2017 FIA World Endurance Championship Preview

This Easter brings not just a basket full of goodies but the first round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Twenty-eight cars are entered for the full season across the four classes. Porsche and Toyota return in LMP1 but this year will not feature Audi, as the German manufacture withdrew from the championship.

Silverstone once again host the opening round of the 2017 season, this year on Easter Sunday. Spa-Francorchamps will be the second round of the season on Saturday May 6th. The 24 Hours of Le Mans marks the third round of the championship on June 17-18th. After a month off, the WEC returns to competition on July 16th at the Nürburgring. 

After taking two months off, the series crosses the Atlantic for the Mexico City round on September 3rd. Circuit of the Americas hosts round six of the championship on Saturday September 16th. A month after Austin, the series heads to Fuji on October 15th. The penultimate round of the season will be November 5th at Shanghai with the season finale taking place on Saturday November 18th at Bahrain, the lone night race of the season. Besides Le Mans, all races are scheduled for six-hour durations. 

LMP1

Porsche Team

#1 Porsche 919 Hybrid: Neel Jani, Nick Tandy, André Lotterer

What did they do in 2016: Jani won the World Endurance Drivers' Championship with Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas, which included victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Tandy raced for Porsche's factory IMSA program and finished eighth in the GTLM championship and won at Long Beach. Lotterer raced for Audi and finished fifth in the championship with two runner-up finishes and a third. 

What to expect in 2017: This is a complete shake up of a championship line-up but Lotterer was the best Audi driver and a former champion. We know about Tandy's heroics in LMP1 and GT cars. It is tough to repeat but this team can do it despite the changes. 

#2 Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber

What did they do in 2016: Bernhard and Hartley finished fourth in the World Endurance Drivers' Championship despite winning four races, the most in LMP1 in 2016. Bamber raced for Porsche's factory IMSA program and finished fourth in the GTLM championship and won at Austin. 

What to expect in 2017: Bamber replaces Mark Webber but this team ended 2016 on fire. I think Bernhard and Hartley are ready to take the torch back from Jani and company. Both cars are going to win races but which team will win more and can this team avoid the bad luck that set them back at the start of 2016? 

Team ByKolles

#4 ENSO CLM P1/01 NISMO: Oliver Webb, Dominik Kraihamer, James Rossiter

What did they do in 2016: Webb drove for Team ByKolles last year and his best finish was sixth at Spa-Francorchamps.

What to expect in 2017: This team is a mess. Robert Kubica was supposed to be Webb's co-driver but pulled out. The car only completed six laps at the Prologue and all signs already point to the car being the lone LMP1.5 on the grid, way off the factory, hybrid LMP1s and just ahead of the LMP2 cars. I would be surprised if this team is at all nine WEC events. 

Toyota Gazoo Racing

#7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, José María López

What did they do in 2016: Conway and Kobayashi finished third in the World Endurance Drivers' Championship and they won at Fuji. López on the World Touring Car Championship and joined Formula E with DS Virgin Racing. 

What to expect in 2017: Conway and Kobayashi carried the Toyota flag in 2016 but López is making a big jump from touring cars to LMP1. I think this team's season is dependent on how fast López can adjust. If he is off the pace significantly, I wouldn't be surprised to see him dropped sometime during the season, most likely after Le Mans, especially after seeing the pace of Nicolas Lapierre, who will drive a third Toyota at Le Mans with Stéphane Sarrazin and defending Super Formula champion Yuji Kunimoto.

#8 Toyota TS050 Hyrbid: Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima

What did they do in 2016: Buemi, Davidson and Nakajima finished eighth in the World Endurance Drivers' Championship with the team's lone podium being a third in Shanghai.

What to expect in 2017: This team had a disastrous 2016 and the car dying on the final lap at Le Mans when leading didn't help. This team was fastest at the Prologue test at Monza and it will surely improve from eighth in the championship with 60 points and only one podium. I think this is Toyota's best challenger to Porsche and I think they win at least two races if not three. 

LMP2

Vaillante Rebellion

#13 Oreca 07-Gibson: Nelson Piquet, Jr., Mathias Beche, David Heinemeier Hansson

What did they do in 2016: Piquet, Jr. ran the first three races of 2016 with Rebellion Racing, where he finished fourth in the first two races on top of his NEXTEV Formula E seat and he made one start in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Beche ran one race with Rebellion Racing in WEC at Nürburgring and raced with Manor at Shanghai but he did finished second in the ELMS championship and won three races with Thiriet by TDS Racing. Heinemeier Hansson finished second in GTE-Am with Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing and won at Mexico City and Bahrain.

What to expect in 2017: Both Rebellion cars are basically professional line-ups. Beche is coming off a really promising season in ELMS. Piquet's Formula E commitments could get in the way and be a hurdle the team can't clear. 

#31 Oreca 07-Gibson: Nicolas Prost, Bruno Senna, Julien Canal

What did they do in 2016: Prost ran the first four races of 2016 with Rebellion Racing and he finished third in the Formula E championship where he swept the London doubleheader. Senna finished second in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers and won twice with RGR Sport by Morand. Canal finished tenth in the ELMS championship with Greaves Motorsport. 

What to expect in 2017: Like the sister car, this line-up is a professional line-up and should be a title favorite but Prost has Formula E conflicts. The good news is Senna had a great season in 2016 and Canal is a past LMP2 champion. This team is set up to overcome the absence of Prost. 

CEFC Manor TRS Racing

#24 Oreca 07-Gibson: Tor Graves, Jonathan Hirschi, Jean-Éric Vergne

What did they do in 2016: Graves ran six races for Manor in 2016 and his best finish was fifth. Hirschi ran three races for Algarve Pro Racing in ELMS and two races for Emil Frey Racing in the Blancpain Endurance Series. Vergne raced for DS Virgin Racing in Formula E before switching to Techeetah for the 2016-17 season. He finished second at Buenos Aires in February and Mexico City earlier this month. 

What to expect in 2017: Manor had a rough opening season and while Vergne is a respectable name, he has a Formula E conflict and Graves and Hirschi aren't top silver drivers. 

#25 Oreca 07-Gibson: Roberto González, Simon Trummer, Vitaly Petrov

What did they do in 2016: González ran three races for Greaves Motorsport in WEC and his best finish was fifth at Mexico City. Trummer raced for Team ByKolles and his best finish was sixth at Spa-Francorchamps. Petrov raced for SMP Racing and his best finish was third at Le Mans.  

What to expect in 2017: This is a team that is set to be at the back of the class and may breakthrough in a race with high attrition. 

G-Drive Racing

#26 Oreca 07-Gibson: Romain Rusinov, Pierre Thiriet, Alex Lynn

What did they do in 2016: Rusinov finished third in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers and won the final three races in 2016. Thiriet finished second in the ELMS championship with Thiriet by TDS Racing and won three races. Lynn finished sixth in the GP2 championship and won three races and Lynn won the 12 Hours of Sebring in March with Wayne Taylor Racing.

What to expect in 2017: This is a championship contender. Rusinov is a LMP2 whiz, Thiriet has had a lot of success in ELMS and Lynn is already set up nicely for a breakout 2017 season. 

TDS Racing

#28 Oreca 07-Gibson: Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxivière

What did they do in 2016: Collard and Perrodo won the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am drivers and won at Silverstone and was the top full-time GTE-Am team at Le Mans, second in class. Vaxivière finished sixth in the Formula V8 3.5 Series and won twice. 

