Wednesday Wrap-Up: Andretti Autosport's 2015 Season

The sixth team review features Andretti Autosport. While the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season seemed to have gone the wrong way for the championship winning and Indianapolis 500 winning team, consider this: They had just as many victories as Penske and Ganassi and was the winningest Honda team in 2015. The team also had a driver finish with the third-most top ten finishes. Their season just really didn't get going until summer.

Ryan Hunter-Reay ended on a high note

Ryan Hunter-Reay
The 2012 IndyCar champion's 2015 season started out well but it never seemed good enough. He was the top Honda at St. Petersburg in seventh, he was set for a top ten at NOLA before his accident with Simon Pagenaud and Sébastien Bourdais, he qualified fourth at Long Beach but faded to 13th in the race and after using pit strategy to his favor at Barber, Hunter-Reay came home with a fifth place finish.

The month of May was not as happy as May 2014 for Ryan Hunter-Reay. An 11th in the IMS road course race and he started 16th in the Indianapolis 500 but this wasn't a repeat of his 2014 drive, from the middle of the pack to the front and into victory lane. He stayed mid-pack all race and finished 15th. In the first Belle Isle race, he made contact with the back of Conor Daly while both were in the top ten and he had to settle for 13th. In the second race, he broke his string of bad results with an eighth place finish.

It appeared everything would turn around at Texas but a practice accident squashed all his momentum and he settled for an 18th place finish with Toronto being another disaster and his race ending due to a mechanical failure with a lap to go. He didn't lead his first laps of the season until Fontana and he was in position for a top ten finish but we all know how that ended. Milwaukee was his best race within the third quarter of the season and he finished 13th in that race.

Iowa turned their season around. Hunter-Reay started ninth and hung around the top five all race. Did he benefit from front-runners Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya having issues and being taken out of contention? Yes but on the racetrack he beat Josef Newgarden, who led 111 of 300 laps. Hunter-Reay led the final 37 laps and Newgarden could not catch him. A seventh at Mid-Ohio was followed by a bittersweet victory at Pocono but a race that Hunter-Reay took from the rest of the field. He overcame a handful of bad pit stops and made daring passes on Montoya, Takuma Sato and Gabby Chaves for the victory. Hunter-Reay ended the season strong at Sonoma. He started third, his best starting position of the season. He hung around the front all race and finished second, his lone road course podium in 2015.

Another good season for Marco Andretti but victory continues to elude him

Marco Andretti
It was another season of consistent results for Marco Andretti. He scored three top tens in the first four races and his worst finish in the first quarter of the season was 13th. His tenth at St. Petersburg was his third top ten at the track while he scored his third consecutive top ten finishes at Long Beach and Barber.

The Grand Prix of Indianapolis was not a great race as he started 24th and finished 16th but he qualified eighth for the Indianapolis 500 and while the Hondas struggled at the start to keep up with the Chevrolets, Graham Rahal and Andretti came on strong at the finish and Andretti finished sixth, his seventh top ten in ten Indianapolis 500 starts. He nearly stole Belle Isle 1 when he decided to stay out on slicks longer than everyone else but Carlos Muñoz. His teammate was able to go a few more laps and was able to pit and keep the lead while Andretti settled for second. In race two, he worked strategy again to his favor and didn't have to conserve fuel during the closing laps and was able to finish fifth.

He scored his second consecutive top five by stretching final stint at Texas to over 50 laps on one set of tires. He was the top Andretti Autosport car at Toronto but Toronto was a disaster weekend for the entire team and all it took to be the best Andretti Autosport car was 13th. At Fontana he started toward the front but faded only to rebound by taking tires late while other stayed out and he worked his way to a third place finish.

Andretti would score top tens in the following three races at Milwaukee, Iowa and Mid-Ohio. He had completed every lap through the first 14 races but that streak ended at Pocono when he had an accident with 62 laps to go. At Sonoma, he hung around the back half of the top ten all race but could only settle for 11th.

Carlos Muñoz's sophomore season was respectable

Carlos Muñoz
The Colombian started his sophomore season by improving on each race. After a 14th at St. Petersburg, he finished 12th at NOLA, ninth at Long Beach and sixth at Barber. He finished 13th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and he started 11th in the Indianapolis 500. He was never really a factor at Indianapolis but did the best he could. He and Justin Wilson decided to stretch their fuel as long as they could on the final stint and Muñoz led three laps, the first three of the season for Andretti Autosport while Wilson would lead the following two but both would fade and have to stop and Muñoz finished 20th, the final car on the lead lap.

Then there was Belle Isle. Muñoz was able to stay out longer than anyone on slicks while other teams switched to the wet weather tires while the rain was still minutes away from the race track. Muñoz opened up a mammoth lead and by the time the heavy stuff and the lightning came, IndyCar was past halfway and IndyCar called it, handing Carlos Muñoz his first career victory. The following day, he had a mechanical failure and finished last. He used the same strategy as Andretti at Texas and finished sixth and had an engine failure at Toronto.

He would finish outside the top ten at Fontana and Milwaukee but the final quarter of his season would be full of solid finishes. He would finish fifth at Iowa, the top non-American driver in that race, before getting a ninth at Mid-Ohio and a fifth at Pocono. The only bad race he had in the final quarter of the season was the final one. He ended the season with a 22nd at Sonoma.

What Could Have Been?

Justin Wilson
Justin Wilson's 2015 season began at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and that race ended early with a broken gearbox. He was the top Andretti Autosport and Honda driver in Indianapolis 500 qualifying, where he started sixth, a career best for him in the famed race. However, he wasn't able to stay at the front and he finished a lap down in 21st but led two laps.

Wilson was absent from the grid for the next five races and would return at Milwaukee, where he suffered an engine failure. At Iowa, he was in the back half of the grid all race and finished 18th. At Mid-Ohio however, Wilson benefitted from the same caution that eventual race winner Graham Rahal benefitted from. Wilson gave Rahal a good battle but ended up second, the fourth Andretti driver of the season to finish on the podium.

Then there is Pocono. There is no easy way to talk about Pocono. Wilson started seventh. He was running in the top five for majority of the first stint and was second on the restart after the caution for Jack Hawksworth's loose tire. He hung around the top ten for most of the race. He had a bad pit stop on lap 134 and that sent him to the back. He led two laps under caution before pitting himself on lap 170. He restarted 14th and was running 13th when Sage Karam had his accident while leading.

