Friday Five: Laguna Seca, Hockenheim, Fuji, Motegi, Talladega

A champion will be crowned in Germany. A manufacture defends its turf in Japan and that isn't the only major motorsports event in Japan. Meanwhile, the United States hosts an inaugural endurance race at a familiar racetrack and NASCAR heads to the biggest racetrack on its schedule.

California 8 Hours

The inaugural California 8 Hour marks the penultimate round of the 2017 Intercontinental GT Challenge and the 20-car field features teams from Pirelli World Challenge and other top teams from around the globe. There are eight GT3 Overall entries, two GT3 Pro-Am entries, one GT3-Am entry, seven GT4 entries and two invitational entries.

Christopher Haase leads the IGTC drivers' championship with 26 points thanks to victory in the 24 Hours of Spa and pole position for the Bathurst 12 Hour. Haase will drive the #29 Land-Motorsport Audi with Connor De Phillippi and Christopher Mies. De Phillippi and Mies won with Land-Motorsport last week in the GT Daytona class at Petit Le Mans. Mies has scored 11 points in the IGTC this year.

Audi leads the manufactures' championship with 44 points and three other Audis are entered for the California 8 Hours. PWC regular Magnus Racing will contest the #44 Audi for Pierre Kaffer, Kelvin van der Linde and Markus Winkelhock. Winkelhock was one of Haase's co-drivers for Spa. M1GT Racing is another PWC team and it has entered the #23 Audi for Jason Bell and Lars Viljoen, the lone GT3-Am entry. Blancpain Sprint Cup champions Robin Frijns and Stuart Leonard will share the #11 Audi for Audi Sport Team WRT with Jake Dennis.

Bentley is second in the manufactures' championship on 35 points but has not entered a car for the Laguna Seca round.

Porsche sits on 30 points and the German manufacture has four entries, all of which will be run by PWC teams. Patrick Long and Wright Motorsports are fresh off taking the overall PWC GT Championship and Long will run the #58 Porsche with Jörg Bergmeister and Romain Dumas. GMG Racing has entered two cars with the #17 Porsche for Alec Udell and Wolf Henzler in partnership with HGK Racing and the #77 Porsche for Preston Calvert, Andrew Davis and Michael James Lewis in partnership with Calvert Dynamics. Black Swan Racing has entered the #54 Porsche for Tim Pappas, Jeroen Bleekemolen and David Calvert-Jones.

RealTime Racing has entered two Acura NSX GT3s. Ryan Eversley, Tom Dyer and Dane Cameron makes it an all-American line-up in the #43 Acura. Jules Gounon, who won the 24 Hours of Spa with Haase and Winkelhock will be in the #93 Acura with Peter Kox and Marks Wilkins. The only McLaren entered is the #9 K-PAC Racing McLaren for Álvaro Parente, Bryan Sellers and Ben Barnicoat.

The GT4 class features three Aston Martins, three Porsches and one Ginetta. TRG has entered two Aston Martins with Craig Lyons, Kris Wilson and Thomas Merrill in the #3 Aston Martin and Greg Milzcik, Brandon Davis and Derek DeBoer in the #4 Aston Martin. Creventic 24H Series regulars Charlie Putman and Charles Espenlaub will drive the #99 Automatic Racing Aston Martin with Eric Lux.

GMG Racing has partnered with HGK Racing to enter the #8 Porsche for Carter Yeung and Andy Lee. Rearden Racing has entered the #26 Porsche for Jeff Kearl, Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal and the #117 Porsche for Hutton McKenna, Vesko Kozrov and Daren Jorgensen. Ian Lacy will drive with Frank Gannett and Drew Staveley in the #12 Ginetta for his own team.

MARC CARS Australia has brought two Marc Mazda 3 V8s to the United States. Jake Camilleri and Nicholas Rowe are entered in the #193 Mazda and Keith Kassulke and Morgan Haber are entered in the #194 Mazda.

The California 8 Hours will begin at 12:15 p.m. ET on Sunday October 15th.

DTM Finale at Hockenheimring

The 2017 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season heads to the final round of the season with six drivers still eligible for the championship.

Audi driver Mattias Ekström leads the championship with 172 points and the Swede is looking for his third DTM championship and first since 2007. He is looking to tie Klaus Ludwig for second-most DTM championships. Ekström picked up his first victory of the season in the first race of the most recent round at Red Bull Ring. He has won four times at the Hockenheimring, including the 2014 season finale at the track.

Ekström holds a 21-point lead over fellow Audi driver René Rast, who picked up his third victory of the season in race two from Red Bull Ring. Prior to that victory, Rast had failed to score points in three of the previous four races. Jamie Green won two of the first four races but he has only stood on the podium once in the last 12 races. Green trails Ekström by 35 points. Green has finished in the top three of the championship the last two seasons.

Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Wittmann are tied on 134 points but Rockenfeller holds the tiebreaker with his victory at Zandvoort while the defending champion Wittmann has yet to win a race despite being on the podium in four of 16 races. Audi drivers make up the top four in the championship and Audi has not had a driver win the title since Rockenfeller in 2013. Rockenfeller is also the most recent DTM champion who failed to win a race while defending a championship. Lucas Auer is the only Mercedes-Benz driver eligible for the title. The Austrian trails Ekström by 41 points with 56 points left on the table.

The penultimate DTM race of the 2017 season will take place 7:28 a.m. ET on Saturday October 14th. The finale will be at 7:53 a.m. ET on Sunday October 15th.

6 Hours of Fuji

The FIA World Endurance Championship has its first round in Asia for the 2017 season and Fuji Speedway hosts the series for a sixth consecutive year.

The #2 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber have won the last four races and they have a commanding championship lead with 159 points. The #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima trail the #2 Porsche by 51 points. Toyota has won four of five 6 Hours of Fuji. Bamber and Bernhard were responsible for the lone non-Toyota as they and Mark Webber won at the track two years ago. Anthony Davidson returns to the #8 Toyota after missing Austin for personal reasons.

The #1 Porsche of Neel Jani, André Lotterer and Nick Tandy have finished second in the last three races and they trail the sister Porsche by 76 points, giving the Swiss-German-Anglo trio a slim shot at the championship. Mike Conway and Kaumi Kobayashi won last year's Fuji in the #7 Toyota and José María López joins those two in the car.

The #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca leads the Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers with Ho-Pin Tung, Oliver Jarvis and Thomas Laurent having scored 130 points from the first six races. The #31 Vaillante Rebellion of Bruno Senna and Julien Canal trails by 20 points despite having finished on LMP2 podium five times this year, including a victory at Mexico City. American Gustavo Menezes is trying to defend his LMP2 title and he is 28 points behind the #38 Oreca. Menezes won at Austin in the most recent race with Nicolas Lapierre and André Negrão in the #36 Signatech Alpine and that car has finished on the podium in the last three races. 

The #67 Ford of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell lead the GT World Endurance Drivers Championship with 102 points. The British duo won the Silverstone season opener but their only other podium finish this season was second at Le Mans. Priaulx and Tincknell won at Fuji last year. Richard Leitz and Frédéric Makowiecki trail the #67 Ford by six points in the #91 Porsche despite having yet to win this year. AF Corse driver Davide Rigon is a half-point back of the #91 Porsche with teammates James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi sitting another half-point back. Calado and Pier Guidi have won two of the last three races, including Austin, in the #71 Ferrari. Rigon will drive the #51 Ferrari with Sam Bird. Bird sits on 95 points because he missed the Nürburgring round due to Formula E commitments.

Fourteen points cover the top three teams in GTE-Am. The #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda has 130 points after picking up their second victory of the season at Austin. The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Christian Ried, Marvin Dienst and Matteo Cairoli trail the #98 Aston Martin by four points. The #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari of Matt Griffin, Keita Sawa and Weng Sun Mok sit on 116 points. The #98 Aston Martin and #77 Porsche has each finished on the podium five times while the #61 Ferrari has four podium finishes. Dalla Lana, Lamy and Lauda won last year at Fuji.

