First Impressions: Sonoma 2018

1. We start with the champion and for the fifth time Scott Dixon has claimed the IndyCar championship. It was a Scott Dixon day. He didn't have to push and second was good enough. He won three races, stood on the podium nine times, finished every race and his worst result was 12th. He never had a bad day. We know that. We knew the man was teflon at Portland. Once he escaped the lap one accident in Oregon the title was destined to be his.

Only two men have won more IndyCar races than Scott Dixon. Only one man has more IndyCar championships than Dixon. This year has washed out any skepticism that could possibly remain that he isn't one of the greatest drivers we have ever seen. He move up the record book in multiple categories passing the names Andretti and Unser and Foyt along the way. Any argument against him was squashed. The man will talked about for generations to come in the United States and New Zealand.

There is one thing I have noticed with Scott Dixon's historic success and that is the lack of push back. Jimmie Johnson's run to seven NASCAR Cup championships was met with resistance. Many didn't want to see him do it. Plenty have laid blame at his feet for NASCAR's decline. Lewis Hamilton is experiencing the same kind of hatred in Formula One. History has not been embraced. It has been ridiculed.

Dixon has become more of a fan favorite the more he has raced and won. He is making a way into folklore. He might not be John Henry or Paul Bunyan but there is a sense of myth behind the man from New Zealand. He can go further on fuel then anybody else in the field. He can start 22nd at Mid-Ohio and win. Two weeks ago at Portland, his ability to be engulfed in an accident and emerge from the dust with all four wheels intact, engine running and a scuffed nose added to the legend. Other drivers have gotten their brakes but few have a list of absurd survivals as Dixon. A.J. Foyt might be the only other driver that comes close.  

I don't know why Dixon, through the string of championships and dominating race victories, has become popular when every other driver of his caliber in other series has become a villain. Dixon wasn't beloved from the start. There was a bit of resentment against Dixon for a long time. His IndyCar career started during a period of resentment. Nobody could find a reason to be happy because the kingdom had been set ablaze. The palaces were gone. The streets were in ruin. We were pissed. The stature had been lost and we knew it was never coming back. 

It took us, the IndyCar fan base, a long time to reach acceptance but in the last six years we not only made it there but we have come to appreciate what we have. The lost USAC talents of Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, the blunted careers of Alex Zanardi and Greg Moore, the historic events that died and the home runs that died on the warning tracks do not occupy the IndyCar mindset. We have reached a point where we are happy with what we have and that includes Scott Dixon. 

He stuck around. Should that be enough? Well... it is. Just before Dixon's prime IndyCar was not the fashionable place. It is hard to fault a driver for chasing money and bouncing to NASCAR but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of a fan base. Dixon didn't abandon ship and we know he could have at any time. He has the talent to succeed anywhere. He choses to be here. 

IndyCar lost a lot over the last twenty years. In Scott Dixon, the series has found the 21st century legend and somebody that can be embraced.

2. It didn't quite work out today for Alexander Rossi. It was a day from hell but he rose from it. It would have been easy to roll over after the turn one incident where he ran into the back of Marco Andretti, breaking his front wing and deflating his right front tire. The man was dead last for far longer than he ever imagined. He was a lap down. The day was over. 

Then he got a break, made a pit stop and came out on the lead lap. The charge was on and he went from 15th to sixth in one stint. He rolled the dice and stopped early and forced Dixon's hand. Time had run out but he put himself back in a position to take the title had Dixon faltered. He did run out of fuel coming to the line, ironically the same thing happened in his first Sonoma start. Seventh is what he wanted. 

Hindsight is a bitch. He pretty much got back where he started. What would his race have looked like had he gotten through turn one? All races are long races. The first step is getting through the first lap. Rossi arguably had the best season of the year. He left a lot of points on the table. I am not sure they would have all added up to get him the title over Dixon but Rossi is young. This was only his 50th start. This was his third season. There is always next year. 

Alexander Rossi's was everybody's sleeper for 2018 at the end of last season. This wasn't some bullshit young driver with a bit of success but no results and elevated because of a load of hope. Rossi wasn't messing around. He was quick and mixing it with the big boys early in his career. He had his stumbling blocks but it didn't take long for him to cement himself as a driver to keep an eye on at every race weekend.  

The days leading up to the finale were spent looking at the three-year arc of Rossi's IndyCar career. The resentment Dixon had Rossi also fought. He wasn't invested enough. He wasn't passionate enough. He wasn't open enough. To some, despite being born in California, he probably wasn't American enough. All that counterbalanced the talent, the driver who was holding his own in Europe, finished second in the GP2 Series to a McLaren development driver and made it to Formula One. Rossi has probably been the best American driver in single-seater racing for the last five years but the European junior series do not get any attention in the United States. Rossi mind as well have been driving a forklift at Costco. It would have earned him more respect. 

But it is funny what success can do in three years. Rossi wasn't floundering around at the back. He wasn't someone IndyCar fans could poo-poo as just another inflated talent who spent years in Europe and around the Formula One landscape and thought they were the shit. Rossi backed it up. He stepped on toes along the way. He has never cared. 

Rossi is the American driver we wanted. He doesn't give an inch. He isn't polite. He doesn't let anyone else push him around. It doesn't matter how many races or championships a competitor has won, Rossi doesn't let it faze him. The accolades aren't in mind when he behind the wheel. He doesn't see championships and race victories in his mirrors. It is just another driver and one he is beating. 

Dixon and Rossi both fall in a boat of drivers who we wonder what they could do if given a shot at Formula One. Rossi got there but we knew his time would be brief and results were not going to be impressive. Dixon may be fine with never getting that shot but Rossi is young enough for a second go. Rossi might be content with IndyCar but his ruthlessness and swagger could lead him to take another swing at it and he would know IndyCar is always there to return to. 

3. On to the race winner and Ryan Hunter-Reay finally gets a top five championship finish. He hadn't finished in the top five of the championship since he took the 2012 title. Every year Hunter-Reay has at least three races where things go against him and they are usually mechanical failures while he is in the top five. It happened this year at Gateway. Before that there was Pocono where he and Robert Wickens got together. He lost it into the turn three tires at Toronto and he had no radio at Iowa before suspension issues derailed his day. And everybody seemed to hit him at Long Beach. If there were only 12 races a season Hunter-Reay might win the title every year. 

All joking aside, after two years where Hunter-Reay couldn't get back to the top step of the podium he ends 2018 with two victories and six podium finishes. All ten of Hunter-Reay's top ten finishes were top five finishes. This was a "he's still got it year" for Hunter-Reay. There is no shame in not winning a race in an IndyCar season. It is difficult. There are only 17 races. Plenty of top names do not win a race. But when you don't win a race for two consecutive years you start to ask questions. Hunter-Reay's career was left for dead 12 years ago. He has come a long way. He is getting older. He has 18 victories. The only full-time active drivers with more are Dixon, Sébastien Bourdais and Will Power. He isn't as celebrated as those three but he has had a stellar career. 

4. Will Power got another podium finish and it was a year where Power could have won the title but the last three years Power has won a bunch and then piled up retirements. This year was an un-Penske year. The things that went wrong always seemed to bite Power and they were little things. Power is no longer the skittish driver when it comes to crunch time. If the team can sure up the things under the body work Power will win another title.

5. Simon Pagenaud will end the year with ten consecutive top ten finishes after he finished fourth today and 2018 was a disappointment. I am not sure there is a driver who was as close to the front as he was and not a contender. Other than Texas there wasn't a race where Pagenaud was fighting for the victory. He was quick but didn't have that last bit to get him over the top. This year is already being compared to 2015 where Pagenaud's first year with Penske was also the first year of the aero kit. The results didn't come but then he came out like gangbusters in 2016. I think Pagenaud will win a race next year but the field is too deep for him to dominate like that again.

6. Marco Andretti rounded out the top five and finished in the top ten of the championship despite entering the day in 12th! You cannot say this was a bad year for Andretti. He was solid. He isn't a flashy driver but he can hold his own. He had eight top ten finishes this year. It just doesn't seem to click for Andretti. He will be fast on Friday and be in the top five in both practice sessions and then in qualifying not make it out of round one. If he can find that consistency I think he can win a race or two. A championship is a stretch but Andretti could still have a breakout year despite being around for more than a decade. 

7. Sébastien Bourdais nipped Rossi at the line for sixth. Bourdais was all over the board this year. He seemed to have it at the start of the year but then things hit the fan and he couldn't get a result. He ended strong with four top ten finishes in the final five races. I think this team could put together an underdog championship run but Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing have to be on it every week and can never had a day of misfortune. I am excited for what this pairing can do next year.

8. Josef Newgarden does not defend his title and for the first time he does not improve his championship position. That streak was bound to end. After all, you can't do better than champion. He won three races but didn't stand on the podium in any other races. He only had three other top five finishes this year. He still finished fifth in the championship. There is no need to be concerned. He will be fine next year.

9. Patricio O'Ward is going to have a full-time ride this year. He started fifth and finished ninth on debut. That is pretty good for a kid who had not driven an IndyCar until one test day last week. It is easy to hype a rookie. It seems like we do it every three years and pronounce a driver as the next great young star and about one in ten of those live up to the hype. I think O'Ward will be fun to watch next year.

10. Ed Jones likely ends his Chip Ganassi Racing tenure with a tenth place finish. I think Jones is quick and could become a decent driver but I think he was rushed into the Ganassi seat. I think Ganassi took a flier and it ended up not going as the team had hoped. At the same time, I don't think Ganassi was that invested in Jones. The Felix Rosenqvist talks all summer kind of confirm that. But this is the second consecutive year Ganassi has had a poor falling out with drivers. Last year, Tony Kanaan and Max Chilton were disappointed in team decisions to retire cars when they wanted to compete. I wonder what the culture is like in that team. Dixon deserves all that he gets but one day Dixon will not be there and how will the team handle its drivers then? Let's keep an eye on this.