What to expect in 2017: Collard and Perrodo were spectacular in GTE-Am last year but I think this will be a building year and the team will be looking toward 2018, although Vaxivère was fastest in LMP2 at the Prologue.

Signatech Alpine Matmut

#35 Alpine A470-Gibson: Nelson Panciatici, Pierre Ragues, André Negrão

What did they do in 2016: Panciatici ran the first five WEC races with Baxi DC Racing and his best finish was fifth. Ragues drove for Labre Compétition Corvette in GTE-Am and he finished third four times. Negrão ran in Indy Lights with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and he had five podium finishes, finishing seventh in the championship.

What to expect in 2017: This team will miss the first round at Silverstone and I think they will struggle to keep up to its sister car. 

#36 Alpine A470-Gibson: Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes, Matt Rao

What did they do in 2016: Lapierre and Menezes won the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 drivers with four victories, including at Le Mans. Rao drove for Manor and his best finish was third at Spa-Francorchamps. 

What to expect in 2017: Lapierre and Menezes were tremendous in 2016 but 2017 will be a little more rocky, especially as Lapierre will drive a third Toyota at Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans and Romain Dumas will replaced him and Rao didn't show great pace at the Prologue. I think this team won't repeat but should be contending for top three in the championship.

Jackie Chan DC Racing

#37 Oreca 07-Gibson: David Cheng, Tristan Gommendy, Alex Brundle

What did they do in 2016: Cheng drove all nine races in LMP2 and his best finish was sixth. He finished second in the 2016-17 Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 championship. Gommnedy drove for Eurasia Motorsport in ELMS and his best finish was second. Brundle ran the final six WEC races with G-Drive Racing and won the final three races of the season. 

What to expect in 2017: This is a sleeper in class. Cheng isn't the fastest but he has a fair amount of experience in LMP2 equipment. Brundle is an underrated driver who is looking to bust out and Gommendy has had a respectable sports car career. This team could win a race or two and could be a surprise in the title fight.

#38 Oreca 07-Gibson: Ho-Pin Tung, Thomas Laurent, Oliver Jarvis

What did they do in 2016: Tung drove all nine races in LMP2 and his best finish was sixth. He also finished third in the 2016-17 Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 championship despite winning two of four races. Laurent competed in ELMS' LMP3 class for M.Racing - YMR and won the finale at Estoril. Jarvis finished second in the World Endurance Drivers' Championship with Audi and won two races. 

What to expect in 2017: Jarvis is a massive coup and Tung is competent and was third quickest at the Prologue. Laurent is a young driver and was promising in LMP3 last year. Just like the other DC Racing entry, this one could be a surprise contender. 

GTE-Pro

AF Corse

#51 Ferrari 488 GTE: James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi

What did they do in 2016: Calado finished third in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers with a victory at Nürburgring. Pier Guidi competed in 15 races across Blancpain Endurance Series, IMSA and ELMS and had four podiums including three runner-up finishes. He finished third in the 2016-17 Asian Le Mans Series GT championship with two runner-up finishes and a third in four races. 

What to expect in 2017: AF Corse is going through a transition with Gianmaria Bruni exiting the team. Calado is a stout driver but Pier Guidi is making a big step up. The team should be competitive but second of the AF Corse Ferraris. Also of note, Lucas di Grassi will join this team for Le Mans and he reportedly wasn't that impressive at the Ferrari driver gong show. 

#71 Ferrari 488 GTE: Davide Rigon, Sam Bird

What did they do in 2016: Rigon and Bird finished second in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers after winning the first two races of 2016. 

What to expect in 2017: Rigon and Bird are two top drivers and this duo should be in contention for the title until the end of the season with many race victories. They will be joined by Miguel Molina for Le Mans. 

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team UK

#66 Ford GT: Stefan Mücke, Olivier Pla, Billy Johnson

What did they do in 2016: Mücke and Pla finished fourth in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers  and were the top championship finisher at Le Mans, fourth in class. Johnson ran the first three races with Mücke and Pla and was apart of the team at Le Mans. Pla also won Petit Le Mans with Michael Shank Racing and Johnson won the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge GS Championship. 

What to expect in 2017: Mücke and Pla finished ahead of Priaulx and Tincknell but only by half a point and finished behind the British pair in seven of nine races. Mücke and Pla will have a tough inter-team fight let alone the championship as a whole. 

#67 Ford GT: Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell, Pipo Derani

What did they do in 2016: Priaulx and Tincknell finished fifth in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers with two victories. Derani drove for Extreme Sports Motorsports in LMP2 and he had two podiums as well as overall victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring. 

What to expect in 2017: Praiulx and Tincknell ended 2016 strong and with Ford getting a good start to the year in IMSA, I think this team could contend for the title. Derani is only signed for the first three races but he has been impressive everywhere he has gone in sports car. I don't see that changing. 

Porsche GT Team

#91 Porsche 911 RSR: Richard Lietz, Frédéric Makowiecki

What did they do in 2016: Lietz drove for Dempsey-Proton Racing and finished eighth in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers with his best finish being fourth. Makowiecki finished fourth in the IMSA GTLM championship and won at Austin. 

What to expect in 2017: Lietz is a former champion and Makowiecki is an experienced veteran. Anything less than a championship isn't acceptable. 

#92 Porsche 911 RSR: Michael Christensen, Kevin Éstre

What did they do in 2016: Christensen drove for Dempsey-Proton Racing and finished eighth in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers with his best finish being fourth. Christensen also won in GT Daytona with Alegra Motorsports at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January. Éstre competed in ADAC GT Masters, WEC, International GT Open and IMSA and won four times in ADAC GT Masters and once in International GT Open. 

What to expect in 2017: Christensen started 2017 in great form while Éstre had a year in waiting for Porsche's factory effort to return to GTE-Pro. They were the top two drivers in GTE-Pro at the Prologue and will challenge their senior teammates for top Porsche. 

Aston Martin Racing

#95 Aston Martin Vantage: Nicki Thiim, Marco Sørenson, Richie Stanaway

What did they do in 2016: Thiim and Sørenson won the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers with two victories. Stanaway ran seven races for Aston Martin and won at Mexico City. 

What to expect in 2017: The defending champions will be joined by Stanaway for the first three races. Thiim and Sørenson won the title with consistency and closed the title with a victory in the finale. I am not sure they can rely on that again in 2017.  

#97 Aston Martin Vantage: Darren Turner, Jonathan Adam, Daniel Serra

What did they do in 2016: Turner finished sixth in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers with a victory at Mexico City and he won the ELMS GT Championship with two victories. Adam won the British GT Championship with two victories and ran in three WEC races and finished third twice. Serra finished third in the Stock Car Brasil championship with one victory and he race six races in IMSA GTLM and finished second at Laguna Seca. 

What to expect in 2017: Turner and Adam is matching the veteran with a newcomer. I think it could be another year in the middle of the pack with the occasional day in the sun. 

GTE-Am

Spirit of Race

#54 Ferrari 488 GTE: Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, Miguel Molina

What did they do in 2016: Flohr and Castellacci won the Gulf 12 Hours and finished seventh in the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup. Molina finished 13th in Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters won twice. 

What to expect in 2017: AF Corse organized a championship program last year and Flohr and Castellacci have been a good partnership. Molina won some praise in the driver selection process but he will be in the #71 Ferrari in GTE-Pro for Le Mans leaving a big vacancy for Le Mans. 

Clearwater Racing

#61 Ferrari 488 GTE: Weng Sun Mok, Keita Sawa, Matt Griffin

What did they do in 2016: Mok, Sawa and Griffin finished fourth in the 2016-17 Asian Le Mans Series GT championship with their best finish being second. Griffin finished sixth in the ELMS GT championship with two podiums. 