The 6 Hours of Fuji will start at 10:00 p.m. ET on Saturday October 14th.

MotoGP's Japanese Grand Prix

Last year, Marc Márquez clinched the MotoGP championship with a victory at Twin Ring Motegi. This year, five riders enter with a shot at the tile and Márquez holds onto the championship lead.

The Honda rider has won the last two races and he has extended his championship lead to 224 points. Márquez has not won three consecutive races since he won ten consecutive races to start the 2014 season. He is 16 points clear of Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso. Márquez's victory last year at Motegi was his first in MotoGP and his first at the track in four years. Dovizioso's lone Motegi victory came in the 125cc class in 2004. His best finish in MotoGP at Motegi was second last year and in 2010 when he started on pole position for Honda. An Italian rider has not won in MotoGP at Motegi since Valentino Rossi in 2008.

Maverick Viñales won three of the first five races but the Yamaha rider has not won in the last nine races. He finished third in last year's Japanese Grand Prix and he has stood on the podium in four of six starts at Motegi but he has yet to win at the track. Viñales sits on 196 points. Dani Pedrosa sits on 170 points in fourth and Valentino Rossi is two points behind Pedrosa. Pedrosa is tied with Loris Capirossi and Jorge Lorenzo for most MotoGP victories at Motegi with three. Rossi's 2008 victory is his only visit to the top step of the podium at the track.

The Japanese Grand Prix will take place at 1:00 a.m. ET on Sunday October 15th. 

Talladega

There are six races remaining in the 2017 NASCAR Cup season and this week Talladega hosts the second race of the second round of the Chase.

Martin Truex, Jr. picked up his sixth victory of the 2017 season last week at Charlotte and he has clinched a spot in the semifinal round with that victory. On top of securing his spot in the next round, Truex, Jr. leads on points as well with 3,106 points.

Kyle Larson is second on 3,072 points and Larson is 29 points to the good to make it to the semifinal round. Truex, Jr. and Larson are the only two drivers to finish in the top ten for all four Chase races. Kevin Harvick is three points behind Larson with Chase Elliott a further ten points behind Harvick. Elliott has finished second in three of the last four races. Denny Hamlin rounds out the top five, 13 points to the good.

Kyle Busch is a point behind his teammate after a 29th-place finish at Charlotte. Jimmie Johnson has three top ten finishes from the last four races but he is only eight points above the drop zone. Jamie McMurray's fifth-place finish last week was his first top five finish since Michigan in June and he sits on 3,044 points, one point to the good.

Matt Kenseth is one point on the outside after an 11th-place finish at Charlotte. Brad Keselowski is a further point behind Kenseth and Ryan Blaney is five points behind McMurray. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. finished 13th last week at Charlotte, his best finish since his Daytona victory in June. Stenhouse, Jr. trails McMurray by ten points.

Stenhouse, Jr. won at Talladega in May and he is one of eight remaining Chase drivers to have won at Talladega. Truex, Jr., Larson, Elliott and Blaney are the four drivers yet to win at Talladega in the Cup series. Keselowski leads all Chase drivers with four Talladega victories but only one of those came in the autumn race. Team Penske has won the last three autumn Talladega races with Keselowski winning in 2014 and Joey Logano having won this race the last two years. Five times has a driver eliminated from championship contention won the autumn Talladega race and McMurray won two of those races.

Toyota's only victory in the autumn Talladega race was in 2008 with Tony Stewart. The last driver to sweep the Talladega races in a season was Jeff Gordon in 2007. The last driver to win the second Talladega race in a season and the championship was Dale Earnhardt in 1993 and that race was held in late July.

The NASCAR Cup race from Talladega will be held at 2:20 p.m. ET on Sunday October 15th.

Over or Under?
1. Over or Under: 320.5 laps completed in the California 8 Hours?
2. Over or Under: 129.5 points for Robert Wickens after the Hockenheim round?
3. Over or Under: 4.5 French drivers finishing in the top five in LMP2 at Fuji?
4. Over or Under: 6.5 being the top finishing non-Spaniard/Italian at Motegi?
5. Over or Under: 7.5 caution laps in stage two of the Cup race?

Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: There was one Global LMP2 car on the overall Petit Le Mans podium.
2. Under: There was only one New Zealander on the Bathurst 1000 podium.
3. Under: Lewis Hamilton won the Japanese Grand Prix by 1.211 seconds.
4. Under: The average speed for the Cup race was 138.8 MPH
5. Under: Four GT300 cars are eligible for the championship heading into the season finale.

Predictions
1. A third different manufacture wins the third IGTC round of the season.
2. Mattias Ekström wins the DTM championship but does not win a race at Hockenheimring.
3. There will be a first time winner this year in at least one of the classes at Fuji.
4. Valentino Rossi is not the top Yamaha finisher.
5. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finishes ahead of at least two of his teammates.

Last Week's Predictions
1. Team Penske finishes on the podium (Correct!Team Penske finished third at Petit Le Mans).
2. Both winning drivers in the Bathurst 1000 are first-time Bathurst 1000 winners (Correct! David Reynolds and Luke Youlden both got their first Bathurst 1000 victories).
3. Fernando Alonso finishes ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne and in the points (Correct and Wrong! Alonso finished ahead of Vandoorne but finished 11th).
4. At least four top ten finishes from the May Charlotte race don't finish in the top ten this weekend (Correct! Seven drivers that finished in the top ten at Charlotte in May did not finish in the top ten last week).
5. There will be repeat winners in both GT500 and GT300 this weekend (Correct! The #37 Lexus of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy won in GT500 and the #51 Lexus of Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi won in GT300).
Last Week: 4.5/5 Overall: 9.5/15

2018 IndyCar Schedule Reaction

Twenty-five days have past since the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season concluded and today we saw the 2018 schedule released. It has the same number of race weekends and the same number of races as the 2017 schedule but there is one notable changes in venues.

Portland International Raceway will return to the calendar for the first time since the 2007 Champ Car season. The return of Portland comes at the expense of Watkins Glen International, as the track exits the calendar after two seasons.

St. Petersburg will host the season opener on Sunday March 11th. This will be the eighth consecutive season where St. Petersburg will be the opener and it will be the tenth time overall St. Petersburg has started the season. Phoenix has moved up a few weeks and it will lead off a three-week spring stretch of races. Phoenix will be Saturday April 7th with Long Beach following on Sunday April 15th and Barber caps off the stretch on Sunday April 22nd.

The Grand Prix of Indianapolis once again takes place on the second Saturday in May, May 12th to be specific and the Indianapolis 500 remains Memorial Day weekend, Sunday May 27th. The Belle Isle doubleheader follows the Indianapolis 500 on Saturday June 2nd and Sunday June 3rd. Texas ends a stretch of five races in five weeks on Saturday June 9th.

The first race of summer will be at Road America on Sunday June 24th. Two weeks later, IndyCar returns to Iowa Speedway on Sunday July 8th. Toronto takes place a week later on Sunday July 15th. Mid-Ohio ends the month of July on Sunday July 29th. IndyCar will take a two-week summer break following the Mid-Ohio race.

There will three consecutive weeks of racing start with Pocono Raceway on Sunday August 19th. Gateway Motorsports Park will be the final Saturday of August, August 25th, and it will be an hour earlier than this year's race. Portland slots into the vacated Labor Day weekend and will race on Sunday September 2nd. Sonoma closes out the 2018 season on Sunday September 16th.

The only place to start is with the one change to the calendar and I am going to go more negative than most. I was really happy for 2017 because the schedule remained 100% intact from 2016 and that is something IndyCar had not achieved in a decade. I was hoping IndyCar could put together four or five seasons of 100% retention rate with an addition or two.

