Zealander has finished outside the top ten in two of his three Phoenix starts. He finished 20th in 2003 after a gearbox issue after leading 34 laps, the only laps he has led at Phoenix. His lone lead-lap finish at Phoenix was in 2004 when he finished second. 

Ed Carpenter makes his first start of 2016 at Phoenix, a track he has raced at twice previously. He finished 19th in 2004 after starting 16th and finished 16th in 2005 after starting 19th. He finished seven laps down in 2005 and had an accident end his race in 2004 after 132 laps. Carpenter also ran one Indy Lights race at Phoenix. He started 12th and finished 13th in 2003. 

While these four drivers all have IndyCar experience at Phoenix, they aren't the only ones who have been around Phoenix. 

Juan Pablo Montoya made 14 starts in NASCAR at the one-mile oval. Montoya's best finish was fifth in the spring of 2010, where he led 104 of 378 laps, and he had two other top ten finishes. His average finish was 15.1 in NASCAR at Phoenix. He completed 4,439 of 4,446 laps in those 14 starts. 

Will Phoenix Become Another Playground for Andretti Autosport? 

Andretti Autosport dominates short tracks and Phoenix is the sight of Michael Andretti's first victory as a car owner. The team has won the last six Iowa races and seven of nine at Iowa and Andretti Autosport won two of the last four Milwaukee races. Dating back to 2008, Andretti Autosport has won ten of seventeen short track races. 

The team has two Phoenix victories, both at the hands of Tony Kanaan. Kanaan's victory in 2003 was Andretti Green Racing's first victory after Michael Andretti bought into Team Green and the team moved from CART to the IRL. Michael Andretti's only Phoenix IndyCar victory as a driver came in the autumn of 1986 when he led 166 of 200 laps. It was the final IndyCar season that featured two Phoenix races. Michael Andretti also won twice at Phoenix in the SCCA Super Vee Series, both coming in his 1982 championship winning season. 

Andretti Autosport has a habit of winning first races at tracks or return races. Andretti Green won the first Iowa race and won the return (and farewell) race at Loudon in 2011. Andretti Green also won the return races at St. Petersburg, Sonoma and the first return to Belle Isle in 2007. 

Andretti Autosport victories have also been the kiss of death for tracks as the team has won many final IndyCar races at tracks. Besides Loudon, Andretti Autosport has won the most recent IndyCar race at Michigan, Nazareth, Pikes Peak and São Paulo, all tracks currently not on the IndyCar schedule. 

Indy Lights

The third round of the Indy Lights season will take place this weekend. Just like IndyCar, this is the first time Indy Lights returns to Phoenix for the first time since 2005. 

Carlin driver Félix Serrallés enters as the Indy Lights championship leader. The Puerto Rican driver leads American and Juncos Racing's Kyle Kaiser by one-point and Swede and Belardi Auto Racing's Felix Rosenqvist by two points. Serrallés and Rosenqvist split the St. Petersburg races while Kaiser finished third and second at the season opening weekend. 

Scott Hargrove is tied for fourth with André Negrão, 17 points behind Serrallés. Hargrove finished second in race one at St. Petersburg but finished 14th, a lap down in race two. The Canadian is confirmed for Phoenix and Barber but continues to work on a full season with Team Pelfrey. Negrão finished sixth and fifth in his debut weekend with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Belardi's Zach Veach had a victory slip through his fingers in race one at St. Petersburg but rallied for a third in the next race. Veach trails Serrallés by 20 points. Andretti Autosport's Dean Stoneman is a point behind Veach and defending Pro Mazda champion Santiago Urrutia is a point behind Stoneman. RC Enerson is a point behind his SPM teammate Urrutia.

Ed Jones and Juan Piedrahita are tied for tenth in the championship on 25 points. Jones holds the tiebreaker with his best finishing being seventh to Piedrahita's eighth. Scott Anderson is five points behind Jones and Piedrahita but he will not be in the car at Phoenix. Korean Heamin Choi will replace Anderson. Andretti teammates Dalton Kellett and Shelby Blackstock are tied on 17 points. Zachary Claman De Melo and Neil Alberico both have 15 points. 

Fast Facts

This will be the first IndyCar race on April 2nd since 2006 when Hélio Castroneves won at St. Petersburg.

IndyCar raced at Phoenix on April 2, 1995. Robby Gordon scored his first IndyCar victory that day.

Chevrolet has won at Phoenix seven times, the most recent being in 2002 with Hélio Castroneves. 

Honda's has won at Phoenix twice, both won by Tony Kanaan in 2003-04. 