11. Santino Ferrucci's brief IndyCar rookie season ends with an 11th place finish. He wasn't that far off his teammates in the final two races. I will be honest and say I think he is a bit of a punk and he is trying to be the victim after the Formula Two incident. If he is full-time next year there will be rough patches and let's see how he handles it. There is a room for somebody that is not liked.

12. Tony Kanaan's 300th consecutive start ends with a 12th place finish. This was not the dream season he and A.J. Foyt Racing had in mind. I think it will be an uphill battle next year. 

13. We are going to speed through the rest of the field. Jordan King went from 25th to 13th, which is good. King's rookie year was good. He showed pace but never got a top ten. I think he will stick around.

14. Zach Veach's rookie year didn't end as planned but he showed he is game for IndyCar and I expect him to pick it up in his sophomore year.

15. James Hinchcliffe struggles to end a season on a good note. He holds onto a top ten championship position on tiebreaker over teammate Robert Wickens, the guy that missed the final three races. That seems fitting. A lot happened to this team but the final results are disappointing.

16. I am going to cover a few part-time drivers in one go: Pietro Fittipaldi held his own in his few starts. I want to see what he can do with more time and when he is healthy. Jack Harvey and Meyer Shank Racing had moments this year, Long Beach and the Indianapolis 500 to be specific but the team didn't leave a mark. I think they could and we will have to see what 2019 brings. Carlos Muñoz's second race as substitute for Robert Wickens wasn't great. I think Muñoz should be a full-time competitor.

17. Matheus Leist wasn't great in his rookie year and outside of his first qualifying run at St. Petersburg and a respectable showing in Indianapolis 500 qualifying, he was non-existent. It makes you wonder if Foyt made the right decision going out on a limb for a teenager over keeping one of Muñoz or Conor Daly. 

18. Colton Herta's debut wasn't as great as his teammate's but he is 18 years old. He is the first driver born in the 21st century to start an IndyCar race. Give him some time.

19. Carlin's first IndyCar season ends with Max Chilton in 21st and Charlie Kimball in 22nd. Chilton's one good day was qualifying at Mid-Ohio. I think everyone expected it to be a rough year but Chilton never had a good day. Kimball got top ten finishes for the team. I think the team should be pleased but know it has to do better in 2019 and it should expect to build and do better.

20. Spencer Pigot's finale ended prematurely again. He will be back with Ed Carpenter Racing next year. It would make sense to keep King as the road/street course driver but I think Pigot would benefit from another veteran teammate at road/street courses. He needs someone to lean on and I think that would be much better for his development.

21. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's year ended with double retirements. Graham Rahal didn't win a race but he was in the top ten more than he wasn't. Takuma Sato won a race and had pace. The team was just a bit off this year and it may have been because of the expansion to two cars but I think the team can get back to where it was and retaining both drivers for 2019 is a positive

22. Finally, let's cover the start of this race and the clash with NASCAR. Live television folks, you got to love it. It was unfortunate. It was hysterical as well but sometimes this happens and it sucks the race had to start on CNBC and then be simulcasted on NBCSN during the red flag for the NASCAR race and then go back to CNBC only and then wait for the NASCAR race victory lane interview. 

It will not happen next year with the Laguna Seca finale likely on network NBC and with the NASCAR Cup race the night before at Richmond. Everything worked out though. It was a pain and a buzzkill. I am not sure IndyCar could have held off the start any longer. There are people at the track and they showed up for a scheduled start time. There are a lot of people that have to be pleased and in this scenario somebody has to lose out. 

In the end, it worked out. The race ended on NBCSN, Rossi's charge through the field was on NBCSN and we got to see Scott Dixon and his family be handed the Astor Cup on NBCSN. Everything was fine.

23. This was the final race with Verizon as title sponsor of IndyCar and it is tough to see Verizon go. It is odd any time a title sponsor or any sponsor is leaving. Everyone thanks the company for its support, whether it was for one season or 21 seasons but at the same time it is understandable to feel angry. The partnership is deemed no longer viable for business. The money is gone and the series, teams, drivers and crews are left wondering where the money is going to come from. 

Verizon did a really good job for five years. We shouldn't expect companies to commit for anything longer than that. We were fooled during the days of tobacco money. We thought everyone had a pot that large and deep. In the last 15 years we have learned that isn't the case. After all Coca-Cola doesn't need to spend $25 million dollars to sell soda. Mars doesn't need to spend $25 million to sell M&Ms. The return on investment isn't practical when it comes to consumer products. 

The next title sponsor for IndyCar will likely have the same shelf life. In five years we will be back here again. The truth is there isn't that wonder company that will dump money down the IndyCar drain. The Amazons/Apples/Microsofts of the world don't have to go crazy with promotional dollars and motorsports makes no sense. What company will see it as worth it?

24. This was the final race for Sonoma. It is tough to see it go. I went in 2009. Sonoma is a lovely venue and not far from San Francisco. Sonoma was on the schedule for 14 consecutive years. That is quite impressive considering IndyCar's recent history and that is part of the reason why it will be missed. It was one of the venues we got used to when racetracks were skeptical about IndyCar. 

On the flip side, Sonoma never got the racetrack layout correct. The esses were deemed too fast with not enough runoff room for IndyCar, so the series ran the turn nine section. The hairpin was deemed not to have enough runoff from so the series ran the motorcycle hairpin before having an intermediate hairpin for the latter years. 

I wish Sonoma had tried something. I wrote about this before. I was open to anything. Sonoma doesn't have an iconic layout. The track has been altered so much over the last two decades and IndyCar didn't have a long history with the track. No one was partial to any layout. 

The race moved to mid-September three years ago and that move didn't help. The attendance was sparse in late August and moving the race back and moving the start time back to after 3:30 p.m. local time didn't make it better. 

Sonoma was in an odd spot at the end: Not drawing a large enough crowd to turn heads but beloved within the paddock because sponsors loved the location. It became a holiday week to end the season. It has been a corporate weekend, not a fan weekend. 

A lot of people wish for Sonoma to return soon but with Laguna Seca set to host the finale for the next three years I am not sure that will happen. Sonoma could be run in February when it is green but that isn't going to happen. It may return one day but it is likely further away than most wish for.

25. Another late night. It is ironic the best Sonoma race was the final Sonoma race. Not every finale is going to be a thriller. This race lost some of its luster in turn one. It happens. Now the offseason is here and we have a lot of review. But that is for tomorrow. Enjoy the night.

Morning Warm-Up: Sonoma 2018

Ryan Hunter-Reay's pole position took a point out of the championship fight

Ryan Hunter-Reay won his first pole position since Long Beach 2014 with a lap of 77.6277 seconds on the final lap of the Fast Six session for the final Grand Prix of Sonoma and the final round of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season. It is the seventh pole position of Hunter-Reay's IndyCar career. This is the American's first front row starting position of the season and his first career front row start at Sonoma. He has only led nine laps in his career at this track. If Hunter-Reay were to finish on the podium at Sonoma it would be his sixth podium finish of the season and it would match his single-season career-high in that category. Hunter-Reay will end the season with 11 consecutive top ten starting position and five consecutive top five starting positions. He has five consecutive top ten finishes at Sonoma. Hunter-Reay's pole position also stole a point away from championship leader Scott Dixon as the Kiwi missed out on the first spot on the grid by 0.1322 seconds. It is Dixon's best starting position this season on a natural-terrain road course and it is his best starting position at Sonoma since he started second in 2013. Dixon will have started in the top ten in all 14 of his Sonoma starts.

Josef Newgarden will start on row two with Marco Andretti. This will be Newgarden's ninth consecutive race starting on one of the first two rows and this is the fifth consecutive top ten starting position for Newgarden at Sonoma. Newgarden enters with 484 laps led this season. He will finish with no worse than the second most laps led this season and it will be the fourth consecutive year Newgarden will end the year in at least the top three of laps led. Andretti's fourth place starting position is his best at Sonoma since he started fourth in 2009. This was Andretti's first appearance in the Fast Six since the 2014 season opener at St. Petersburg. The last time Andretti started in the top five and finished better than his starting position was at Iowa in 2012 when he started third and finished second. Andretti did start and finish third at Fontana in 2015.

Patricio O'Ward will make his IndyCar debut from fifth on the grid. The Mexican driver is responsible for Harding Racing's first appearance in the Fast Six and it is also the team's first top five starting position. This is the best starting position for a Mexican driver on debut in IndyCar history. It will be the first top five starting position for a Mexican driver since Mario Domínguez won pole position for the 2006 Houston race. Alexander Rossi rounded out the top six. Rossi had started seven consecutive races in the top five prior to this qualifying effort. He will end the season with a streak of 11 consecutive races starting in the top ten. This will be the second time Rossi has started sixth in his career. He started sixth at Pocono last year and finished third.

The 2018 season finale will be Will Power's worst starting position of the season. The Australian will start seventh. It is the first time in Power's career he will not start on one of the first two rows at Sonoma. Power has started 27 consecutive races inside the top ten. The only time Power has won from seventh on the grid was in the wet at Toronto in 2007. Power is the worst of the four championship contenders on the grid. When the green flag waves, Dixon will have 678 points while Rossi will be on 625 points, Newgarden will be on 581 points and Power will be on 563 points. Simon Pagenaud makes it an all-Team Penske row four. Pagenaud had started the last three Sonoma races from inside the top five. He could become the only driver to win three consecutive Sonoma races. Pagenaud has led 117 laps at Sonoma. The only track Pagenaud has led more laps at is Phoenix, where he has led 119 laps.

