Musings From the Weekend: Presenting His Airness

Team Penske had a big weekend. Josef Newgarden kept his championship hopes alive and Will Power tied Al Unser for fifth all-time in IndyCar victories. The inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hours took place and it rained. It rained at Magny-Cours for three days and the World Superbike title will go to the Estoril finale. Honda is pulling out of Formula One after 2021. NASCAR had some races in Talladega and, once again, NASCAR's yellow line rule is completely meaningless, and NASCAR has no clue how to enforce it. Denny Hamlin won his seventh Cup race of the season and he is a big portion of what I want to talk about this week. Yes, I know this is a little late, but there has been a lot going on in the motorsports world. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

Presenting His Airness

It has been awhile since we have seen a big splash into team ownership in motorsports, but NASCAR received one of the most notable men on the face of the planet as a team owner last month: Michael Jordan. 

The six-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, face of Nike, Gatorade and Hanes will be the majority team owner along with Denny Hamlin, and Bubba Wallace will be the driver for the nameless, sponsors-less, manufacture-less team. Those three concerns will be cleared in time. 

I hesitate to say Michael Jordan is the most-known male athlete in the world, because soccer exists, but Jordan is likely in the top five globally and probably in the top one in the United States. 

For the last 40 years, Jordan has been in almost every household in the United States, whether it was on the television playing for North Carolina or the Chicago Bulls, hanging on posters in bedrooms, or on the shoes and apparel worn to school, the gym and work. He is a man with great responsibility for the globalization of basketball since the 1980s. For an increasingly connected world, Jordan became the basketball icon on every continent leading billions to dream to be like Mike. 

Now, Mike will be owning one of the 40 cars regularly participating in NASCAR's top division. 

For tens of millions of people in the United States, they have no connection to NASCAR. It has never been in their homes. It has never been on their radar. It is not an event close to home to attend. There is no local driver to pull for or local coverage. It is a mystery sport. They might know it exists or have heard it in passing, but there is nothing there to draw them in. 

Now, there is Michael Jordan. 

There is going to be interest to see how Michael Jordan's team did in NASCAR. It might be a short-term spike upward, but if the team finds success, there will be those that choose to stick around. Some will be into every race. Some will only care about the big events. Others will watch once, go away, and might return if Jordan's team is regularly winning races or possibly could be going for a championship. 

Success for this team will likely not come right out of the box, but for NASCAR it is important to have a younger and wealthy team owner enter the series. 

Jordan is just shy of 60 and has likely made over a billion dollars. Jordan will easily become at least the second-wealthiest owner in NASCAR, likely behind only Roger Penske. Motorsports in general have been facing an aging ownership demographic over the last ten to 15 years. Penske is in his 80s. Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, Richard Childress and Jack Roush are all not that far behind, and Leonard Wood is 86. There is going to be a significant shift in the balance of ownership power over the next decade, and that could decide the direction of the series. 

Chip Ganassi is just north of 60 and Tony Stewart turns 50 next years, outside of those two, all the top team owners are older and new names that are currently not involved are the future of NASCAR. Team Penske, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing are all teams that likely have succession plans in place. Fenway Sports Group owns part of Roush Fenway Racing, but once Roush is out, let's wait and see where the organization that owns the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C. decides to go and if it wants to stay invested in NASCAR. NASCAR is in a much different place than 2007 when Fenway Sports Group bought in. 

Jordan's key partner is Denny Hamlin. Hamlin's involvement suggests he plans to be in NASCAR after his driving career is over, and that will significantly help Jordan. Many athletes have invested in NASCAR teams. Hall of Fame Racing had former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman and was not that successful before selling the team to the then-owners of the Arizona Diamondbacks after two seasons. Randy Moss dipped his toe into the Truck Series and was out after three years. 

Terry Bradshaw, Brett Favre, Dan Marino, Bill Romanowski, and Jim Kelly all tried NASCAR ownership. None of them saw much success or lasted long.

Jordan and Hamlin are a different combination. Hamlin is one of the top Cup drivers today. He has a deep relationship with Fedex and Toyota and then there is Jordan, who has the deepest pocket of any man to enter NASCAR in the last 15 years, but he isn't paying for this on his own dime. He also has deep business relationships. 

This is not going to be a quick fling in NASCAR for Jordan. With Hamlin's involvement, this is a long-term endeavor. Under the tutelage of Joe Gibbs, Hamlin has seen how to be a successful team owner and he has seen that it can be something he can do for 30 years after he steps away from driving. I don't think Jordan plans on being in NASCAR for the next 30 years, but he can help launch his partner Hamlin's retirement plan. 