What to expect in 2017: Clearwater Racing hits the big time after being a regular in Asia. I think it could be a difficult year for the team as it gets adjusted to the world stage.

Dempsey Proton Racing

#77 Porsche 911 RSR: Christian Ried, Marvin Dienst, Matteo Cairoli

What did they do in 2016: Ried drove for KCMG in GTE-Am and finished on the podium in the final five races. Dienst finished 14th in the ADAC GT Masters and finished on the podium once. Cairoli finished second in the Porsche Supercup championship despite leading the series with four victories. 

What to expect in 2017: Ried has been a consistent driver in GTE-Am and Cairoli is coming off a breakout year. This team could contend for the title. 

Gulf Racing UK

#86 Porsche 911 RSR: Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker, Nick Foster

What did they do in 2016: Wainwright and Barker finished seventh in the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am drivers. Foster ran in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland

What to expect in 2017: Wainwright and Barker have a year of WEC experience under their belts and Foster will have some work to do to get up to speed. Gulf Racing UK might not be the pied piper but the team should be competitive. 

Aston Martin Racing

#98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE: Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda, Pedro Lamy

What did they do in 2016: Dalla Lana, Lauda and Lamy finished third in the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am Drivers despite winning five of nine races. 

What to expect in 2017: With how dominant Aston Martin has been in GTE-Am, you have to think this is going to be its year to take the title. This is the class favorite.

Practice for the 6 Hours of Silverstone begins at 7:15 a.m. ET on Friday April 14th. Second practice will be at 11:30 a.m. ET. Saturday practice begins at 4:00 a.m. ET with qualifying scheduled for 6:50 a.m. ET for the GTE cars with the prototypes qualifying session following at 7:20 a.m. ET. The Six Hours of Silverstone will begin at 7:00 a.m. ET on Sunday April 16th. 

Musing From the Weekend: An Easter Egg

James Hinchcliffe won at Long Beach. Everything is back to usual in Formula One. There was a pattern at the MotoGP weekend in Argentina. World Rally made history as something occurred this weekend that had not happened since 1986. Slower traffic and an accident at the hairpin caused havoc in the IMSA race at Long Beach. Rain wasn't kind to the Supercars Championship in Tasmania. Super GT started its season at Okayama, as did the World Touring Car Championship in Morocco. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

An Easter Egg

After a very busy weekend in the motorsports world, most are taking the week off, notably for Easter. 

This is a dead weekend, especially in the United States. Most people are busy with family and going to church or Easter egg hunts or whatever it may be. Most events on Easter struggles. It isn't uncommon to see mostly empty baseball stadiums even for the top teams. People are busy and family wins out over favorite sports teams or other events. However, there is a void that needs to be filled. 

Even if you are spending time with family on Sunday the TV will likely be on at some point and you need some type of diversion. We all love our families but I bet we all have a point where we got to turn on the television as an escape from in-laws, aunts and crying nieces and nephews. Any baseball game becomes an oasis. Last year, the Elite Eight of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament fell on Easter and it was on at my cousin's place while you had other family members chatting in the dining room and kids running from room to room. It eventually became a gathering point, especially as Syracuse clawed back against Virginia and won a spot in the Final Four. 

We need sports even on days with family. Football is as associated with Thanksgiving as turkey. This most recent Christmas Day had a full slate of NBA games and two NFL games. New Years' Day belongs to college football. The Indianapolis 500 is what it is partly because it is on Memorial Day weekend. Easter is tricky. No sport wants to associate with it in the United States. It is a fluid holiday. Last year, Easter was March 27th. This year it is April 16th. Next year is April 1st and the year after that it is April 21st. You can't pin it down. Sometimes it falls during the NCAA tournament. Sometimes it falls on the opening weekend for Major League Baseball. Sometimes The Masters are that weekend but no event can attach to a holiday that drifts anytime over a month. The temperature from late-March to mid-April could increase by 40 degrees. 

But why couldn't motorsports have an Easter weekend race in the United States? The season opener for the 2007 Champ Car season was held on Easter Sunday on the streets of Las Vegas but that race died before the series did. The crowd wasn't great by any measure but one failure doesn't mean success is impossible. 

Formula One and the FIA World Endurance Championship both have races this upcoming weekend but both are different. Formula One is Formula One and stops for no holiday and Easter isn't a big holiday in countries such as Bahrain and China and as for the WEC, Easter is different in British culture and in Europe in general as most get Easter Monday off and the British GT Championship race at Oulton Park on Easter Monday. The Blancpain Sprint Series opened a few seasons on Easter Monday at Nogaro. 

We don't have that luxury of Easter Monday in the United States but even if we did I still think family would win out and keep a race from being held on Easter Sunday but what about the Saturday? NASCAR held a Grand National Series race at Nashville Superspeedway the day before Easter for over a decade until the track closed after the 2011 season. One down side was that teams had to travel long distances and being away most of the holiday weekend. The race ended Saturday but Nashville isn't a hop, skip and a jump from where most of the teams are located in North Carolina.

But there are plenty of tracks in NASCAR's backyard. I don't think the series would want a Cup race on Easter weekend, for a long time the series avoided racing on Mothers' Day weekend, but a Grand National Series or Truck series race could work. Rockingham would have been perfect for this situation but that track once again has closed its doors. Maybe a race could be held at Hickory Speedway or maybe the trucks could run on the dirt track at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  

What about IndyCar? Could IndyCar hold a race on Holy Saturday in its backyard? The Indianapolis Motor Speedway already holds two races in May and maybe you could move the Grand Prix of Indianapolis to Easter Saturday but I think the buildup during the month of May works for the track and they won't want to ruin a good thing. What about a race at Indianapolis Raceway Park? I know people say it is too small but I don't buy it. Why not run a 250-lap race? Have a one-day show, practice at 11 a.m., qualify at noon and race at 1:00 p.m. and everyone would be home well before dinner is ready that night and have all of Easter to spend with family. Outside of that, there aren't any other options at IndyCar's base. Maybe Kentucky Speedway but that is over two hours away from Indianapolis.

Easter weekend isn't changing any time soon for motorsports fans in the United States and maybe that is a good thing. It isn't a bad thing to have one weekend without something we love. There are more important things than races, baseball games, basketball games and golf. One weekend with the family isn't much to ask and racing will be back the following weekend. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about James Hinchcliffe but did you know...

Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix.

Maverick Viñales won MotoGP's Argentine Grand Prix, his second consecutive victory. Franco Morbidelli won in Moto2, making the Italian two-for-two this season. Joan Mir won in Moto3, his second consecutive victory.

The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan and Ricky Taylor won the IMSA race at Long Beach. The #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won in GTLM. The #50 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes of Gunnar Jeannette and Cooper MacNeil won in GTD. 

Álvaro Parente won the Pirelli World Challenge race at Long Beach. 

Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR race at Texas. Erik Jones won the Grand National Series race. 

Shane Van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard split the Supercars races at Symmons Plains and both races were shortened but Van Gisbergen's race did not award points as only four laps were completed. 

Thierry Neuville won Tour de Corse and the last four WRC races have been won by four different manufactures (Ford, Toyota, Citroën and Hyundai). 

The #37 KeePer TOM's Lexus of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy won the Super GT season opener at Okayama. The #4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU Mercedes of Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka won in GT300.

Esteban Guerrieri and Tiago Monteiro split the WTCC season opener at Marrakech. 