Graham Rahal and Zach Veach form an all-Ohioan row five. This is the first time the two drivers have started on the same row together. Rahal is attempting to finish in the top ten of the championship for a fourth consecutive season. He has had multiple podium finishes the last three seasons and he enters Sonoma with his only podium finish in 2018 being second at St. Petersburg. Veach will end 2018 with three consecutive top ten starting positions in races where qualifying was held. His best finish on a natural-terrain road course was tenth at Mid-Ohio. Sébastien Bourdais will start 11th, ending a streak of three consecutive top ten starting positions. Bourdais has never finished in the top five at Sonoma. Takuma Sato rounds out the entries that made it to round two. This was only the third time both Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entries made it out of the first round of qualifying this season. The other two races were Road America and Mid-Ohio. Both cars finished in the top ten at Road America with Sato in fourth and Rahal in sixth. At Mid-Ohio, Rahal came home in ninth and Sato in 17th after a spin early in the race after contact from Max Chilton.

Pietro Fittipaldi will start 13th in the final race of the season. It is Fittipaldi's best qualifying result on a road/street course this season. He finished ninth at Portland two weeks ago and Fittipaldi has equaled or improved on his finishing position in every one of his IndyCar starts. Ed Jones will join Fittipaldi on row seven. Jones had made it out of the first round of qualifying in four of the prior five natural-terrain road course races this season. The only other one he failed to advance at was the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Jones has finished outside the top ten in four of the last five races. James Hinchcliffe has not finished in the top ten in the last four races and the Canadian will start 15th, his worst starting position since he started 16th at Road America. This is the first time in Hinchcliffe's career he has not had a top ten finish in four consecutive races. Hinchcliffe's pseudo-teammate Jack Harvey will start 16th. Harvey is still looking for the first top ten finish of his career.

Spencer Pigot is on row nine for the seventh time this season and he will start 17th for the second consecutive race. Pigot is coming off a fourth place finish at Portland. It was his first top five finish on a road/street course. Tony Kanaan will make his 300th consecutive IndyCar start this weekend and he joins Pigot on row nine. This will also be Kanaan's 360th start and he will be nine behind A.J. Foyt for second most all-time. Kanaan's 300th consecutive start streak has taken place at 48 different tracks (22 ovals, 13 street courses, 11 road courses and two airports) in 22 states, four provinces and eight different countries on five continents.

Tony Kanaan will also become one of three drivers to compete again Bryan Herta and Colton Herta in an IndyCar race, as Colton Herta will make his debut from 19th on the grid. The other two drivers to race against Bryan Herta in IndyCar are Scott Dixon and Marco Andretti. Graham Rahal competed against Bryan Herta in A1GP in 2006 when Rahal ran for Team Lebanon. Sébastien Bourdais also complete against Bryan Herta in the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans and twice in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Simon Pagenaud ran against Bryan Herta when they were on rival Acura teams in the American Le Mans Series in 2006 and 2007. Colton's IndyCar debut will come 12 years and six days after his father's final IndyCar start at Chicagoland in 2006. Bryan started 18th that day and finished 15th. His father Bryan finished ninth on debut after starting 22nd in the 1994 Indianapolis 500 driving for A.J. Foyt Racing. Bryan Herta twice started 19th in his career with the first coming at Toronto in 1995 and the other being at Lausitz in 2001. Ironically, Bryan finished 27th in both races. Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top twenty. Ferrucci has finished 20th in his last two IndyCar starts.

Sonoma will mark the sixth time Max Chilton has started on row 11 this season and Carlos Muñoz will be the sixth different driver to start on row 11 with Chilton this season. The other five drivers are Charlie Kimball, Zachary Claman De Melo, Alfonso Celis, Jr., Matheus Leist and Conor Daly. Muñoz started 22nd last year at Sonoma and finished 15th. Matheus Leist will end his rookie season with the worst starting position of his career in 23rd while Charlie Kimball joins him on row 12. This is Kimball's second consecutive race starting outside the top twenty. This is Kimball's second worst starting position at Sonoma. He started 26th in 2011 and he would finish 26th in that race. Jordan King rounds out the grid and this is the first time King has started outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career.

NBCSN's coverage of the Grand Prix of Sonoma begins after the NASCAR Cup Series race from Las Vegas at 6:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 6:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: Sonoma 2018

For one final time the Bay Area will host the Astor Cup decider

The final round of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season takes place at Sonoma Raceway and one of four drivers have a chance to leave with the Astor Cup as the 2018 IndyCar championship. Scott Dixon has led the championship since his victory at Texas and the New Zealander's 598 points gives him a 29-point advantage over Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi. Team Penske teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden are each 87 points behind Dixon. Dixon is looking to become only the second driver in IndyCar history with at least five championships. Power and Newgarden could both earn their second titles. Northern California's Rossi is looking to become a first-time champion at his home race. This race is a double points race.

Coverage:

Time: Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday September 16th with green flag scheduled for 6:40 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: 2:00 p.m. ET (45-minute session. NBCSN will have taped coverage at 4:00 p.m. ET Friday)

Second Practice: 6:00 p.m. ET (60-minute session. NBCSN will have live coverage of this session)

Saturday:

Third Practice: 2:00 p.m. ET (45-minute session)

Qualifying: 6:00 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have tape-delayed coverage at 8:00 p.m. ET)

Sunday:

Race: 6:40 p.m. ET (85 laps)

Championship Battle
Scott Dixon enters as the championship leader and the only way he can guarantee himself of winning the championship is to finish second.

If Alexander Rossi scores maximum points he will need Dixon to finish third or worse. The worst finish Rossi can have and win the championship is tenth.

Will Power and Josef Newgarden can only win the championship by winning the finale. If either score maximum points they would need Dixon to finish 22nd or worse and Rossi to finish ninth or worse.

All four championship contenders enter tied with three victories apiece. When it comes to tiebreakers, Dixon holds the advantage over Rossi. Each driver has three victories, a second-place finish and four third-place finishes but Dixon has two fourth-place finishes to Rossi's one. Even if Rossi finishes fourth, Dixon holds the tiebreaker with two fifth-place finishes to Rossi's one.

If either Power or Newgarden win the race they will take control of the tiebreaker. The only way there could be a three-way tie if either Power or Newgarden score maximum points, for Rossi to score 46 points, which can only be done by finishing ninth and scoring two bonus points, which can only be done by winning pole position and leading a lap, and Dixon scores 17 points, which can be done either by finishing 22nd and leading a lap or finishing 23rd and leading the most laps.

After not having a top five finish in the first four races of the season, Dixon has top five finishes in 11 of the last 12 races including five consecutive top five finishes. His worst finish this season was 12th at Iowa. His worst finish on a natural-terrain road course this season was sixth at Barber. He has not finished outside the top twenty on a road course since he finished 22nd at Mid-Ohio in 2016. He has the best average finish heading into the finale at 4.375.

While Dixon has been consistent in races, qualifying has been wishy-washier. He has not won a pole position this season and his average starting position is 8.4. He has started outside the top ten in the last two races that featured qualifying and the only time he has made the Fast Six on a natural-terrain road course this season was at Barber, where he started sixth. His average starting position on natural-terrain road courses is 10.4.

Rossi's average starting position of 6.6 is the fourth best this season and he has started in the top five in six consecutive races and in eight of the last nine. He has started ahead of Dixon in six of those nine races. Rossi's average finish of 5.625 is second only to Dixon and he has six consecutive top ten finishes but outside of his stretch of three consecutive podium finishes with victories at Mid-Ohio and Pocono and a runner-up finish at Gateway, his next best finish in this six-race stretch is eighth.

Power has been the king of qualifying this season as the Australian has an average starting position of  2.4. He has won four pole positions this season and he has started on the front row in nine races. Power has started on the front row for all five natural-terrain road course races this season. While Power has been penciled in at the front end of the grid all year, results have been scattered all over the board. He has finished outside the top twenty in four races and three of those results were on natural-terrain road courses.

Newgarden enters with seven consecutive top ten finishes but his only podium in that stretch was his Road America victory. His three victories are his only three podium finishes this season. This could be the fewest podium finishes in a season for the Tennessean since 2014 when his only podium finish was second at Iowa. Newgarden has not been the top Team Penske qualifier since he won pole position at Toronto and he has not been the top Team Penske finisher since he finished fourth at Iowa.

Team Penske has won seven of 14 Sonoma races including the last two years. Power and Dixon are tied for most Sonoma victories with three apiece. Power has won five pole positions at the track and he has never started worse than fourth. His average starting position at the track is 1.9. He has not led a lap in the last two Sonoma race and last year was his fifth podium finish as he rounded out a sweep of the top three for Team Penske. Dixon is tied with Dario Franchitti for most top five finishes at Sonoma with seven and Dixon has eight top ten finishes. In 13 starts, Dixon has failed to complete only one lap at Sonoma. He has made it to the Fast Six on nine occasions. Like Power, Dixon has not led a lap in the last two Sonoma races. Power has led 276 laps at Sonoma, the most all-time and Dixon is third all-time with 121 laps led.

Rossi has started eighth in both his Sonoma starts. He finished fifth after running out of fuel coming to the finish in 2017 and last year an engine issue caused him to only complete 60 of 85 laps and finish 21st. Newgarden's runner-up finish last year was his first podium finish at the track. Prior to that he had finished sixth twice, however, in Newgarden's other three starts he finished outside the top twenty. The defending champion has started on the front row in three of the last four years at Sonoma and last year he started on pole position before leading 41 laps.

Fight For Fifth
Ryan Hunter-Reay is attempting to finish in the top five of the championship for the first time since he won the 2012 championship. The American has 462 points and he is coming off a runner-up finish in Portland, his fifth podium finish of the season. Hunter-Reay will end the season with the third most top five finishes this season regardless of the results on Sunday. He has nine top five finishes, the most he has had in a single season. His ten top ten finishes are his most since 2012.

Hunter-Reay is 34 points ahead of Simon Pagenaud. The Frenchman has won the last two years at Sonoma. Pagenaud is one of three drivers to have won consecutive Sonoma races along with Power and Dixon. Pagenaud has the third best average finish all-time amongst drivers with at least three starts at the track. His average finish of 6.9 is behind only Franchitti's 3.4 and Juan Pablo Montoya's 4.7.

