Musings From the Weekend: Does Practice Matter?

Tony Stewart claimed the first Superstar Racing Experience championship while guest driver Chase Elliott won the season finale at the Nashville Fairgrounds. IndyCar will be getting its first new video game in almost 20 years. Known last names are landing seats in the NASCAR Cup Series for 2022. Convergence is happening. Formula One debuted sprint qualifying, but the 2021 British Grand Prix was one for the ages. IMSA suffered a weather-shortened race at Lime Rock Park. The Summer Olympics is upon us and the motorsports schedule thins out for the next few weeks. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking. 

Does Practice Matter?

Pretty straightforward question. Does practice matter? 

A typical race weekend builds, starting with practice with qualifying following and a race ends the festivities. We ran all these laps in the lead up to a race and at times the result appears known days before the green flag is even waved. 

Does practice matter? If it does, how much does it matter? Does a Friday or Saturday spoil the entire thing and cause us to waste our time on Sunday afternoons? 

I went back and looked over every IndyCar race weekend from 2015 to now, every Formula One race weekend in the turbo-hybrid era and every NASCAR Cup race weekend since 2017 to see what we can learn from practice. 

A few notes: All results are based on full practice results. This is taking each driver's fastest individual lap into account. It is not looking at ten-lap averages or whether the track was dry or wet. It does not take into consideration whether or not it was a tow-lap or a no-tow lap. It is strictly the official practice results each series published. 

IndyCar

An IndyCar race weekend varies. Most road courses have three sessions before qualifying and then a warm-up. Some have only two sessions before qualifying. Others don't have a warm-up. The doubleheaders might have only one practice session and then there are the ovals.

IndyCar is generally viewed as a wide-open competition. Anyone can win anywhere, and every team has a shot. Team Penske might win ten of 17 races, but Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing can all pick up a victory. Meyer Shank Racing won the Indianapolis 500 this year. Need I say more? 

But does that wide openness show up in practice? When the likes of DCR or ECR win, is it something we saw coming from the start of the weekend or does it pop up in the race? Do we see teams perform above expectations set from practice times? 

There have been 107 race weekends in IndyCar between the start of the 2015 season, when manufacture aero kits were first introduced, and the Mid-Ohio round held earlier this month. How did those shake out?

In 36 of 107 IndyCar race weekends, the race winner was fastest in one of the practice sessions beforehand. On only four of those 36 occasions was one driver fastest in every practice session and that is a bit misleading because two of those were races that had only one practice session to begin with. 

Scott Dixon was fastest in all four practice sessions ahead of the Watkins Glen race in 2016. Will Power was fastest for all three practice sessions ahead of the 2017 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Dixon topped the only practice session of the 2019 Belle Isle weekend and then he won the second race of that doubleheader weekend. Last year, Dixon led practice for the Texas season opener and won later that afternoon as a one-day show opened the pandemic-delayed season.

Forty-six of 107 races saw the race winner average a practice result of fifth or better. Ninety of 107 races had the winner averaged tenth or better in practice. 

Ten of the 17 winners that averaged a practice result of tenth or worse were on ovals. On the reverse end, of the 18 winners that averaged practice result of 2.5 or better, only five of those were on ovals, two of which were weekends that had one practice session, Dixon last year at Texas and Patricio O'Ward this year at Texas. The other three oval races were all races Josef Newgarden won (Iowa 2016, Gateway 2017 and Iowa 2019). 

Going back to the bottom end of the practice results, four of the 17 winners that averaged a practice result of tenth or worse were races that had only one practice session and those were all doubleheader weekends. Three of those were last year. Dixon was 15th in the only Road America practice session and then won the first race. Newgarden was 12th in the Gateway practice and then won the second race. Power was 14th in the lone Harvest Grand Prix practice and then led every lap from pole position in race two that weekend. 

The fourth weekend was Pocono 2019 when rain cancelled the morning session and qualifying. There was one practice on Saturday afternoon. Will Power was 20th in that practice session and then won a rain-shortened race. 

Besides Power, the only other race winners to average a practice result worse than 15th were both in 2015. One was Carlos Muñoz, who averaged 16.5 between two Belle Isle practice sessions, and then won the rain-shortened first race. The other was Graham Rahal at Fontana when he was 21st and 18th in the two practices. 

The average practice result for the last 107 IndyCar race winners was 6.8971 with a median of fifth. However, if we looked at just the 37 oval races from that sample, the average practice result jumps to 9.2547 for winners with a median of eighth.

Formula One

With the competitive nature of Formula One, you may believe practice DOESN'T matter even if those leading Friday are the ones on top at the end of Sunday. 

In 148 grand prix during the turbo-hybrid era, the race winner has topped at least one practice 88 times. On 13 occasions a driver topped every practice session and won the race. One of those include Lewis Hamilton's victory at Imola in 2020, which had only one practice session. 

Ninety-six race winners in the last 148 grand prix averaged a practice result of third or better; 128 averaged fifth or better. There were only 14 races where a race winner failed to crack the top three in at least one session. 

Every grand prix winner in the turbo-hybrid has averaged a practice result better than tenth. The worst average was 9.5 for Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix, where he was 15th, fourth and did not participate in the third session. That race weekend was constantly in wet or damp conditions. 

Only one grand prix winner in the turbo-hybrid era failed to crack the top five in any of the practice sessions ahead of that race. That was Daniel Ricciardo at the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix when he was sixth, eighth and sixth in the three practice sessions. That was the same race Hamilton infamously lost his engine while leading and ultimately swung the championship into the favor of Nico Rosberg. 

In only 13 races had the race winner been outside the top ten in a session prior, but some of those were drivers who had mechanical issues and only ran a few laps or abbreviated sessions. Those 13 races do not include races where a driver did not participate in a practice. 

NASCAR

There have been 118 Cup races with scheduled practice since the start of the 2017 season. On only three occasions did a race winner lead every practice session beforehand. Kevin Harvick at Kansas in 2018, Kyle Busch at the 2019 Homestead season finale and Alex Bowman at Fontana in 2020. The first two of those were races that had only one practice session. 

Thirty of the last 118 Cup races with scheduled practice sessions saw the winner top at least one of the practice sessions leading up to the race. Thirty-two of those 118 races saw the winner average a practice result worse than tenth. There have been 12 races where the winner didn't crack the top ten in any of the practice sessions before the race. 

Four winners averaged a practice result worse than 20th. Joey Logano did it twice at Richmond 2017 and Las Vegas 2019. That Richmond race is the one where Logano's victory was encumbered, and he lost automatic playoff qualification. Logano would not make the playoffs that year. Brad Keselowski averaged 26.5 between the two practice sessions at the 2019 Atlanta race and Justin Haley was 38th in the only practice session he ran prior to the July 2019 Daytona race, the one Haley won after not pitting under caution with a red flag then ending the race before it restarted.

What about road courses? If there is a notable difference between road course and oval practice results in IndyCar, what about in NASCAR?

There have been ten NASCAR road course races with practice since the start of 2017. Five of those winners average practice result was 5.5 or lower. Only three of them did the winner average a practice result worse than tenth. One of those was Ryan Blaney, who won the inaugural Charlotte roval race after Martin Truex, Jr. and Jimmie Johnson came together in the final set of corners. The other was Chase Elliott at Road America this year. 

I was curious if the results different between the aero and horsepower package from 2017 and 2018 and the low horsepower/high downforce package in 2019. 

In 2017 and 2018, the average practice result for a race winner was 8.4476. Since 2019, the average practice result only went up to 8.763, not a significant jump. 

Does practice matter?

Yes, practice always matters, but how much does it matter? 

The fastest cars are bound to come out on top, but there are certain places where it is more significant than others. 

Pace in Formula One practice definitely corresponds with results in the grand prix. In IndyCar, practice does not tell us as much, but practice results do suggest race success, although it is more likely someone will top a road or street course session and win than top an oval practice and take victory. NASCAR is more wide-open, but NASCAR is where one-lap pace does not carry as much weight as a ten-lap or 20-lap average. With a predominantly oval series and frequent green flag runs of 60 laps or more, a driver that might only have the fifth fastest individual lap might be the fastest over a longer period of time and after that run the car in fifth will be leading. 

There are no guarantees from practice. There isn't a hard and fast outcome where a certain combination of practice results assure victory, but there is a window most winners fall into. We can narrow down who will likely come out on top once all the practices are complete, but there are occasional surprises, and those are what keep us tuning in when it is race time.  

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Tony Stewart and Chase Elliott, but did you know...

Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix, his 99th grand prix victory and fourth of the season. 

Robert Shwartzman, Richard Vershoor and Guanyu Zhou split the Formula Two race from Silverstone. 

Aric Almirola won the NASCAR Cup race at Loudon. Christopher Bell won the Grand National Series race. 

The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López won the 6 Hours of Monza. The #22 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson of Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Fabio Scherer won in the LMP2 class. The #92 Porsche of Kévin Estre and Neel Jani won in GTE-Pro. The #83 AF Corse of François Perrodo, Niklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera won in GTE-Am.

The #3 Corvette of Jordan Taylor and Antonio García won the IMSA race from Lime Rock Park. The #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Roman de Angelis and Ross Gunn won in the GTD class.

The #1 Team Kunimitsu Honda of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino won the Super GT race from Motegi. The #2 muta Racing INGING Lotus of Hiroki Katoh and Ryohei Sakaguchi won in GT300. 

Cameron Waters won the bookend Supercars races from Townsville while Shane van Gisbergen won the middle race.

Kalle Rovanperä won Rally Estonia, his first career World Rally Championship victory and Rovanperä became the youngest winner in WRC history at 20 years, nine months and 17 days.

Coming Up This Weekend

Formula E will have a doubleheader around a new circuit in London. 

Lausitz hosts the second round of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season.

World Superbike visits Assen.

2021 IndyCar Expansion Draft

Four years ago, in honor of an upcoming NHL Expansion Draft for the Vegas Golden Knights, I put together an IndyCar expansion draft, creating a two-car team using one piece from the existing IndyCar teams. 

It was a fun exercise, and looking back on it, that two-car fantasy team looks pretty good four years later. 