Fifty-two of 61 Phoenix IndyCar races have been won by American drivers. Teo Fabi was the first foreign driver to win at Phoenix in 1983. Fabi's victory was the most recent caution-less race at Phoenix. 

Chevrolet has won the last 21 pole positions in IndyCar. The last Honda pole position was Simon Pagenaud at Houston 1 in 2014.

Honda has not won a pole position for an oval race since Dario Franchitti won pole position for Iowa in 2012. 

The average starting position for a Phoenix winner is 4.311 with the median starting position being third. 

Sixteen times has the pole-sitter won at Phoenix, the most recent being Tony Kanaan in 2003.

Twice has a Phoenix winner started outside the top twenty. Roberto Guerrero scored his first IndyCar victory from 22nd on the grid at Phoenix in 1987. Buddy Lazier won from 26th in 2000. 

Two other times has a Phoenix winner started outside the top ten. In 1968, Gary Bettenhausen won from 13th on the grid. It was Bettenhausen's first career IndyCar victory. In 1974, Mike Mosley won from 19th starting position. 

The average number of lead changes at Phoenix is 5.34 with a median of five. The most lead changes in a Phoenix race is 11, which occurred in the spring of 1986 with Kevin Cogan winning and in Robby Gordon's victory 21 years ago.

Since the CART-era, the average number of cautions at Phoenix is 4.75 for an average of 35.5 laps. The most cautions in a Phoenix race since 1979 are ten on two occasions (1998 and 2003). The most caution laps was 86 in 1997 during nine caution period.

Possible Milestones:
A victory for Scott Dixon would make him the first driver to win a race in twelve consecutive seasons.

Hélio Castroneves needs to lead 48 laps to reach the 5,500 laps led milestone.

Tony Kanaan needs to lead 41 laps to reach the 4,000 laps led milestone.

Will Power needs to lead 70 laps to reach the 3,000 laps led milestone.

Sébastien Bourdais needs to lead 67 laps to reach the 2,500 laps led milestone.

Marco Andretti needs to lead 10 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

Takuma Sato needs to lead 64 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone

James Hinchcliffe needs to lead 76 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Predictions

Marco Andretti gets his first IndyCar victory in 77 starts, matching the same amount of starts between his Sonoma victory and Iowa victory and Andretti starts inside the top ten. Tony Kanaan leads at least 75 laps. Josef Newgarden will rebound for a top five finish. Will Power will be the top finishing Penske driver. There will be at least five cautions and there will be a record-breaking amount of lead changes. At least seven drivers will lead a lap during the race. Not all of the top ten will finish on the lead lap. Sleeper: Jack Hawksworth.   

What Did We Learn From IndyCar's Phoenix Test?

Two days and nights of on-track are in the books from Phoenix International Raceway. With the season opener a fortnight away, what can we take away from the first official test of the season?

1. The Chevrolets Are Still Quicker Than Honda
But not by much. Hélio Castroneves ran the fastest lap of the two days at 19.2735 seconds with his Penske teammate Simon Pageant 0.0149 seconds back. The Ed Carpenter Racing pair of Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter were third and fourth, 0.0182 seconds and 0.0581 seconds back respectively. Marco Andretti was the fastest Honda over the two days at 19.3351 seconds and Ryan Hunter-Reay was the only other Honda in the top ten, 0.1251 seconds behind Castroneves.

The Honda engines used at this test did not have the 2016 performance upgrades, which are due for the season opener. How much are those upgrades worth? Who knows? Will they give the Honda's an extra tenth or two or are we talking a few hundredths of a second? Either way, Honda got its wish and was allowed to tweak their aero kits and in my eyes, now it's time for Honda to work for that extra tenth. If anything, Honda should realize that while Chevrolet won every pole position in 2015, there were plenty of races where Chevrolets just fell to the back and Hondas moved to the front.

I am sure the politicking will go back and forth between the two manufactures all season. Which brings us to point two.

2. Downforce Has Become a Battleground
Michael Andretti wants more of it. Will Power wants less and wants the turbo boost turned up to road and street course levels.

Both are saying they are looking out for the show just like politicians saying they are thinking about the children.

I don't know whom to believe. Could Michael Andretti be saying "more downforce" because he knows Honda can compete in terms of downforce and Chevrolet has the advantage in terms of sheer horsepower? I can't imagine how these teams could get more downforce generated. Did Michael Andretti not see the times that were posted?

Personally, I am with Power. Turn up the turbo boost, take off downforce and force the drivers to lift in the corners and really drive the cars.