Pagenaud has nine consecutive top ten finishes but he has only three top five finishes this season. Hunter-Reay hit a bit of a rough patch this summer. His runner-up finish at Portland was only his second top fifteen finish in the last six races. His other top ten result was seventh at Mid-Ohio.  Hunter-Reay has five consecutive top ten finishes at Sonoma. He finished runner-up to Dixon in 2014 and 2015 but he has only led nine laps in 11 starts.

Robert Wickens sits seventh in the championship on 391 points and the Canadian has clinched 2018 Rookie of the Year honors.

Top Ten Mixer
Seventy-five points cover eighth to 14th in the championship.

Graham Rahal leads that grouping on 378 points and he is nine points ahead of Sébastien Bourdais in the championship. Rahal has finished outside the top ten in three of the last five races after having ten top ten finishes in the first 11 races. Rahal has not had a top five finish since he finished fifth in the second Belle Isle race. Bourdais' third place finish at Portland was his first podium finish since he won at St. Petersburg. Despite having only two top five finishes in his last eight races compared to three top five finishes in the first eight races Bourdais' average finish in the last eight races is 10.625 compared to 12.25 in the first half of the season.

James Hinchcliffe is eight points behind Bourdais and rounds out the top ten in the championship. He has finished outside the top ten in the last four races after he had nine top ten finishes in the first 12 races of the season. He has not finish on the lead lap in the last three races after he had finished on the lead lap in his first 12 starts. Takuma Sato's Portland victory has him 20 points behind Hinchcliffe. Last year was the first time Sato finished in the top ten of the championship when he finished eighth.

Marco Andretti is 29 points outside the top ten. He has not finished in the top ten of the championship since he finished ninth in 2015. Andretti is coming off his first retirement of the season after being caught in the opening lap accident at Portland. Spencer Pigot is 65 points outside the top ten and he has finished in the top ten in the last two races and his fourth place finish at Portland was his first top five finish on a road/street course. Pigot is currently in position to score the best championship finish for an Ed Carpenter Racing driver not named Josef Newgarden. The previous best was achieved last year when J.R. Hildebrand finished 15th.

Ed Jones is 14th in the championship, 75 points behind Hinchcliffe. Jones has finished outside the top ten in five of the last six races. The Emirati driver finished 14th in the championship last year and he is 22 points ahead of Zach Veach.

New Kids on the Block
The final Sonoma race will be the first IndyCar race for the top two drivers from this year's Indy Lights championship.

Patricio O'Ward and California's Colton Herta will each make their IndyCar debuts driving in a two-car effort for Harding Racing. O'Ward will drive the #8 Chevrolet while Herta will become the third different driver to get into the #88 Chevrolet this season.

Herta and O'Ward are set to become the fourth youngest and 12th youngest drivers in IndyCar history respectively. Each driver will become the second youngest drivers from their respective countries in IndyCar history. Herta will be only behind Graham Rahal while O'Ward would be behind Josele Garza. With a birthdate of March 30, 2000 Herta will become the first driver born in the 21st century to compete in an IndyCar race.

O'Ward took the Indy Lights championship with nine victories and 13 podium finishes in 17 starts. He ended the season with eight consecutive podium finishes. Herta finished 44 points behind his teammate in the championship. The American driver won four races and had 13 podium finishes but his final victory was the first race of the Road America weekend.

This will be O'Ward first appearance at Sonoma while Herta raced at Sonoma in 2014 in U.S. F2000 when he drove for JAY Motorsports. Herta finished seventh and ninth in those two races.

Herta's father Bryan made two starts at Sonoma in IndyCar. He started eighth in 2005 and ninth in 2006 and had finishes of 13th and tenth respectively. In the 2005 race, Bryan led 17 laps. He also finished third overall in the American Le Mans Series race at Sonoma in 2002 driving for Panoz with Bill Auberlen as his co-driver. Bryan's teammates David Brabham and Jan Magnussen took the overall victory while Champion Racing Audi's Tom Kristensen and Johnny Herbert finished second.

Early Incidents
One trend this IndyCar season is early caution periods and those cautions have been for drivers at the front of the grid.

Seven races have had a caution within the first five laps and there have been first lap accidents in three consecutive races. Four of those seven incidents have involved a car that has started in the top ten. Two of those incidents have involved cars starting in the top five. Not included in these incidents is the Pocono accident that sidelined Robert Wickens, which was the second caution of that race and it happened on lap seven. Three cars in that accident started in the top ten and one started in the top five.

Portland was the fourth road/street course race this season to have a lap one accident. St. Petersburg had its first caution on lap three.

While road/street course races have produced a lot of early collisions, there has been plenty of green flag racing to counterbalance the incidents. The first 46 laps of the first Belle Isle race were under green flag conditions. While there was a lap one accident in the second Belle Isle race, the final 67 laps were run under green flag conditions. The Grand Prix of Indianapolis also had a lap one accident but then had 52 consecutive green flag laps before the final caution period for five laps and the race ended with green flag conditions for the final 25 laps. Road America and Mid-Ohio were both caution-free races.

Strategy
Last year's Sonoma race and the recent road course races in IndyCar have had notable differences in strategy decide races.

In last year's Sonoma race, Simon Pagenaud chose a four-stop strategy from third on the grid. His first pit stop came on lap 11. The Frenchman cycled to the lead on lap 21 and his second pit stop was on lap 30. Pagenaud rejoined in tenth position and he would cycle back to the lead on lap 40 with his third stop coming eight laps later. This time Pagenaud only dropped to third and he retook second on track from Will Power on lap 53. He was back in the lead on lap 62 after Josef Newgarden made his third and final stop. Pagenaud's fourth stop came on lap 64 and he came out ahead of Newgarden. Pagenaud would lead the final 19 laps on his way to victory.

Pagenaud was the only top ten finishers to use the four-stop strategy and the only other top fifteen finishers to make four pit stops were Spencer Pigot, who had to stop on lap one and ended up finishing 13th, and J.R. Hildebrand, who finished 14th but never got higher than 11th in the running order. One other note was last year's Sonoma race was a caution-free race.

This year's Mid-Ohio race was also a caution-free affair but Alexander Rossi dominated, leading 66 of 90 laps from pole position and Rossi was the only driver in the race to use a two-stop strategy. Despite the conservative choice, Rossi won by 12.8 seconds ahead of Robert Wickens, who chose a three-stop strategy but could not manage his way through traffic. Sébastien Bourdais started 24th at Mid-Ohio but finished sixth after stopping on laps ten, 37 and 63. Pagenaud started 17th at Mid-Ohio and stopped on lap 15, lap 41 and lap 64 on his way to an eighth place finish.

Portland featured four cautions and it allowed many different strategies, from the planned to the forced, to work. Rossi and Newgarden were pulling away from the field but a caution before they could make their second pit stops shuffled the American drivers to the middle of the field. However, the timing of the caution allowed other three-stop drivers to get to the front of the field. Race winner Takuma Sato stopped under the first caution on lap four, as did Bourdais and Dixon, both to repair damage from the first lap incident. Bourdais made a second stop on lap six and then made it to lap 40 and lap 75. Dixon did not stop until lap 38 and he served a pit lane speeding penalty two laps later but a caution would come out three laps after he served his penalty. Dixon made his final stop on lap 74 and the final caution for Santino Ferrucci's breakdown came out on lap 76. Sato stopped on lap 39 and he was able to stop on lap 75 before the Ferrucci caution came out.

Meanwhile, while Rossi and Newgarden were caught out on a three-stop strategy and the cautions allowed Sato, Bourdais and Dixon to vault to the front of those the American drivers, Ryan Hunter-Reay used the caution periods from lap 43-45 and lap 56-59 to get to him to lap 71 for his second and final stop. Hunter-Reay's three stint lengths were 33 laps, 38 laps and 34 laps. Hunter-Reay was not able to get ahead of Sato after his final pit stop and would end up finishing second to Sato with Bourdais in third.

Nine of 14 Sonoma races have featured multiple caution periods. Four Sonoma races have had a first lap caution. The average lap of the first caution at Sonoma is lap 21.7. Along with two caution-free races, three Sonoma races have had the first caution occur on lap 65 or later.

Last year's race saw pit windows from lap 13-23, lap 37-47 and lap 61-71 for drivers using a three-stop strategy.

Fast Facts
This will be the eighth IndyCar race to take place on September 16th and the first since Michael Andretti won at Mid-Ohio in 1990.

Chip Ganassi Racing is going for its 12th IndyCar championship.

Alexander Rossi could become the tenth Californian to win the IndyCar championship and first since Jimmy Vasser in 1996. Andretti Autosport is going for its fifth IndyCar championship.

Team Penske is going for its 16th IndyCar championship and the team's third consecutive title. Team Penske has won three consecutive championships on two prior occasions. The team won the 1977 and 1978 titles with Tom Sneva and won the 1979 championship with Rick Mears. Mears won the 1981 and 1982 titles before winning the 1983 title with Al Unser.

Josef Newgarden could become the first driver to successfully defend a championship since Dario Franchitti won three consecutive titles from 2009 to 2011. Newgarden could become the first American to successfully defend a championship since Sam Hornish, Jr. in 2001 and 2002.

Tony Kanaan sits 16th in the championship, five points behind Zach Veach. Kanaan has only finished outside the top fifteen in the championship once in his career. He finished 19th in the 2000 CART season, a year where he missed four races due to injury. Kanaan's 2005 victory at Sonoma is his only IndyCar victory on a natural-terrain road course.

Charlie Kimball is ten points behind Zach Veach in the championship. Last year, Kimball finished 17th in the championship and he has never finished finish worse than his prior championship finish in two consecutive seasons.

Matheus Leist could finish ahead of Veach in the championship for second best rookie of the 2018 season. Leist trails Veach by 50 points and if Veach finishes last Leist would have to finish at least fifth and pick up one bonus points to surpass the Ohioan in the championship.