Only three races but Simona de Silvestro showed why she should be in IndyCar

Simona de Silvestro
The Swiss driver returned to IndyCar after a year away pursuing her Formula One dream with Sauber F1. At St. Petersburg, she started 11th but made contact with James Jakes and had to serve a penalty. She was the final car on the lead lap in 18th. At NOLA, she made a few impressive moves considering that there was so little green flag action for such moves to be made and finished fourth. Her final race was the Indianapolis 500, where she started 18th and finished 19th with her only notably action from the race being when she ran into the back of Juan Pablo Montoya, damaging both their wings and delaying the first restart of the race.

I think this was a very good season for Andretti Autosport even though it started off pretty rough. Entering the final quarter of the season, Ryan Hunter-Reay was 14th in the championship. After two victories, three podiums and four top tens in the final four races, he shot up to finish sixth in the championship. Did double points benefit Hunter-Reay more than other? Sure but that still doesn't take away that he still had three podiums and four top tens, something no other driver did in the final quarter of the season.

This season reminded me a lot of Andretti Autosport's 2011 season. They had a terrible start to the season. They had two cars fail to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. They had the Danica Patrick distraction. There was a lot of in-team fighting but when the season ended Marco Andretti had won a race, Ryan Hunter-Reay had won a race, Mike Conway won a race and things were looking up to 2012. Unfortunately, just like 2011, Andretti Autosport ends 2015 losing a driver they hoped would be with them the following season.

Whether Andretti Autosport expands to four full-time cars in 2016 still hangs in the air. Justin Wilson was a great addition to the team and it would have been great to see what he could finally do in top equipment. If Andretti does expand to four cars, who would take the #25 seat? Oriol Servià ran at Sonoma but I feel that will only be a one-off as Servià has an executive position with Dragon Racing in Formula E. Simona de Silvestro will be driving for Andretti Autosport full-time in Formula E starting later this month in Beijing. Depending on how she does in the first handful of races, she could skip the latter half of the season to switch to IndyCar full-time in the spring but for now she is a Formula E driver and will probably not be full-time in IndyCar in 2016. However, the door could be open for her to return for the 100th Indianapolis 500.

Andretti Autosport has a good thing going. Hunter-Reay ended strong. Andretti has proven he can finish races and finish races well. Now can he finish first? Muñoz scored a victory and while he finished 13th in the final championship standings, IndyCar is very competitive and he had a respectable season. The team definitely could find themselves in championship contention in 2016 if they are able to build off of how they finished in 2015.

Musings from the Weekend: Saturday Night Only

Once again, it rained everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Bathurst, Fuji, Sochi, Charlotte. Two races were moved to Sunday, one because of the rain, the other because of someone screwing up the schedule and not knowing when sunset would be. A manufacture won at its home track. Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards won the Bathurst 1000. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Saturday Night Only

You know I am not a fan of the Chase but it's here and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere even though it should die a quick, painless death. If NASCAR is going to do it though, doesn't it make sense to race as many Saturday night races as possible? 

Let's be honest, NASCAR does get overshadowed on Sundays. There is just no way around it. NASCAR does get very good ratings considering what it is up against but wouldn't becoming a Saturday night series perhaps help the ratings? College football is popular in the United States but not as popular as the NFL. It would be better competition to go head-to-head with. 

Also, NBCSN doesn't have much signature viewing. Other than Wednesday Night Rivalry for the NHL, NBCSN doesn't have a Monday Night Football or a Saturday full of college football. Could this be its chance to have Saturday Night NASCAR, where most of the Chase races are at 7:00 p.m. ET Saturday night? 

Most of the tracks in the Chase have lights. The tracks in the Chase that don't have lights are Loudon, Dover, Talladega and Martinsville. They could still be Sunday afternoon races or tracks with lights could replace at least one or two of them (Loudon and Dover I am looking at you two). It would save the teams money if most of the weekends became two-day events. For the few weekends where all three national touring divisions are running together the Trucks could be Friday night and Saturday could become a double feature. NASCAR's second division could run in the afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET and lead into the Cup race. It might actually be beneficial to NASCAR's second division as it gives race fans a full afternoon and night of racing and could lead to more people tuning in early, leading to a ratings increase, leading to more sponsors being interested in the series. 

The only way this Saturday night idea could get any better is if NASCAR shortened all the Chase races to 300-350 miles. 

Oof

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I didn't have a good week with the limited IndyCar news that was revealed.

I have to admit, I was shaken this week. It is clear I have no faith in IndyCar management and I don't believe they are leading the series in the right direction. I think the series is chasing hallucinated golden carrots after taking a shot of heroin. Mark Miles talks more out his backside than his mouth (someone make that into a cartoon) and comparing his three years at the helm to Randy Bernard's three years, you can't say Miles has done a better job and you can't say IndyCar is in a better place.

Is there anyone who is actually behind Miles?

I was shaken. I was ready to say enough. I was ready to cast the series off and say good riddance. But I can't. Right when I was about to give the series the middle finger and slash the tires on Miles' car I remembered that the suits, the people who unfortunately run not only IndyCar but also every other soulless sports sanctioning body in the world, aren't why we are there. Though there actions fuck everything up for the rest of us, we watch, we invest; we care because of the people who compete. We share some connection, whether it's major and minor, with the men and women who compete.

Telling IndyCar to fuck off would be a mistake because it would throwing away the competitive series that brings together Americans and drivers from around the globe in North America's premier open-wheel series. I would be writing off great people. Sports are full of corrupt, slimy people from Roger Goodell to Sepp Blatter but they don't stop people from tuning into a Sunday of NFL action or FIFA World Cup qualifying.

I can't let the suits ruin it for me and neither should you.

I am just going to tread on. As hard as it may be, I cannot let the incompetency of those who run the series get in the way. It may be difficult but it is all I can do.

Champion From the Weekend

The #84 HTP Motorsport Bentley of Maximilian Buhk and Vincent Abril won the Blancpain Sprint Series championship after sweeping the weekend at Zandvoort.