A driver, an engineer, a strategist and a pit crew had to be selected for each entry. Each IndyCar team had different parameters to protect assets from the expansion draft and it varied from team-to-team. Four-car teams were allowed to protect one asset from each car, but could not protect multiple of the same asset, meaning a four-car team could not protect all of its drivers. At least one of each category had to be exposed. 

For two-car teams, each entrant was allowed to protect two assets, but again, one of each category had to be exposed. Single-car teams were allowed to protect two assets from its one entry. 

Four years ago, I picked Josef Newgarden, engineer Jeremy Milless, strategist Mike Hull and the #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing pit crew for one entry and the other was Ed Jones, engineer Allen McDonald, strategist Larry Foyt and the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing pit crew. That team still looks respectable now. Ed Jones hasn't developed like we thought he would since that flashy rookie year, but he has still shown some competitiveness. As for Newgarden, Milless, Hull and McDonald, all those guys are still kicking it at a high level. 

A lot has changed in four years, and with another NHL expansion draft coming up for the new Seattle Kraken franchise, I thought I would try this again. The protected assets would change, and there are a lot of stellar young drivers out there. The same rules apply. Four-car teams protect one of each asset, two-car teams are allowed to protect two assets from each entry and single-car teams are allowed to protect two assets. 

However, there are ten teams this time around, and there are eight designated spots with each entry. Instead of letting two teams go scot-free, this time around it will be a three-car expansion team and the two vacated spot will be filled with free agents. 

Who will each team be protecting? 

A.J. Foyt Racing

Driver: Sébastien Bourdais

Engineer: Mike Pawlowski

Strategist: Larry Foyt

Pit Crew: #4 Foyt

Bourdais might be 42 years old, but he is the best driver A.J. Foyt Racing has got, and Larry Foyt had to expose himself last time, but now he is protecting himself. Since those two are protected from the #14 Chevrolet, it has no other choice but protect Mike Pawlowski and the #4 Chevrolet's pit crew. 

Andretti Autosport

Driver: Colton Herta

Engineer: Ray Gosselin

Strategist: Rob Edwards

Pit Crew: #29 Andretti

Four-car teams are going to have difficult decisions and will leave plenty of enticing pieces on the table. Herta is the face of Andretti Autosport, and it is not going to let him go. Gosselin has been a key engineering member of Andretti Autosport for years now and has won a championship and an Indianapolis 500. Edwards is integral to the team and the #29 crew gets protected by default. 

Arrow McLaren SP

Driver: Patricio O'Ward

Engineer: Blair Perschbacher

Strategist: Taylor Kiel

Pit Crew: #7 AMSP

It is pretty clear who AMSP would be protecting. The O'Ward-Kiel combination might be the breakout pair of the 2021 season. With those two guarded, Perschbacher and the #7 AMSP pit crew fill out the protections. 

Carlin

Engineer & Strategist: Luke Mason

Carlin is in a weird boat, being a single-car team, but it also has Mason double as engineer and strategist. Instead of protecting Mason and Max Chilton, which effectively would be protecting three slots, we are only protecting Mason. 

Chip Ganassi Racing

Driver: Álex Palou

Engineer: Mike Cannon

Strategist: Mike O'Gara

Pit Crew: #48 Ganassi

Another tough series of choices, but Palou is one Ganassi cannot let get away as it looks to the future. Cannon has been great across the board and in year one he led the #9 Ganassi Honda to a championship. O'Gara returned to IndyCar last year after working on the Ford GT program and has played a key part in Marcus Ericsson' development. The #48 pit crew is protected by default. 

Dale Coyne Racing

Driver: Romain Grosjean

Engineer: Ross Bunnell

Strategist: Dale Coyne

Pit Crew: #18 DCR

Grosjean has entered IndyCar and immediately been a threat. Bunnell is in his first year as a race engineering, leading the #18 Honda. This team has an odd predicament as both strategists are co-owners with Dale Coyne on the #51 Honda and Jimmy Vasser on the #18 Honda. One of them has to be protected and Dale Coyne is steering this ship. Coyne is safe and the so is the #18 pit crew.

Ed Carpenter Racing

Driver: Rinus VeeKay

Engineer: Matt Barnes

Strategist: Tim Broyles

Pit Crew: #20 ECR

With how VeeKay has run this year, you do not break up the VeeKay/Barnes pairing. With those two locked up, Broyles and the #20 pit crew fills ECR's protected list. 

Meyer Shank Racing

Driver: Jack Harvey

Engineer: Andrews Listes

The second of two one-car teams, I think it is safe to say it will keep its driver and engineer under wraps, especially when considering its qualifying pace. 

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Driver: Graham Rahal

Engineer: Allen McDonald

Strategist: Derek Davidson

Pit Crew: #30 RLLR

It is not nepotism that has Rahal as the protected driver. It is more strategy. You protect Rahal and expose the 44-year-old Sato and effectively protect two drivers. Who is going to take a 44-year-old driver to build a team around? McDonald has long been credited for superspeedway success, especially at Indianapolis. With two protected from the #15 entry, Davidson and the #30 pit crew are covered for the other entry. 

Team Penske

Driver: Josef Newgarden

Engineer: Ben Bretzman

Strategist: Ron Ruzewski

Pit Crew: #3 Penske

Penske is not going to leave Newgarden exposed this time. Bretzman has been a wizard of sorts setting up a car and planning for a race. Ruzewski has a long history with Penske and that leaves the #3 Penske pit crew left for protection. 

How do we fill out this expansion team? 

1. Alexander Rossi - Driver - Andretti Autosport

If Herta is protected, you have to take Rossi. It has been a tough two-year period for Rossi, but he has shown he is a top-notch driver and a change of scenery with a new crew around him could be the answer. 

2. Tim Cindric - Strategist - Team Penske

Team Penske has a lot of juicy options out there, but Cindric is the best piece out there. Time and time again he has made genius calls that have turned a simple top ten finish into a race victory. Rossi will need that and that is why Cindric is coming to this team and will pair with Rossi. 

3. Mike Hull - Strategist - Chip Ganassi Racing

I took Hull four years ago and I will take him again now. Arguably the two most decorated strategists are on this team. There will be no concerns on the pit stand. 

4. Olivier Boisson - Engineer - Dale Coyne Racing

Boisson already had success prior to this season, but in combination with Grosjean, Boisson has been a minor star in 2021. He has succeeded with Bourdais before. I want him on my team. 

5. #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Pit Crew

Halfway through and I am going to take my first pit crew. RLLR doesn't have a clear go-to pick and I will need a pit crew. This is one off the board. 

6.  Will Anderson - Engineer - Arrow McLaren SP

The underrated piece in AMSP's surge this year, Anderson has been an engineer since 2018. He won a race with James Hinchcliffe and O'Ward has been an ace in each of his two seasons. This is someone worth taking. 

7. Peter Craik - Engineer - Ed Carpenter Racing

What? Three engineers? That's right! I am going pit stand heavy for this three-car team. Prior to Craik's time at ECR, he worked for Furniture Row Racing and won a championship. 

8. Scott Harner - Strategist - A.J. Foyt Racing

Three engineers need three strategists. Harner previously worked at Chip Ganassi Racing for 25 years. He has knowledge that will help get this team up to speed. He has worked with Mike Hull before. We are set up behind the scenes for success. 

9. #60 Meyer Shank Racing Pit Crew

10. #59 Carlin Pit Crew

I have to fill out this team, the only teams that are left are the two single-car teams, I don't need any more engineers or strategists and the only driver left is Max Chilton. I mind as well get pit crews now.

That means my two free agent spots are for drivers and I like that freedom. The driver market is deeper than elsewhere. There are plenty of talented drivers out who deserve a full-time shot in IndyCar. 

How do I line up these cars?

Car A

Driver: Rossi

Engineer: Boisson

Strategist: Cindric

Pit Crew: #15 RLLR

This is the lead car. Rossi, Boisson and Cindric are all race winners. Rossi has been on the verge of a championship and Cindric is a champion. I think Rossi needs Cindric's stewardship. He needs someone who can put the car one or two steps ahead. Too many times Rossi has found himself stuck in fourth and fail to make up any ground. The last IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio is a perfect example. Rossi could not get ahead of Scott Dixon, no matter what was done. It cost him a spot as Álex Palou jumped ahead of both Dixon and Rossi. Instead of being on the podium and maybe fighting for a victory, Rossi ended up fifth. Cindric will make sure Rossi is not in that position.

Car B

Driver: Oliver Askew

Engineer: Craik

Strategist: Hull

Pit Crew: #60 MSR

I am going after Askew and adding him to a full-time seat. He will be under the tutelage of Hull and this could be a great second act for him. Askew was a substitute at Road America for Rinus VeeKay and was the top ECR entry all weekend, better than Conor Daly who has been at ECR for two seasons now. Askew was dealt a bad hand with AMSP. Ganassi was interested in Askew when he was emerging. I think Hull can get the most out of Askew. 

Car C

Driver: António Félix da Costa

Engineer: Anderson

Strategist: Harner

Pit Crew: #59 Carlin

How about making a splash? Da Costa has won a Formula E champion and has been the Red Bull development driver that got away from the Formula One program. On top of da Costa's Formula E success, he has won in LMP2 competition and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters and one thing to remember is da Costa and Rossi were once teammates in Formula Renault 3.5. Da Costa significantly beat Rossi in the championship that season despite missing five races. In 2012, da Costa was fourth in the championship off a late season surge with Arden where he won four of the final five races and ended the year with eight consecutive top five results. Rossi was 11th in the championship with one podium finish that year. 

My concern with a third car is it a mix bag and there is risk taking a driver with no IndyCar experience, but we have seen Grosjean come in and be a threat. We have seen Scott McLaughlin enter IndyCar with very little open-wheel experience and put up respectable results. Marcus Ericsson is a race winner within his first three years in IndyCar. Da Costa is worth the shot, and he has at least tested an IndyCar. It was only a sample, but he is not completely blind.  

This team feels more balanced than the expansion team I did four years ago. We might not know how this team will look four years down the line. Da Costa might not run an IndyCar. Askew might never be full-time again. But in four years, we might circle around again and see how these picks aged.

2021 MotoGP Midseason Report

MotoGP has already been in its summer break for two weeks, but with another two weeks until the world championship returns to a circuit, it is a good point to look at where the championship sits after nine of 19 races. 