Max Chilton is looking for his first top ten finish of the season. His two prior Sonoma finishes are 16th and 12th.

Jordan King is looking for his first top ten finish of the season. Ed Carpenter Racing has only one top ten finish at Sonoma and that was when Josef Newgarden finished sixth in 2016.

Jack Harvey won his only two Indy Lights starts at Sonoma in 2014. Harvey and Marco Andretti are the only previous Indy Lights winners at Sonoma entered in this year's race.

Carlos Muñoz scored his first career fastest lap at Portland. Muñoz's four Sonoma finishes are 19th, 22nd, 15th and 15th.

Pietro Fittipaldi picked up his first career top ten finish at Portland when he came home ninth. His cousin Christian Fittipaldi finished 40th in the 2003 NASCAR Cup race at the track and he made three Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series starts. His uncle Max Papis made three NASCAR Cup starts at Sonoma with his best result being 12th in 2009. Papis also made starts in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series at the circuit.

Santino Ferrucci has not score more than ten points in a race in his IndyCar career. The least number of points that can be scored this weekend is ten points.

The average starting position for a Sonoma winner is 2.714 with a median of 2.5.

The worst starting position for a Sonoma winner was ninth in 2015 by Scott Dixon.

The average number of lead changes in a Sonoma race is 5.571 with a median of six.

Eight of 14 Sonoma races have featured more than five lead changes.

The average number of caution in a Sonoma race is 2.692 with a median of 2.5.

Only once has a Sonoma race had more than four cautions.

Last year's Sonoma race had 161 total passes and 97 of those were passes for position.

Possible Milestones:
Chip Ganassi Racing is one victory away from tying Newman-Haas Racing for second all-time in team victories in IndyCar with 107 victories.

If they take the green flag this race will be the 50th starts for Alexander Rossi and Max Chilton.

Simon Pagenaud needs to lead 64 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

Graham Rahal needs to lead 21 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Charlie Kimball needs to lead 37 laps to reach the 200 laps led milestone.

Predictions
Will Power wins the race from pole position. Scott Dixon finishes fourth after his best qualifying performance on a natural-terrain road course this season and Alexander Rossi finishes fifth. There will not be a caution within the first 30 laps. No rookies finish in the top ten. Carlos Muñoz does finish in the top ten. Colton Herta qualifies ahead of Patricio O'Ward but finishes behind him. Simon Pagenaud does not make the final round of qualifying but finishes at least six positions better than his starting position. At least three top ten finishers use a four-stop strategy. At least one Ed Carpenter Racing driver starts and finishes in the top ten. Sleeper: Graham Rahal.

First Impressions: Sonoma 2017

1. I am never sure where to start the final First Impressions of a season. Do I start with the race winner or do I start with the champion? I will start with the champion. About ten years ago I first heard about Josef Newgarden and he was one of the next American Formula One hopeful. We had Scott Speed but we had lost the United States Grand Prix and Newgarden was in that next crop of American youngsters in Europe along with Alexander Rossi and Jonathan Summerton.

Newgarden won two of the three races at first round of the 2009 Formula Palmer Audi season. I think he was the last call on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain after that or maybe it was after he won the Team USA Scholarship that took him to the Formula Ford Festival in 2008 or maybe it was after he finished second in the British Formula Ford championship in 2009. Either way, I was hopeful because it was during a time where we kept seeing younger and younger drivers getting a shot at Formula One. First was Sebastian Vettel, then Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari and I believed that one of those three Americans was bound to make it in Europe.

That didn't happen but Newgarden's career didn't flame out. He came home to the United States, got with the right Indy Lights team in Sam Schmidt Motorsports and in year one he won the championship. Newgarden entered IndyCar with the DW12 chassis and he was the first American to get to IndyCar with the recently created Road to Indy scholarship. We knew the rookie was fighting uphill. Sarah Fisher took a chance on him as she took a chance in turning her team into a full-time operation. She didn't even have an engine manufacture when she signed Newgarden but she was fortunate to get a Honda instead of a Lotus. How different would things be if Newgarden and Fisher had to run Lotus in 2012?

The first year was difficult. He didn't finish in the top ten once that rookie season. He should have finished on the podium at Toronto. Ironically, a block from Simon Pagenaud is what cost him that moment of glory. Things got much better in his sophomore season. He was fighting Takuma Sato for the win at São Paulo but an aggressive drive by Sato and borderline blocking dropped him to fifth in the final results. He would pick up his first career podium at Baltimore by finishing second to Pagenaud. Year three was a tick better and he started to find results on ovals. He had a late charge at Iowa to finish second and he had a massive drive at Milwaukee after a late pit stop put him a lap down only to un-lap himself on the track and finish fifth.

The 2015 season is when Newgarden got it. He won the fourth race of the season at Barber, his first career victory. He won again at Toronto, leading a 1-2 for CFH Racing ahead of Luca Filippi. He got his first career pole position at Milwaukee and finished fifth. He finished second again at Iowa and his second place finish at Pocono kept him alive for the championship entering the 2015 season finale at Sonoma but a mechanical issue took him out of contention early.

Newgarden didn't have a shot at the title last year entering Sonoma but he improved. He finished third at Barber and third in the Indianapolis 500. He broken his clavicle and wrist at Texas and was back for the next race at Road America and finished eighth. He won the race after that at Iowa. He finished fourth at Pocono, second at Watkins Glen and sixth at Sonoma to finish fourth in the championship.

After seeing Simon Pagenaud struggle in year one at Team Penske the questions were asked whether Newgarden would face the same fate in his first year with the team. Roger Penske made sure that wouldn't happen. He was given Penske's second-in-command in Tim Cindric to lead him from the pit stand. We won in his third start for the team at Barber; he took runner-up finishes at Belle Isle and Road America. He won again at Toronto, he dominated at Mid-Ohio, he finished second again at Pocono and he made a grab the bull by the horns move at Gateway to take the victory from his teammate Pagenaud, the man who cost him his first podium finish at Toronto in 2012.

After he slid into the pit wall on exit at Watkins Glen you had to ask whether or not the pressure was starting to break the young man. This weekend confirmed he never felt it. He won pole position and didn't let his teammates, two champions and a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, scare him. He ran his race. He listened to Cindric and while he didn't win the race, he was always at the front today and second was good enough.

Newgarden has improved on his championship finish every year he has been in IndyCar. From 23rd to 14th to 13th to 7th to fourth to champion. He has nowhere else to go. Yes, I am sure he wants to win an Indianapolis 500 or two or three but the man has never stopped climbing. He is 26 years old, his 27th birthday is December 22nd and this was his 100th IndyCar start. What will he do in the next 100? Or the next 200? The last American to win a IndyCar championship with Team Penske was racing in NASCAR two years later. I am not sure this one is going anywhere.

2. Simon Pagenaud won the race, his second of the season and he became the second driver to complete every lap in a season. He finishes second in the championship to Newgarden by 13 points. Pagenaud knew he needed to take a risk if he wanted to win the championship. He recreated Michael Schumacher's 2004 French Grand Prix where the German pulled off a four-stop strategy and won the race. This wasn't as thrilling as that race. Schumacher barely got out ahead of Fernando Alonso, but we rarely see four-stop strategies win road/street course races in IndyCar.

Ninety-nine out of 100 IndyCar seasons, Pagenaud would be champion. Two victories, seven podium finishes, 13 top five finishes and 15 top ten finishes from 17 races on top of every lap completed. This is one of the greatest seasons in IndyCar history and it is only good enough for second in the championship. While we celebrate Newgarden, we must recognize Pagenaud. He is methodical and he is going to win another championship before he is done with IndyCar.

3. Will Power made it a 1-2-3 finish for Team Penske in this race, this first sweep of the podium for Team Penske since Sonoma in 2011. He won three races this season, the second-most to Newgarden but he finished outside the top ten in four of the first six races and he had three more finishes outside the top fifteen after that. The championship was out of reach from Power from the start but he isn't going anywhere and he isn't going to spot his teammates that many points in 2018.

4. Scott Dixon couldn't work his magic today and he finished fourth in the race and third in the championship. He only won one race this year, the fewest since 2005 when he was stuck with a crappy Toyota engine. The man has 41 victories. He ends 2017 fourth all-time in victories, one off from tying Michael Andretti for third.

This year proves how special Dixon is. He finished third in the championship with two Penske drivers ahead of him and two Penske drivers behind him. He had seven podium finishes, only Newgarden had more. He had ten top five finishes, tied with Newgarden and only Pagenaud had more. He had 16 top ten finishes from 17 races. If he doesn't run into Jay Howard and take flight in the Indianapolis 500 he probably would have won this championship. He finished 21 points behind Newgarden.

Dixon is 37 years old. He doesn't look a day over 28 years old. Dixon is on the back nine. The clubhouse isn't in sight but it is getting bigger from this point on. Appreciate Scott Dixon while we still have him.

5. Hélio Castroneves finished fifth in the race and fourth in the championship. We don't know if this will be his final race as a full-time driver. I don't think Roger Penske even knows if this was Castroneves' final race as a full-time driver. Like Dixon, Castroneves had 16 top ten finishes from 17 races but unlike Dixon, I don't think if his tire doesn't fail at Texas he would have been champion. Castroneves has been really good but greatness has eluded him. He does have three Indianapolis 500 victories but he has five victories from the last six seasons and yet he has finished in the top five in the championship eight of the last nine seasons. He isn't great but he is better than really good. I am not sure a 21st season will be the charm if the first 20 weren't good enough.

6. Graham Rahal finished sixth in the race and finished sixth in the championship. A rough start to the season kept him from finishing in the top five in the championship for a third consecutive season but the man won twice and he had seven top finishes and 12 top ten finishes from 17 races. Rahal did all this as a single-car team and that has been the case the last three seasons. It appears he will be gaining a teammate in 2018. Will take get him back into the title contention or could it be a hurdle? He is focused every week and he doesn't have the lost weekends he had for a good three or four seasons early in his career. I think he will be alright.