Despite losing the Blancpain Sprint Series title, Robin Frijns won the Blancpain GT Series championship.

Stoffel Vandoorne clinched the GP2 title with finishes of third and fourth at Sochi while all Alexander Rossi could do to keep his title hopes alive was win the feature and finish sixth in the sprint. Richie Stanaway won the sprint race.

Johann Zarco clinched the Moto2 championship after Esteve Rabat withdrew from Motegi due to an injury. Just to be safe though, Zarco won the race, his seventh victory of 2015. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards, Alexander Rossi, Richie Stanaway, Johann Zarco and what happened at Zandvoort but did you know...

Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Grand Prix.

Joey Logano won the rain-delayed NASCAR Cup race from Charlotte.

The #17 Porsche of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley won the FIA WEC's 6 Hours of Fuji, their third consecutive victory and that will give them a one-point lead in the championship over the #7 Audi of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer. The #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Sam Bird, Romain Rusinov and Julien Canal won in LMP2. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander won in GTE-Pro for the first time since Silverstone. The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried won their first race of 2015 in GTE-Am. 

Dani Pedrosa won the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix.

The #8 Race Performance Oreca-Judd of Nicolas Leutwiler and Shinji Nakano won the Asian Le Mans Series season opener from Fuji. Second overall was the #3 Clearwater Racing McLaren 650S GT3 of Rob Bell, Keita Sawa and Mok Weng Sun, winners in the GT class. The #1 DC Racing Ligier-Nissan of David Cheng and Ho-Pin Tung finished third overall and won in LMP3. The #51 KCMG Porsche GT3 Cup of Paul Ip, Christian Ried and James Munro won in GT-Am by default as they were the only GT-Am entrant in the race. 

Niccolò Antonelli won the Moto3 race from Motegi. 

Luca Ghiotto and Jimmy Eriksson split the GP3 races from Sochi.

Austin Dillon won the NASCAR Grand National Series race from Charlotte. 

Coming Up This Weekend

DTM wraps up their season at Hockenheim.

ELMS crowns champions at Estoril. 

The World Superbike season comes to a close in Qatar.

MotoGP heads to Phillip Island.

NASCAR reaches the halfway mark of the Chase at Kansas.

Super Formula holds their penultimate round of 2015 at Sportsland SUGO. 

Friday Five: Bathurst, Charlotte, Fuji, Motegi, Sochi

The world will be busy from Saturday night on the East Coast to breakfast on Sunday. It will be nearly non-stop on track actions from four countries from 7:00 p.m. ET Saturday to 9:00 a.m. ET Sunday. From endurance races to sprints. Night races to day. City streets to closed circuits. Get yourself a cup of coffee and carton of ice cream.

Bathurst 1000
The 59th Bathurst 1000 is scheduled this weekend. Mark Winterbottom leads the V8 Supercars championship with 2215 points to his Ford teammate Chaz Mostert's 2017 points. Winterbottom and co-driver Steve Owen won the Sandown 500 with Mostert and Cameron Waters finishing second. Mostert is the defending Bathurst 1000 winner with Paul Morris but Mostert will not get a chance to repeat after suffering a broken leg and broken wrist in a qualifying accident on Friday. Winterbottom won the 2013 Bathurst 1000 and Ford is looking for its first three-peat in the famed event since 2006-2008.

David Reynolds is third in the championship, 360 points behind Winterbottom. Dean Canto will be Reynolds co-driver. Craig Lowndes is fourth in the championship and is looking for sixth Bathurst 1000 victory, which would put him in a tie for third all time with Jim Reynolds and Mark Scaife. Lowndes has not won at Bathurst since 2010 when Scaife was his co-driver. Steven Richards will be Lowndes' co-driver. Fabian Coulthard rounds out the top five in the championship and Luke Youlden will be his co-driver.

Garth Tander is sixth but has yet to win a race this season. The three-time Bathurst 1000 winner will be joined by Warren Luff. Shane van Gisbergen lost a shot at victory in last year's Bathurst 1000 after a mechanical failure on his final pit stop. Jonathon Webb returns as van Gisbergen's co-driver. Defending V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup is eighth, despite having three victories. Whincup and Paul Dumbrell started on pole at Sandown but had a tire puncture ruin their race.

James Courtney will miss Bathurst after suffering two broken ribs and a punctured lung at Sydney Motorsport Park after being hit by some signage board blown loose by a helicopter. Jack Perkins and Russell Ingall will pilot the #22 Holden. Rick Kelly is tenth and will be joined by David Russell.

Other driver pairing to watch for: Nick Percat and Oliver Gavin finished third in last year's Bathurst 100 and they return in the #222 Holden. Lee Holdsworth and Sébastien Bourdais finished seventh at Sandown and both look for their first Bathurst victories. Todd Kelly and Blancpain Endurance Series champion Alex Buncombe will be in the #7 Nissan. Will and Alex Davison will shared the #9 Mercedes-Benz. Simona de Silvestro and Renee Gracie will make their Bathurst debuts in the #200 Ford. The #33 Volve will be driven by Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat. Scott Pye and Marcos Ambrose will be in the #17 Ford.

Charlotte
Twelve drivers remain championship eligible as NASCAR enters the second round of the Chase.

Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick all won in the first round. Kyle Busch is coming off a second place finish at Dover. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished third at Dover and advanced on tiebreaker over Jamie McMurray. Joey Logano finished in the top ten in all three first round races. Kenseth was the only other driver to accomplish that.

Kurt Busch finished third at Chicagoland but failed to finish in the top fifteen in the following two races. Carl Edwards finished in the top five in the first two races but finished 15th at Dover. Brad Keselowski's and Martin Truex, Jr.'s best finish in the first round was eighth, Keselowski at Chicagoland, Truex at Loudon, and both drivers finished in the top fifteen in all three first round races. Ryan Newman had two top tens in the first round while Jeff Gordon's best finish in round one was seventh at Loudon.

Six of the dozen drivers remaining have won at Charlotte. Jeff Gordon has five victories at Charlotte, two of those in the fall race. Kevin Harvick has three Charlotte victories and won last year's fall race. Matt Kenseth has two Charlotte victories and won the 2011 fall race. Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski all have won at Charlotte but Keselowski is the only driver of those three to have won the fall race. Keselowski won the 2013 fall race.