To be fair to both Andretti and Power, we haven't seen how these cars race after tires degradation. The good news is we are getting to these problems in February, five weeks prior to the Phoenix race instead of during the race weekend. New vice president of competition Bill Pappas has already talked about removing downforce. I am sure a solution will be found before the race weekend.

3. The Track Record Was Shattered
A lot of people wondered how fast these cars could go at Phoenix and whether the track record was in danger entering this test. Arie Luyenduk's twenty-year-old track record (granted on a different configuration), was broken by 18 of the 21 drivers who took to the track this weekend. Castroneves, Pagenaud and Newgarden were all over three-tenths quicker. The top seven from the test all ran laps over the 190 MPH average.

Depending on what the aero package is when the series returns in April, that track record could officially fall.

4. Gabby Chaves Passed the Audition
Mikhail Aleshin couldn't enter the United States due to visa issues and that opened the door for Gabby Chaves to substitute for the Russian in the #7 Honda. While Chaves was 17th fastest with his best lap clocking in at 19.5699 seconds, he showed that he deserves a sophomore season and deserves it now.

Unfortunately for Chaves, IndyCar rides don't grow on trees. I bet Sam Schmidt wants to reward Chaves for stepping up at the last minute and being so competitive but that's not going to happen. If only that Colombian coffee company that back Carlos Huertas would sponsor Chaves. Perhaps Chaves could become the road/street course driver in the #20 Chevrolet as that has yet to be announced the full-time status of that car appears to hang in the balance. I hope the 2015 Rookie of the Year returns for an extended period in 2016.

5. The Rookies Held Their Own
While Spencer Pigot and Alexander Rossi were spectators, Max Chilton and Conor Daly were on the track and neither put a wheel wrong.

Chilton was 18th but only 0.2964 seconds behind Castroneves. Daly was 20th but only 0.4755 seconds back. With the field being so close, being toward the bottom of the speed chart isn't necessarily a bad sign. Both gained experience and that is what matters most entering the season.

6. A Lot of People Showed Up When It Was Free. Now, How Many Will Open Their Wallets?
The crowd was so big for this test that the track had to open another parking lot for fans. That sounds great but this is a free test. How many will shell out $50-$75 for two tickets? I was wondering if the track would be selling tickets during the test and I hope they were. I don't know what the crowd will be like. Anything in the 25,000-30,000 range should be taken as a victory by both the track and the series considering it has been 11 years since IndyCar last raced at the track. It's a little late for a title sponsor to jump on but that is something the track and series will need, along with a healthy size crowd, for this race to become a regular occurrence on the schedule.

7. Everyone Is Glad To Be In Phoenix
The Beatles' "Long, Long, Long" should be played prior to the first practice on April 1st. Phoenix is one of the handful of tracks people can't believe IndyCar has been away from for so long. This is a track that is apart of IndyCar's identity and yet IndyCar let it go. IndyCar has had great races on short tracks and the fact there aren't five or six on the schedule is hard to fathom. IndyCar should have figured out a way to make Milwaukee work (Step one: Not moving it to a different weekend every year and at a different time of the day). Along with Phoenix, Iowa and Milwaukee, IndyCar should be at Richmond, Loudon and Gateway as well as return to Fontana and Michigan and experiment with Darlington because I think we would all like to see what IndyCars at Darlington would look like. IndyCar need to find a way to work with these tracks.

It takes years for a race to build a following and they can't be abandoned after three or four tough years. These venues that actually exist and have roots in the ground are the venues IndyCar should be going to if it hopes to grow and not street circuits, which have a shelf life that is shorter than skim milk (Boston, Baltimore, Houston, I am looking at you).

8. Announcing a Driver is Returning is Not a "Big Announcement."
KV Racing tweeted they had a "big announcement" prior to today's test and that "big announcement" turned out to be that Sébastien Bourdais would be returning for another season. That's not a big announcement. You don't know invite your parents over for dinner to tell them that you are your spouse are still married. You do that when a child is on the way or someone got a promotion. The Baltimore Ravens aren't going to have an announcement that Joe Flacco is returning as starting quarterback.

Want to know what a "big announcement" is? KV changing its mind and running a second car for Gabby Chaves after seeing how good he ran on Friday. Or announcing an Indianapolis 500 entry for someone along the lines of Townsend Bell. Or doing something spectacular and announcing that KV is bringing a third engine manufacture into IndyCar for the 2017 season.

Those all would fall in the category of big announcement. Announcing the driver you have had for the last two seasons is returning for a third isn't a big announcement.

With that cleared up, we can now turn our eyes to the final two weeks of the IndyCar offseason. Teams will be testing in Sebring later this week. Two weeks. Two more weeks.