7. Marco Andretti finished seventh in this race and for the second time this season Andretti was the top finisher in a race for Andretti Autosport. He missed out on the top ten in the championship by 15 points. It wasn't a great year but it was better than last year and Andretti had a handful of races end because of mechanical failures, most notably Long Beach and he had to start two laps down at Barber. I wonder if he will do better with the lower downforce universal aero kit next season. He finished fifth in the 2013 championship in the original DW12 aero kit, which had less downforce than these aero kits. He may surprise many next year.

8. Ryan Hunter-Reay's season started like hell. He had an engine failure cost him victory at Long Beach and maybe Indianapolis as well. The man couldn't catch a break. However, summer came and a third at Iowa was followed by three more top ten finishes and a third at Watkins Glen was followed by an eight-place finish today. He went from 15th in the championship after Road America to ninth in the final standings. He hasn't won in the last two seasons but he isn't fading. Expect him to get back on top in 2018.

9. Sébastien Bourdais finished ninth in what was a bittersweet season. He won at St. Petersburg and led the championship for three races but he broke his hip in an accident in a car that probably was going to win pole position in the Indianapolis 500 and he missed most of this season only to comeback and pick up two top ten finishes in the final three races. I don't know if Bourdais would have been a championship contender into Sonoma but he would have finished in the top ten of the championship, maybe won another race or two and he might have won the Indianapolis 500. There is no guarantee 2018 will come close to what 2017 could have been.

10. Conor Daly finished tenth and maybe saved his job. He had three top ten finishes in the final six races for a team that was lost all season after switching to Chevrolet in a lame duck season for the aero kits. They were always going to be behind the eight ball. This was year two for him full-time in IndyCar. He deserves a year three.

11. Charlie Kimball finished 11th and he now heads into an uncertain offseason. It appears Ganassi is moving on and cutting some pieces loose and Kimball might be one of them. At least Kimball leaves with the distinction of being the only man to make Chip Ganassi fall off a pit wall.

12. Max Chitlon was a position behind Kimball in the final results and he too appears to be heading out the door with Kimball. They might continue walking together and start something together. Or Chilton might be heading to another series. We should know by Christmas.

13. Spencer Pigot had to make an early pit stop but finished 13th, the first car one lap down. After that, I can't tell you anything else about what Pigot did today. He is now a full-time IndyCar driver and will be in the car Josef Newgarden once occupied. What can he do with it?

14. J.R. Hildebrand finished behind his teammate Pigot in 14th. That sums up his season nicely. Will he get a third chance at IndyCar full-time? I hope so.

15. Carlos Muñoz finished 15th and while Daly beat him in the race, Muñoz finished ahead of the American in majority of the race and he finished ahead of Daly in the championship. Both should stay. Foyt is likely getting rid of one. Bet on Muñoz to draw the short straw.

16. Tony Kanaan had what was likely his worst season in 15 years and he still finished tenth in the championship. Unlike Castroneves, there appears to be a 21st season in Kanaan's future.

17. Zachary Claman DeMelo finished 17th in his IndyCar debut. I don't think you could ask for much more from someone who has maybe four IndyCar tests and three practice sessions under his belt.

18. Jack Harvey finished 18th. I don't know if he will be full-time but he is talented enough to be. He needs time but don't they all?

19. Ed Jones retired after 69 laps. After starting 2017 like a firecracker, he fizzled out. He failed to score a top ten finish in the final seven races and he went seventh in the championship after the first Belle Isle race to 14th. I think his growth was stunned after Bourdais was sidelined. Dale Coyne should have already signed him to a deal for 2018. I think he will be back.

20. It is unfortunate that Takuma Sato's race ended after 62 laps and that he never could overcome a tire puncture early in the race but he finished eighth in the championship. This isn't Sato turning a corner in his career. The man is 40 years old. But it was nice to see him have one respectable season in IndyCar where he rarely put a wheel wrong and consistently started and finished at the front. He deserved eighth in the champion.

21. Alexander Rossi was the top Andretti Autosport driver in the championship in seventh. He had engine issues all race today and the championship long shot was the first to call it a day. He ended the season strong and everybody and it really does seem like everybody has said this weekend that Rossi will be a championship contender in 2018. No pressure.

22. James Hinchcliffe had another season unravel at the end. His last four results were 20th after a retirement, eighth, 21st after a retirement and 22nd after a retirement. He went from eighth in the championship after the first Belle Isle race to 13th in the final standings. That Long Beach victory seems like such a long time ago.

23. We knew what we were getting. Sonoma has been on the IndyCar schedule since 2005 and every race has been crap and outside slight modifications to turn seven and the hairpin, the track is pretty much the same. The DW12 has put on decent races at Barber, Mid-Ohio and even Belle Isle but it has not been able to save Sonoma. I like Sonoma. I loved going out there in 2009 and I wish I could go there again but the on-track product is crap. They got to try something. Run the NASCAR course, run the actual hairpin, do something.

The season finale isn't going anywhere folks. Fontana isn't returning to the schedule. Chicagoland isn't returning to the schedule. The 2018 season will end at Sonoma and that is all the more reason why something needs to be done. Sonoma has been a good place to IndyCar. Not many races go back to 2005 and it is tough to move it when you want date equity but this isn't the race for the season finale and frankly a race like this isn't good enough to be on the calendar at all. Something has to change at Sonoma. It isn't going anywhere and the series mind as well try something different at the track to put on a better race.

24. A couple quick things to end on: It was weird having Leigh Diffey final the last two races. I love Leigh Diffey and he did a great job in these two races but I got used to Kevin Lee in the booth and I hope he gets the microphone full-time. There are a lot of conflicts with the Formula One calendar and Diffey called four races all season while Rick Allen did one or two (I can't remember) and Kevin Lee did at least six races. I think Lee should be NBC's IndyCar voice. There isn't a more qualified guy out there.

25. I don't know how to close. I never want it to end but I like the season ending now. I could go another week or two but IndyCar has it right. Seventeen races over 16 weekends. I want another race or two or three but let's not go too far and ruin a good thing. We get enough to fill us but not stuff us. We are satisfied but we are hungry for a little more. Another season is gone and another one is likely about six months in the distance. There are plenty of rides to fill, a television deal to get done and maybe even a race to add to the schedule. We won't be bored but we won't content.

Morning Warm-Up: Sonoma 2017

Josef Newgarden held serve on Saturday. Can he hoist the Astor Cup on Sunday?

Josef Newgarden picked up his first pole position of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season with a time of 75.5205 seconds in the final round of qualifying from Sonoma Raceway, a new track record. His only other pole position came at Milwaukee in 2015. Newgarden led 109 laps that day but fell to ninth while Sébastien Bourdais won the race after leading 118 laps. It is the second consecutive race Newgarden was the top Penske qualifier. The pole-sitter has won five times at Sonoma, including last year's race by Simon Pagenaud. Newgarden could become the first IndyCar champion born in the state of Tennessee. Will Power joins Newgarden on row one and he missed pole position by 0.0351 seconds. This is the first time Power has started second at Sonoma and he has never qualified worse than fourth at the track. Power has not won a race from second on the grid since Edmonton 2011. He did win at Long Beach in 2012 from 12th on the grid after qualifying second but he had to serve a ten-spot grid penalty for an engine change.

Defending IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud will start third after qualifying 0.1151 seconds off Newgarden. This is the third consecutive year Pagenaud has started in the top five at Sonoma. Pagenaud is attempting to become the first driver to win consecutive championships since Dario Franchitti won three consecutive titles from 2009 to 2011. Hélio Castroneves makes it a clean sweep of the top four for Team Penske. This was Castroneves 12th appearance in the Firestone Fast Six in 13 Sonoma races. This is the third time Castroneves has started fourth at Sonoma in his career. Takuma Sato was the top Honda in fifth. Sato led Andretti Autosport as the top qualifier eight times in 2017. This is Sato's seventh consecutive top ten start. Scott Dixon rounded out the Fast Six. Dixon was the only driver to make every Fast Six session during the 2017 season. He started sixth at Sonoma in 2010 and finished second.

Ryan Hunter-Reay missed out on the final round of IndyCar qualifying but he will start seventh, his second consecutive race starting seventh. Hunter-Reay has started seventh twice previously at Sonoma and in both races he finished 18th.  Alexander Rossi qualified eighth and his championship hope needs a prayer. With Newgarden picking up the bonus point for pole position and Newgarden will also likely pick up a point for leading a lap, Rossi needs to win the races and lead the most laps and Newgarden to finish 22nd, dead last, just to have a shot at winning the championship. Graham Rahal starts on the inside of row five. Rahal has completed every lap in eight of his nine Sonoma starts. The one exception was in 2009 when a driveshaft failure ended his race after 30 of 75 laps. Sébastien Bourdais rounded out the top ten and the Frenchman finished tenth in last year's Sonoma race. Bourdais has advanced to the second round of qualifying in his last five road/street course race appearances.

Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan each made the second round of qualifying for the fifth time this season at Sonoma and the former teammates will start on row six. Andretti has finished in the top ten in three of the last four Sonoma races. Kanaan has finished 13th in three of the last four Sonoma races. Andretti has not finished in the top ten in the last four races while Kanaan is coming off the heels of back-to-back retirements. Conor Daly will start 13th. This is the second time Daly has started a race from 13th in his IndyCar career. He started and finished 13th last year at Long Beach. Max Chilton was the first driver to miss the second round of qualifying from group two and he will start 14th. Chilton is 13 points outside the top ten in the championship. Chilton was as high as tenth in the championship after the Indianapolis 500 and Iowa.