Though there were some alterations to the front end of the calendar, the 2021 season has moved along at a respectable pace. The season opened with a doubleheader in Qatar, but the last seven races have been in Europe and there are still another five races in Europe before MotoGP is scheduled to leave the continent. No riders have missed a round due to COVID-19 protocols, but there has been a fair share of injuries.

Through nine races, four manufactures have won a race, but unlike last season, we have yet to see a customer team score a victory. Nine races and nine factory victories. Customer teams won five of first nine races last year and eight of 14 races overall. 

Let's get a little more in-depth. 

Where do we stand?

Through nine races, Fabio Quartararo is the championship leader with 156 points from nine races. Quartararo has scored points in all nine races, he has four victories, six podium finishes, and he has started on pole position five times. 

Behind the Frenchman is a pair of Ducati riders, Johann Zarco sits 34 points back with Francesco Bagnaia 47 points behind. Defending champion Joan Mir is in fourth on 101 points with Jack Miller making it three Ducati riders in the top five on 100 points. Miller is the only other rider with multiple victories this season. 

Quartararo's Yamaha teammate Maverick Viñales won the season opener at Qatar, but his only other podium finish was second at Assen and Viñales is 61 points behind his teammate. KTM got off to a slower start, but Miguel Oliveira had three consecutive podium finishes, including a victory at Barcelona, and Oliveira carries a four-race top five streak into the second half of the season. The Portuguese rider is 71 points back. 

Aleix Espargaró has the Aprilia up to eighth on 61 points, one ahead of Brad Binder and Marc Márquez rounds out the top ten with 50 points. Márquez is nine points ahead of LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami and his factory Honda teammate Pol Espargaró. 

Franco Morbidelli sits on 40 points, seven ahead of Álex Rins. Álex Márquez and Enea Bastianini are tied on 27 points. Bastianini is the top rookie in the championship. Danilo Petrucci has 26 points from his first nine races with KTM. Jorge Martín took a surprise pole position and surprise podium finish in the second round, the Doha Grand Prix, but he missed four races due a broken hand and foot suffered in practice from Portugal, and he has only scored six points in his three races back. Martín has 23 points.

Valentino Rossi has 17 points, three ahead of his half-brother Luca Marini. Iker Lecuona sits on 13 points. Stefan Bradl scored 11 points in three races, two as Marc Márquez's substitute and one as a wild card. Lorenzo Salvadori has four points, Michele Pirro picked up three points as a Ducati wild card at Mugello, Tito Rabat picked up a point substituting for Jorge Martín. 

Garrett Gerloff is the only rider without a point this MotoGP season. The American substituted for Franco Morbidelli at Assen and Gerloff finished 17th, two positions outside the points.

What is Fabio Quartararo doing right?

Credit has to be given to Yamaha for providing a better bike this season. Many of the deficiencies we saw in 2020 have been addressed and a Yamaha has been on the podium in eight of nine races. 

However, Quartararo is more confident on the bike and after we saw frustration take over many times in 2020, Quatararo has remained even keeled the entire season. He has been on the podium in all but three races, but at no point has he been shaken to the point of overcompensating and costing himself points like last year. 

The one race where it looked like he had gotten it all wrong was Jerez, where he was leading quite comfortably before he dropped like a rock. It turned out he suffered a serious case of arm pump mid-race and had to hold on. That didn't send his season into a spiral. He rode a smart race in the wet at Le Mans and finished third and followed that up with a victory at Mugello, a track where Yamaha would have been chewed up and spat out if it had been on the schedule in 2020. 

There was the odd incident at Barcelona where Quartararo removed his chest protector mid-race and he cut the course late, earning him a three-second penalty, relegating him down to sixth, but followed that questionable performance with a third in Germany and leading a Yamaha 1-2 at Assen. 

It looks like Quartararo has brought a different approach to this season, and combined with an improved Yamaha, we are seeing the Frenchman flourish. 

How will the season play out now that Maverick Viñales announced his Yamaha exit?

After the Assen round, Viñales took no time to announce a buyout of his final season from Yamaha, making him a free agent for the 2022 season. 

While Quartararo has made adjustments during the offseason, Viñales appears to be stuck and still has difficulty getting everything out of the bike. Head-to-head, Quartararo is beating Viñales six to three in the races, one of which was Barcelona where Quartararo beat Viñales on the road, but the three-second penalty put the Frenchman directly behind the Spaniard. In qualifying, Quartararo holds the edge seven to two. 

Quartararo is Yamaha's clear number one and Viñales' future remains a little murky. Viñales has been linked to Aprilia for next year, but that is a risky jump for him. While Aprilia is having a nice season, it still has a lot to prove and if Viñales cannot get all he can out of the Yamaha, what makes us think he could at Aprilia? We also cannot forget Aprilia is bringing the factory operation in house next year after Gresini Racing operated it since 2015. 

All the pieces are laid out for this to be an untimely move. It could be a significant blow to Viñales' career if he makes the switch and mightily struggles, whether it is his fault or not. It would closely mirror Jorge Lorenzo's decisions in his final three seasons in MotoGP.

I don't think Viñales will be an obstacle to Quartararo's championship hopes. My worry is Viñales will not be there to help take some points off of Quartararo's championship rivals. There will probably be three or four more races where Viñales is the better Yamaha rider on that day, but he needs to be a regular top five finisher in the final ten races to help his teammate the most.

Is this where we mention Marc Márquez? 

Sure. 

Márquez missed the two Qatari rounds as he continued to recover from his arm injury and returned for the third round at Algarve while still not fully 100% and prone to re-aggravating his injury. 

While his season started slow, Márquez had a respectable first start in Portugal, qualifying ninth and finishing seventh, the top Honda rider. He ran into a bout of bad results at the end of spring. He threw away a possible victory at Le Mans in the wet when he fell off the bike and had two more falls on the second lap at Mugello and eighth lap at Barcelona. 

The good news is Márquez kept up his winning streak in Germany and won in convincing fashion over Oliveira and Quartararo. 

Márquez has still been recovering in this first half of the season, and he suffered a horrendous accident at Assen, only for him to get up and continue that weekend, but he admitted he was shaken after it and it showed in qualifying, as he ended up 20th on the grid. He rode up to another seventh-place finish and was again the top Honda rider.  

It is clear he is still conscious about his injuries, and that does cost him a bit. Many believe if the Assen accident does not happen in practice he qualifies somewhere in the top ten and likely finishes on the podium. Hopefully, this month off has allowed him to fully heal up and he will feel more confident on the bike, but he is 106 points behind Quartararo in the championship. Márquez could win the final ten races and Quartararo could finish third in the final ten races and Quarataro would still be the champion. 

That is not happening, but I think Márquez can pull out another victory or two and get on the podium more. His Sachsenring victory is his only top five finish this season. He will climb up the championship table. 

Who is overachieving?

If you had told me at the beginning of the season the top two Ducati riders in the championship would be Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia, I would have guessed something was going horribly wrong for Ducati. 

Instead, Zarco and Bagnaia are second and third in the championship respectively. Zarco has four runner-up finishes from nine races. Bagnaia has two runner-up finishes. 

Zarco has scored points in every race, has set fastest lap twice and won a pole position. His 122 points are more than his last two seasons combined and his most points in a MotoGP season was 158 points in 2018. 

Bagnaia was a slight surprise promotion to the factory Ducati team considering he had a combined 101 points in his first two seasons, and he had only two top five finishes in his first 29 MotoGP starts. Through nine races, the Italian has 109 points, and he has scored points in eight of nine races. He also started the season with a pole position in Qatar. 

While Zarco and Bagnaia leads the way for Ducati, it should be said Jack Miller is not underachieving. Miller has two victories, but the one thing holding him back are two retirements. Miller is only eight points behind his teammate Bagnaia. If you give him one of those retirements back, he is ahead of Bagnaia and if you give him back both, he is likely ahead of Zarco as well. 

I set the expectations that Aleix Espargaró could end up somewhere between tenth and 15th in the championship riding for Aprilia. Espargaró is eighth in the championship, and he has scored points in seven races. His Aprilia teammate Lorenzo Savadori has four points. Imagine how Andrea Dovizioso would lift this team?

Who is underachieving?

I don't want to say Suzuki across the board considering defending MotoGP champion Joan Mir is fourth on 101 points and he has finished on the podium three times with six top five finishes, but Álex Rins cannot get a break this season. 

Rins finished outside the points for four races and then missed Barcelona after an injury cycling ahead of the race. He was 11th in his last two starts. Rins was in the top five of the championship the last three years. He had at least one podium finish within his first eight starts in each of those three seasons. So far, his only top five finish was fourth in the Doha Grand Prix. 

Just ahead of Rins in the championship is Franco Morbidelli, and while Morbidelli is on the Petronas SRT Yamaha, he did win three races and stand on the podium five times in 2021. He was second in the championship, and now he is 13th on 40 points with only one podium result and he missed Assen due to a knee injury suffered during training. 

The Honda has been a difficult bike for everyone not named Marc Márquez in recent years, but Pol Espargaró's testing pace was encouraging. Through nine races, his best finish is eighth and Espargaró has nine fewer points than Márquez despite Márquez starting two fewer races. Márquez has beat Espargaró head-to-head in five of seven races and the only races Márquez has lost the intra-team battle were two of his three retirements. 

Is it hard to watch Valentino Rossi?

Yes. 

Rossi has 17 points from nine races. His only top ten finish was tenth at Mugello. At 42 years old, it looks like the wondrous ability has left Rossi, and he held on one year too long. He has not been remotely competitive and when you saw how good Petronas SRT Yamaha looked last year, you would have thought he could at least be fighting for top five positions and end up on the podium once or twice. That has been far from the case. 

There is a good chance this will be it for Rossi. I hope the second half of the season will get better. It could, especially if Yamaha can get Rossi and Morbidelli up in the order in necessity to aid Quartararo's championship hopes. I have to think Rossi will end his MotoGP career better than scraping the bottom of the barrel for points. 

Who are Quartararo's biggest threats for the championship?

Nobody has been nearly as consistent as Quartararo and that is a scary thing ahead of the final ten races. 

After Quartararo's shakiness in 2020, he has cleaned that up and if he is going to finish on the podium in six of the final ten races, the championship will easily be his. 