That didn't happen and I know Watkins Glen said it wasn't enamored with the Labor Day weekend date, even though the track president Michael Printup said he wanted a race in September, and I wish the series and the track could have worked something out. Watkins Glen is a proper race course and a track IndyCar should want to be at because it shows off how spectacular the car is on the racetrack.

Obviously 2018 was set but I would have hoped IndyCar and Watkins Glen could have held out for one more year and found a better date for 2019. I was thinking could Watkins Glen and Gateway flip to get Watkins Glen off Labor Day weekend and pair it with Pocono to reduce travel costs for the teams but that brings in another issue in moving the race a week closer to the NASCAR race at Watkins Glen. There aren't many other places Watkins Glen could go. The track has the 6 Hours of the Glen in July. IndyCar is busy April through June. That narrows when Watkins Glen can be and it can't be in March and it could be pushed back to the end of September but IndyCar doesn't want to end the season any later than it currently does.

If there is one thing we should learn from Watkins Glen, and it is something we should already know, is that it takes more than two years for a race to be a success. I don't know what expectations were set for the Watkins Glen race but the 2016 race pretty much gets a pass because it was added at the 11th hour. This year should have been seen as a proper year one and then the race builds from here.

As for Portland, this seems a little out of nowhere considering there was a lot of talk about it at the end of last year, all went quiet through the 2017 season and in the last few weeks it came back up and here we are with it back on the schedule. We are all wondering what kind of reception IndyCar gets after abandoning the track a decade ago. When Road America returned to the schedule fans flocked to the racetrack. I am not sure Portland will have the same kind of euphoria surrounding the event. However, Portland is a race in the Pacific Northwest, a part of the country that hasn't had a race. It will be a race that hopefully attracts not only the citizens of Portland but people from the Seattle-area and maybe even from Vancouver.

I am skeptical that Portland will be a great success. Let's face it; we don't see the Pacific Northwest as a hot spot of American motorsports. It is the Midwest, the south and California. Portland had a long history with IndyCar but how many people are still hanging on a decade removed from the most recent race?

Mexico City was not included on the schedule despite the months of rumors of a potential return. However, a Mexico City race has not been entirely ruled out and there are two rumored dates. It has been linked to a race either in late-March between St. Petersburg and Phoenix or in early-August either the week after Mid-Ohio and creating a back-to-back or the week before Pocono and creating a four-week stretch of races from Mexico City to Pocono to Gateway to Portland.

If Mexico City were to be added to the schedule, I think it makes the most sense to add the race in March, as there is a three-week gap between St. Petersburg and Phoenix.

Overall, I don't think you can be disappointed in this schedule. Yes, it is tough to see Watkins Glen fall off the schedule after two good years in terms of what happened on the racetrack but we aren't seeing three races drop off and only two come on. A replacement was available and the schedule remains the same length. Now we wait on start times for races and all I can say is I hope they are all an hour, and in some cases two, earlier than expected.

With 2018 set, we can now look to 2019 and speculate if IndyCar ends on an oval and what oval could that be.

IndyCar Wrap-Up: Dale Coyne Racing's 2017 Season

We have reached the halfway point of the IndyCar team reviews and we have reached the slightly surprising team of the season, Dale Coyne Racing. The team retooled and it started off leading the championship for the first time in the team's three-decade history. It wasn't able to stay in the championship conversation for the entire season but it had a respectable showing.

Ed Jones won rookie of the year but the season ended on a downer

Ed Jones
The 2016 Indy Lights champion entered IndyCar as the only rookie on the 2017 grid and with a four-time champion as his teammate. That did not spook the Emirati driver. If it wasn't for Sébastien Bourdais winning the season opener from St. Petersburg Jones might have gotten a few more headlines, as he ran a fair amount of the race in the top ten and held on for a tenth place finish on debut. He made a big stride forward at Long Beach, missing out on the second round of qualifying by a position but finishing sixth and once again he was overshadowed with Bourdais finishing second. He made the second round of qualifying at Barber and started 11th, a position ahead of his teammate but fell back to a 16th-place finish. His oval debut at Phoenix saw Jones keep it out of the wall and despite finishing three laps down he came home in 11th.

The Grand Prix of Indianapolis did not go as planned as he had to cut through the grass to avoid a spinning Tony Kanaan. An extra pit stop put him down to 19th position. Indianapolis 500 qualifying is where many sat up and started to take notice of Jones. He was one of the first qualifiers on Saturday and his time held up and appeared it might be able to make the Fast Nine session. Unfortunately, Jones got bumped down to tenth but he qualified 11th on the second day. In the race, Jones ran solidly all race but just outside the top ten for most the first two-thirds of the race. A timely pit stop before a caution put Jones into the top ten and at the front. Unfortunately, a hole in his nose made it difficult to get up with the leaders but he held off Max Chilton for a third-place finish, and Jones was the top finishing rookie in the 101st Indianapolis 500. He kept up the good form with a ninth-place finish the following Saturday in the first Belle Isle race and he was seventh in the championship at that point. Contact with J.R. Hildebrand ended his day early in race two.

Ed Jones' season went downhill from there. He was involved in the lap 152 accident at Texas when he was in contention for a top ten finish and possibly even a top five. He finished seventh at Road America in what was a very good race but that would be his final top ten finish of the season. Despite starting eighth at Iowa he finished 18th, three laps down. An oil pressure issue ended his race ten laps early at Toronto. He caused the only caution at Mid-Ohio and finished dead last. Pocono was a good day as he finished all 200 laps but he was the final car on the lead lap in 17th. He had another good day at Gateway, completing every lap and finishing 13th. He had another uneventful 13th-place finish at Watkins Glen and he ended his season with a suspension failure at Sonoma.

Ed Jones' 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 15th (354 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Top Fives: 1
Top Tens: 5
Laps Led: 0
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 14.352
Average Finish: 14.176

Sébastien Bourdais led the championship and broke his hip in the same season

Sébastien Bourdais
This offseason saw the Frenchman reunited with his championship winning engineer Craig Hampson but they could not have had a worse start to the season as a brake failure in qualifying caused Bourdais to go off course and cause a red flag, deleting his best two times and forcing him to start dead last for the season opener at St. Petersburg. He got up to 11th by the time he made his first pit stop and three laps later a caution came and Bourdais was second on the road of the cars that had already stopped. He restarted second and eight laps after going green Bourdais took the lead. He led all but five of the final 74 laps and took the victory.

The next race saw Bourdais start 12th and have to stop on lap two to replace a broken rear wing. By the end of the first fuel cycle Bourdais had cycled into the top ten and he caught a break when the second caution came out and he was ahead of Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden. He would move up to second when Ryan Hunter-Reay broke down and he made it two podium finishes from the first two races. He finished eighth at Barber but he lost the championship lead after being caught in the turn one lap one accident at Phoenix. He started sixth for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis but he had an engine failure after three laps.

Bourdais was one of the fastest cars heading into Indianapolis 500 qualifying. His average through the first two laps of his qualifying run was 231.534 MPH. Unfortunately Bourdais suffered a massive accident exiting turn two. The Frenchman suffered multiple pelvic fractures and a hip fracture and he would be sidelined until early May when he returned to the car for a test at Mid-Ohio in August.

He was back in competition at Gateway and he qualified 19th but worked his way to the middle of the field and led a few laps during a pit cycle. He fell to 15th, the final car on the lead lap, when he did not pit on the first lap of a caution period but found himself challenging for a top ten late and took advantage of the final restart and moved up to tenth and held on. At Watkins Glen, he had a respectable day going until he had nowhere to go after Josef Newgarden slid into the pit wall exiting the pit lane. At Sonoma, he started tenth, ran in the top ten most of the race and he finished ninth.