Charlie Kimball failed to advance from the first round of qualifying at Sonoma for the first time since 2012 and he will start 15th. Kimball has finished on the lead lap and in the top ten in the last two Sonoma races after having not finished on the lead lap in his first four starts at the track. James Hinchcliffe joins Kimball on row eight. Like Chilton, the Canadian is 13 points outside the top ten in the championship. Hinchcliffe won from 16th on the grid in the rain-shortened race at NOLA Motorsports Park in 2015. Spencer Pigot will start 17th in his final race as the road/street course driver in the #20 Chevrolet. Pigot could finish in the top twenty in the championship despite missing five races. The 2017 IndyCar Rookie of the Year Ed Jones joins Pigot in row nine. Bourdais qualified ahead of Jones in five of the eight races they were teamed for but Jones was the top qualifier for Dale Coyne Racing nine times this season.

Jack Harvey makes his third career IndyCar start from 19th position. He won his only two Indy Lights starts at the track in 2014. Harvey is joined by another Sonoma Indy Lights winner on row ten, as J.R. Hildebrand will start 20th. This will be Hildebrand's final race with Ed Carpenter Racing as Pigot moves to the #21 Chevrolet for 2018. This is the six time in 2017 Hildebrand has started on row ten or worse. Zachary Claman DeMelo makes his IndyCar debut from 21st on the grid. DeMelo is set to be the ninth Quebec-born driver to start an IndyCar race. Of the previous eight Quebec drivers to start an IndyCar race, seven picked up a podium finish in their IndyCar career. The one who did was Claude Bourbonnais. Carlos Muñoz rounds out the grid in 22nd. This is the fifth time Muñoz has started outside the top twenty this season and the 11th start outside the top twenty in his career.

NBCSN's coverage of the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma begins at 6:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 6:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: Sonoma 2017

IndyCar closes out the 2017 season at Sonoma

Sixteen of 17 races in the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season have been completed and we have seen ten winners from six teams and the record for most different winners in a season could be matched this weekend at Sonoma. On top of all that, the Astor Cup will be awarded to one of six drivers as the 2017 IndyCar champion. Three drivers are going for their first title, two drivers are going for their second and one driver is going for his fifth championship.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday September 17th. Green flag will be at 6:40 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN.

Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy are in the booth. Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, Katie Hargitt and Robin Miller are working the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice- 1:00 p.m. ET (45-minute session).
Second Practice- 5:15 p.m. ET (45-minute session. NBCSN will have live coverage of this session).
Saturday: 
Third Practice- 2:00 p.m. ET (45-minute session).
Qualifying- 6:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have live coverage of this session).
Sunday:
Warm-Up- 2:30 p.m. ET (30-miunte session).
Race- 6:40 p.m. ET (85 laps)

IndyCar's Hexagonal
With 104 points on the table and a minimum of 16 points being awarded, six drivers have a mathematically shot at taking the Astor Cup this weekend.

Josef Newgarden saw his championship lead shrink to three points after an accident exiting the pit lane at Watkins Glen put him two laps down and dropped him to an 18th place finish, his second-worst finish of the season. Newgarden had seven consecutive top ten finishes before his Watkins Glen result, which included six finishes in one of the top two positions. Sonoma has been a track of feast or famine for Newgarden. While he has finished sixth two of the last three years, three of his five Sonoma starts have resulted in finishes outside the top twenty. This weekend also see Newgarden make his 100th IndyCar start.

Scott Dixon is three points behind the American in a battle where likely the better finisher of the two will come out on top. Dixon has finished second in the last two races, upping his total to seven this season. This is the first time Dixon has had consecutive podium finishes last he won at Phoenix and finished second at Long Beach last year. Dixon has not had three consecutive podium finishes since he won three consecutive races in 2013 at Pocono and swept the Toronto doubleheader. Dixon is tied with Will Power for most victories at Sonoma with three. He has started in the top ten in all 12 of his Sonoma starts.

Hélio Castroneves trails his teammate by 22 points and a victory will likely be enough for the Brazilian to take the championship. Castroneves is tied with Dixon for most top ten finishes this year with each 15 top ten finishes from the 16 races this year. He has finished fourth in the last two races but has only three podium finishes all season. Castroneves has started in the top six in 11 of 12 Sonoma races but he has not finished on the podium at the track since 2011 and his best finish at Sonoma in the DW12-era is sixth. His lone victory at Sonoma came in 2009 from pole position. Last year, Castroneves led seven laps, his first laps led since at Sonoma since his 2009 victory.

Simon Pagenaud won last year's Sonoma race after leading 76 of 85 laps from pole position on his way to clinching the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. This year, Pagenaud enters Sonoma 34 points behind Newgarden. Pagenaud has completed all 500 laps in his six Sonoma starts despite two finishes outside the top ten and he could make history this weekend and become the second driver to complete every lap run in an IndyCar season. Tony Kanaan did it in 2004. He has completed 2,246 laps this season. Pagenaud has led 146 laps this season, 116 of those laps led came at Phoenix. He has only led 15 laps on road/street circuits this season.

Will Power kept his championship hopes alive with a sixth place finish at Watkins Glen on top of Newgarden's misfortune but the Australian is 68 points off Newgarden. Power had six consecutive top ten finishes at Sonoma prior to last year's mechanical issue caused him to finish 20th, eight laps down. Last year was just the second time Power did not lead a lap in Sonoma. Power has led the most laps all-time at Sonoma with 276 laps led. Power has won five pole positions and started no worse than fourth in his eight Sonoma starts. If Power scores the maximum of 104 points, he would need Newgarden to finish 12th or worse, Dixon 11th or worse, Castroneves sixth or worse and Pagenaud third or worse.

Alexander Rossi's Watkins Glen victory on top of Newgarden's accident has kept the American alive for the championship but he needs a Hail Mary to make a championship possible. He needs to score a maximum of 104 points with Newgarden finishing 21st or worse, Dixon 19th or worse, Castroneves tenth or worse and Pagenaud seventh or worse. The only time Newgarden has finished 21st or worse AND Dixon has finished 19th or worse AND Castroneves has finished tenth or worse AND Pagenaud has finished seventh or worse was the second Belle Isle race in 2015 when Pagenaud finished 14th, Castroneves 19th, Dixon 20th and Newgarden 21st.

Final Race Before Uncertain Futures
Sonoma marks the final race before the start of what could be the most hectic IndyCar offseason in recent memory. More seats are open than settled as IndyCar heads into autumn and drivers old and young, American and foreign, champions and back markers are getting ready for a game of musical chairs.

Tony Kanaan's time at Chip Ganassi Racing appears to be ending after four seasons with the team. Kanaan's lone victory with the team was the 2014 season finale at Fontana. In his previous 66 starts at CGR, Kanaan had 12 podium finishes, 20 top five finishes and 41 top ten finishes. Kanaan enters Sonoma ninth in the championship and he has finished seventh, eighth and seventh the last three seasons. Sonoma is the site of Kanaan's only permanent road course victory, which came in 2005. Kanaan is rumored to be moving to A.J. Foyt Racing for 2018.

Max Chilton appears he will be heading out the door with Kanaan when this season ends but he will likely be heading in different directions. Chilton scored his sixth top ten finish of the season with an eighth at Watkins Glen. He started 18th and finished 16th last year in his Sonoma debut. He enters Sonoma 12th in the championship, 13 points outside the top ten. Chilton's future varies from him helping Carlin enter the Verizon IndyCar Series to a move to LMP2 in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Ed Jones might be 2017 IndyCar Rookie of the Year but that does not guarantee him a ride on the 2018 grid. The Dale Coyne Racing driver has not finished in the top ten in the last six races. He has only advanced to the second round of qualifying twice this season. He did it at Barber and Road America. This is Jones' first time to Sonoma. It is the fourth track he had no experience at prior to this season. The other three were Texas, Pocono and Gateway. Jones has completed every lap in the last three races. There has been no strong word on where Jones could be in 2018.

J.R. Hildebrand heads to his home race knowing his future will not be at Ed Carpenter Racing. He has not scored a top ten finish on a road or street circuit this season and his only time advancing from round one of qualifying was at Toronto. This will be Hildebrand's first race at Sonoma since he ran with Bryan Herta Autosport in 2013. His best finish at Sonoma is eighth and he has never started better than 15th at the track. He won at Sonoma in Indy Lights in 2009.

Carlos Muñoz's time at A.J. Foyt Racing could be over after one season despite the Colombian having six top ten finishes this season, three of which have come in the last three races. Sonoma has historically been one of Muñoz's worst racetracks. In three starts he has completed 254 out of 255 laps but his best finish is 15th, which came in last year's race.

Charlie Kimball could remain at Chip Ganassi Racing for 2018 but he could also see himself in another outfit next season. Kimball took a step back from 2016. Last year, Kimball entered Sonoma ninth in the championship and he had ten top ten finishes from the first 15 races. He closed out the 2016 season with a ninth place finish in the race and the championship. This year, Kimball has only five top ten finishes but two of those came in the last two races, and he is 17th in the championship, the second-worst of all the drivers who have started every race this season. After finishing 20th or worse in his first four Sonoma starts, Kimball has finished third and ninth the last two years at the track.

Conor Daly is another A.J. Foyt Racing driver uncertain about his future. Daly is 18th in the championship, the lowest driver who has started every race this season. He made his first start at Sonoma last year and his race was over after 36 laps due to an exhaust issue. A.J. Foyt Racing has a total of three top ten finishes at Sonoma with the team's best finish being fourth in 2014 by Takuma Sato.

Spencer Pigot has been promoted to Ed Carpenter Racing's full-time driver in the #21 Chevrolet for 2018. Pigot has three top ten finishes this year, as many as Hildebrand and Carpenter combined. He has yet to make it out of the first round of qualifying in his IndyCar career. Last year, his Sonoma race ended after 35 laps due to a gearbox issue. He currently sits 20th in the championship, 14 points ahead of Sébastien Bourdais.

Can Anyone Different Sip the Red Wine?
Outside of Dan Gurney's win in USAC's lone trip to Sonoma on April 4, 1970, all 12 Sonoma races have been won by Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing or Andretti Autosport. Team Penske has the most wins at the track with six, Ganassi has four victories and Andretti has won twice but not since 2006.