Coming Up This Weekend

The Bahrain Grand Prix. 

The 6 Hours of Silverstone. 

Formula Two is back! Kind of. The renamed GP2 Series will be in Bahrain.

TCR International runs a doubleheader at Bahrain.

First Impressions: Long Beach 2017

1. James Hinchcliffe wins for the first time since NOLA in 2015 and these races couldn't have been more polar opposites. That was a rainy, debacle. This was a sunny, strategy race. Hinchcliffe went on a two-stop strategy and was able to go a lap longer than Ryan Hunter-Reay on the final stint and came out ahead of him. Then a caution fell his way and he was fortunate that Hunter-Reay had an engine failure and his competition couldn't keep up with him. He ran well last year but couldn't win in his first year back after his injury. It finally came to him in race two of 2017 and they don't get much grander than Long Beach.

2. Dale Coyne is a realist and he said strategy wasn't going to play to Sébastien Bourdais' favor. And then a caution came out and Bourdais was ahead of Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon. He finished second and retains the championship lead over the Easter break. This is a dream start to the season for Bourdais. This race looked liked it wouldn't fall his way as Bourdais had to pit after lap one to replace a damaged rear wing. He leads Hinchcliffe by 19 points. It is still early in the season. The championship is too far away to think about. Coyne knows that.

3. Josef Newgarden was in the top ten all day but it didn't appear he would have anything to challenge the front-runners. Luckily, many of them had mechanical issues and his strategy, along with the caution for Rossi's engine failure allowed him to jump Scott Dixon on the final stop. Top Penske driver in his second race with the team. That isn't half bad. The Captain will be pleased.

4. Scott Dixon arguably had the car to win this race. Even if it remained green, I think Dixon could have caught the guys who were running a two-stop strategy. He was that quick but for the second consecutive race he has been bitten by a caution. This one was understandable though as you had a car stranded on the front straightaway. It is unfortunate but Dixon will win his fair share of races in 2017.

5. Simon Pagenaud benefitted from the lap one accident between Will Power and Charlie Kimball and a handful of drivers stopping after lap one. He charged to the front but ran out of steam on the next two stints. He still had a great race finishing fifth from 21st on the grid. Had he started at the front, perhaps he would have won for the second consecutive year at Long Beach.

6. Ed Jones has done nothing but keep his nose clean and he is the first driver in a decade to have two top ten finishes in his first two career starts as he finished sixth today. He hasn't been flashy but he is finishing laps and gaining crucial experience. I don't know how long it can last. I don't know if he can finish in the top ten of the championship but this is a great start to a rookie season for Jones.

7. Carlos Muñoz was not a factor in this one but as many stubbed toes, he didn't and finished seventh. A great rebound after what happened at St. Petersburg. A.J. Foyt should be happy.

8. After having a dream start at St. Petersburg only to have a brake explosion end his day early, Spencer Pigot came home to finish eighth. This is a really good run for him as he was on the two-stop strategy and he definitely would have struggled to finish in the top ten if it weren't for cautions but it was a promising day for Pigot.

9. Hélio Castroneves is known for jumping starts but today he bogged down at the green from pole position and was sixth after lap one. He didn't factor in this one and a pit-lane speeding penalty cost him but ninth is probably where he was going to finish anyway.

10. Graham Rahal was on the two-stop strategy but didn't have the pace of the front runners but was able to spend most of the day in the top ten until a late pit stop dropped him out of the top ten. Fortunately for Rahal, Mikhail Aleshin and J.R. Hildebrand got together on the final lap and allowed him to finish tenth.

11. Mikhail Aleshin finished 11th on the track but nothing good stands out from today and he will be penalized a position. He cut down Tony Kanaan's tire and appeared to have blocked J.R. Hildebrand. He is lucky he has Hinchcliffe's victory to cover for him. As for Hildebrand, this was a mediocre day and a top ten would have been a big boost for him. I guess getting 11th from Aleshin is a small consolation prize.

12. Will Power finished a lap down in 13th, as he never overcame the contact with Charlie Kimball. It was an accident where neither driver wanted to give an inch.

13. Max Chilton was not a factor in 14th and Tony Kanaan may have had a top ten if it wasn't for the cut tire. Conor Daly spun coming to the green flag and never overcame it as he finished 16th, one lap down.

14. It appeared Andretti Autosport was going to overcome the gut punch of last year's Long Beach race only to have all four cars suffer engine failures and two of them occurred with drivers running second and Ryan Hunter-Reay's happened with five to go while catching Hinchcliffe. I wonder if Honda turning up the wick to run with Chevrolet could be a factor. Either way, Hunter-Reay was the second-best driver in this one and Alexander Rossi was in the top five all race. Things looked great after St. Petersburg and now the team has a long wait until Barber.

15. Charlie Kimball must hate Long Beach. Another race, another finish outside the top ten and he only completed one lap today.

16. Long Beach is a must-see event. IndyCar, IMSA and Pirelli World Challenge. You get three top series in one weekend. I was kind of disappointed that the IMSA race and IndyCar qualifying switched times on Saturday. I enjoyed watching that race end with the sunset but I am glad the IMSA race was on network television. This weekend wouldn't be nearly as good if Formula One returned to Long Beach. Remember that.

17. Now we rest for Easter and then Barber, perhaps the most picturesque circuit on the IndyCar calendar?

Morning Warm-Up: Long Beach 2017

Can Hélio Castroneves capitalize on his third consecutive Long Beach pole position?

Hélio Castroneves won his third consecutive pole position at the Grand Prix of Long Beach and broke the track record in the process. The Brazilian laid down a lap of 66.2254 seconds in the final round of qualifying. While starting from pole position the last two years, Castroneves has finished second and third at Long Beach. He hasn't won since Texas 2014 and hasn't won from pole position since Motegi 2010. Castroneves was the only Chevrolet in the final round of qualifying and still prevented Honda from winning its first pole position on a street circuit since Long Beach 2014. Scott Dixon joins Castroneves on row one for the second consecutive year at Long Beach. The New Zealander was 0.1869 seconds off Castroneves. Dixon has finished on the podium the last two years at Long Beach.

Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified third, his best starting position since second in the second Belle Isle race last year. Hunter-Reay has failed to finish in the top ten at Long Beach the last four years and has started in the top six in three of those. Hunter-Reay's former teammate James Hinchcliffe joins him on row two. Hinchcliffe's only street course victory came from fourth on the grid at St. Petersburg in 2013. Alexander Rossi qualified a career-best fifth. His previous best starting position was seventh at Pocono last year. This was also Rossi's first career appearance in the final round of qualifying. Graham Rahal rounded out the top six, his best starting position at Long Beach since he started fourth in 2007, his Long Beach debut with Newman-Haas Racing. Rahal's average finish at Long Beach is 13.3 with only two top ten finishes in ten career starts.

Charlie Kimball qualified seventh, a career-best for him at Long Beach and this was the third time Kimball made it to the second round of qualifying at Long Beach but his best finish on this street circuit is 11th. Josef Newgarden joins Kimball on row four. This will be the fifth time Newgarden has started in the top ten at Long Beach in six appearances Will Power and Marco Andretti will start on row ten. Power has won from ninth position twice, Barber 2012 and the second Houston race in 2013. This was the first time Andretti advanced to the second round of qualifying since Sonoma 2015, which was also his most recent top ten start. Tony Kanaan and Sébastien Bourdais rounded out the drivers that made it to round two of qualifying and will start on row six. This is the first time Kanaan and Bourdais have started on the same row since Sonoma 2014. They have started on the same row six times prior to this weekend; four of those came in the 2014 season.