Sébastien Bourdais' 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 21st (214 points)
Wins: 1
Podiums: 2
Top Fives: 2
Top Tens: 5
Laps Led: 74
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 1
Fast Twelves: 5
Average Start: 12.375
Average Finish: 11.0

Former Sauber and Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutiérrez made a surprise IndyCar debut

Esteban Gutiérrez
One of the midseason surprises was the introduction of Esteban Gutiérrez to the IndyCar grid in place of Bourdais. The Mexican could not have made his debut at a more physically demanding racetrack in Belle Isle. He started and finished 19th in the first race and he started 19th in race two but worked his way up to 14th. He was not cleared to race at Texas and he returned at Road America. He started 17th and was running well until front wing damaged dropped him to a 17th-place finish.

He made his oval debut at Iowa and he started 18th. Gutiérrez ran on the lead lap for most of the race and briefly led during a pit cycle but didn't cross the line to be credited with a lap led. He finished a lap down in 13th. At Toronto, Gutiérrez had a hard shunt exiting the final corner in qualifying and had to start last but finished 14th. He qualified 12th at Mid-Ohio but fell back and was a lapped car and kind of got in the way. At Pocono, Gutiérrez had a good start but brushed the wall exited turn three and his race and season was over after 23 laps.

Esteban Gutiérrez's 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 25th (91 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 0
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 1
Average Start: 17.0
Average Finish: 17.0

What could have been is the overarching narrative for Dale Coyne Racing's 2017 season. I don't think Bourdais would have been a championship contender into the season finale had he been able to contest a full season but when you look at Bourdais' average points score per race, he averaged 26.75 points, more than Takuma Sato, who finished eighth in the championship. Sato averaged 25.94 points per race. He might not have contended for the championship but Bourdais could have won another race or two.

I don't think it should be a surprised that Jones fell off in the second half of the season considering he was the lead driver in the team as a rookie. He likely wouldn't have finished in the top ten in the championship but had Bourdais been there the entire way I think Jones would have done better in qualifying and would not have ended the season with seven consecutive finishes outside the top ten. The one positive thing for Jones is he didn't tear up much equipment this season and the one notable accident he was in, at Texas, was not his fault.

I thought Gutiérrez did a good job considering he dove right into the deep end with no testing. He held his own on ovals. I am not sure if he will be back in IndyCar but I think IndyCar wants him back considering the series is trying to get a race in Mexico City. Where he lands remains to be seen.

Before we finish, I think we have to mention Tristan Vautier's run at Texas. He qualified fifth, led 15 laps and was running well before being caught up in the lap 152 accident. It seems likely Bourdais and Jones will be back for 2018. With Chip Ganassi Racing downsizing to two cars it makes an engine lease available if Coyne wants to expand to three cars so it is possible Gutiérrez could be back but I am not sure Coyne can take on the expense of expanding to three full-time cars.

This was a promising season for Dale Coyne Racing and I think things can only get better for the team in 2018.

Musings From the Weekend: WEC's Future is Winter

Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari had another mechanical issue hamper their world championship hopes and Lewis Hamilton ceased the opportunity and won the Japanese Grand Prix. The Jolyon Palmer-era came to an end. James French and Pato O'Ward were not able to complete the perfect season in Prototype Challenge but those two had already locked up the class championship. Team Penske finished third in two endurance races happening on opposite ends of the world. A pair of champions were crowned in Jerez. NASCAR beat the rain in its own backyard. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

WEC's Future is Winter
It has been over a month since the FIA World Endurance Championship announced the 2018-19 "super season" with the series transitioning from the traditional spring to autumn schedule to an autumn to summer schedule with a season spanning two years and ending at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Next season will start in May 2018 with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Silverstone has moved to August and Fuji and Shanghai will close out the 2018 portion of the calendar. The 2019 portion of the calendar begins with a new race in the United States in March. The lone race in the Americas will be a 1,500-mile race at Sebring International Raceway and it will take place a few hours after IMSA completes the 12 Hours of Sebring. The final two races of the 2018-19 season will be Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans before the 2019-20 season will pick up later that year.

This format has been floating out there for a few years but it seemed unlikely to be implemented when the FIA WEC hosting Audi, Toyota, Porsche and Nissan all in the LMP1 class. The series was going strong and it seemed to be growing to a higher level. However, Nissan lasted one race. Audi left after 2016. Porsche will say goodbye at the end of 2017. Toyota isn't committed for the long-term future. WEC is trying to stay alive and has to try something to keep the series going.

I don't mind the split calendar but there are plenty of questions when it comes to looking beyond the 2018-19 season. Next WEC season will only be six different races with Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans being on the schedule twice at the bookends of the season. The series can't rely on six rounds in 2019 onward. There will have to be at least one more race added if not two races added and those will have to be scheduled sometime in winter or early spring. The schedule might have to even start a few weeks later with Silverstone moving to early September.

There is a four-month gap from Shanghai and Sebring. Something will have to fill that gap and that race will most likely have to be a southern hemisphere race or the Middle East, which is easier said than done. Interlagos didn't work for WEC. Outside of Kyalami, there isn't another option in Africa. The Middle East has a few options but Bahrain is off the schedule and I am not sure Dubai or Yas Marina would be better options.

There are Asia-Pacific options that could work. The Asian Le Mans Series has had well attended races at Buriram in January. I am not sure an ALMS-WEC doubleheader could work at Buriram but if WEC is looking for a crowd, it is a suitable option. Sepang no longer hosts Formula One and it hosts the ALMS finale in February. Then there is Australia but I can't think of a circuit that would be practical for the series. No, Mount Panorama is not practical. Maybe Phillip Island.

I do have a concern with the Sebring round and I would not be surprised if the 2020 trip to Sebring looks different for WEC than the 2019 race. First off, it makes no sense starting a race at 2:00 a.m. local time, anywhere in the world. Has WEC never watched How I Met Your Mother? Nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m. I think the weekend will be saturated. A 1,500-mile race is going to take close to 12 hours to complete. It will likely take about 28 hours from the start of the 12 Hours of Sebring to the finish of the WEC race and I think people will want to go home by 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

The Sebring WEC race doesn't have to be 12 hours or 1,500 miles or some distance that makes it stands out from the rest of the season. I think Sebring could be a six-hour race starting the Friday before the 12 Hours of Sebring at 3:00 p.m. ET and it would be a better time for everybody. It would start Friday night in Europe, it would end Friday night in Sebring and it could allow drivers to do both races comfortably instead of the risky proposition of running a 1,500-mile race a few hours after completing a 12-hour race.

The winter schedule is probably going to cause havoc with a number of other sports car races over the winter. WEC moved next season's Fuji race to avoid a clash with Petit Le Mans but WEC will also have to squeeze into a portion of the calendar that already features the Dubai 24 Hour, Bathurst 12 Hour and the 24 Hours of Daytona. Granted, two of these races are GT3-based races so those races won't lose teams from competing but some drivers will likely not be able to compete in some of these races they otherwise would be in because of scheduling. WEC will avoid scheduling head-to-head with the 24 Hours of Daytona but it might not be able to avoid the Roar Before the 24 test session.

One final concern I have with the future scheduling of WEC is ending the season with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. While some would argue it makes sense to end with the biggest race on the calendar, no motorsports series does that and there is a good reason for it. You don't want the race overshadowing the end of the championship. IndyCar tried ending the season with the Indianapolis 500 at the start of the Indy Racing League but it wasn't going to work.

You don't want the championship overshadowed by the race winners and that is going to be the case. The people rush the front straightaway and stand before the podium to celebrate the race winners. The champions aren't going to get that type of moment and they all deserve it. I am not sure this could be an easy fix though. Unless WEC is willing to add a season finale for early July then the series is going to be stuck ending at Le Mans and champions will be stuck not receiving the acknowledgement they deserve.