Graham Rahal could get a different team in the record books at Sonoma. While the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver is not in the championship fight, he is seventh in the championship and only 26 points out of the top five. He has finished in the top five in the championship the last two seasons. Last year, Rahal set career bests for starting position and finishing position at Sonoma as he started fifth and finished second and gave Pagenaud a challenge for the victory.

Rahal will have a new teammate this weekend, as Zachary Claman De Melo will make his IndyCar debut in the #13 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Motorsports. De Melo finished fifth in the Indy Lights championship this year. He won at Road America and stood on the podium for one of the IMS road course races and both Toronto races. He will be the 12th youngest driver to make an IndyCar start at 19 years, four months and 28 days old. If he were to win the race, he would become the second youngest driver to win an IndyCar race. His teammate is the youngest winner in IndyCar history. The last driver to win on debut was Buzz Calkins at Orlando on January 27, 1996.

James Hinchcliffe is the senior Canadian driver on the IndyCar grid and the last time IndyCar was in California, he won the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Five months later, Hinchcliffe finds himself 11th in the championship and having only one top ten finish in the last four races. Hinchcliffe has finished 12th in his last two Sonoma starts with his best finish at the track being seventh in his first start at the track in 2011.

Jack Harvey returns for his second consecutive race with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He finished 14th at Watkins Glen in his road course debut and Sonoma has been a track that has been kind to Harvey. He swept the Indy Lights doubleheader at the track in 2014 and not only swept but he led every lap from pole position in each race and he picking up the fastest lap in the second race to earn him a grand slam. Despite his successful weekend at Sonoma in 2014, he lost the Indy Lights championship on tiebreaker to Gabby Chaves.

Sébastien Bourdais could become the first driver to bookend the season with victories since he and Dan Wheldon did it in 2006 in Champ Car and IRL respectively. Bourdais has been all over the map with his results at Sonoma. He finished sixth in his first start at the track in 2011 with Dale Coyne Racing but that was followed by a 22nd after a crash in 2012. He would finish tenth and 11th the next two years and he had a penalty for spinning Graham Rahal drop him to 20th in 2015. Last year, he finished tenth. He has made it to the second round of qualifying in five of six opportunities.

Fast Facts
This will be the sixth IndyCar race to take place on September 17th and first since Juan Pablo Montoya won at Gateway in 2000.

Excluding the Indianapolis 500, only three winners this season have scored fewer than three bonus points.

Four of the six championship-eligible drivers enter Sonoma with one victory this season. The last champion to only have one victory was Tony Stewart in 1997. The last champion with two victories was Gil de Ferran in 2001.

Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi have won the last two races. The last time three consecutive races were won by three different American drivers was in 2005 when Sam Hornish, Jr. won at Milwaukee, Byran Herta won at Michigan and Scott Sharp won at Kentucky.

Chevrolet has won every year at Sonoma since the start of the DW12-era in 2012.

Of the ten tracks that have been on the IndyCar schedule every year since 2012, Chevrolet was unbeaten at two tracks during that timeframe entering this season, Sonoma and St. Petersburg. Chevrolet did not win at St. Petersburg in March.

Chevrolet has won every season finale in the DW12-era.

The average starting position for a Sonoma winner is 2.692 with a median of two.

Only once has the winner started outside the top five. The worst starting position for a Sonoma winner was ninth by Scott Dixon in 2015.

Scott Dixon's only victory this season came at Road America. The last time Dixon did not win multiple times in a season was 2005.

Currently, the top eight in the championship have won a race this season. The last time the top eight in the championship each had a victory was the 2001 CART season.

Tony Kanaan has one podium finish this season. The last time he did not have multiple podium finishes in a season was 2001.

Ryan Hunter-Reay has finished in the top ten in four consecutive Sonoma races and he has made the final round of qualifying in three of those races.

Marco Andretti is the only driver to have won at Sonoma in IndyCar and Indy Lights. Should he take the green flag at Sonoma, this will be the 200th start of Marco Andretti's IndyCar career.

Dan Gurney and Marco Andretti are the only American drivers to win an IndyCar race at Sonoma.

Takuma Sato has finished on the lead lap in the last three Sonoma races after failing to finish on the lead lap in his first four starts at the track.

The average number of lead changes in a Sonoma race is 5.538 with a median of six.

The average number of cautions in a Sonoma race is 2.91667 with a median of 2.5. The average number of caution laps is 9.1667 with a median of ten.

Possible Milestones:
Simon Pagenaud needs to lead 36 laps to reach the 900 laps led milestone.

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

Takuma Sato needs to lead 22 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

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

Predictions
Team Penske sweeps the top four in qualifying because that is what the team has done at high downforce racetracks, the team runs strong all race and Scott Dixon ends up winning the championship. James Hinchcliffe is the top finishing Canadian and the top Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver. At least two Ganassi drivers not named Scott Dixon finish ahead of two Penske drivers. Sleeper: Ryan Hunter-Reay.

2017 Pirelli World Challenge Season Finale Preview

IndyCar won't be the only series ending its season this weekend at Sonoma Raceway. The 2017 Pirelli World Challenge season comes to a close and there are two championships to be awarded in the GT classification. Twenty cars are entered for the GT season finale and 21 cars are entered in GTS. This weekend marks the return to competition for Memo Gidley for the first time since his devastating accident in the 24 Hours of Daytona over three and a half years ago. Gidley will be behind the wheel of the #101 Porsche GT3 R for TKO Motorsports.

Sprint GT Championship
Five drivers are alive for the Sprint GT championship.

Patrick Long enters as the championship leader with 157 points. The #58 Wright Motorsports driver has won two sprint races and he has stood on the podium after six of seven sprint races this season with his worst finish being a fifth in the first Mid-Ohio race. Long has yet to win a pole position for a sprint race this season. Long swept the PWC races at Sonoma in 2011 but finished eighth and fourth last year at the track.

Defending PWC GT championship Álvaro Parente trails Long by five points with the driver of the #9 K-PAX Racing McLaren having won four of seven sprint races this season but the Portuguese driver has failed to stand on the podium in the other three sprint races. Last year, Parente finished fourth and second in his first trip to Sonoma. Last year, Parente became the first European GT championship since Andy Pilgrim in 2005. Parente could become the fourth driver to win consecutive GT championship joining Michael Galati, Randy Pobst and Johnny O'Connell.

Forty-four points behind Long is this year's SprintX co-champion Michael Cooper. The #8 Cadillac driver has not won a sprint race this season with his only podium finishes being second in the first Mid-Ohio race and third in the first Road America race. Last year, Cooper finished third in the first Sonoma race but finished a lap down in 21st in the second race.

Cooper's teammate Johnny O'Connell swept the Sonoma weekend last year and this year he enters trailing Long by 49 points. O'Connell has not won a race this season in any PWC competition. He has stood on the podium three times this season after finishing second to Long in the second St. Petersburg race and consecutive third place finishes at Road America and Mid-Ohio.

Daniel Mancinelli is the final driver alive for the Sprint GT Championship but the driver of the #31 TR3 Racing Ferrari needs to score the maximum 52 points this weekend and he would need Long to fail to score points in both races. The Italian has been the surprise this season in PWC. He won pole position for the season opener at St. Petersburg but his best finish this year in a sprint race was fourth on three occasions.

The final two sprint races of the 2017 Pirelli World Championship season will take place at 5:15 p.m. ET on Saturday September 16th and 1:15 p.m. ET on Sunday September 17th.

Overall GT Championship
Three of the Sprint GT Championship contenders are also going for the Overall GT Championship.

Long enters leading the Overall GT Championship. He has 320 points from the 10-race SprintX Championship and the first seven sprint races. On top of Long's two sprint victories, he also won twice in SprintX, including a victory at Circuit of the Americas two weeks ago. He has nine podium finishes from the 17 races.

Parente trails Long once again but this time the Portuguese driver is 28 points behind the American and Long could clinch the title a race early by winning pole position and finishing second. Parente did not win a SprintX race this season but he has had seven total podium finishes this season. Unfortunately, he failed to score points in two SprintX races.

Cooper won the SprintX Championship with co-driver Jordan Taylor on the back of one victory and five podium finishes. He is 32 points behind Long in the Overall GT Championship heading into Sonoma.

GTS Championship
The 2017 Pirelli World Challenge GTS Championship has already been locked up. Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro driver Lawson Aschenbach clinched the title at Circuit of the Americas with finishes of fifth and ninth bringing his points total to 326 points. Aschenbach has only won one of the first 14 GTS races this season but he has been on the podium 11 times with seven runner-up finishes and three third-place finishes. This is Aschenbach's third GTS championship and fifth PWC championship overall. He won the 2006 GT championship and the 2011 TC championship.

The battle will be for second but Panoz's Ian James has a firm grasp on that. The British driver has 253 points and he has won five of the last eight races with seven podium finishes in that time frame. James is 18 points clear of Mantella Autosport KTM driver Martin Barkey. The Canadian driver has yet to stand on the podium this year but he has finished fourth twice and won three pole positions.

The Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche drivers Rodrigo Baptista and Nate Stacy are tied on 219 points. Baptista has won four races this season but he has scored a single point or fewer in four races this year. Stacy on the other hand has only failed to score points once and he has only one other finish outside the top ten. Stacy won last year at Sonoma in the first GTS race. He has finished third on two occasions this season.

A notable addition to the GTS grid this weekend is Alex Lloyd in the #22 Porsche for CRP Racing. Lloyd has two victories at Sonoma from four Indy Lights starts and his 2007 victory at the track clinched him the Indy Lights championship that season. Lloyd's most recent IndyCar top ten finish came at Sonoma when he finished tenth in his only IndyCar start at the track in 2010.

The first race of the GTS weekend will be at 8:15 p.m. ET on Saturday September 16th. The final GTS race of 2017 will be at 4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday September 17th.