Ed Jones will start 13th in his second career IndyCar race. This is a five-position improvement for the Emirati driver from his debut at St. Petersburg last month. Carlos Muñoz joins Jones on row seven in 14th position. This is Muñoz's worst starting spot at Long Beach but his average start at the track is 11.75. J.R. Hildebrand's return to Long Beach will see him roll off from 15th on the grid. Hildebrand's career best starting position at Long Beach is 12th and he has started 20th and 27th in his other two appearances at the track. He has finished fifth in his last two Long Beach appearances from 20th and 12th on the grid. Mikhail Aleshin will start 16th, a career-best for the Russian at Long Beach. The only Long Beach race won from row eight was by Michael Andretti in 2002 when he started 15th.

Conor Daly will start 17th. This will be the third time in Daly's career he has started 17th. He fell from 17th to 20th at Barber last year but he finished fourth at Watkins Glen last September from 17th on the grid after stretching fuel mileage and was in contention for a podium. Takuma Sato rounds out row eight. This is the first time Sato has started on row eight since Sonoma 2015, where he finished eighth. Spencer Pigot's Long Beach debut will come from 19th on the grid. Pigot's only other IndyCar start at California was from 19th last year at Sonoma. That race ended early because of a gearbox issue. Max Chilton will start on row ten and 20th will be Chilton's second-worst starting position in his career. He started 22nd for last year's Indianapolis 500.

Simon Pagenaud will start last after being penalized for blocking Hélio Castroneves in group two of round one in qualifying. This is the first time Pagenaud has missed the second round of qualifying in consecutive races since he failed to advance from round one in the first four races of 2013. This will be the eighth time Pagenaud has started outside the top twenty in his career. Pagenaud's best finish when starting outside the top twenty was fifth at Iowa in 2012 when he started 25th.

NBCSN's coverage of the 43rd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will begin at 4:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: Long Beach 2017

IndyCar returns to one of the crown jewels of American motorsports

After three weeks off, IndyCar returns to competition to a familiar stop on the calendar, the Grand Prix of Long Beach. This will be the 43rd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach; the 34th time IndyCar has been the premier event. Since 2009, seven different drivers have won the famed street race and this year's race will be 85 laps, five laps longer than the previous four Long Beach races. Last year, Simon Pagenaud scored his first victory of five in his championship season but it came with a bit of controversy with a blend-line violation that allowed the Frenchman to exit the pit lane ahead of Scott Dixon. Last year's race was the fastest in the history of the Grand Prix of Long Beach with an average speed of 100.592 MPH.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 9th. Green flag will be at 4:30 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN.

Announcers: Rick Allen, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy in the booth with Kevin Lee, Marty Snider, Katie Hargitt and Robin Miller working the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice- 1:00 p.m. ET (45-minute session).
Second Practice- 5:00 p.m. ET (45-minute session. NBCSN will have live coverage of this session).
Saturday: 
Third Practice- 1:45 p.m. ET (45-minute session).
Qualifying- 6:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have taped coverage of this session at 7:30 p.m. ET).
Sunday:
Warm-Up- 12:00 p.m. ET (30-miunte session).
Race- 4:30 p.m. ET (85 laps)

Can Dale Coyne Racing Remain King?

The 2017 season opener will be remembered as the day Sébastien Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing went from last to first and for the first time in Dale Coyne Racing's 34-year history the team leads the championship. This isn't Bourdais' first time on top but this is the four-time champion's first time leading the championship since the day he won the 2007 Champ Car title. 

The good news for the Illinois-based team is IndyCar is heading to the right place for the team to remain as the championship leader. Long Beach has been favorable to Bourdais, where he is a three-time race winner, tying him for third all-time in Long Beach victories with Mario Andretti and he trails only Al Unser, Jr. and Paul Tracy in Long Beach victories. Bourdais has finished in the top ten the last two years at Long Beach but in his four prior starts averaged a finish of 18.25. Bourdais could win consecutive races for the first time since his final two starts in 2007. 

Not only does have Dale Coyne Racing have Bourdais to be proud about but the team bookends the top ten in the championship after Ed Jones finished tenth on his debut in St. Petersburg. Like Bourdais, Jones benefitted from the debris caution and he ran in the top five most of the day before losing some positions after the final pit stop. Jones won the 2015 Indy Lights race at Long Beach. Jones could become the first driver to finish in the top ten in his first two starts since Neel Jani finished tenth at Las Vegas and seventh at Long Beach in 2007.

Dale Coyne Racing has had at least one car participate in 29 Long Beach races. The team's best finish was third in 2013 with Justin Wilson. Three times has the team had a double top ten finish. The first occurred in 1995 when Éric Bachelart was seventh with Alessandro Zampedri in eighth. In 2006, Cristiano da Matta finished fifth with Jan Heylan in seventh and in 2007 Bruno Junqueira finished sixth with Katherine Legge in tenth.

Another Place of Honda Heartache

While Honda had a breakout weekend to start the 2017 season, St. Petersburg was also a first for the manufacture, as Honda had not won at St. Petersburg in the DW12-era. Now Honda heads to another place where victories have been hard to come by since Chevrolet rejoined the series. Chevrolet has won four of five Long Beach races since 2012 with the lone Honda victory being Takuma Sato's lone IndyCar victory in 2013. 

In the first three years of the DW12-era Honda had five podium finishes out of a possible nine and swept the podium in 2013 but since the introduction of aero kits in 2015, Chevrolet has swept the podium the last two years at Long Beach with Honda having only one top five finish and four top ten finishes in those races. 

The good news for Honda is Takuma Sato, who finished fifth last year at Long Beach is still on the grid, with Andretti Autosport and he is coming off a top-five finish at St. Petersburg. Sato's teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay nipped him for fourth in the season opener and he won at Long Beach in 2010 but he has had a rough string of Long Beach races since then with his best finish being sixth and an average finish of 17.333 in the last six races. Long Beach has been hit or miss for Marco Andretti. He has four top ten finishes but his other four finishes have been 14th, 19th, 25th and 26th. Alexander Rossi finished 20th last year, one-lap down in his Long Beach debut. 

Chip Ganassi Racing has won at Long Beach six times and five of those have been with Honda but the team's most recent Long Beach triumph was with Chevrolet two years ago when Scott Dixon got his first victory on the famed streets in his ninth attempt. That victory was also Dixon's first career podium at Long Beach and he finished second last year. Tony Kanaan heads to Long Beach for the 14th time this year but he has only finished on the podium there once, a third in 2009. Charlie Kimball got his best-career Long Beach finish last year but that was 11th and he has finished outside the top twenty in three of his six starts. Max Chilton finished 14th in his Long Beach last year. 

Long Beach has been kind to James Hinchcliffe. He finished fourth at Long Beach in his second career start in 2011. The following year, Hinchcliffe would get his first career podium when he finished third. He did have finishes of 26th, 21st and 12th but last year Hinchcliffe was the only other Honda in the top ten besides Sato when he finished eighth. Like his teammate, Mikhail Aleshin's second career start was at Long Beach and he finished sixth in that race in 2014. Last year, he finished 16th. Graham Rahal finished second to Sato in 2013 but his only other top ten finish at Long Beach was an eighth in 2007 and his average finish on the street circuit is 13.3. 

Entering this year's race, Honda and Chevrolet each have won at Long Beach 11 times. 