Zarco has been there, but he hasn't been good enough. Mir won the championship last year because he was the most consistent despite not necessarily being the quickest, but Quartararo has built such a large cushion that this championship will not fall to Mir again. 

I think Miller is the most poised for a championship fight, but he will have to avoid the mistakes and he will need to go on a run of victories. I think it would require Miller at least five victories from the final ten races and finishing ahead of Quartararo in eight of the final ten races to get the top spot. 

Against everyone's favor is Quartararo is not making mistakes or having bad days. He suffered arm pump at Jerez, which cost him a podium finish if not a victory. There was also his disrobing in Barcelona, but outside of those incidents, Quartararo has yet to have a race weekend where he is lost and frustrated. That happened twice in every three races last year. It is tough to see where Quatararo will falter.

How does the schedule look going forward?

There has been a fair amount of rearranging during the summer break. 

Japan and Australia are not happening. The Austin round has been rescheduled to replace Motegi, and Algarve will get a second race a week before the Valencia season finale in place of Phillip Island. 

The first five races after summer break should be safe. Those are all in Europe. The first two races are in Austria with Silverstone, Aragón and Misano following. Austin should be safe. The United States is fairly open. The only concern would be if teams are not able to freely travel back after Austin. 

Thailand and Malaysia have both remained on the schedule in October. With Japan and Australia gone, one has to wonder if both remaining Asia-Pacific rounds will hold on. If not, what does MotoGP do? 

At the start of 2021, there were three reserve races. Portugal, which happened in April after Austin and Argentina were postponed, a return to Indonesia at the new Mandalika street circuit, and Russia at Igora Drive. 

Portugal happened, but if neither Thailand nor Malaysia are set, I doubt Indonesia is a substitute option, and I doubt the teams are going to St. Petersburg, Russia in the middle of October. 

MotoGP does have tendency to commit to doubleheaders to make up rounds. If either Thailand or Malaysia fall off the schedule, it is reasonable to expect Aragón, Jerez, Barcelona or any circuit on the Iberian Peninsula could get a race. Austin is another option for a doubleheader at the start of October, but Austin has already been mentioned as a possible site for a Formula One doubleheader and Formula One will be at Austin three weeks after the scheduled Grand Prix of the Americas. If Austin does not get a second Formula One date, it would not be surprising if the American track hosted a second MotoGP race. 

There is a chance neither race is made up, but I doubt MotoGP would want a full month between Austin and the second Algarve race, the penultimate round of the season. I would expect at least one makeup race in October if neither Thailand nor Malaysia happen. 

How will this second half of the season play out?

Yamaha struggled at the Red Bull Ring last year and the next two races will be at the Austrian circuit. While Rossi was fifth in the Austrian Grand Prix, all four Yamahas finished ninth or worse in the Styrian Grand Prix. 

The Red Bull Ring is a Ducati track, and the Italian manufacture has won every Austrian Grand Prix since it returned to the schedule in 2016, and it nearly had the Styrian Grand Prix won before Oliveira slipped on through. KTM had a coming out party last year in Austria. I expect both manufactures to remain competitive and hold the advantage in those two races. 

The second half of the season balances out good and bad for Yamaha. Yamaha swept the Misano races last year, Quartararo already has a victory at Portimão this year, Yamaha won at Valencia last year and Quartararo had a strong Thailand Grand Prix in 2019. But Yamaha has never won at Austin, has not won at Aragón since 2015 and has only one victory in the last nine Malaysian Grand Prix. 

I do not expect the ground to fallout from underneath Quartararo, but he is not going to waltz to the championship. The Austrian races could be damage limitation. Silverstone could be in his favor, but he has not finished in the points in his last four starts at the circuit. He was fourth in Moto3 in 2015 and that is his only points scoring result at the British circuit. 

Some of these tracks are not Ducati's bread and butter either. It has never won at Aragón, only one victory in the last 14 Misano races and only two victories in the last 14 Valencia races. Ducati has only four podium finishes in seven Austin races while Yamaha has six. Austin has been Marc Márquez's playground. The Honda might be a questionable bike, but if Austin can to the second half what the Sachsenring was in the first half, then Márquez could take points off both and level the playing field for one round. 

With how everything has played out through nine races, I think Quartararo holds on to take the championship. Miller will climb up and finish ahead Zarco and Bagnaia, though one of Zarco or Bagnaia will get a victory in the final ten races. 

Mir will remain consistent, and a victory could fall his way, but I would not be surprised if the 2020 champion goes winless in 2021. Viñales will crack the top five in the championship and score at least one more victory. After a month off, Márquez should find more confidence off the rest, and he could get to sixth in the championship. 

Brad Binder will get back on the podium, but still finish significantly behind Oliveira in the championship. Rins and Pol Espargaró will each be notable forward movers in the second half of the season. 

Musings From the Weekend: We Have to Get Along

After ten years and 15 days of waiting, Marco Andretti has finally won a race, as Andretti won the SRX race at Slinger Speedway in Wisconsin. July is here and scheduling news is fresh off the press. The FIA World Endurance Championship will not go to Fuji and instead WEC will run two races in Bahrain, a six-hour race and an eight-race to close its season. Formula One will not be going to Australia, nor will MotoGP, and Portimão will get a second MotoGP round that will take place the week before the Valencia finale. Looking into 2022, Formula E announced a 16-race calendar with new races in Cape Town, Vancouver and Seoul. There is also a Chinese round with an unannounced venue and a TBD slot in June, which will likely be Jakarta. The World Rally Championship has announced nine provisional rounds for 2022, only two of which have dates so far. Oh, and Atlanta Motor Speedway is reconfiguring the track, and many are not happy. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

We Have to Get Along

Let's talk television, especially in an IndyCar context, because a month has made a big difference in perception. 

After the Belle Isle weekend, many were upset with the coverage of those two races. Even though NBC stuck with the first Belle Isle race for almost 90 minutes beyond its scheduled end time, many were displeased because the first lap of the race was missed because the preceding Premier Lacrosse League game went to overtime and went a little long. On top of that, because the race went late, there was a lack of post-race coverage, as once the race ended NBC moved on to the Olympic diving trials, which had already been pre-empted for most of its broadcast window. There was no post-race interview of first-time winner Marcus Ericsson, nor any word from the unfortunate Will Power, who lost the lead when his car would not fire when the red flag was lifted. 

On Sunday, the second IndyCar race started on CNBC because the French Open men's final went to five sets. The IndyCar race was not shown on NBC until around the halfway point in the race. 

Belle Isle was not a great weekend for IndyCar, even if there were a lot of things out of the series control. On one of only two doubleheader weekends, this one where both races aired on NBC, nothing went right in terms of timing for the series. People were mad and no answer was sufficiently appeasing anyone. 

Flash-forward a month and IndyCar heads into its summer break with news of 1.3 million viewers for the Mid-Ohio race, the most-watched IndyCar race outside the Indianapolis 500 on NBC and the most-watched Mid-Ohio since 2008. IndyCar's total audience delivery through nine races is 1.582 million viewers, a 30% increase over last year's comparable coverage. 

Many are strutting their feathers after the viewership news, and this comes as IndyCar is working on its next television deal. One month, everyone is angry. The next, everyone has something to celebrate. This is a good time to remind everyone that IndyCar is one part of NBC Sports' coverage, and it is not the golden goose.

IndyCar did get special attention at Belle Isle, and I think it is easy to forget how different things once were for the series. NBC stuck with the IndyCar race through the checkered flag. IndyCar got an extra 90 minutes on network television. It wasn't that long ago IndyCar races at Michigan were bumped to ESPN Classic due weather delays. Let's not forget Danica Patrick's only IndyCar victory at Motegi came on ESPN Classic because it was delayed a day and ESPN had something else to show at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday April 19. 

It is not going to be perfect and when NBC is filling an entire day with live sports, there are bound to be a few conflicts. A lacrosse game went to overtime on Saturday. That happens. A goal was scored late in regulation. If that goal isn't scored, we get to the IndyCar race on time, and no one notices. But it is sports and it is unscripted. Not to forget mentioning the overtime winner was scored very quickly. IndyCar was lucky it only missed the opening lap at the start. 

As for Sunday, tennis is a difficult sport to schedule. It could last anywhere from 90 minutes to five hours. You never know what will happen and sure enough this French Open final just happened to be the one Novak Djokovic rallied from losing the first two sets and win in five sets. We again should be thankful Djokovic won those final three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. If any of those sets had gone to a tiebreaker then there is a good chance none of the second IndyCar race would have made it on NBC and about 75% of you would have died from a heart attack. 

Let me also remind you that the end of the second Belle Isle race did get on NBC and the national network television did show the thrilling battle late between Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta and then Patricio O'Ward's charge through the field on multiple restarts. While we want to see an entire race make, network television caught the good parts in this case. That is worth something and 1.383 million viewers saw the conclusion of that race. 

Also, Belle Isle's conflict is partly on IndyCar. Belle Isle was a week later than normal. It moved to French Open finals weekend. If it had remained the week after the Indianapolis 500 then Belle Isle would have been in the middle weekend of the French Open, and it would have been easier to schedule and had less competition. This is one thing IndyCar has to consider going forward. It needs to work with NBC, or whichever channel is the partner in 2022, and position itself to avoid these conflicts. 

And people have to stop getting upset that NBC promotes NASCAR during the IndyCar race, especially when IndyCar is the lead-in programming. NBC wants the viewers to stay all day when the series are back-to-back. They want people to watch IndyCar at noon and stick with the NASCAR race all the way through until its checkered flag at 6:00 p.m. 

It isn't crazy that IndyCar was running NASCAR promos ad nauseam during Road America for the Nashville race. One, it is NBC's first NASCAR race of the season and, two, it was a new track. That is how it works. And we cannot ignore that Road America got 807,000 viewers, the most-watched NBCSN race in almost five years. But NASCAR also drew 2.6 million viewers for the Nashville race that immediately followed. 

While IndyCar drew over 1.3 million viewers for Mid-Ohio, NASCAR had more than double for Road America immediately after, 3.1 million viewers to be exact. Like it or not, IndyCar is significantly behind NASCAR, but leaving NBC Sports likely is not going to change that. 

IndyCar has a solid base of about one million people that will tune in no matter what. NASCAR has a solid base of about 2.5 million people that will tune in no matter what. Advantage NASCAR. 