Ryan Newman has never won at Charlotte but has nine pole positions at the track. Kyle Busch has no wins but ten top fives and 14 top tens in 23 Charlotte starts. Joey Logano's average Charlotte finish is 10.2 but he has only led 20 laps at the track. Denny Hamlin has finished in the top ten in nine of the last ten Charlotte races. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished third in this year's Coca-Cola 600, his first top ten at the track in five races. He hasn't finished in the top ten in the fall Charlotte race since 2006 when he finished fourth. Martin Truex, Jr. has one top five, which he scored this past May, and five top tens in 20 Charlotte starts.

Fuji
The sixth round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship heads to Toyota's home track of Fuji. The #17 Porsche of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley has won the last two races and find themselves ten points behind the #7 Audi of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer. The #18 Porsche of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb has won pole position in the last three races but has only one podium to show for it. The #8 Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Oliver Jarvis are coming off their first podium of the season at the most recent round at Austin.

Defending champions Toyota has not finished on the podium since the season opener at Silverstone. Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi are the defending Fuji winners and will be joined by Kazuki Nakajima in the #1 TS040. The #2 Toyota of Alexander Wurz, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin has failed to finish in the top five in the last three races.

The #47 KCMG Oreca-Nissan of Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley continue to lead the LMP2 championship but the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Sam Bird, Romain Rusinov and Julien Canal are now 14 points behind Howson and Bradley after winning at Austin. Le Mans winner Nick Tandy will join the KCMG team at Fuji. The #27 G-Drive Ligier-Nissan of Gustavo Yacamán, Ricardo González and Pipo Derani are four points behind their teammates.

Extreme Speed Motorsports is still looking for their first podium of the season. The #30 Ligier-HPD of Scott Speed, Ryan Dalziel and David Heinemeier Hansson finished fourth at Austin. The #31 of Ed Brown, Johannes van Overbeek and Jon Fogarty retired at the team's home race.

Richard Lietz has won the last two races and leads the World Endurance Cup for GT drivers with 98 points, 11 ahead of the #71 AF Corse Ferrari drivers James Calado and Davide Rigon. Lietz will be joined by Michael Christensen in the #91 Porsche. Christensen missed the Spa round and is third in the championship. Defending champions Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander are 29.5 points behind Lietz and have failed to finish on the podium since winning the season opener at Silverstone. Spa winners Alex MacDowell, Richie Stanaway and Fernando Rees rounds out the top five. Stanaway will miss Fuji due to GP2 duty in Sochi. Stefan Mücke will replace him in the #99 Aston Martin.

The #72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaitar have won the last three rounds in GTE-Am and hold a 35-point lead over the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Águas. The #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda won the first two rounds of the season and was on their way to winning the first three but had an accident while leading at Le Mans. The #77 Proton-Dempsey Racing Porsche of Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried are two points behind the #98 Aston Martin and finished fourth after winning pole position at Austin.

Motegi
With four races remaining in the 2015 MotoGP season, four riders remain eligible for the championship. Valentino Rossi's championship lead has been cut to 14 points over Jorge Lorenzo as the Majorcan won at Aragón two weeks ago while Rossi finished third. Marc Márquez is 79 points behind Rossi after retiring from his fifth race of the season at Aragón after starting on pole position. Márquez has retired from the last two races he has started on pole position. Andrea Iannone is the final rider alive for the championship. The Ducati rider is 91 points behind his fellow Italian Rossi. Iannone only has two podiums this season, a second at Mugello after starting on pole position and a third at Qatar.

Rossi is looking for his fifth Japanese Grand Prix victory, which will put him second all-time behind  John Redman. Lorenzo is looking for his third consecutive MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix victory. The last rider to win three consecutive Japanese Grands Prix was Loris Capirossi, who won from 2005-2007. Márquez has finished second in his two Japanese Grand Prix starts in the MotoGP class. He won at Motegi in 125cc in 2010 and in Moto2 in 2012. Iannone also has two wins at Motegi, 2009 in 125cc and 2011 in Moto2.

Sochi
The World Championship fight continues in Sochi as Formula One heads to the 15th round of the season. Lewis Hamilton increased his points total to 277 points after winning at Suzuka. The defending world champion holds a 48-point lead over his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel is the only other driver championship eligible as he sits 59 points behind Hamilton. No driver can be eliminated from championship contention at the Russian Grand Prix.

Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel finished in that order on the podium at Suzuka in the most recent round. Hamilton won last year's inaugural Formula One Russian Grand Prix after leading all 53 laps from pole position. Rosberg finished second with Valtteri Bottas rounding out the podium and scoring fastest lap on the final lap of the race. The McLarens of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen finished fourth and fifth. Fernando Alonso was sixth with Daniel Ricciardo and Vettel rounded out the top eight. Kimi Räikkönen and Sergio Pérez rounded out the points.

Alexander Rossi will not be competing for Manor this weekend as he has GP2 duty for Racing Engineering. Rossi is second in the GP2 Series championship, 108 points behind ART Grand Prix and McLaren development driver Stoffel Vandoorne. Vandoorne could clinch the GP2 title this weekend. Rossi has to score 12 more points than the Belgian this weekend to keep his GP2 championship hopes alive. Rossi has won two of the last three GP2 races. 

Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 3.5 top ten finishers in the Bathurst 1000 that started outside the top ten?
2. Over or Under: 8.5 cautions at Charlotte?
3. Over or Under: 4.5 French drivers winning at Fuji?
4. Over or Under: 0.5 points scored by Nicky Hayden in his final Japanese Grand Prix?
5. Over or Under: 100.5 laps completed by McLaren cars in the Russian Grand Prix?

Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over: Nine cars finished on the lead lap.
2. Over: Three 2015 Indianapolis 500 starters finished on a podium at Petit Le Mans.
3. Over: The #17 Team Falken Tires Porsche finished seventh in class.
4. Over: Two Americans won the GTD championship, Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler.
5. Over: Kevin Harvick led the most laps, 355, on his way to victory at Dover.