Chevrolet Seeking Redemption 

For the first time since Ryan Hunter-Reay led after the first Belle Isle race in 2014, a Chevrolet driver is not leading the championship entering an IndyCar race, ending a streak of 44 consecutive races. Not only did Honda take the victory at St. Petersburg but it had four of the top five and seven of the top ten. 

Simon Pagenaud gave it a valiant effort at St. Petersburg to beat his fellow countryman but for the second consecutive year Pagenaud left St. Petersburg second in the championship. Pagenaud has five consecutive top ten finishes at Long Beach with four of those being top five finishes. Hélio Castroneves is the second-best Chevrolet driver in the championship in sixth. The Brazilian has won pole position the last two years at Long Beach but he has finished second and third in those races and his only Long Beach victory was in 2001. 

Josef Newgarden started his Team Penske career with an eighth-place finish. His best finish at Long Beach was seventh in 2015 and he finished tenth last year. He has led one lap in his career at Long Beach and has started in the top ten in four of his five appearances. Will Power's season opener ended early and his last three finishes have been 20th, 20th and 19th, the worst three-race stretch for Power since 2013 when he averaged a finish of 19.667 from Long Beach to São Paulo to Indianapolis. Long Beach hasn't been kind to Power lately. While he has won there twice, he hasn't led a lap the last three years and has failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying in two of those three years. 

Ed Carpenter Racing won at Long Beach in 2014 but one of its drivers has never raced at Long Beach in IndyCar and the other hasn't raced there since 2013. J.R. Hildebrand makes his first Long Beach appearance in four years and he finished fifth in his last two Long Beach starts. He finished 13th at St. Petersburg. Spencer Pigot will be making his Long Beach debut. He finished second to Ed Jones in the 2015 Indy Lights race in his only Long Beach appearance. 

While A.J. Foyt Racing had a car finish fifth last year and the team won with Sato in 2013, it has had at least one car finish outside the top twenty the last three years and four of the last five. Conor Daly finished 15th at St. Petersburg and his average finish at Long Beach is 15th and he started and finished 13th last year. Long Beach is also the site of Daly's only Indy Lights victory. Carlos Muñoz finished third in his Long Beach debut in 2014 but he has finished ninth and 12th the last two years. The Colombian has completed all 240 laps contested at Long Beach in his IndyCar career and he won the Indy Lights race at Long Beach in 2013.

IMSA

For the first of two times in 2017, IndyCar and IMSA will spend the weekend together at a street circuit and Long Beach marks the third race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with 35 entries across the Prototype, GT Le Mans and GT Daytona classes. 

Ricky and Jordan Taylor started the season with victories at Daytona and Sebring and the drivers of the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac lead the championship by five points over the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Christian Fittipaldi and João Barbosa with the defending champions Dane Cameron and Eric Curran trailing by 14 points in the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac. The Taylor brothers have won at Long Beach the last two years and could become the first duo to win three consecutive Long Beach races since Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr won 2011-13.

The top global LMP2 car is the #90 VisitFlorida Racing Riley-Gibson of Marc Goossens and Renger van der Zande on 55 points, one ahead of the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson. Goikhberg and Simpson won at Long Beach last year in the Prototype Challenge class. Scott Sharp won in LMP2 at Long Beach in 2008 and 2013 and his co-driver in the #2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Nissan Ryan Dalziel won at Long Beach in Atlantics in 2004 and in PC in 2012. The sister #22 Nissan of Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek return and finished second to Sharp and then co-driver Guy Cosmo in 2013.

Mazda is trying to recover after a rough first two races. Tristan Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito will be in the #55 Mazda with Tom Long and Joel Miller in the #70 Mazda. Tom Kimber-Smith will be in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier-Gibson with former Road to Indy driver Will Owen making his IMSA debut. 

Ford and Corvette split the first two races and the last three Long Beach races have been won by three different manufactures. Dirk Müller and Joey Hand lead the championship with 67 points for the #66 Ford. The #3 Corvette of Antonio García and Jan Magnussen trail by four points with the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander on 60 points. Patrick Pilet won last year at Long Beach and he and Dirk Werner round out the top four, ten points back. Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook are fifth in the #67 Ford on 50 points.

BMW has won on the odd-numbered years at Long Beach dating back to 2011 but Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing BMW hasn't won since Austin 2015. Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims has 48 points from the first two races in the #25 BMW while the #24 BMW of John Edwards and Martin Tomczyk on 42 points.

The GT Daytona class makes its Long Beach debut and the #33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen leads the championship with 66 points after winning at Sebring, ten points of the Daytona winners Michael Christensen and Daniel Morand in the #28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche. Four behind the Alegra Motorsports Porsche is the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Audi of Lawson Aschenbach and Andrew Davis on 52 points. Two points behind the Audi is the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow. The #86 Michael Shank Racing Acura of Tom Dyer and Oswaldo Negri, Jr. is directly ahead of the defending class champions Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan in the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari with the Acura on 49 points to the Ferrari's 47 points. 

BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix takes place at 4:05 p.m. ET on Saturday April 8th and Fox will have live coverage of the race. 

Pirelli World Challenge

Just like IndyCar, Pirelli World Challenge returns to action in Long Beach with the GT class and 23 entries.

Patrick Long started the season with a third and a first in the #58 Wright Motorsport Porsche and he leads the championship with 46 points, two ahead of defending champion, the #9 K-PAX Racing McLaren of Álvaro Parente, who finished first and fourth at St. Petersburg. Parente won last year at Long Beach. The 2014 Long Beach winner Johnny O'Connell sits third in the #3 Cadillac with 42 points. Alex Riberas is fourth, on 37 points in the #61 R. Ferri Motorsport with Michael Cooper rounding out the top five on 31 points in the #8 Cadillac. 

It will be a busy weekend for Bryan Sellers as he will contest both the IMSA and PWC race. He will drive the #6 K-PAX Racing McLaren in PWC and he is sixth in the championship on 29 points, two ahead of Alec Udell in the #17 GMG Racing Audi. Udell has been promoted from GT-A to GT for Long Beach. James Davison has 24 points and finished second in race one at St. Petersburg but he is not entered for Long Beach. Ryan Dalziel, Daniel Mancinelli and Michael Schein are tied on 19 points. Mancinelli took a surprise pole position at St. Petersburg in the #31 TR3 Racing Ferrari while Dalziel's best finish was seventh in the #2 CRP Racing Mercedes. Like Sellers, Dalziel will contest both IMSA and PWC races. With the reclassification of Udell, Schein is the top GT-A driver in the #16 Wright Motorsport Porsche. 

GT-A drivers Mike Hedlund and James Sofronas are tied on 15 points with the RealTime Racing Acuras of Ryan Eversley and Peter Kox tied on 13 points. Gainsco/Bob Stalling Racing Porsche's Jon Fogarty is on 11 points, one ahead of Bentley Absolute Racing's Adderly Fong. Magnus Racing's PWC debut did not go well as Pierre Kaffer and John Potter sit on eight and six points respectively. DIME Racing makes its season debut this weekend with Jonathan Summerton in the #111 Lamborghini. 

The Pirelli World Challenge race will take place at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 9th. 

Fast Facts

This year's race will be the sixth to occur on April 9th. The most recent race on April 9th was Long Beach in 2006 and was won by Sébastien Bourdais.

An American has not won in the last six Long Beach races. If an American doesn't win this year, it will match the longest drought for American drivers, which happened from 2003-09.

The last two Long Beach winners have gone on to win the IndyCar championship. There have been two longer stretches of Long Beach winners going on to win the championship. From 1996-99, all four Long Beach winners won the title (Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi back-to-back years and Juan Pablo Montoya) and Bourdais won Long Beach and the title in three consecutive seasons from 2005-07.