The switch to a winter schedule for WEC will cause its headaches. I am sure there will be a few situations that make us wish the series could go back to the schedule being the way it was for the first six seasons but I think we got to give it a chance as WEC tries to reignite the spark it had not too long ago.

Champions From the Weekend
The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor clinched the IMSA Prototype championship by starting Petit Le Mans.

The #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio García clinched the GTLM championship with a second place finish in Petit Le Mans.

The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan clinched the GTD championship by starting Petit Le Mans.

Charle Leclerc clinched the Formula Two championship with victory in race one from Jerez. Leclerc finished seventh in race two, which was won by Artem Markelov.

George Russell clinched the GP3 Series championship with finishes of second and fifth at Jerez.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Artem Markelov but did you know...

The #9 Erebus Motorsport Holden of David Reynolds and Luke Youlden won the 60th Bathurst 1000.

The #2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Nissan of Scott Sharp, Ryan Dalziel and Brendon Hartley won the 20th Petit Le Mans. The #25 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Motorsports BMW of Bill Auberlen, Alexander Sims and Nick Castsburg won in GTLM. The #26 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca of John Falb, Tomy Drissi and Garret Grist won the final Prototype Challenge race. The #29 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi of Connor De Phillippi, Christopher Mies and Sheldon van der Linde won in GTD.

Martin Truex, Jr. won the NASCAR Cup race from Charlotte. Alex Bowman won the Grand National Series race, his first career victory.

The #37 Lexus Team KeePer's TOM's Lexus of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy won the Super GT race from Buriram. The #51 LM corsa Lexus RC F GT3 of Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi won in GT300.

Nirei Fukuzuma and Alessio Lorandi split the GP3 Series races from Jerez.

Kris Meeke won Rally Catalunya.

Gabriele Tarquini and Robert Huff split the TCR International Series races from Zhejiang.

Coming Up This Weekend
WEC runs the 6 Hours of Fuji.
MotoGP will be at Motegi for the first of three consecutive Asia-Pacific races.
Laguna Seca hosts the California 8 Hours, the penultimate round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters championship closes with a doubleheader at Hockenheimring.
NASCAR takes a trip to Talladega.
World Touring Car Championship makes it consecutive weeks with unnoticeable touring car races in China, as WTCC will be at Shanghai.

Friday Five: Petit Le Mans, Bathurst 1000, Suzuka, Charlotte, Buriram

This weekend features a slew of races over Saturday night into Sunday morning and three of those five races could be won by Team Penske. One season ends with an endurance race though all the championship are pretty much signed, sealed and delivered. Formula One heads to one of its best racetracks. NASCAR has a homecoming weekend. Super GT makes its one international trip and then there is one of the greatest races in the world.

Petit Le Mans
The finale of the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be the 20th Petit Le Mans and all four class championships are pretty much locked up.

All Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor have to do to clinch the Prototype championship is start the race. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac won the first five races of the season and has finished on the podium in the last two races. The Taylor brothers won the 2014 Petit Le Mans with Max Angelelli as the third driver. Ryan Hunter-Reay joins the duo and this is Hunter-Reay's third time racing with Wayne Taylor Racing. He drove with Wayne Taylor and Angelelli at Miller Motorsports Park in 2006 and he finished second with Jordan Taylor and Angelelli in the 2013 24 Hours of Daytona.

While the Taylor brothers have the Prototype championship in their grasps, the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac of João Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque lead he North American Endurance Cup with 38 points, two over the #10 Cadillac. The #5 Cadillac finished runner-up in both Florida endurance races at the start of the year and won the 6 Hours of the Glen.

The #90 VisitFlorida Racing Ligier of Marc Goossens and Renger van der Zande are third in the NAEC with 22 points, tied with the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca of Misha Goikhberg, Stephen Simpson and Chris Miller.

This race sees the return of Team Penske to sports car racing and the team will run the #6 Oreca for Juan Pablo Montoya, Hélio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud. Rebellion Racing comes across the pond with the #13 Oreca for Mathias Beche, Nick Heidfeld and Gustavo Menezes. Rebellion Racing won two consecutive Petit Le Mans in 2012 and 2013. Mike Conway joins Dane Cameron and Eric Curran in the #31 Cadillac. Brendon Hartley is back in the #2 Nissan with Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel with Bruno Senna back in the #22 Nissan alongside Johannes van Overbeek and Pipo Derani. Jose Gutiérrez, Olivier Pla and Julien Canal will drive the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier.

This race marks the final appearance for the Prototype Challenge class in IMSA's top series. The #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca of James French and Pato O'Ward has won all seven races this season and has already locked up the PC championship. French, O'Ward and Kyle Masson, who returns for Petit Le Mans have also locked up the PC title in the NAEC.  BAR1 Motorsports has entered two cars with Don Yount, Buddy Rice and Daniel Burkett in the #20 Oreca and Garret Grist and Tomy Drissi in the #26 Oreca.

The #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio García have to start the 20th Petit Le Mans to clinch the pair's second championship in the GTLM class. The Danish-Spanish duo has scored 302 points this year and Mike Rockenfeller joins the duo for this race. Second in the championship is the #67 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook, who are 19 points back. Briscoe and Westbrook have yet to win this year and Scott Dixon will be their third driver. The #66 Ford of Joey Hand and Dirk Müller are a point behind its teammate and Hand, Müller and Sébastien Bourdais are second in the NAEC on 30 points.

Bill Auberlen makes his 400th BMW start this weekend. He and Alexander Sims are fourth in the championship on 381 points in the #24 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing BMW. Despite being fifth in the championship, Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner lead the NAEC standings with 32 points despite having finished seventh at both Sebring and Watkins Glen after finishing second at Daytona. Nick Tandy joins Pilet and Werner in the #911 Porsche this weekend. The #3 Corvette, #67 Ford and #24 BMW all have 24 points in the NAEC standings. The #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari won last year's Petit Le Mans. Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander return with Alessandro Pier Guidi as the third driver.

Like the Prototype and GTLM championships, the GTD championship will be clinched once the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan take the green flag. This will be the duo's second consecutive GTD title. Nielsen, Balzan and Matteo Cressoni lead the NAEC standings with 30 points. Jeroen Bleekemolen is second in the GTD championship and second in the NAEC standings. The Dutchman, Ben Keating and Mario Farnbacher all have 29 points in the NAEC standings and all three will be in the #33 Mercedes-AMG. Bleekemolen and Keating won Petit Le Mans last year with Marc Miller.

Despite not having a podium finish all season, the #86 Acura of Oswaldo Negri, Jr. and Jeff Segal are third in the NAEC standings with 27 points. Tom Dyer will be the third driver in the #86 Acura. The #93 Acura of Andy Lally and Katherine Legge has two victories this season and Mark Wilkins is back in that car for Petit Le Mans. Jens Klingmann, Justin Marks and Jesse Krohn will be in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW. Park Place Motorsports won Petit Le Mans in GTD two years ago and the team has finished on the podium in three of the last four races. Patrick Lindsey is the only holdover from that victorious team in 2015 and he is joined by Jörg Bergmeister and Matthew McMurry.

The 20th Petit Le Mans begins at 10:00 a.m. ET on Saturday October 7th.

Bathurst 1000
This year marks the 60th Bathurst 1000 and it is the 20th round of the 2017 Supercars Championships.