IndyCar does have to ask itself some tough questions as it works on this next television contract. Is is happy as a lead-in for NASCAR races on a regular basis? It certainly helps the television number, but IndyCar finds itself in a tight window. It has a two-hour block with a 30-minute buffer zone to get the checkered flag in. 

Being a lead-in also dictates how long IndyCar's races are. Mid-Ohio worked because it was shortened to 80 laps, ten laps shorter than previous Mid-Ohio races held. The 80-lap race worked, but it did take a strategic element out of the race, as it appeared it was always going to be a two-stop race and the six laps of caution early confirmed it. The 90-lap races brought on some thrilling battles as some drivers hoped the tires would last at the end of each stint and a two-stop strategy would prevail while others would go on the chase and hope the speed allowed with a three-stop strategy would come out on top. 

I don't like IndyCar running shorter races especially if it takes out the two-stop vs. three-stop element, but it is a concession that has to be made if IndyCar wants to avoid running head-to-head with NASCAR. NBC will set up IndyCar and NASCAR so both succeed, but IndyCar also has to make sure it is putting on the most competitive race it can show. Mid-Ohio ended well this year with Josef Newgarden holding off a late charge from Marcus Ericsson, but that isn't always the case when both drivers are on the same strategy. 

There are advantages to both series sharing a network, especially in the latter half of the year. As much as people want IndyCar to shine on its own, recent history suggests that is not going to happen. The grass isn't always greener and bailing on NBC because things aren't perfect isn't the answer. Perfect doesn't exist. CBS Sports was a rumored player for the future IndyCar rights back in May, but CBS Sports has since withdrawn interest. One of the issues was CBS' commitment to golf. There was not enough room at CBS for IndyCar, and the cable channel CBS Sports Network is puny compared to NBCSN and even USA Network. If IndyCar had switch to CBS and CBS Sports Network, it would be a worse situation than when IndyCar joined Versus in 2009. 

ESPN has Formula One, but it isn't investing anything into that broadcast, and I doubt its would put more into IndyCar than it was last time around. That doesn't leave many other players out there and I do not see Fox, Turner or any other channel stepping up at this time and giving this disconnected sector of the fan base what they wish.

We should find out IndyCar's television future soon, but regardless of if it stays at NBC or moves to another partner, we must remember we have to get along with all the other sport properties. IndyCar is not going to be the top of the pecking order if it can't break a million people on cable. Until IndyCar is averaging three million viewers per race, it will have times where coverage will have to scurry to the next event, or races will be lead-ins for other races. 

It is not perfect, but IndyCar's current position is not a bad one. There are plenty of positives to draw from it and we are seeing positive numbers for the series. We cannot get angry every time something does not go the way we would like, and we have to get along with the other sports properties regardless of where IndyCar is shown. That is the healthiest option for any fan. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Marco Andretti, but did you know...

Maximilian Günther and Sam Bird split the Formula E races in Brooklyn. 

The #65 Panis Racing Oreca-Gibson of Julien Canal, Will Stevens and James Allen won the 4 Hours of Monza. The #4 DKR Engineering Duquesne-Nissan of Laurents Hörrs and Jean-Phillipe Dayrault won in the LMP3 class. The #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron, David Perel and Alessandro Pier Guide won in GTE class.

Kurt Busch won the NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta. Kyle Busch won the Grand National Series race at Atlanta, the 102nd in the series. Austin Hill won the  Truck race at Knoxville. 

Shane van Gisbergen swept the Supercars races from Townsville. Van Gisbergen has four consecutive victories and he has won ten of 16 races this season.

Gabriele Tarquini and Frédéric Vervisch split the World Touring Car Cup races from Aragón. 

Coming Up This Weekend

Formula One returns to Silverstone.

NASCAR has its final race before its Olympic break at Loudon. 

Only IMSA's GT classes will be at Lime Rock Park.

Monza remains busy with its first FIA World Endurance Championship round. 

Supercars remain in Townsville for another round. 

Rally Estonia hosts the World Rally Championship.

A Look Back: IROC XIV

With the pace of this season there has not been a lot of time for fun writing and exploring almost forgotten events. The 2021 season has been moving with force with races coming one after the other. Not only are the races almost unceasing, but these races have also been spectacular, with incredible championship fights in almost every category, from IndyCar to NASCAR, Formula One to IMSA and let's not forget MotoGP. It has been busy, and that is a good thing. 

There is a little bit of free time ahead, as MotoGP is currently in its summer break and IndyCar's summer break has just begun, a week earlier than intended as the Toronto round was cancelled. Over the lockdown period last year, there was plenty of time for reflection and with a busy summer ahead, I thought I would use this moment to recollect a season and series that has fascinated me for a long time. 

IROC XIV. 

You likely know about my fondness for IROC, the international all-star series that brought together the best drivers from around the world in a four-race series to determine the best of the best. Dormant for the last 15 years, the spectacles that caught my awe from the 1990s and 2000s are all we have now of the legendary series. While the last few years were not the glory years for the series, IROC XIV, the season taking place in 1990 might be the pinnacle of the 30 seasons. 

Backdrop

IROC always had a diverse field, even in those final years when some of sexiest names and international-based drivers were not accepting invitations, but IROC XIV might be the best encapsulation of what the series was meant to be. 

The 12-driver field featured the top four drivers from the 1989 NASCAR Cup Series season, the 1989 IndyCar champion, who also just happened to be the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner, the 1989 Trans-Am champion, the 1989 IMSA GTP champion, who had also won the 12 Hours of Sebring that season, and the 1988 World Sportscar champion, who had also won the 24 Hours of Daytona that year. 

The 1990 season featured arguably the champions from the biggest four series in the United States and it included one of the best drivers internationally at the time who was not in Formula One. 

How did this field shape up? Let's break it down into groups:

NASCAR:

NASCAR always had significant participation in IROC, as it was effectively a stock car, and the races frequently took place during NASCAR weekends. 

Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin and Darrell Waltrip were the top four championship finishers in the Cup Series in 1989 and all four participated in IROC XIV. These four combined to win 18 of the 29 races in the 1989 Cup season. Waltrip won the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. Earnhardt had won the Southern 500. Wallace was the 1989 champion and had won at an assortment of tracks. He swept the Richmond races, won at Bristol, Rockingham, Watkins Glen and Michigan. Martin had just picked up his first career victory at Rockingham, the antepenultimate round.

Added to the NASCAR contingent was Terry Labonte. The 1984 Cup champion was only tenth in the 1989 Cup season with victories at Pocono and Talladega, but Labonte was the defending IROC champion, having won IROC XIII with a victory at Michigan, a second at Daytona, a third at Watkins Glen and a sixth at Nazareth. 

IndyCar:

IndyCar also had four competitors, but it was not as straightaway forward as NASCAR's bunch. 

Reigning CART champion Emerson Fittipaldi was in the series. Fittipaldi won five races in 1989, including the Indianapolis 500. This was going to be Fittipaldi's seventh IROC season. He competed in the first three seasons while still in Formula One and Fittipaldi had won the second race of the second season on October 26, 1974 at Riverside. He returned for the sixth and seventh seasons and he was a part of the revival season, IROC VIII in 1984, which was the first season of the contemporary IROC format of 12 drivers competing in four races, a departure from the fluctuating qualifiers with a two-race final series that had been used in the early seasons. 

The rest of the IndyCar drivers were sort of random. Al Unser, Jr. was fifth in the 1989 season, and he had famously fallen short of an Indianapolis 500 victory after spinning from contact with Fittipaldi in turn three in the closing laps. Unser, Jr.'s only victory had been in Long Beach, but he was a two-time IROC champion, having taken the title in 1986 and 1988. He had participated in the previous four seasons of IROC and was second in the 1987 and 1989 seasons. Unser, Jr. won at least one race in each of his first four IROC seasons and had five victories overall. Entering IROC XIV, Unser, Jr. had 13 consecutive top five finishes in the series. 

Danny Sullivan was seventh in the championship, and he missed two rounds in 1989 after due to a broken arm, but Sullivan did win two races at Pocono and Road America. Bobby Rahal was ninth in the championship with one victory at the Meadowlands. Sullivan had been CART champion in 1988 and he ran IROC XIII and won at Nazareth. Rahal had participated in four IROC seasons before, with victories at Mid-Ohio in 1985 and 1987. 

Sports cars:

Dorsey Schroeder was the 1989 Trans-Am champion after winning six of 14 races. 

Geoff Brabham picked up his second consecutive IMSA GTP championship in 1989 with nine victories from 15 races, including the 12 Hours of Sebring. 

The final entrant was Martin Brundle, who had split his career up to that point between Formula One and the World Sportscar Championship. Brundle made his Formula One debut with Tyrrell in 1984 and he drove for the organization through 1986. His best finish with the team was his final start with the team, fourth in Australia. He spent 1987 with Zakspeed, but only scored points with a fifth at Imola. 

In 1988, Brundle moved to Tom Walkinshaw Racing's Jaguar program and won the world championship with a 24 Hours of Daytona victory to booth. He returned to Formula One in 1989 with Brabham, and arguably overachieved with points in Monaco, Monza and Suzuka, but he failed to pre-qualify at Montreal and Circuit Paul Ricard. 

Brundle had decided to return to the World Sportscar Championship in 1989 with Jaguar and it allowed him to contest IROC.

This was the first season for the Dodge Daytona, replacing the Chevrolet Camaro, which had been used since the second IROC season. Due to the new car, IROC was not going to be ready in time for its traditional season opener at Daytona International Speedway apart of Speedweeks. The season would not start until Talladega in May, a 101-mile race. The second race would be a 75-mile race at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport in July before concluding at Michigan on the first weekend in August. 

During the Talladega broadcast, commentator Bobby Unser said the Dodge Daytona was developed in the Lockheed wind tunnel in Marietta, Georgia. 

Entering this season, Earnhardt had made 17 IROC starts and had not won a race. Martin was making his IROC debut. In the first 13 seasons, A.J. Foyt and Unser, Jr. were the only multi-time IROC champions. NASCAR drivers had only won five championships. 

Race One - Talladega

Rahal and Martin started on the front row with defending champion Labonte starting last in the field. 