Jordan is the biggest name to enter NASCAR since Red Bull, and we saw how Red Bull turned out. The two-car organization won a few races, had some good days, but ultimately could not match the success seen in Formula One. After five seasons, Team Red Bull shut its doors. 

NASCAR is difficult. The Jordan brand is not going to be enough to turn a new team into a race winner and a championship contender. There are going to be growing pains. I don't expect this team to be winning races or a top ten regular in 2021. We have to wait and see what is put around Wallace. Who will be the crew chief and engineer? How good will the pit crew be? Also, if there are limited chances to practice and test, how will these team improve? Next season could be extraordinarily difficult, as pandemic restrictions persists, and the results could be hard to come by for a new team. 

A realistic goal for Wallace is to be a top twenty driver, which sounds low, but if he can be one of those drivers in the picture for the top 16 on points, that is a good start for the team. This team should have great technical support, especially considering the strong relationship Hamlin has with Toyota. Toyota should want this team to be competitive, one because Michael Jordan succeeding with Toyota is good for Toyota and, frankly, Toyota needs more competitive teams than Joe Gibbs Racing.

A playoff spot in year one is a massive ask, but we saw A.J. Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Tony Stewart and Cole Custer all get fluky victories that turned into playoff berths. All Wallace needs is one victory and the first year of the Jordan/Hamlin organization will be an outstanding success regardless of what happens in the 35 other races. 

Let's be clear, Jordan will not add three million more viewers to each race broadcast, nor will each track get 200,000 ticket requests for each race, nor will NASCAR become a global powerhouse in the sports world, but Jordan is more than just another team owner. Jordan will bring NASCAR into many homes that it has never been in before. Not all those people will become regular fans after their first exposure, but some now have someone to pull for when NASCAR was never a possible interest. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Denny Hamlin but did you know...

The #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW of Augusto Farfus, Nicky Catsburg and Connor De Phillippi won the inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hours. The #84 Bimmerworld BMW of Bill Auberlen, James Clay and Chandler Hull won in the GT4 class. 

Justin Haley won the Grand National Series race from Talladega, his third victory of the season. Raphaël Lessard won the Truck race, his first career victory.

Jonathan Rea won the first two World Superbike races from Magny-Cours with Scott Redding winning the third. Andrea Locatelli and Lucas Mahias split the World Supersport races.

The #39 TRG Team SARD Toyota of Heikki Kovalainen and Yuichi Nakayama won the Super GT race from Fuji. The #56 Kondō Racing Nissan of Kiyoto Fujinami and João Paulo de Oliveira won in GT300. 

Coming Up This Weekend

The Bathurst 1000 concludes the Supercars season.

Formula One returns to the Nürburgring for the first time since 2013. 

MotoGP heads to Le Mans. 

NASCAR ends round two in Charlotte.

IMSA's GT series will run under the lights at Charlotte.

DTM heads for its first of two rounds at Zolder.

European Le Mans has its penultimate round of 2020 at Monza. 

The World Rally Championship has Rally Italia Sardegna

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup ends in Barcelona. 

The World Touring Car Cup will be in Slovakia.

First Impressions: 2020 Harvest Grand Prix Race Two

1. Will Power was masterful again, but a flag-to-flag victory from pole position is not a fair depiction of this victory. Power had Alexander Rossi, and in the closing laps Colton Herta, breathing down his neck, and while under pressure for majority of the 75 laps, Power never made a misstep. 

After loads of races where Power started at the front and led laps but had a driveshaft break or a pit stop mistake or spun on his own, Power had everything go his way today and he picked up his 39th career victory, tying him with Al Unser for fifth all-time. 

Nobody on the current IndyCar grid has the speed of Power. Prior to his 39th victory this afternoon, he picked up his 61st pole position, moving him within six of Mario Andretti's all-time record. This was his 18th victory from pole position, tying him with Sébastien Bourdais for third all-time, only behind Andretti and A.J. Foyt. The man is phenomenal, and somehow his career could have been greater. This was his second victory of the season in what has otherwise been a disappointing season. Since winning his championship six years ago, Power typically has about four or five things go wrong in a season to undo all the pole positions and victories and 2020 has been no different. 

However, we get to see the sheer brilliance of Will Power a handful of times each season and it is magnificent. He is one of the best to ever run in IndyCar, though there are a few ahead of him when it comes to this generation. We are living in a great time because we got to see Power go against Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Hélio Castroneves and Sébastien Bourdais, all in their primes, while also having caught the strong careers of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta at the start of their careers. 

This was a special day and how fitting was it for Power to pick up his 39th victory where Al Unser won his 39th and final race. Unser did it with his fourth Indianapolis 500. Power did it on the IMS road course. It is just a sign of the times.