Predictions
1. Two European drivers finish in the top ten.
2. Jimmie Johnson finished ahead of at least six Chase drivers.
3. A team gets their first victory of the season at Fuji.
4. Andrea Dovizioso finishes ahead of his Ducati teammate Andrea Iannone.
5. Nico Hülkenberg leaves Sochi ahead of his Force India teammate Sergio Pérez in the championship.

Last Week's Predictions
1. For the second consecutive year, at least one American wins Petit Le Mans overall (Wrong. An Austrian, a Frenchman and a Brit won overall).
2. All three cars on the PC podium finish ahead of the GTLM class winner (Wrong. GTLM entries finished 1-2 overall).
3. The GTLM winner finishes within 15 laps of the overall winner (Wrong. GTLM won overall).
4. There will be a repeat winner in GTD (Correct. The #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche won their second race of 2015).
5. Jamie McMurray does not advance to the second round of the Chase (Correct).
Overall: 2/5 Running Tally: 12/25

Wednesday Warm-Up: KV Racing's 2015 Season

We have reached the halfway point of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series team reviews. The fifth team being review is KV Racing. One half of the team was at the top, fighting for a top five in the championship before settling for a top ten. The other half of the team was stuck in the cellar for most of the season and questions linger about whether there will be a change in 2016.

Sébastien Bourdais had one of his best season since returning to IndyCar

Sébastien Bourdais
Consistency was the name of Sébastien Bourdais' game for the first 4/5ths of the season. Bourdais was on the backend of the Penske domination at St. Petersburg with a sixth place finish, the second best non-Penske behind only Tony Kanaan, who finished third. He was collateral at NOLA when Simon Pagenaud and Ryan Hunter-Reay took each other out. At Long Beach, Bourdais was again the second best non-Penske and again was sixth and again was behind only Tony Kanaan, who finished fifth. He was caught out on pit strategy at Barber but managed to pull out an eighth.

In the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Bourdais had a great run and was pressuring Juan Pablo Montoya for the final podium position but had to settle for fourth. He was always around the top ten in the Indianapolis 500 but did have a point in the race where he faded to around 20th, only to recover and to finish 11th. After being one of many drivers to screw up tire strategy in Belle Isle 1, Bourdais used tire and fuel strategy to his favor and benefitted in the second race from a bunch of cautions that caused the race to be a timed race. He held off Takuma Sato and had enough fuel to get the victory. He always struggles at Texas and believe it or not, Bourdais scored his best race finish at Texas when he came home in 14th.

Bourdais always runs well at Toronto and he scored another top five at Exhibition Place and could have had a podium if Josef Newgarden and Hélio Castroneves had not jumped him on pit stops. He was mid-pack all day at Fontana and finished 14th. At Milwaukee, Bourdais laid a shellacking on the field. Josef Newgarden dominated the first half of the race but when Newgarden and company pitted under a caution, Bourdais stayed out after pitting just 16 laps prior to the that caution. The Frenchman pulled away and scored his second victory of the season. He started 24th at Iowa after brushing the wall in qualifying and worked his way to a ninth place finish.

After the first thirteen races, he was sixth in the championship, 79 points behind Montoya and appeared to have a shot at the title. He started third at Mid-Ohio and was running around the top ten all race but the penultimate caution caught him out, just like Montoya, except Bourdais was mired in 18th and could only pick up one position in the final 20 laps. Pocono ended with an early accident on a restart and Bourdais would have had a top ten if he hadn't run into the back of Graham Rahal, causing him to be handed a drive-through penalty, which dropped him to 20th. That penalty dropped him from seventh in the championship to tenth.

Sébastien Bourdais's 2015 Statistics
Championship Positions: 10th (406 points)
Wins: 2
Podiums: 2
Top Fives: 4
Top Tens: 8
Laps Led: 145
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 4
Fast Twelves: 7
Average Start: 10.285
Average Finish: 10.875

Stefano Coletti rarely stood out in his rookie season

Stefano Coletti
The Monegasque driver did not have a great rookie season in IndyCar. Stefano Coletti finished a lap down in his debut at St. Petersburg and made a great save in the wet at NOLA but once again finished a lap down. At Long Beach, Coletti had an extended pit stop put him 11 laps down but the Monegasque driver did set the fastest lap of the race despite finishing last. He scored his first lead-lap finish at Barber but was 19th.

The Grand Prix of Indianapolis was Coletti's best race of the year. He scored his first career top ten start and he scored his first career top ten finish as he battled up to eighth and was running with the big boys of Tony Kanaan and Takuma Sato. It went all downhill from there. He struggled in Indianapolis 500 practice and qualifying. He was going to start 32nd but all the driver changes bumped him up to 29th on the grid. In the race, he was in the back half of the pack all race and was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Jack Hawksworth and Sebastián Saavedra made contact, causing Saavedra's car to come into Coletti's path.

He would finish the next three races one lap down. He retired after 40 laps at Toronto. He slightly rebounded at Fontana, finishing on the lead lap in 11th but benefitted greatly from attrition. His engine failed him at Milwaukee. He had an accident at Iowa. He was no-where to be found at Mid-Ohio and a mechanical failure ended his race before completing 20 laps at Pocono. At Sonoma, Coletti worked himself to the top five, and I mean legitimately worked his way to the top five. However, his radio quit on him and because IndyCar is too over the top with safety and has completely forgotten about pit boards, black-flagged Coletti, dropping him to 17th in the final results.

Stefano Coletti's 2015 Statistics
Championship Positions: 19th (203 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 1
Laps Led: 0
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 18.642
Average Finish: 18.5

This was a good year for KV Racing but it definitely could have been better. After Iowa, it appeared Bourdais was going to be able to keep himself alive for the Astor Cup only to have the worst three-race stretch of his career. Bourdais meshes well with KV Racing. They have something there and they can compete at the front. It seemed though that Bourdais struggled to get by the Penske drivers at the start of the season. He would start right behind them but wasn't able to get by them during the race. That seemed to be amended as the season went on but qualifying is one area that Bourdais could improve on, although, everyone in IndyCar could improve on their qualifying form.