Earnhardt moved to fourth on the first lap from ninth. Soon, Wallace, Martin and Earnhardt led the race with Unser, Jr., Schroeder and Rahal tagged on in a six-car breakaway. Wallace and Martin separated from the rest of the top six while Earnhardt lined up in front of Unser, Jr., who was sporting a helmet cam in this race. 

Unser, Jr. pushed Earnhardt forward and caught the Wallace-Martin duo while Schroeder lost touch in fifth. 

Unser, Jr. got a run into turn three and was pushed to the lead with Martin sliding up to second. A few laps later, Martin would make the same pass, with assistance from Earnhardt and Wallace slipped ahead of Unser, Jr., who dropped to fourth with the rest of the field not even in sight. 

Earnhardt took the lead in the tri-oval with Wallace and Unser, Jr. also getting ahead of Martin. The next lap saw Wallace retake the lead. 

The lead would constantly shuffle between the top four. As the top four battled, Waltrip, Brundle and Schroeder linked together and ran down the top four. As the second pack caught the leaders, Unser, Jr. took the lead with a push from Martin with Earnhardt dropping to third. Wallace quickly fell behind Waltrip, Brundle and Schroeder. 

Quickly, it became three rows of two, Unser, Jr. and Martin, Waltrip and Earnhardt, Brundle and Schroeder with Wallace keeping touch in seventh. Martin would get the lead as the field went single-file, but soon Waltrip took the lead ahead of Earnhardt. 

Brundle and Schroeder were both praised for their performance in their debut. Neither had raced an oval before, let alone the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.

The front seven settled down in the middle third of the race. The field was single-file coming to five laps to go and they were catching Danny Sullivan, who was stranded out there. Sullivan dropped to the bottom on the back straightaway and let the field through. 

Waltrip led Earnhardt, Unser, Jr., Martin, Schroeder, Brundle and Wallace with four laps to go. Coming to three to go, Unser, Jr. made a move to take the lead with Martin pushing Unser, Jr. to the front. Martin was unable to get in line and Waltrip and Earnhardt slingshot back to the front into turn three. Brundle moved up to fourth.

At the white flag, Martin slid back ahead of Brundle into fourth. On the back straightaway, Earnhardt left Waltrip and Unser, Jr. pushed Earnhardt to the lead. Waltrip continued to fall back. Earnhardt and Unser, Jr. separated but Unser, Jr. did not have enough steam or help to beat Earnhardt to the checkered flag.

Earnhardt picked up his first IROC victory ahead of Unser, Jr., Martin and Waltrip. Brundle got Schroeder by a nose for fifth and Wallace was seventh after spending what felt like the entire second half of the race stuck in that position. 

In the distance, and never shown on camera, Labonte began his IROC title defense in eighth with Brabham and Fittipaldi rounding out the top ten. Rahal was 11th and Sullivan was the only car to finish a lap down. 

This was the fastest IROC race at the time, with an average speed of 188.055 mph and there were 15 lead changes over the 38-lap race.

Earnhardt led the championship with 24 points after his victory, and he earned an additional three points for the second most laps led. Earnhardt was seven points ahead of Unser, Jr. and Waltrip, as Waltrip picked up the five bonus points for most laps led. Ten points back was Martin while Brundle and Wallace were tied on 12 points, as Wallace picked up two points for the third most laps led. 

Schroeder had nine points, two ahead of Labonte with Brabham, Fittipaldi, Rahal and Sullivan filling out the standings, all a point behind the next.

Race Two - Cleveland

Two months later, IROC held its second round at Cleveland, only the second time the temporary circuit hosted IROC after previously doing it in 1984. 

In the interim, Waltrip suffered a broken leg the day before the Cleveland race in NASCAR practice at Daytona. This kept Waltrip from starting at Cleveland. The other four NASCAR drivers flew into Cleveland hours after completing the Firecracker 400 at Daytona. Earnhardt won that race while Labonte finished fourth, Martin was 11th and Wallace was 14th.  

Brundle had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans a few weeks earlier with Jaguar and co-drivers Price Cobb and John Nielsen. 

Unser, Jr. had won the Milwaukee IndyCar race a month earlier. Rahal had three podium finishes, including a pair of runner-up results, one at Indianapolis, between the IROC events. Fittipaldi was third at Indianapolis and Milwaukee. Sullivan was fourth in the previous IndyCar race at Portland. 

With Waltrip out, the field lined up in reverse order of the Talladega result. Sullivan and Rahal started on the front row ahead of Fittipaldi and Brabham. Labonte and Wallace shared row three. Schroeder and Brundle split row four. Martin and Unser, Jr. took up row five and Earnhardt was all alone on row six. 

Fittipaldi went from third to first at the start ahead of Rahal and Sullivan. Wallace ran into the side of Martin in turn five, spinning both drivers out. At the end of lap one, Brundle was up to fourth and took third into turn one on lap two as Rahal lost two spots. Brundle took second from Sullivan into turn three on lap three. 

Fittipaldi opened a healthy lead, but the rest of field remained in lock step in the early laps. Unser, Jr. jumped up to fifth within the first eight laps, but the battle between him, Schroeder and Brabham went back and forth. Brabham would lose ground on lap 11 after locking up his brakes in turn three.

Brundle and Sullivan were catching Fittipaldi. On lap 12, Brundle took the lead into turn one, but the two were side-by-side all the way to turn three. Brundle had the inside and was able to clear the Brazilian and take the top position. Later that lap, Sullivan had to make a pit stop for a gearbox issue, a horrible turn of events considering Sullivan was third. 

Halfway through the race, Brundle led Fittipaldi, Schroeder, Unser, Jr., Labonte and Earnhardt.

Martin had a spin all on his own in turn six, causing him to lose more time. Rahal came to the pit lane with a tire issue, and he would fall off the lead lap. 

Brundle began to gap the field while Schroeder pressured Fittipaldi for second. After passing the lapped car of Rahal, Schroeder spun in turn eight and slapped the barrier with nine laps to go. Fittipaldi had just dropped his tires on the inside of the corner and kicked up some dirt into the path of Schroeder. It was race over for the Trans-Am champion. 

In the closing laps, Brundle's lead was four seconds over Fittipaldi while Unser, Jr. was running down Fittipaldi, running over a second faster a lap. Brundle took the white flag with the race in the bag, while Unser, Jr. took second from Fittipaldi into turn one. 

Brundle took the victory with Unser, Jr. and Fittipaldi rounding out the podium. Brundle was only the second non-American driver to win an IROC race. Fittipaldi had won at Riverside 14 years earlier. 

Labonte and Earnhardt rounded out the top five. Despite two separate incidents, Martin finished sixth ahead of Brabham with Wallace in eighth. Rahal was a lap down in ninth while Schroeder and Sullivan did not finish. 

With his victory, Brundle took the championship lead on 36 points while Earnhardt and Unser, Jr. were tied on 34 points. Martin was 13 points back in fourth, a point ahead of Fittipaldi and Waltrip was awarded the 12th-place result though he was unable to compete at Cleveland, placing the Talladega winner sixth in the championship on 20 points. 

The bottom half of the championship saw Labonte in seventh on 19 points. Wallace was eighth with 17 points while Schroeder and Brabham were tied on 14 points, Rahal had 11 points and Sullivan sat at the bottom of the table on seven points.

With 26 points left on the table and a minimum of three points to 12th at the Michigan finale, the only drivers mathematically eliminated from the championship were Rahal and Sullivan.

Race Three - Michigan

The grid lined up in championship order for the final race of the season, meaning Brundle and Unser, Jr. started on the front row ahead of Earnhardt and Martin. Waltrip was again unable to compete due to his recovery from the injuries suffered at Daytona. 

Brundle slowly took the field to the green flag, but once the race had started, Earnhardt quickly dove to the inside entering turn one and took the lead. Unser, Jr. kept second while Martin moved up to third and Brundle slid back to fourth. The Briton kept slipping back and soon found himself back in eighth in the opening laps. 

The top eight ran mostly single-file with Earnhardt in the lead over Unser, Jr. and Martin. Martin used the draft to slingshot into second. Brabham exited the race after eight laps due to a mechanical issue. Brundle had made a slight recovery and found himself in a battle with Wallace before Wallace clipped Brundle in turn four, spinning Brundle and taking him out of the race and out of the championship battle. 

On the restart, Labonte passed Unser, Jr. for third. Without much passing, Earnhardt maintained the lead and quickly locked up the five bonus points for most laps led. Unser, Jr. would get back to third as Schroeder and Wallace entered the fight. Unser. Jr. would catch back up to Martin and add some pressure for second as the field reached ten laps to go. Rain was reported in the area and increased the tension in the closing laps. 

Martin made a look for the lead with nine laps to go on the inside of the front straightaway, but Earnhardt blocked the moved and Unser, Jr. moved up to second. Earnhardt and Unser, Jr. were battling for the championship with Brundle a lap down. Labonte had moved up to third. Unser, Jr. tried to make a pass high on Earnhardt in turn four, but this dropped Unser, Jr. down to fifth with six laps to go. He would get fourth back but had a greater fight on his hands. 

Unser, Jr. got back up to third around Martin with four laps to go and he would take second from Labonte on the outside of turn three on the next lap. Labonte and Martin were side-by-side for third with Schroeder entering the mix and Wallace at the back of six-car breakaway. 

Earnhardt blocked every move Unser, Jr. made. Coming to the final lap, Labonte got to the outside of Unser on the front straightaway. Unser had lost the draft and slipped to third. Earnhardt would lead every lap on his way to victory and his first IROC championship. Labonte was second with Martin in third. Schroeder edged out Unser, Jr. for fourth with Wallace in sixth. Rahal, Fittipaldi, Sullivan, Brundle and Brabham rounded out the field. 

Earnhardt took the championship with 60 points, 16 points ahead of Unser, Jr. Brundle's Cleveland victory was enough to get him third on 41 points. Martin was fourth on 37 points, a point ahead of Labonte in fifth. Fittipaldi was sixth on 29 points. 

Schroeder and Wallace finished tied on 26 points, but the IROC tiebreaker at the time was best finish in the final race. Schroeder was fourth and Wallace was sixth, so Schroeder was classified in seventh. Despite not running the final two races, Waltrip was still ninth on 23 points. Rahal and Brabham were tied on 18 points with Rahal's seventh in the Michigan finale earning him tenth in the championship. Sullivan was last on 13 points.