2. After losing time and a shot at victory on the alternate tires in race one, Colton Herta and his team learned from yesterday's mistakes and were in contention for the victory today. Herta kept Power honest and remained on the Australian's rear for the final six laps. The tires just weren't there for Herta to make a move late and traffic never fell into his favor. 

Yesterday, I highlighted races where the alternate tire has cost Herta great finishes. Today showed him and his team could master the compound. Unlike yesterday, where Herta was in command and gave it away, Herta was starting behind the leader and that could suggest the team does not have strategy perfected when starting at the front, though the team does have Laguna Seca as a case in its favor. This was a successful weekend for Herta and co. It could have been slightly better.

3. Alexander Rossi made the wrong decision to use the primary tire on the final stint. Until that point, Rossi was the main challenger to Power, falling about 4.5 seconds off Power before closing the gap to just over a second before the final round of pit stops.

It was difficult to get a handle on the tires today. Yesterday, the alternate tire did not have the legs at the end of the stint. Today, it appeared all the teams knew how to get more out of the alternate tires and make it work, and Rossi fell back. Herta passed him with about 15 laps to go and then he settled into third. This was Rossi's fourth consecutive podium finish, but it has to be frustrating to have the pace but have that victory remain out of his grasp with one race to go. 

Rossi has a lot to play for in the finale, and he will not mind being a spoiler. 

4. The championship battle is still alive. Josef Newgarden has kept Scott Dixon from hoisting the Astor Cup in Speedway, Indiana and with leave the title to be decided under the St. Petersburg sunshine. Newgarden started a little behind the mark in eighth, still six spots ahead of Dixon, but Newgarden had to have a good drive and he methodically worked his way to the front and a fourth-place finish. 

One mistake and Newgarden could have seen his season end today. Instead, he put his head down and had a Penske-worthy drive to the front. He didn't step on any toes. He didn't make anyone made. He had a car that could drive from ninth to fourth. He will still some help at St. Petersburg, but with the gap down to 32 points, Newgarden took 85 points out of the deficit. When Dixon won at Gateway, we might have seen Dixon clinch this championship with two races to go. Newgarden deserves credit for keeping his title defense alive.

5. Patricio O'Ward bounced back with a top five finish today after starting fifth. I will admit I only recall seeing O'Ward in fifth. I am sure someone else was fifth today, but O'Ward settled in that position and sometimes you are just fifth. That is fine. I feel like Herta was in that position earlier this season. This has been a solid year for O'Ward.

6. Jack Harvey got his best finish of the season, coming home in sixth. This was Harvey's sixth top ten finish of the season, more than double the two-car A.J. Foyt Racing and he has as many top ten finishes as Ed Carpenter Racing. I know Meyer Shank Racing announced a big partnership with Liberty Media this weekend. MSR is in a great spot for the future. The results are already coming in for the team in its first full seasons. Harvey is maybe the most underrated driver this season. I am excited for what MSR's future has in store, and it will probably be a two-car team in no time. Once it expands, I think it will be contending for race victories.

7. Graham Rahal was seventh for the second consecutive days. This comes after a pair of fourth-place finishes at Mid-Ohio. Like I described yesterday, he is a seventh-place driver. I cannot explain it. The speed and consistency are there, but those big days escape him. When he wins, it is because he has been on top from the start. We don't see Rahal start a weekend sixth or seventh and then fight into contention for a race victory. He will stay sixth or seventh and finish there, which is good, but he will likely finish sixth in the championship this year. He is 26 points ahead of his teammate Takuma Sato and 22 points behind O'Ward. Constantly finishing sixth, seventh or eighth will get you a top ten championship finish, but that is far off where Dixon and Newgarden are. 

8. Things were a little hairy when Scott Dixon qualified 15th. The day appeared to be unravelling in the closing laps when contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay damaged his floor and cost him some position. However, Dixon did not falter. Other drivers would have had the early adversity and the day would be done there. Forget a top ten finish. That driver would be hoping just to finish on the lead lap. Dixon does not panic, and he has been in a lot of difficult positions before. He got through it and exceeded what 95% of the grid could have accomplished if faced with that situation. 

Climbing to eighth kept the gap at 32 points. Dixon can clinch the title with a ninth-place finish, but Dixon has been in a rut in the last four races. He has finished tenth, tenth, ninth and eighth in the last four races and that averages out to a 9.25 finish. Dixon has to be better than his current form. Now, he needs to finish at least ninth if Newgarden is perfect at St. Petersburg, but Dixon cannot be much worse than he has been in the last four races. Newgarden won at St. Petersburg last year and momentum is on his side. 