A lot of people want to kick Coletti to the curb after year one and I understand why. However, he was learning everything from scratch. Testing is much more limited now than 12-20 years ago when a driver (Montoya, Bourdais, Bruno Junqueira, Alex Zanardi) could come over from Europe and be fast off the plane in IndyCar. Unless a driver is horrid (Francesco Dracone), I rarely think a driver should be booted for good after one season. In Coletti's case, because he was rarely in the front half of the grid and rarely had his race end because of an accident, I would give him one more season. If he shows improvements and can finish ahead of a driver who only ran half the races in the championship, then maybe he gets a third year. But for now, I would like to see Coletti get a second chance.

I don't know if KV will give Coletti that second chance. KV has to know that they have the capabilities to run two competitive cars. If they can find the right driver to pair with Bourdais, they could find a driver in championship contention. KV is the Chevrolet-equivalent of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. They have one great driver but the second is letting them down. However, this is IndyCar. Look at who gets hired for second seats. It makes more sense for Ryan Briscoe, Simona de Silvestro, J.R. Hildebrand or even Mikhail Aleshin or James Davison to get that seat, but it's the James Jakes' and Sebastián Saavedra's of the world who get second seats.

KV has the driver and the capability to take the fight to Penske and the other top teams. If they make the right moves in the offseason, they could find themselves as championship contenders in 2016.

Musings From the Weekend: A Perspective For IndyCar

Rain followed everybody this weekend. The East Coast of the United States, France, Corsica. Petit Le Mans was worse than in 2009 yet went double the distance. Dover at least got a little relief. The real fight on the track at Dover was not for the victory but for 16th and even then the battle for 16th didn't really matter. An American won in France. A Ferrari won in Italy. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

You Can't Grow If You Keep Moving
The IndyCar schedule will be released any day now and as optimistic as I am, I know the punch to the stomach is coming and even though I know it could be coming, I can't prevent it from hurting.

Fontana is already gone. NOLA is already gone. Milwaukee appears to be falling on the wrong side of the fence. Pocono is on edge but one swift breeze in any direction will decide whether it will or will not return to the IndyCar schedule. Road America is back. Phoenix has gone quiet. Some think Gateway could return. Mexico City is Mark Miles' white whale. None of this is good.

I have been on this train of thought for a while and I am staying on it. IndyCar needs to have one consistent schedule every year. The series needs to go to the same tracks on the same dates every single year.

Name a market that wants IndyCar? There is none. Boston doesn't care if IndyCar comes. Phoenix doesn't care. Mexico City doesn't care. St. Louis doesn't care. They don't. IndyCar and the tracks need to realize that the 100,000 people won't go to the race year one or year two or year three or year four, five or six. It takes time for a crowd to grow because a race needs time to become engrained in the fabric of a local community and become an event the locals look forward to attending. Does IndyCar really think Gateway would draw a better crowd than Milwaukee, Fontana and/or Pocono? It probably wouldn't and all you can ask is why not just return to the likes of Milwaukee, Fontana and Pocono and build on what you have been working on for the past three to four years?

IndyCar and the tracks also need perspective on what is a good crowd. Holding the bar at NASCAR's level is unrealistic. Not every series is NASCAR and just because the crowd is not as big doesn't mean the race is not worthy to continue. 25,000-30,000 is a great crowd. If IndyCar's average race day attendance fell somewhere between those margins that would be a higher average attendance than the NBA, NHL and MLS and that would be more than a few MLB clubs. And if you still think that is not good enough, other than NASCAR, the NFL is the only other professional league in North America that averages over 50,000 in attendance.

While 25,000-30,000 looks great on paper, we know it doesn't look pretty since most racetracks, especially ovals, have 80,000-100,000 seats. Realistically, we should ignore the seats that are empty and let the number on paper do the talking but some can't get over the visual. IndyCar's problem now is just like MLS' problem 10-15 years ago. No crowd looked good because you had teams playing in NFL stadiums. Slowly, MLS clubs started building soccer-specific stadiums that held 18,000-27,000 and now crowds look fantastic and the atmosphere has improved because you don't have 40,000 seats drowning out 20,000 people.

But IndyCar can't build IndyCar-specific tracks (ovals) with only 25,000 seats. What's the solution? Either accept there will be empty seats or IndyCar having its own seat covers to bring to ovals to cover up the empty seats. I have found a positive from the open seats at IndyCar races. It has given IndyCar a tagline that it has yet to take advantage of: "IndyCar: Plenty of Room For Everybody."

If you keep perspective, you will realize things aren't so bad for IndyCar. Yes, the series needs to hold a consistent schedule year-to-year and they need to get some more money pumped into the series and they need to sign Chevrolet and Honda for the 2016 season because as of today, neither has committed to next season and you can't hold an automobile race if nobody has an engine. Television ratings were up in 2015 and there is still room for growth but it won't all come at once.

As easy as it is to get stuck in a state of IndyCar negativity because the executives are always fighting with one another and not focusing on the series as a whole, there are plenty of things to feel good about.

Champion From the Weekend
Kenan Sofuoglu clinched his fourth World Supersport Championship with a second place finish at Magny-Cours. American P.J. Jacobsen won the race, his second victory of the season. Jacobsen has clinched second in the 2015 World Supersport Championship, the best finish ever for an American in that series.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about what happened at Petit Le Mans and about P.J. Jacobsen but did you know...

Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover. Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer were eliminated from the Chase.

Jari-Matti Latvala won Tour de Corse.

Champion-elect Jonathan Rea swept the World Superbike races at Magny-Cours.

The #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of Marco Seefried and Norbert Siedler swept the Blancpain Sprint Series races at Misano.

Regan Smith won the NASCAR Grand National Series race at Dover.

John Wes Townley won the NASCAR Truck race at Las Vegas, his first career victory in the series.

Coming Up This Weekend
The annual no-sleep weekend.
NASCAR will be at their home in Charlotte at 7:00 p.m. ET Saturday night.
Bathurst 1000 begins at 9:00 p.m. ET.
FIA World Endurance Championship is at Toyota's home, Fuji at 10:00 p.m. ET.
MotoGP is at Honda's home, Motegi at 1:00 a.m. ET Sunday.
Formula One heads to Sochi at 7:00 a.m. ET.
Blancpain Sprint Series ends their 2015 season at Zandvoort at 7:00 a.m. ET.
Asian Le Mans Series starts their 2015-16 season at Fuji the day before the WEC race.