In Summation

IROC XIV was a watershed year for the series. 

It was Earnhardt's first championship and Martin's first appearance. They would go on to be the two most successful drivers in series history. Martin won five titles and Earnhardt had four. Martin ended with 13 race victories, first all-time with Earnhardt tied for second on 11 with Unser, Jr.

While non-NASCAR drivers had won eight of the first 13 IROC titles, Earnhardt's title would lead NASCAR drivers winning the next 17 championships. In the following season, Watkins Glen replaced Cleveland on the schedule, but after that race IROC would not run another road course until the Daytona road course in June 2006, the penultimate race in series history. Twenty-six of the first 56 IROC races were held on road courses. Ten of the first 14 seasons had at least two road course races. Only two of the final 64 races were on road courses. 

It has been nearly 15 years since the final IROC race took place at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The series isn't coming back, but I wish it would. The new Superstar Racing Experience might be cut from the same cloth, but it does not compare to what IROC was. IROC brought together the best drivers at the top of their game. It had no gimmicks. It was a race that easily would take place in 45 minutes. No inverts, no fan boost, no competition caution or manufactured finish. It was one sprint to the checkered flag and may the best driver win.

When IROC died, it could not compete in the motorsports landscape. NASCAR was bigger than ever, and the drivers didn't need it. Many of the top drivers would have some contract conflict that would prevent them from competing. IndyCar and Champ Car were split, as were Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series. There was too much in-fighting and IROC couldn't prosper. It hung on as long as it could. 

After the last 15 years though, where things have leveled off and we have grown tired of the repetitiveness of each series, I think IROC could flourish today. We are seeing it somewhat in SRX, but a full IROC revival would be welcomed with open arms. We haven't seen this best-on-best-on-best series in so long. Many have forgotten what it was like, and others have no clue what they would be seeing. It has been gone long enough to be new again and draw attention.

There are still too many hurdles in the way. We aren't going to see Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Patricio O'Ward, Hélio Castroneves, Dane Cameron, Kamui Kobayashi and Jordan Taylor compete in one series, but it would definitely be a draw. It can only be a dream, and when it comes to these kinds of competitions, we will have to live in the past.

Musings From the Weekend: A Lost Weekend

Josef Newgarden scored a popular victory on Independence Day. Same track, same result for Formula One, but many more penalties than the week before. Lewis Hamilton has signed with Mercedes through 2023. There was a second generation winner in Formula Two, and nobody noticed. Maverick Viñales is leaving Yamaha. Chip Ganassi is exiting NASCAR after 20 years. IMSA had a sprint around Watkins Glen interrupted. NASCAR is quietly exiting the iRacing game. SRX had a thunderous round at Indianapolis Raceway Park. There is a new championship leader in World Superbike. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking. 

A Lost Weekend

IndyCar will not be heading to Toronto this weekend due to restrictions involving travel between the United States and Canada, and public gatherings in Ontario. It is the second consecutive year Toronto will not be on the IndyCar schedule, but it is one of the few major alterations to the 2021 IndyCar season in wake of the global pandemic. 

The start of the season was rearranged, and Long Beach was moved to the season finale, but 13 of the 16 races on the calendar appear on track to happen on their originally scheduled date with Toronto being the only lost event. It was announced on May 14 that the Canadian round would not take place.

After the Road America round, IndyCar announced a replacement race would not take place of the lost Toronto race, despite doubleheaders at either Mid-Ohio or Gateway being considered. 

A 16-race championship is still a fair representation of the championship, but this does feel like a lost weekend for IndyCar at a time when it would have been advantageous to be on track. 

There are plenty of valid reasons for an additional race not being added to the schedule. One reason a current round was not expanded to a doubleheader was the lack of return on investment for a track. Mid-Ohio would have had six weeks to alter its schedule if it were to have expanded into a doubleheader again for this season. It would have been difficult to find a television window open for the additional race on Independence Day weekend, as NBC was already chuck full of races, the Tour de France and Olympic trials. 

Gateway would have had an additional month and a half to prepare, but again it would have caused a significant shift in the schedule. As Gateway is scheduled for a Saturday night race, the additional race would either have to take place on Friday night, when Gateway has the NASCAR Truck Series, or Sunday evening to allow the teams enough time between races or the schedule would have had to shift entirely and both races would need to be run in the afternoon that weekend. 

None of those are desirable outcomes, and the simplest solution might have been to use the weekend already carved out. A race was scheduled for July 11 and a television window was set aside. Instead of jamming a race into an existing weekend, IndyCar could have just gone elsewhere and filled the vacancy. 

It might sound silly, but it would have made more sense if Mid-Ohio hosted an additional race on Sunday July 11, one week after its first race than if it hosted a doubleheader over the last two days. That sounds counterintuitive, but IndyCar would be available on an additional weekend and not jammed into an already crammed holiday weekend, and it would be one fewer week between races, as the next race is not until Nashville on August 8. 

It would still be an additional cost for the teams, but Mid-Ohio is close enough to IndyCar's central Indiana hub that it could have been a one-day show with practice in the morning, qualifying in the early afternoon and a race in the middle of the day. Green Savoree Racing Promotions would get a break and could sell tickets at one of its venues in place of Toronto, another GSRP event. Honda would get a break and instead of the Honda Indy Toronto, we could have had an additional Honda-sponsored race at Mid-Ohio. It would have hopefully been one of the final band-aids to get through this pandemic.

That was not the choice of IndyCar and if there is one thing this pandemic should remind us it is IndyCar is not the most stable series in the world, even with Roger Penske's stewardship. Unlike NASCAR, which could make up a race with the Daytona road course or whip together a doubleheader at Darlington, or Formula One, which can make a grand prix seemingly happen out of thin air and resurrect a track nearly a decade off the schedule, or even IMSA, which stayed at Watkins Glen and ran on Friday evening in place of the Mosport round that was lost and supposed to take place this past weekend, IndyCar can't just snap its fingers and make a race happen. 

IndyCar doesn't have a selection of racetracks in the company and can simply add a race for its convenience. I would have loved if Mid-Ohio had a second race weekend or if IndyCar had decided to return to Road America because it is the best road course in the country and 10,000 people would show up for a last second race. The only track in IndyCar's back pocket is Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and that is already hosting a second road course race in August apart of the NASCAR weekend and I don't think we are going to see a second oval race at Indianapolis anytime soon. 

The best thing for IndyCar, a racing series, to do in this case was not race. That sucks to write, but IndyCar's best financial decision was to not do what it is meant to do. IndyCar has been in this slog for the last 20 to 25 years. There is a reason why the calendar has been kept to 17 races as it has been for basically the last decade. The series runs on the margins and any more weekends make the series less financially viable for the teams. There is nothing wrong with a 17-race calendar and that length creates a sort of urgency in each race. However, it shouldn't be a limit IndyCar is stuck at otherwise the series could collapse. There needs to be more breathing room to allow for an additional race or two, especially if the interested venues are out there. Hopefully the last 16 months has shown IndyCar where it has to strengthen for long-term success. 

We all wish it was different and accepting IndyCar's financial truth doesn't make it any easier to swallow. While NASCAR and Formula One are able to put on races somewhere and broadcast them around the world, IndyCar has to lose a weekend and is out of the spotlight for another week ahead of what was already going to be a healthy summer break. Even if it is for the best, this cannot be chalked up as a victory.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Josef Newgarden, but did you know...

Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix, his fifth victory of the season. 

Dennis Hauger, David Schumacher and Frederik Vesti split the Formula Three races from the Red Bull Ring. 

Kyle Kirkwood swept the Indy Lights races from Mid-Ohio. Christian Rasmussen and Hunter McElrea split the Indy Pro 2000 races. Michael d'Orlando won the first and third U.S. F2000 races with Kiko Porto winning the second. 

Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Road America, his second victory of the season. Kyle Busch won the Grand National Series race, his 101st victory in that series.

The #31 Cadillac of Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani won the IMSA sprint race from Watkins Glen. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen won in the LMP2 class. The #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier-Nissan of Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson won in the LMP3 class. The #3 Corvette of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor won in the GTLM class. The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz won in the GTD class.

Ernie Francis, Jr. won the SRX race from Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Toprak Razgatlioglu won the main World Superbike races from Donington Park while Jonathan Rea won the Superpole race, but Razgatlioglu took the championship lead with 183 points to Rea's 181.

The #32 Team WRT Audi of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts swept the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint cup races from Misano. 

Coming Up This Weekend

NASCAR bakes in Atlanta. 

Formula E is back in Brooklyn.

Monza starts the second half of the European Le Mans Series.  

SRX has its penultimate race at Slinger Speedway.

Supercars may be racing in Townsville. Lockdown restrictions may prevent it from taking place. 

The World Touring Car Cup stays on the Iberian Peninsula and moves to Aragón.

First Impressions: Mid-Ohio 2021

1. Finally! After grueling defeats at Belle Isle and Road America, Josef Newgarden and Team Penske finally got their first victory of 2021, leading 73 of 80 laps around Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, but it was a close call in the final laps, as Marcus Ericsson closed on the American. 

Newgarden went unchallenged for most of this race, with the lead never really dipping below six seconds after the first round of pit stops. Colton Herta was Newgarden's main challenger in the opening stint, but when Herta had a re-fueling issue on his first stop that alleviated any pressure and Newgarden set sail. 

However, in the final laps, Ericsson had more tire and claw into the six-second gap. It was down to 8/10ths at the start of the final lap with traffic ahead. Newgarden was able to hold on, but it was much closer than anyone had expected. If this race had been 85 laps, as it has been in the past, Ericsson might have won. If it was 90 laps, as it has been in the past, well it would likely have been a three-stop race and it could have been a completely different outcome. After all the bad luck, Newgarden caught a break today. 

We are a Jimmie Johnson spin and an Ed Jones suspension failure away from Newgarden having three consecutive victories, be the only multi-race winner this season and likely carrying all the championship momentum into the summer break with six races remaining. And while this was only Newgarden's first victory, I wouldn't rule him out. 

Yes, this was his first victory of the season and he is still fourth in the championship, 69 points back, but last year Penske hit its stride down the stretch. Penske started 2020 with two victories through the first seven races. It ended 2020 with five victories in the final seven races. Newgarden has won on two of the next three tracks and the next race will be his home race in Nashville. 