DJR Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin leads the championship with 2,334 points and he has six victories and 12 podium finishes from the first 19 races. Alexandre Prémat is McLaughlin's co-drver on the #17 Ford. Prémat finished second in last year's Bathurst 1000 while McLaughlin's best Bathurst 1000 finish is fifth. Jamie Whincup trails McLaughlin by 84 points and the six-time champion is looking for his fifth Bathurst 1000 victory. He was the first driver to take the checkered flag in last year's race but a 15-second penalty for causing an accident dropped him to 11th. Paul Drumbell is back as Whincup's co-driver in the #88 Holden for the sixth consecutive year at Bathurst. Whincup won the Bathurst 12 Hour earlier this year with Craig Lowndes and Toni Vilander.

Fabian Coulthard makes it two DJR Team Penske drivers in the top three. His best finish was fourth in 2015. He pairs with Tony D'Alberto in the #12 Ford, 12 years after the two paired in what was D'Alberto's Bathurst debut. Chaz Mostert has four podium finishes in the last five races and the 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner will drive the #55 Rod Nash Racing Ford with Steve Owen, who has twice finished runner-up in The Great Race. Last year's Bathurst runner Shane van Gisbergen has defending Australia Carrera Cup champion and runner-up in this year's Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up Matt Campbell join him in he #97 Holden.

Mark Winterbottom won the Bathurst 1000 four years ago and the driver of the #5 Prodrive Ford has not won in almost a year and he has only two podium finishes this year. Winterbottom's co-driver Dean Canto makes his 19th Bathurst 1000 start and his best finish was second in 2012. It has been six years since Garth Tander's most recent Bathurst 1000 victory and he shares the #33 Gary Rogers Motorsports Holden with James Golding. Craig Lowndes has not stood on the podium since last August at Sydney Motorsports Park. Lowndes could tie Jim Richards for second-most Bathurst victories at seven. His co-driver Steven Richards has four Bathurst victories including two of the last four.

Cameron Waters and Richie Stanaway won the Sandown 500 three weeks ago. The last time a driver won the Sundown 500 and the Bathurst 1000 in the same year was 2013 when Whincup and Dumbrell took both races. Will Davison and Jonathon Webb won last year's Bathurst 1000 and they are back in the #19 Tekno Autosport Holden. Davison and Webb could become the first pair to win consecutive Bathurst 1000s since Lowndes and Whincup won three consecutive years from 2006 to 2008. Davison's best finish this season is fifth.

Ford and Holden have each won 22 Bathurst 1000s while Nissan has three Bathurst victories.

The 60th Bathurst 1000 will start at 6:10 p.m. ET on Saturday October 7th.

Japanese Grand Prix
One week after Max Verstappen won the Malaysian Grand Prix, Formula One heads to Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton finished second in Sepang and he extended his championship lead to 281 points and 34 points ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Mercedes has won the last three Japanese Grands Prix and Hamilton is responsible for two of those victories. Vettel leads all active drivers with fourth Japanese Grand Prix victories with Hamilton on three and Fernando Alonso has won this race twice. Kimi Räikkönen is the only other active driver on the grid to win in Japan with his victory coming in 2005.

Valtteri Bottas sits 59 points behind his teammate, third in the championship. Bottas has scored points in his last three trips to Japan but his best finish is fifth. With 125 points left on the table, Daniel Ricciardo is the final driver with a mathematical shot at the championship. The Australian has 177 points meaning he will have to outscore Hamilton by four points this weekend to keep his championship hopes alive heading to the United States. Ricciardo has never finished on the podium in Japan.

Räikkönen rounds out the top five on 138 points. Verstappen is next in the championship on 93 points. His Sepang victory was only his second podium of the season and first since he finished third in the second round of the season in Shanghai. Verstappen opened the gap to Sergio Pérez to 17 points. Esteban Ocon finished in the points again at Sepang in tenth and he has 57 points. Neither Carlos Sainz, Jr. nor Nico Hülkenberg picked up points and they remain on 48 points and 34 points respectively.

Felipa Massa finds himself one point outside the top ten and his Williams teammate Lance Stroll is two points outside of the top ten. Romain Grosjean is still on 26 points while Stoffel Vandoorne's seventh place finish in Malaysia nearly doubled his points total as the Belgian is now on 13 points. Kevin Magnussen sits on 11 points with Alonso on ten points. Jolyon Palmer has eight points, Pascal Wehrlein sits on five points and the still sidelined Daniil Kvyat has four points.

The Japanese Grand Prix takes place at 1:00 a.m. ET on Sunday October 8th.

Charlotte
The second round of the Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series begins this weekend at Charlotte. Twelve drivers are alive for the championship.

After the reset, Martin Truex, Jr. leads the championship with 3,059 points. Truex, Jr. was one of two drivers to score three top five finishes in the first round. Eighteen points behind Truex, Jr. is Kyle Busch, the winner of the last two races. The only time Busch has won three consecutive races was in July 2015 when he won at Kentucky, Loudon and Indianapolis. Kyle Larson sits third on 3,034 points. Larson was the other driver with three top five finishes in round one. Brad Keselowski is fourth on 3,020 points.

Three points behind Keselowski is Jimmie Johnson, who finished third at Dover last week, his first top five finish since he won at Dover in June. Two points behind Johnson is Kevin Harvick, who has only one top five finish in the eight seven races while having five finishes outside the top ten in that span. Denny Hamlin has 3,013 points. Hamlin's 35th-place finish at Dover is his second-worst finish of the season. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. sits on 3,010 and he has not had a top ten finish since his victory at Daytona in July.

Ryan Blaney starts round two in the drop zone, two points behind Stenhouse, Jr. Blaney's best finish in round one was ninth at Loudon. Chase Elliott finished second at Chicagoland and Dover but he is tenth at the start of round one on 3,006 points. Despite having eight top ten finishes from the last 11 races, Matt Kenseth starts round two in 11th on 3,003 points. Jamie McMurray rounds out the dozen drivers on 3,003 points. McMurray finished ninth at Dover and he has alternated finishes in the top ten since Watkins Glen.

Last year, Johnson won this race and it was his fourth time winning the autumn Charlotte race. No driver has won this race more than Johnson. Toyota has won this race only once and that was with Clint Bowyer in 2013. McMurray is the only other active driver to have won the autumn Charlotte race multiple times. His 2002 victory came in his second career start and he won this race in 2010. Of the 765 laps Truex, Jr. has led at Charlotte, only four have come in the autumn race.

The NASCAR Cup race from Charlotte will be at 2:16 p.m. ET on Sunday October 8th.

Buriram
Super GT heads to the penultimate round of the season at Chang International Raceway in Buriram, Thailand. Both GT500 and GT300 have seen six different winners through the first six races.

While there have been six different winners from the first six races, the GT500 leading #23 NISMO Nissan GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli have not won a race this season but they have finished second in the last two races and sit on 59 points. The #37 KeePer TOM'S Lexus of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy won the first race of the season and are tied for second in the championship with the winless #6 Lexus Team LeMans Wako's Lexus of Andrea Calderelli and Kazuya Oshima, who have three podium finishes this season.

James Rossiter sits on 47 points in the #36 Lexus Team au TOM's Lexus. Rossiter and Kazuki Nakajima won at Autopolis in May. The Fuji 500km winners Hiroaki Ishiura and Yuji Tachikawa round out the top five on 43 points in the #38 Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo Lexus. The defending champions Heikki Kovalainen and Kohei Hirate sit on 36 points and won at Sportsland SUGO.

In GT300, Haruki Kurosawa and Naoya Gamou took the championship lead after winning the Suzuka 1000km in the #65 LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG with 52 points. The #4 Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG of Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka won the season opener at Okayama and are two points back in the championship. Defending champion Takamitsu Matsui and Kenta Yamashita are third in the championship in the #25 VivaC Team Tsuchiya Toyota 86 MC on 42 points.

Björn Wirdheim and Katsuyuki Hiranaka make it three Mercedes-AMGs in the top four as the #11 Gainer Mercedes-AMG drivers have 38 points, tied with the #55 ARTA BMW of Shinichi Takagi and Sean Walkinshaw. Both teams have a win but the #11 Mercedes-AMG holds the tiebreaker with a second place finish at Fuji topping the #55 BMW's next best finish of third. The #51 LM Corsa Lexus of Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi is sixth on 36 points.