#911 Porsche 911 RSR Stuns Sports Car World, Wins Petit Le Mans Overall

The 18th Petit Le Mans was severely hampered by rain and the surreal race ended with the #911 Porsche of Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Richard Lietz winning the abbreviated race overall. With the victory, Pilet won the 2015 IMSA GT Le Mans championship. GTLM cars went 1-2 overall as the #24 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing BMW of John Edwards, Lucas Luhr and Jens Klingmann finished second.

Third overall was the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of João Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sébastien Bourdais. Barbosa and Fittipaldi won the prototype championship for the second consecutive year. The #01 Ganassi Ford-Riley of Scott Pruett, Joey Hand and Scott Dixon finished fourth overall with the #31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Dane Cameron, Eric Curran and Max Papis rounding out the top five and the Prototype-class podium.

Third in GTLM, sixth overall was the #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli finished seventh overall with the #25 RLLR BMW of Bill Auberlen, Dirk Werner and Augusto Farfus in eighth. The #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella, Pierre Kaffer and Toni Vilander and the #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen, Antonio García and Ryan Briscoe rounded out the top ten.

Wolf Henzler, Bryan Sellers and Patrick Long brought the #17 Team Falken Tire Porsche home in 11th in the final race with Falken Tire sponsorship. The #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP of Michael Valiante, Richard Westbrook and Mike Rockenfeller finished 12th. Valiante and Westbrook lost the Prototype title to Barbosa and Fittipaldi by three points. The #912 Porsche finished 13th with Jörg Bergmeister, Earl Bamber and Frédéric Makowiecki.

Mike Guasch, Tom Kimber-Smith and Andrew Palmer won in Prototype Challenge, finishing 14th in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca. The #8 Starworks Oreca of Renger van der Zande, Mike Hedlund, Mirco Schultis and Alex Popow were second in class with the #16 BAR1 Motorsport Oreca of Johnny Mowlem, Marc Drumwright, Tomy Drissi and Don Yount rounded out the podium. The #54 CORE Autosport Oreca finished fourth in class and it clinched Colin Braun and Jon Bennett their second consecutive title.

The #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche of Patrick Lindsey, Spencer Pumpelly and Madison Snow won in GTD, finishing 17th overall. The #44 Magnus Racing Porsche of Andy Lally, John Potter and Robert Renauer finished second in class. Al Carter, Cameron Lawrence and Marc Goossens brought the #93 Viper home in third. The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler and Jeff Segal finished fourth and that clinched the GTD title for Bell and Sweedler, who beat #007 Aston Martin driver Christina Nielsen by two points. Nielsen and co-drivers Kuno Wittmer and Brendon Davis finished ninth in class.

The 2016 IMSA season will begin on January 30th at the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Friday Five: Petit Le Mans and Dover

Four championships will be decided in Georgia while four drivers will have their championship hopes end in Delaware. One race will last ten hours and run for around 1,000 miles. The other will be 400 miles and should take around three to three and a half hours to complete.

Petit Le Mans- Prototypes
All four class championships in the IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship are undecided as the teams head to Road America for the season finale Petit Le Mans.

Six teams enter with a shot at the Prototype championship. The #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP of Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook lead the championship with 279 points. The #90 won at Laguna Seca and the 6 Hours of The Glen and has finished third at Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach and Austin. Mike Rockenfeller joins Valiante and Westbrook for the third time this season. He was in the car at Daytona and Sebring. The two Action Express Racing Corvette DPs trail the #90 by six points. The #31 Corvette DP of Dane Cameron and Eric Curran won at Belle Isle and Road America and finished second at Mosport. Max Papis will be the third driver in the #31. The defending champions João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi won at Sebring in the #5 Corvette DP and finished second at Daytona and Road America and also finished third at Belle Isle and Watkins Glen. IndyCar race winner Sébastien Bourdais will be the third driver in the #5.

Scott Pruett and Joey Hand are eleven points behind the #90 in the #01 Ganassi Ford-Riley. Pruett and Hand scored their first victory at the most recent round at Austin. They finished second at Long Beach and Watkins Glen and third at Road America. The 2015 IndyCar champion and 2015 24 Hours of Daytona winner Scott Dixon will be the third driver in the #01. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Ricky and Jordan Taylor are 16 points back. The Taylor brothers won at Long Beach and Mosport and finished runner-up at Sebring, Laguna Seca and Austin, however, their penalty at the 24 Hours of Daytona for exceeding driver time limits is still haunting their season as it cost them 15 points. Max Angelelli returns to drive the #10. The #60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2-HPD of Oswaldo Negri, Jr. and John Pew are 29 points back with a second at Belle Isle and thirds at Laguna Seca and Mosport. Matt McMurry will round out the #60's driver line-up, however the team might not be able to start Petit Le Mans after a practice accident on Thursday night.

Prototype Challenge
Four driver combinations are still alive for the Prototype Challenge championship.

Colin Braun and Jon Bennett have a second consecutive title within their grasps as the drivers of the #54 CORE Autosport Oreca are coming off their second victory of the season at Austin and have 289 points. They also won at Mosport while finishing second at Daytona, Sebring and Laguna Seca. Anthony Lazzaro will be the third driver in the #54. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith are 12 points behind the CORE duo. Guasch and Kimber-Smith won at Daytona, Sebring and Lime Rock Park while finishing second at Watkins Glen. Andrew Palmer will be join Guasch and Kimber-Smith in the #52.

The #11 RSR Racing Oreca of Bruno Junqueira and Chris Cumming trail by 14 points. They won at Laguna Seca and Road America with runner-up finishes of Lime Rock Park and Austin. IndyCar driver Jack Hawksworth and Formula Three driver Gustavo Menezes will be additional driver in the #11. Mikhail Goikhberg is 31 points behind Braun and Bennett. Goikhberg will drive the #85 JDC/Miller Motorsports Oreca alongside Chris Miller and Rusty Mitchell.

GT Le Mans
Patrick Pilet leads the GTLM championship are three victories in the last four races. The French driver has 279 points and will drive the #911 Porsche 911 RSR with 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Nick Tandy as his co-driver. Three points behind Pilet is the #25 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing BMW Z4 GTE of Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner, who won at Long Beach and Austin. DTM driver Augusto Farfus will be the third driver in the #25. The #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio García won the first two races of the season at Daytona and Sebring but has only two podiums since Sebring and trail Pilet by ten points. Ryan Briscoe will be back in the #3.