Last year's podium was the reverse of the top three starters with Simon Pagenaud winning from third, Scott Dixon starting and finishing second and Hélio Castroneves finishing third after starting on pole position.

Simon Pagenaud could become the sixth different driver to win consecutive Long Beach races. He would join Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Jr., who did it on two separate occasions, Alex Zanardi, Paul Tracy and Sébastien Bourdais as drivers to accomplish the feat.

Last year's race was the closest Long Beach finish with Pagenaud beating Dixon by 0.3032 seconds.

Jimmy Vasser is the only Californian-born driver to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Alexander Rossi, J.R. Hildebrand and Spencer Pigot are the only Californian-born drivers entered this year.

Hélio Castroneves could tie Michael Andretti's record for most years between Long Beach victories. Andretti went 16 years between victories in 1986 and 2002. Castroneves' only Long Beach victory was in 2001.

Team Penske tied Newman-Haas Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing for most Long Beach victories last year at six. 

Seven drivers entered for Long Beach won at Long Beach in Indy Lights (Castroneves, Dixon, Hildebrand, Hinchcliffe, Daly, Muñoz and Jones).

In the last four years, the driver to set fastest lap at Long Beach did not finish in the top ten (E.J. Viso, 22nd (2013), Hélio Castroneves, 11th (2014), Stefano Coletti, 23rd (2015), Charlie Kimball, 11th (2016)).

The average starting position for a Long Beach winner is 4.333 with a median of three and the last two races have been won from third on the grid. 

The pole-sitter has not won at Long Beach since Sébastien Bourdais in 2007.

The furthest back a Long Beach winner has started is 17th by Paul Tracy in 2000 and Mike Conway in 2014.

Long Beach is the site of Honda's most recent pole position on a street circuit, which came in 2014 with Ryan Hunter-Reay.

The average amount of lead changes at Long Beach is 4.875 with a median of five. 

The average amount of cautions at Long Beach is 2.818 with a median of three. The average amount of caution laps is 11.484 with a median of 12. 

Last year's race went caution free, the first time that had happened since 1989.

Toyota has never won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. 

Possible Milestones:

Should he start the race, Hélio Castroneves will tie Al Unser, Jr. for third all-time in starts on 329 starts.

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

Scott Dixon needs to lead 101 laps to reach the 5,000 laps led milestone.

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

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

Josef Newgarden needs to lead 21 laps to reach the 700 laps led milestone.

Predictions

Will Power gets off the snide and not only does he win but he leads the most laps in the process and starts from pole position. Sébastien Bourdais doesn't leave Long Beach with the championship lead but he does finish in the top ten. There will be at least two caution periods. At least three drivers that finished outside the top fifteen at St. Petersburg finish in the top ten at Long Beach. There won't be any blend line controversies. The driver who sets fastest lap does finish inside the top ten. Sleeper: Carlos Muñoz. 

Musings From the Weekend: Double Points Defender

Toyota was fastest in the FIA WEC prologue. Sébastien Buemi didn't win a Formula E race, a race that was spectacular. Jonathan Rea didn't win both Superbike races at Aragón. The top three in World Supersport were covered by 0.153 seconds and defending champion Kenan Sofuoglu was taken out in his first race back from injury. A former IndyCar driver won in Italy. Chad Reed didn't play nice in St. Louis. Neither did Austin Cindric. Nor did Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. It was a very naughty week for lapped traffic this weekend across many series. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Double Points Defender
"Pure means something to purists." The words of Hulman & Company CEO Mark Miles when interviewed on The Marshall Pruett Podcast and told by Robin Miller that IndyCar is the most pure form of motorsports.

It is an interesting line from Miles but it speaks to the situation facing IndyCar and every other form of motorsports in the world. "Pure means something to the purist" and like all missions to expand the congregation the missionaries aren't looking for purists. They already have the purists. The congregation expands with the pagans and hoping they see a light and follow its calling.

Miller's opposition to double points stems from the IndyCar championship coming down to the final race every year without needing any form of aid. Since 2005, the championship has come down to the finale by nothing but having at least one driver and sometimes more within grasp of the championship leader in someway. Drivers have entered covered by single digits, where one position is all that is needed to decide the champion and then there have been years where one guy needs to win and have the championship leader finish next to last.

Since 2014, IndyCar has had double points for the finale. In 2014, Fontana was the finale but the other 500-mile races at Indianapolis and Pocono were also double points. That changed in 2015 when Fontana moved to June but Indianapolis remained double points and the finale, which occurred at Sonoma, became double points and it stayed that way last season and continues for this year.

For the longest time, very few IndyCar races were paying the same points. Races didn't start paying the same points until the 1983 CART season. Before that, the USAC system paid points with the winner getting double the race mileage. Win the Indianapolis 500, get 1,000 points. Win the Hoosier Hundred, get 200 points. Second got 80% of the winner's points total with the point total descending by ten-percent until eighth where it descended by five-percent from seventh with 12th-place, the final position getting points, receiving five-percent of the winner's total.

The golden-era many, Miller included, beholds as IndyCar's gospel were when 75% of the races were worth one-fifth of the Indianapolis 500. Double points are nothing new and decrying it as erosion of IndyCar's dogma is absurd. Don't get me wrong, I would rather have every race worth the same amount of points and Indianapolis 500 qualifying not having its own separate points system and I would love people to fall in love with IndyCar and any form of motorsports and watch every race because each will be something new and unexpected and watch regardless if the top seven in the championship were covered by five points or the championship was locked up with five races remaining.

However, people need some stakes to watch. Some will always watch regardless because the race provides some comfort in their life but most need a greater picture and watching a race for the sake of watching a race isn't enough. All sports have a championship and it is what we all care about. If it is already decided, people are going to be less inclined to watch.

Some think double points are bad for IndyCar and waters down the championship but unlike the NASCAR Chase where the result of the finale is all that decides the champion; the IndyCar championship is still an aggregate of every race that comprises the championship. Do double points allow more in the fight? Perhaps but look at it this way, everyone is looking to get more involved. The Major League Baseball postseason expanded to have one additional wild card team five years ago. The NFL has been considering adding another wild card team the last few years. Even the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2011.

If the finale goes from having two drivers eligible for championship to five, so be it. The top five drivers aren't slouches; most of them likely have a victory and a handful of podiums. It's not like a driver whose best finish is ninth is all of a sudden in contention. Another difference from the Chase format is all the drivers eligible at the IndyCar finale are at the top of the points and IndyCar isn't legislating that a certain number of drivers will be eligible for the title at the finale. If the four drivers are eligible, those are the top four after 16 races or if it is only three drivers than those are the top three. Those aren't drivers who snuck into a field of 16 and had three decent rounds after being mediocre for nearly three-quarters of the season.

Double points might not sit well with most but the IndyCar championship is still decided by the aggregate over 17 races. The points aren't reset. The top finisher in the finale of four drivers isn't the champion if he or she finishes fourth and the other three finish seventh, eighth and 16th. If the finale is going to be at Sonoma and worth double points, maybe make the race a little bit longer than the rest. Maybe increase it to 100 laps and make it the longest road course race of the season and give the fans a little extra racing before the offseason.

Maybe we need to look at double points another way. A driver can still clinch the championship early; it is just going to take more to do so. It is a win-by-two scenario if you will. The most points that can be made up in a double points IndyCar race is 94 points, should at least 25 cars enter, so drivers have a measuring stick. If you want to lock up the championship early, you are going to need at least a 94-point lead and to be championship-eligible entering the finale you have to be within 94 points. It is fairly simple when you think about it.