The 300km race from Buriram will take place at 4:00 a.m. ET on Sunday October 8th.

Over or Under?
1. Over or Under: 1.5 Global LMP2 cars on the overall Petit Le Mans podium?
2. Over or Under: 2.5 New Zealanders on the Bathurst 1000 podium?
3. Over or Under: 10.5 seconds between the winner of the Japanese Grand Prix and second place?
4. Over or Under: 145.5 MPH average speed of the NASCAR Cup race at Charlotte?
5. Over or Under: 4.5 cars eligible for the title in GT300 after the Buriram race?

Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: British riders scored 125 points in World Superbike at Magny-Cours.
2. Under: Zero French riders finished on the World Supersport podium.
3. Under: Five Italians scored points at Barcelona in the Blancpain Endurance Series finale.
4. Over: Sebastian Vettel's fastest lap was 2.344 seconds quicker than Nico Rosberg's fastest lap in last year's race.
5. Under: The only "accident" was Jeffrey Earnhardt's spin entering the pit lane.

Predictions
1. Team Penske finishes on the podium.
2. Both winning drivers in the Bathurst 1000 are first-time Bathurst 1000 winners.
3. Fernando Alonso finishes ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne and in the points.
4. At least four top ten finishes from the May Charlotte race don't finish in the top ten this weekend.
5. There will be repeat winners in both GT500 and GT300 this weekend.

Last Week's Predictions
1. Jonathan Rea clinches the World Superbike title this weekend but does not sweep the weekend (Correct! Rea clinched the title, won race one and retired in race two).
2. P.J. Jacobsen finishes ahead of at least two of the four riders ahead of him in the championship (Correct! Jacobsen finished ahead of all four of the top four at Magny-Cours).
3. One of the overall Barcelona winners will have won at Barcelona before but in another series (Correct! Tristan Vautier won at Barcelona in the Blancpain Sprint Series last year).
4. Lewis Hamilton wins his fourth consecutive race (Wrong! Hamilton finished second).
5. The biggest story after the Cup race will be what happens on the racetrack (Correct? We aren't talking about anything off the racetrack).
Last Week: 4/5 Overall: 5/10

What NBC Sports Loss of Formula One Means For Fans

I don't want to write this. The last thing I wanted to do was have to write about NBC Sports losing the Formula One deal but here we are, one day after the announcement was made ESPN would be the U.S. Formula One rights holder starting with the 2018 season. It was always a possibility because the contract was up but you hoped the hard work and the dedication NBC Sports gave Formula One would be enough to keep them around. Instead, Liberty Media sees a partner they would rather tango with.

It is hard to see it as a gain for Formula One in the United States. Many have their issues with NBCSN's coverage of Formula One but it is the best the series has ever been covered in this country. It was the network that rolled the dice and put the Monaco Grand Prix on network TV live with commentators on sight and that wasn't the only live race on big NBC as both the Canadian Grand Prix and United States Grand Prix were shown with the USGP done on site.

Frequently, races had an hour pre-race show with an hour post-race show. The occasional qualifying session or race would be bumped to CNBC but it happens when a network has to squeeze in the Tour de France and Premier League at the same time as Formula One and while CNBC isn't the traditional go-to sports network, it isn't hard to find.

Social media might be the work of the devil because despite NBC Sports efforts, people couldn't help but pick apart flaws. Leigh Diffey wasn't Bob Varsha and people let him hear it. In 2017, people couldn't get over the fact that commercials are needed to pay the bills and would get on the broadcasters for it. Every week someone tweeted one of the on-air personalities about not being able to find the network despite most of them, if not all of them, tweeting out a schedule (like the one embedded below) in the days leading up to the first practice session.

The 2017 #JapaneseGP is upon us. Here's your times for this weekend's race from Suzuka. #F1onNBC pic.twitter.com/wVZtucMTwg

— F1 on NBC Sports (@F1onNBCSports) October 3, 2017

I got news for those people who thought NBC Sports was the worst thing to happen to Formula One coverage in the United States: It won't be better at ESPN.

ESPN isn't bringing back Bob Varsha. It appears David Hobbs is calling it a day from broadcasting because of this move. ESPN isn't going to give you commercial-free races. ESPN isn't going to have a half-hour pre-race let alone an hour pre-race. You can say goodbye to the beautiful commentary pieces done by Sam Posey. There will not be auxiliary program such as the Off The Grid specials that Will Buxton and Jason Swales have done. ESPN is going to give us the barebones Formula One world feed experience, coming on air five minutes before the start of a session, including the race, and race coverage will likely cut out with no additional interviews from the track at 10:00 a.m. ET most Sunday mornings. Don't be surprised if you miss out on a podium ceremony or two next season because a race goes long.

While it is bad news for many Formula One fans in the United States, the good news for Formula One and Liberty Media is the ratings will likely go up because ESPN2 has slightly more pull than NBCSN. I think you end up with 300,000 viewers to starts just for being on ESPN2. Liberty Media didn't care about how Formula One would be treated. It wanted a name to cling to and ESPN is the frontrunner when it comes to cable sports networks in the United States.

We can look into the unpredictable domino effect of this deal. NBC Sports had been promoting itself as the home of motorsports and it was hard to argue against that when you consider we had multiple weekends with a Formula One followed by a IndyCar race with a NASCAR race rounding out the day or IndyCar and NASCAR reversed. I am not sure you can promote that now that Formula One is gone.

The motorsports identities of ESPN and NBC Sports are on the verge of significantly changing in the next few months. This could be a rebirth of motorsports coverage on the ESPN family of networks. ESPN will show the Monaco Grand Prix live next year but the race will be also be shown taped after the Indianapolis 500 on ABC. With next year being the final year of ABC's current IndyCar deal don't you think it would want to have that Indianapolis 500-Monaco Grand Prix doubleheader for more than one year? It wouldn't surprise me if ESPN ponied up to keep IndyCar. However, the loss of Formula One could make NBC Sports go all-in on IndyCar and maybe NBC Sports brings in another motorsports property to fill the void. The loss of Formula One could also make NBC Sports decide to let IndyCar go and focus all its efforts on NASCAR and other sport properties.

I am sad because NBC Sports picked up from where Speed left off in giving Formula One its own identity in the United States. Formula One is a universe away from being on the front pages of newspapers across the United States and it will never captivate the causal sports conversations in offices Mondays after a race but it had its own standing amongst the fans in this country. We all know who David Hobbs and Steve Matchett are and they have become apart of a Sunday morning routine for many of us. Those two have been frequent guests at breakfast for years.

American Formula One fans are losing the personal connection to the series and a broadcast meant for us. We are going to get a generic product in the world feed. What Speed and NBC Sports did was broadcast Formula One for us; it was meant for Americans viewers, they knew who we are. The world feed is put up for them. The world feed won't care to get to know us. The world feed isn't speaking to one audience but broadly so millions around the world can watch it. It is hard to embrace the world feed after years of having a tailored broadcast that cared about you.

The best way I can describe this is like watching a lover go to a man who you know won't treat her as well as you.

If there is any silver lining to this for NBC Sports is it has five races to go and it seems everyone there is going to give it ten-tenths for the remainder of the season despite knowing what the future has in store. NBC Sports was only Formula One's home for five seasons but it became a loving home and I expect NBC Sports will give it a proper send-off.

IndyCar Wrap-Up: Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' 2017 Season

The third IndyCar Wrap-Up brings us to our first Honda team and it is Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Despite winning early in the season, the team struggled and arguably was the bottom of the five Honda teams in the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season.