I think Newgarden is still in this. The heartache has to be mostly behind him. If he can keep the fire going through the summer break, a third championship is still in the cards.

2. Marcus Ericsson benefitted from Colton Herta's pit misfortune and took second place, and he made the most of it. I doubt many thought Ericsson could possibly chase down Newgarden with 25 laps to go. I bet many thought he would settle in and take second, and that would have been fine. He deserved that result at least. Ericsson showed he has turned a corner and it was a performance Ericsson needed.

This is his second podium finish of the season and the third of his career. Ericsson has yet to have a strong day from start to finish in his IndyCar career. This was only his second top five start in his first two and a half IndyCar seasons, but he needed one race where he started at the front and stayed at the front, even if he wasn't fighting for the victory. 

Ericsson accomplished that today, and then some. He was a threat to the checkered flag and this is a big confidence boost for him and the entire Ganassi team. Ericsson has gotten better each season. Things are looking good heading into the final stretch. 

3. Álex Palou is not going to throw away this champion. Palou was stuck in fifth for a good portion of this race. It wasn't going to be a bad day, but he was going to leave some points on the table.

Coming to that final pit stop, Palou went longer than Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi, who were directly ahead of him, and Palou jumped into third after that pit cycle. The Spaniard proceeded to drive away and finish over eight seconds ahead of his teammate Dixon.

Newgarden will be a contender, but Palou limited the damage and he has six podium finishes from ten races. If Palou keeps up that record it will require flawlessness from Newgarden, Dixon, Patricio O'Ward or whoever if they want to take the title from him. 

I don't see that happening. Palou is too positive. He qualified seventh and emerged from the car with a smile. Dario Franchitti questioned him on the pit stand, but Palou liked his chances from seventh at Mid-Ohio of all places. He didn't win today, but he got third. If Palou had that level of confidence after qualifying seventh, everyone else will be in trouble.

4. Scott Dixon held onto fourth, and almost ran in aid to Palou's championship hopes today. Dixon did not have a great car today, but he was able to fend off Rossi for much of the race. Dixon beat Rossi out in the pit cycle, Rossi couldn't get ahead on the alternate tire despite numerous looks. Dixon had just enough, but if Rossi had gotten by in the middle of the race, Rossi would have driven into the horizon and comfortably taken third. 

Dixon might have finished in the top five after that, but Palou would have lost more points. I feel like this is the race where Ganassi put its chips behind Palou in the championship. Dixon could still go off, but I don't see it happening. Palou has been better than Dixon in majority of the races. Dixon was only the third best Ganassi car today. All three Ganassi cars finished in the top four, but Dixon was a distant third amongst the teammates. 

By the time IndyCar arrives at Nashville, it will have been three months since Dixon came within one victory of tying Mario Andretti for second all-time. At the start of the year, I thought Dixon would definitely get second in victories. I cannot say with confidence that he will even tie it this year. 

5. Alexander Rossi gets his best finish of the season, his first top five finish of the season, and it still feels like a disappointment. Rossi should have been on the podium, but something just doesn't click for Rossi in each race. Today, it was a slow pit stop when he needed a quick one and he couldn't get pass Dixon if his life depended on it. 

But Andretti Autosport underperformed across the board. For Rossi, it just feels like every race something goes wrong, and it is minor. I was half expecting Rossi to fall to seventh and finish seventh for the fourth time this season. 

Ganassi is clicking at 100%. Penske has not had things go its way, but it is still clicking at 95%, has one victory and very well could have four or five. Andretti is somewhere at 80% and that is not good enough. This team needs to wake up after this summer break. The final six races are crucial for the organization.

6. Graham Rahal was sixth, and that is where Rahal has been living all season. He has seven top ten finishes from ten races and that Indianapolis 500 result haunts his season. If that left rear tire had been properly attached, Rahal likely finishes in the top five, maybe in the top three and he could have won. Instead of scoring 11 points, he likely would have gotten at least 60 points and those almost 50 extra points would have him solidly in the top five of the championship. 

Hypotheticals aside, Rahal is there. He just needs one weekend where it clicks and a few other drivers are off. 

7. Romain Grosjean went from 18th to seventh. That result is made easier when five cars starting ahead of you are taken out in two cautions before a full green flag lap had been completed, but Grosjean looked racy all day and he was making passes early. Not to mention he had some minor front wing damage on the opening corner incident. 

If Grosjean had qualified in the top 12, I think he ends up in the top five, maybe on the podium. He has been the best rookie this season.

8. Like Grosjean, Patricio O'Ward went from 20th to eighth. O'Ward looked good. He was struggling in the closing laps on tires, but it is still a strong result when you consider where he started. He could have lost significant ground to Palou today. He does slip a bit, but he is still second in the championship. 

9. Four races and four top ten finishes from Santino Ferrucci this season, as he came home in ninth. Ferrucci started 22nd. He made the right moves, and the team nailed the strategy. This is believed to be Ferrucci's final race of the season, as he has some NASCAR Xfinity Series commitments, but Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has said it could run the #45 Honda in more events. The #45 Honda is currently in the top 22 of the entrants' championship. It would earn the Leader Circle money if it remains in the top 22, a little more than $1 million that would serve as a foundation for an entry in 2022. 

I think RLLR should keep Ferrucci in the car. I am still not entirely sold that he is a great driver, but this has been a great spell. Until he shows otherwise, I think this is RLLR's driver.

10. Takuma Sato made it three RLLR cars in the top ten. It was not a spectacular day for Sato, and at one point I was going to write that Sato's season has been marginally disappointing. He has not factored in any races this season. He didn't factor in this one either, but he still finished tenth. It is a good day, but there is room for improvement.

11. Sébastien Bourdais was a 11th, which isn't great. Bourdais was penalized for blocking Grosjean in the opening stint. I thought it was a little harsh. Bourdais did react to Grosjean looking up the inside into the keyhole, but Bourdais didn't slam the door. I thought Bourdais should have only been given a warning and if he had done it a second time then it could be a penalty. 

But IndyCar said Bourdais had to give back not one spot, but two. I think that is harsh and I don't recall anyone being required to give up two spots before. One spot, yes, but two? Bourdais let Grosjean by and then another driver. That felt like overkill. I don't think it ruined Bourdais' day and if it was only one position, Bourdais likely still finishes 11th. It was interesting. That's all.

12. Scott McLaughlin was 12th, and it was a good day. He went 30 laps on his final stint. Credit to him for stretching his fuel. 

13. Colton Herta had the race from hell. First, there was the re-fueling issue on Herta's first stop. It didn't ruin his race, but it dropped him from second to eighth, which could have been worse. Herta looked strong in the second stint, decided to go longer on the second stint and then he stalled on his second stop. However, he still came out in ninth. Not bad and Herta was running down the cars ahead of him in the closing lap. 

However, Herta had to get a splash of fuel on the penultimate lap and instead of maybe climbing into the top seven, he ended up 13th. 

Herta's day just goes with Rossi's. I think Andretti Autosport could have had two cars on the podium today. It ended up with zero and only one car in the top ten. This is the sixth time Andretti Autosport had only one top ten finisher. There was also the Indianapolis 500 where none of Andretti Autosport's five cars finished in the top fifteen. 

The team had four top ten starters today. They have had plenty of wakeup calls this season. This is just another one, and they keep failing to answer the bell.

14. Simon Pagenaud gambled and decided to make his final stop with 31 laps to go. It only got him 14th and he had to save down the stretch. Minus Newgarden, it was not a great day for Team Penske.

15. Conor Daly beat Rinus VeeKay in the Ed Carpenter Racing head-to-head matchup, but they were 15th and 16th. That is not impressive. 

16. James Hinchcliffe ended up 17th despite hitting Ryan Hunter-Reay on the start and ruining both Andretti Autosport drivers' top ten starts. Felix Rosenqvist also spun in that accident after contact from Grosjean. 

I am not sure there could have been a worst trio to get in an opening lap accident.

For Hinchcliffe, he has not been remotely competitive this season and when he finally looked promising, he causes a collision and took out one of his teammates, who also needed a strong day. 

For Hunter-Reay, it is easily the fourth time this season he has lost what should be a positive result. He has started in the top ten of four of the last five races and his best finish is 11th in that timeframe. Not to mention Hunter-Reay is likely looking at his final days as a full-time IndyCar driver. It is a tough pill to swallow, and Hunter-Reay is not going out in style. 

For Rosenqvist, can't he just have a good day? Between the Belle Isle accident and having to miss Road America, he needed a race with no incidents and then he gets hit in the first corner. If someone needed a break, it is Rosenqvist. 

All three of these drivers likely woke up thinking this was a great shot to head into the summer break with promise. All head into the off period on a down note.

17. Max Chilton was 18th, so back to usual for Chilton after finishing tenth at Road America. Jack Harvey tried a three-stop strategy, and it went nowhere. Once the first eight laps were run under yellow, a three-stop strategy was likely not going to be that rewarding. It hurt Harvey more because he tossed away a second round qualifying appearance. If he makes the Fast 12, he isn't starting 23rd and throwing a Hail Mary in a three-stop strategy. 

18. Ryan Norman was 20th on debut. Good for him. Dalton Kellett was 21st. So usual. Jimmie Johnson was 22nd, again, usual. 

19. Will Power spun after getting on the turn five curbs on lap four inside of Scott Dixon, and Ed Jones hit Power as he could not see him through the smoke. 

Power lit up the tires when he spun, and I think it was overly aggressive on his part. I get he doesn't want to lose ground, but he made that an unsafe situation. If he spins and just rolls off course, he possibly could have spun and been facing the correct way and then continued onward and Jones would have remained in the race as well. 

I think Power took an unnecessary risk. I get that he wants to get the most of that bad circumstance, but I think he made it worse and cost himself what could have been a promising day despite the spin. 

20. And now we get a month off. I am of two minds. I don't like the space between races. I know it is only because Toronto was cancelled and this would have been a week-shorter break, so I am not too upset about it, even though I wish there was a race next week. But I also like the summer break. I like having four weeks off and getting to do other things. 

You can view it as a negative but find a positive. It is much better than you are making it out to be. Enjoy the time.