Ironically, under the USAC format from the so-called IndyCar golden-era, Will Power would have entered Sonoma last year with a 365-point lead over Simon Pagenaud with 400 points on the table and Power only needing an 11th-place finish to be champion. Power would have actually had a chance to clinch the championship at Watkins Glen. Despite the fact that Pagenaud entered Sonoma with a 43-point lead, no one cried nostalgia and said Power should have been the points leader and if that is the case, why should anyone cry about double points? Double points are a 21st century evolution and we shouldn't be Neanderthals and shoot down progress.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Toyota but did you know...

Brad Keselowski won the NASCAR race at Martinsville. Chase Elliott won the Truck race.

Lucas di Grassi won the Mexico ePrix from 15th on the grid, the furthest back a Formula E winner has ever started.

Jonathan Rea and Chaz Davies split the Superbike races from Aragón. Lucas Mahias won in Supersport by 0.014 seconds over Sheridan Morais and American PJ Jacobsen was third.

The #84 HTP Motorsport Mercedes of Maximilian Buhk and Franck Perera swept the opening round of Blancpain Sprint Series from Misano.

Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from St. Louis, his fifth consecutive victory and he now trails Ryan Dungey by four points with four races to go.

Davit Kajaia and Pepe Oriola split the TCR International Series opening weekend at Rustavi International Motorpark in Tbilisi, Georgia. Kajaia's victory was his first career victory and it came at his home track.

Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar is back in action at Long Beach.
IMSA will also be in Long Beach.
Pirelli World Challenge makes it quite the triple-header from Long Beach.
Formula One's second round is in China.
NASCAR goes to Texas.
MotoGP crosses the Atlantic for a trip to Argentina.
Supercars run the second round of the season at Symmons Plains.
World Rally runs Tour de Corse.
Super GT opens its season at Okayama.
World Touring Car Championship opens its season at Marrakech.

Ending Like a Lamb

I was aggravated on Wednesday and it was all my fault.

Maybe I keep my expectations too high even though I try to be level headed when it comes to the yearly, emotional ride that is the Indianapolis 500. It is the only race, other than maybe Le Mans, where we know when it is going to be the day after it has happened. Every Memorial Day, while reflecting on the race the day before with hamburgers and hot dogs, we circle that Sunday 360-someodd days away.

The rest of the IndyCar schedule fills the void from May to May but once the season ends, whether it is still in the thick of summer night or a pleasant autumn afternoon, eyes turn toward Indianapolis even if a half a dozen races are scheduled before it starting in March.

It is too much time and we need to excite ourselves. We get our hopes up. We believe it is the greatest race in the world therefore this year is going to be the greatest year yet. This year will be the year all the studs come out. All the world champions, NASCAR race winners and sports cars best who say they want to attempt the Indianapolis 500 are going to be there and it will be a monumental day in May that we will be telling our grandchildren about.

That day never comes and we start to realize it this time of year, when spring stretches its leg while winter is heading out the door.

Just take this year. In December, you could have found a way to have 35 or 36 cars entered through additional cars at Andretti, Foyt, Carpenter, Schmidt Peterson, etc. Who knows? Jenson Button is out of a ride. Maybe Honda gets him to Indianapolis. Tony Stewart is retired and though he says he doesn't want to race Indianapolis, maybe he has a change of heart. Maybe this is finally the year Michael Shank Racing gets on the grid. Then the bottom falls out and KV Racing is gone. Now it appears Carpenter might not run an additional car. Townsend Bell might not be back. The list of possible one offs gets a little more depressing each day. Jeff Simmons is in the conversation. Jeff Simmons hasn't raced in nine years. Nobody is getting excited over Gustavo Yacamán unless your name is Gustavo Yacamán.

Where are the days when the Formula One rejects came to IndyCar? IndyCar had a healthy heap of Formula One cast offs on the grid and many became stars. IndyCar was lined with Teo Fabi, Roberto Guerrero, Raul Boesel, Derek Daly and IndyCar was the landing pad for Emerson Fittipaldi's second career. Where is Felipe Nasr? Where is Jean-Éric Vergne? Giedo van der Garde? Lucas di Grassi? What is Charles Pic up to? Other than Nasr and Pic, the answer is paying seats whether it is in Formula E or sports cars. But what about other drivers? Scheduling conflict aside, why couldn't Andretti run both its Formula E drivers Robin Frijns and António Félix da Costa?

Why aren't GP2 drivers in limbo coming to IndyCar or giving the Indianapolis 500 a go? Alex Lynn is diving headfirst into sports cars and kissing single-seaters goodbye. Super Formula has landed the GP2 champion for the second consecutive year with Red Bull development driver Pierre Gasly driving Team Mugen Honda. Where did 2013 GP2 champion Fabio Leimer go? Luca Filippi has tried to be in IndyCar and has had marginal success but nearly five years after trying to break into the series the first time he has only been abled to piece together part-time rides and has never gotten a shot at Indianapolis despite his credentials.

And this hasn't even the mentioned the slew of Road to Indy drivers who always deserve to be a part of the conversation. I wish come May the entry list featured all the names above on top of Matthew Brabham, Jack Harvey, Zach Veach, Dean Stoneman and Stefan Wilson. How doesn't Spencer Pigot have a ride yet? He should have been smart enough to include that in his ECR deal on top of all the road and street course races. Why isn't Rubens Barrichello coming to Indianapolis each May? We would love if Barrichello visited each May.

And maybe this speaks to a larger issue with the Indianapolis 500's relationship with the Verizon IndyCar Series. It is a race that can exist without a series but organized as just another event. The current IndyCar regulations have produced competitive racing and has kept cost down (although it seems by not that much) but the limited chassis and engine lease availability has been a big drag on the series and the Indianapolis 500. Bumping hasn't come on the race track but in the boardroom for the better part of the last five years and I fear it will only get worse come next year.

The universal aero kit is being praised as helping control costs and provides a more level playing field between Chevrolet and Honda but it is going to be another expense for the Indianapolis-only teams such as Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Lazier Partners Racing. Lazier has been notorious the last few years for barely scraping enough pennies together to get to Indianapolis and forcing that team to buy body work for one race is just going to be another punch to the gut.  

While IndyCar tries to decrease costs for full-time teams, it would only help the series to decrease costs for Indianapolis 500-only programs as well. The boat has sailed on allowing the previous generation IndyCar to attempt the Indianapolis 500 but something has to be done. While the universal aero kit is being introduced, perhaps the Honda and Chevrolet aero kits should be grandfathered in to allow little teams to compete without having to open the pocketbook. At the same time, with the introduction of universal aero kit, the hope is a third engine manufacture would be drawn to the series and that what hopefully see an increase in Indianapolis 500 entries. However, it could be argued the current engine regulations are still too constrictive. After all, how many manufactures have a 2.2-litre, twin-turbo V6 just sitting around? I would like to see IndyCar open the engine regulations a bit to allow existing engines to enter the series. Toyota runs a 2.0-litre, turbocharged inline-4 in Super Formula. Why couldn't that be allowed on the IndyCar grid especially if it adds a third manufacture to the series, relieves the pressure on Chevrolet and Honda and increase both full-time and Indianapolis 500 entries?

The Indianapolis 500 never turns out to be as good as it is going to be but when the day comes and the celebration is winding down we forget about the excruciating months leading up to the grand day. The only problem is Indianapolis is a yearly occurrence of marginal disappointment and it is tiring to experience every spring.