Things looked promising but the results didn't improve for James Hinchcliffe

James Hinchcliffe
The Canadian's season started off promising. He found himself in the lead on lap six at St. Petersburg after a pass on Will Power on the first restart of the season. He was running away with it before the second caution of the season caught him out and he had to stop under caution, shuffling him to the back of the top ten. He did manage to finish ninth. In race two of the season, he used a two-stop strategy at Long Beach and came out ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay before a caution. Hunter-Reay lost his engine and Hinchcliffe went on to take the victory. He followed that up with a solid sixth place finish at Barber. Poor fuel mileage left him with a 12th-place finish at Phoenix.

He had a good start in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and he was up to seventh before the first pit stop and then he fell back to a 13th-place finish. Hinchcliffe and the entire Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team did not have the same mojo on the oval this year and he went from Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter to the middle of row six. He was mid-pack all day and was caught in the final accident on the race, ending up classified in 22nd. His race was ruined in turn two of the first Belle Isle race when he had a half-spin all on his own after starting fifth. He was on pit lane when Charlie Kimball spun and it got him back into podium contention and he finished third. His engine expired in race two and he finished 20th. He was probably the most notable victim of the lap 152 accident at Texas.

Contact with Will Power in turn three at Road America cost him a top ten finish. He spent most of the Iowa race in or around the top five but he faded and he had to settle for a tenth place finish. For the second consecutive year he started sixth and finished third in his home race at Toronto. Unlike last year, Hinchcliffe didn't have to stretch it to get third. He wasn't threatened for the podium. He had a good run going at Mid-Ohio but lost a few positions during a pit cycle and finished 11th.

Pocono was going really well for Hinchcliffe. He started 12th but found himself in the top five approaching the halfway point of the race but a botched pit stop put him in the back half of the field. In his rush to get back to the front he made a move to the inside of J.R. Hildebrand and contact took both drivers out of the race. He started tenth and finished eighth at Gateway. His season ended with two gearbox issues at Watkins Glen and Sonoma and the Sonoma issue came after being spun on lap one.

James Hinchcliffe's 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 13th (376 points)
Wins: 1
Podiums: 3
Top Fives: 3
Top Tens: 7
Laps Led: 50
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 4
Fast Twelves: 7
Average Start: 9.588
Average Finish: 12.647

The Mikhail Aleshin-era came to an end

Mikhail Aleshin
His third season in IndyCar started with an uneventful day at St. Petersburg where he started 17th and finished a lap down in 14th. He was running 11th at Long Beach before he ran into J.R. Hildebrand and neither driver got a top ten finish and Aleshin would be penalized for the avoidable contact and was scored with a 12th-place finish. At Barber, the Russian was able to make a late pass for tenth stick and he spun in turn one on lap one at Phoenix, ending a hopeful night after he qualified seventh, the second-best Honda on the grid.

Aleshin's month of May started with an 18th-place finish after starting 17th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He wasn't able to recreate the magic of his 2016 qualifying run and he started 13th. Despite having a hole in his right side pod, he still finished 13th in the race. After starting 20th in the first Belle Isle because of causing a local yellow in his qualifying group, Aleshin used an early pit stop to get him into contention and he finished sixth. He started sixth for the second race and he went the wrong direction after an improper pit exit penalty and ended up 16th.

He was on the high side for the lap 152 accident at Texas and it cost him a likely top ten finish. Aleshin struggled to re-enter the United States after he contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans but he was able to make it back in time for Road America. He started 19th and through attrition finished tenth. At Iowa, Aleshin started sixth once again and he was running in the top ten until he spun in turn two on lap 57. That accident put him on the bench for Toronto but he returned for the Mid-Ohio race. He did himself no favors by hitting the barrier in the Saturday practice session and then starting dead last on the grid. He finished the race in 14th but it was not enough to salvage his seat and he was let go during the IndyCar summer break.

Mikhail Aleshin's 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 19th (237 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 3
Laps Led: 1
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 1
Average Start: 13.083
Average Finish: 13.833

For a handful of appearances, Sebastián Saavedra had respectable runs

Sebastián Saavedra
The Colombian driver made his IndyCar return after a year and a half sabbatical in the #17 Chevrolet for Juncos Racing. Saavedra started 31st and finished 15th and on the lead lap, his second career lead lap finish on an oval.

He was called in to replace Aleshin after he was sidelined for the Toronto race and thanks to timing of the Tony Kanaan caution Saavedra found himself in position for a top ten finish. He would lose out to Graham Rahal and Scott Dixon and have to settle for 11th in his first street course race in over two years. Saavedra was back in the #7 Honda for Pocono and he brushed the wall, ending his race after 114 laps. He had another solid run at Gateway but could not get a top ten finish and finished 11th after being bested by the returning Sébastien Bourdais.

Sebastián Saavedra's 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 26th (80 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 0
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 0
Average Start: 21.75
Average Finish: 14.5

Jack Harvey made his IndyCar debut this season and three total starts

Jack Harvey
The twice Indy Lights vice-champion made his IndyCar debut at the Indianapolis 500 in a collaboration with Andretti Autosport and Michael Shank Racing. His first outing in IndyCar couldn't have gone much worse. He had a steering column break while in the warm-up lane caused him to drive straight into the turn two wall during practice. Fortunately, it didn't happen at speed. An engine failure on Fast Friday was another blow to him and he qualified 27th. His race ended when he spun to miss the debris from Conor Daly's accident in turn three on lap 65.

After three months on the sidelines, Harvey returned to IndyCar in the #7 Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for Watkins Glen. His first road course race saw him in the top five after an early pit stop but as the race played out Harvey fell to 14th and on the lead lap. He started 19th and finished 18th in the season finale at Sonoma.

Jack Harvey's 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 28th (57 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 0
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 0
Average Start: 21.333
Average Finish: 21.0

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has not had a driver finish in the top ten of the championship the last three years and that is not good enough. Hinchcliffe missed most of 2015 after his near-fatal accident but consecutive years finishing 13th in the championship isn't good enough. Last year, Hinchcliffe was unfortunate because he was docked points for failing inspection after finishing second at Texas and he ran out of fuel on the last lap at Watkins Glen when he definitely should have finished in the top ten and was in position for a top five. If those two things don't happen, he definitely finishes in the top ten last year. This year was another story.

It started off really well but Hinchcliffe could never find the consistency needed to be in the top ten. He had four top ten finishes in the final 14 races of the season. Two of those were podium finishes but he never could put a string of results together and he really doesn't have many excuses for it. His average starting position was 9.588. He made it out of the first round of road/street course qualifying on the first seven occasions this season and he made it to the Fast Six four times. He was putting the car in a good position but he was not bringing it home in equal to or better than that position.

Hinchcliffe isn't confirmed for 2018 at SPM but it seems likely he is going to return and he seems to want to have input on who his teammate will be next year. It seems to be no secret he wants fellow Canadian Robert Wickens as his teammate but SPM reportedly had a list of 27 drivers it was looking at. SPM wanted Brendon Hartley but the New Zealander seems firmly tied to Ganassi. A few of those likely listed names, André Lotterer and Felipe Nasr to name two, have already confirmed their 2018 plans and Wickens hasn't been confirmed to returning to DTM in 2018 with Mercedes-Benz. It is still a possibility.

SPM tried Aleshin for the better part of three seasons and while he had his moments he also had frequent collisions with the barriers. I wouldn't be surprised to see Aleshin in IndyCar again but for now he will be in sports cars.

It seems Hinchcliffe wants a teammate that can make him better and I think the team wants the same. This team was arguably challenging Andretti Autosport to be the best Honda team at the end of Simon Pagenaud's time with the team and Pagenaud was alive for the title at the 2014 season finale at Fontana. The team has fallen. It isn't in a start of disarray but 2018 can't be another season in the back half of the championship.