The #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia of Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer have yet to win this season and are 13 points behind Pilet. The #62 has three runner-up finishes this season at Sebring, Long Beach and Austin. Defending FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers champion Toni Vilander will be the Risi's third driver. The #24 RLLR BMW of John Edwards and Lucas Luhr are 21 points behind Pilet. Jens Klingmann will join the Laguna Seca winners Edwards and Luhr. Jörg Bergmeister is the final driver alive for the GTLM title. The German driver trails his Porsche teammate by 27 points and Bergmeister will be joined in the #912 Porsche by another Le Mans winner, Earl Bamber.

GT Daytona
The top two driver combinations in GT Daytona have yet to win a race this season. Christina Nielsen leads the GTD title by one point over Christopher Haase and Dion Von Moltke. Nielsen has four runner-up finishes in the #007 TRG Aston Martin. She finished second at Sebring, Belle Isle, Road America and VIR. Kuno Wittmer, who has been Nielsen's co-driver since Watkins Glen, and Brandon Davis will be the other drivers in the #007. Haase and Von Moltke's lone runner-up finish in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS came at Laguna Seca and the German-South African duo finished third at Belle Isle, Watkins Glen and Austin. Bryce Miller will be in the third driver in the #48.

The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell are four points behind Nielsen and won at VIR two races ago. The only other podium for Sweedler and Bell was third at Sebring. The #33 Riley Motorsports Viper of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating have won two of the last three races and trail Nielsen by 11 points. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen will join his brother and Keating in the #33. The #23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche Mario Farnbacher and Ian James are 14 points back. Farnbacher and James won at Sebring and Belle Isle and Alex Riberas returns for the first time since Sebring. The #22 Alex Job Racing Porsche of Leh Keen and Cooper MacNeil are 18 points back and will be joined by Andrew Davis. Keen and MacNeil's only podium this season was a second at Daytona.

Spencer Pumpelly and Patrick Lindsey trail by 26 points in the #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche. Pumpelly and Lindsey won at Laguna Seca and Madison Snow will be their third driver. The #44 Magnus Racing Porsche of Andy Lally and John Potter have a slim shot at the title, as they are 31 points back. Their best finish this season was second at Watkins Glen. Robert Renauer will be Magnus Racing's third driver this weekend.

Dover
The final race of the first round of The Chase will take place at Dover International Speedway.

Matt Kenseth locked himself into the second round with his victory at New Hampshire last week. He joined his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin in the second round. Kenseth leads the points with 2099 points and Hamlin trails him by six points. Carl Edwards and Joey Logano are tied on 2089 points. Kenseth, Hamlin and Edwards are the only drivers to finish in the top five of both Chase races. Jimmie Johnson rounds out the top five, six points behind Edwards and Logano.

Ryan Newman is sixth with 2074 points. Kurt Busch trails Newman by a points with Brad Keselowski a point behind Kurt Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. a points behind Keselowski. Jeff Gordon rounds out the top ten on 2068 points. Jamie McMurray is ten points back of Gordon with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. a point behind McMurray but only a point ahead of 13th.

Kyle Busch and Paul Menard are currently tied for 13th, one point outside the final position to advance to round two. Championship leader entering The Chase, Kevin Harvick finds himself 23 points outside of the second round after running out of fuel at New Hampshire while leading with three laps to go. Clint Bowyer is 39 points outside of the top twelve.

Jimmie Johnson has the most all-time victories at Dover with ten, including the Dover race earlier this season. Johnson has won each the spring and autumn Dover races five times and has swept the Dover races twice, in 2002 and 2009. Jeff Gordon has five Dover victories with his last Cup victory coming one year ago at Dover. Ryan Newman has three Dover victories with Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth each having two. Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex, Jr. and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. all have one Dover victory.

Joey Logano has only led one lap in 13 Dover starts. That came in the 2010 autumn race. Kevin Harvick's average finish at the track is 14.7. Denny Hamlin has only six top tens in 19 Dover starts while Jamie McMurray has only six in 25 starts. Clint Bowyer has 12 top tens in 19 starts but only two top five finishes. Paul Menard has finished in the top ten in two of the last three Dover races after one in his previous 13 starts at the track.

Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 3.5 cars finishing on the lead lap in Petit Le Mans?
2. Over or Under: 2.5 2015 Indianapolis 500 starters finishing between the four class podiums?
3. Over or Under: 2.5 finishing position for the #17 Team Falken Tires Porsche?
4. Over or Under: 0.5 Americans winning the GTD championship?
5. Over or Under: 175.5 laps led by the driver who leads the most laps in the Dover race?

Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over: Alexander Rossi finished 18th.
2. Over: Two Brits finished in the top eight at Aragón. Cal Crutchlow was seventh. Bradley Smith was eighth.
3. Under: Two podiums for BMW at Nürburgring. Maxime Martin won race one. Bruno Spengler was third in race two.
4. Over: The average green flag in the Cup race at Loudon was 25.9 laps.
5. Under: José María López's championship lead is 75 points after Shanghai.

Predictions
1. For the second consecutive year, at least one American wins Petit Le Mans overall.
2. All three cars on the PC podium finish ahead of the GTLM class winner.
3. The GTLM winner finishes within 15 laps of the overall winner.
4. There will be a repeat winner in GTD.
5. Jamie McMurray does not advance to the second round of the Chase.

Last Week's Predictions
1. A driver who did not score points at Singapore and is not named Lewis Hamilton will score points at Suzuka (Correct. Nico Hülkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado finished in the points).
2. A rider who has yet to retire from a race this season will at Aragón (Correct. Danilo Petrucci retired for the first time in 2015).
3. At least five drivers will be championship eligible after the Nürburgring round (Wrong. Four drivers are championship eligible).
4. A Chevrolet driver will clinch a spot in the second round (Wrong. Toyota's Matt Kenseth clinched the spot).
5. Someone scores their first WTCC victory of the season at Shanghai (Wrong. José María López and Yvan Muller won).
Overall: 2/5 Running Tally: 10/20