I still think Dixon will pull through, but this could have been over.

9. Álex Palou finally had a good day and finished ninth. I think Palou has been better than his season has shown. First, he was taken out early at Texas. Second, his Iowa results do not show how well he was running in those two races. Three, he was strong in the Indianapolis 500 before his accident. He has made mistakes, but he can improve, and I think he would if given a second season.  

Today was a little bit of an encapsulation of his season. Palou started fourth, but never factored in the top five. He brought it home in ninth, but that's disappointing compared to where the team was in the morning after qualifying. 

10. Simon Pagenaud snuck into the top ten in what was a disappointing weekend. Pagenaud is going to finish in the top ten of the championship, but this team has been lost on setup all year. He has not qualified in the top five since the season opener. He has started outside the top ten in nine of 13 races. 

The team somehow turned two 23rd-place starts at Iowa into a first and a fourth, but if we were to wipe away that weekend and if he had not been as fortunate with cautions, I think we would be talking about Pagenaud being back on the hot seat at Team Penske. He needs a big weekend at St. Petersburg, though the best thing he could probably do in the finale is run block for his teammate who is going for his second consecutive title and third title in four seasons. 

I think Pagenaud is due for a shakeup in the offseason. 

11. Felix Rosenqvist was off today. For starters, Rosenqvist was running block for Dixon early when Dixon first got his damage. Rosenqvist may have prevented Dixon's day from being worse. If it wasn't for Rosenqvist, Dixon might have lost three or four more spots early and this race could have gone much different for Dixon. 

Then Rosenqvist made contact with Charlie Kimball when Kimball had yet to stop and Rosenqvist was on fresher tires. This cost Rosenqvist some ground. I thought the contact took him out of the race, because it appeared his right front suspension bent, but he continued. 

This has been a strange year for Rosenqvist. This is kind of a sophomore slump. He got his first career victory, but outside of that Road America race and Texas, he hasn't really challenged for a race victory. 

12. Quickly through the rest of the field: Santino Ferrucci was 12th. That was about it for Ferrucci. He just hung out just outside the top ten all race. James Hinchcliffe had a much better second day finishing 13th. Takuma Sato was nonexistent in 14th. Sato has these tracks and I don't understand why he struggles as much as he does on the IMS road course, especially since his one and only Formula One podium finish was at the track in the 2004 United States Grand Prix! Mid-Ohio is a similar track for Sato.

13. Marcus Ericsson took 15th from Ryan Hunter-Reay late. It was an off-day for Ericsson and after that contact with Dixon, Hunter-Reay switched to a three-stop strategy and it did not work out. For a moment, it looked like Hunter-Reay might have been able to turn the three-stop strategy into a top ten finish

14. Rinus VeeKay took a big step back for race two. I am not sure why VeeKay was as far off as he was. I believe he didn't have any new sets of alternate tires in this race and that might have been why he was as uncompetitive as he was. Sébastien Bourdais has a lot of work to do with A.J. Foyt Racing. Max Chilton was the final car on the lead lap.

15. Conor Daly has been a little disappointing in the #20 Chevrolet this year and he was 20th today.  Hélio Castroneves also attempt the three-stop strategy and it didn't work. Marco Andretti is puzzling. He qualified fifth yesterday and 12th today. In both races he slipped back with every lap and he ended up 21st today, a lap down. I don't get it. He shows speed all the time, and then it is never there in the race. I am not sure what happens between the end of qualifying and the race and I don't know who can fix it.

Charlie Kimball attempted the three-stop strategy and it didn't work and he had contact with Felix Rosenqvist. There is not much else to say about Sage Karam. Dalton Kellett's IndyCar career may have ended in 25th, the only car two laps down.

16. This was a fun weekend, but that does not mean we need to do it all the time. 

I was a critic of the IMS road course getting an IndyCar race six years ago, but it has developed into a competitive course. There have been some off races, but these two, plus last year's changing conditions race, the 2018 race where Power and Robert Wickens went back-and-forth on tire compounds and the first race, and this track has been pretty good to IndyCar, though it is a pretty tame layout.

I think the conditions played into why these two races were as exceptional as they were. We don't have many IndyCar races that are in the 50s or 60s on the thermometer. We start in St. Petersburg, which is in the 70s, head to Long Beach or Barber in April, both of which are normally in the 70s and then we hit May. Sometimes the Grand Prix of Indianapolis is in cooler conditions, but normally we get into May and we never have another race below 70º F. 

These were prime conditions that allowed for this kind of racing. I definitely helped with performance and tire life. I am not qualified to say whether or not these conditions would create more or less dirty air, but it didn't seem like cars had as much difficulty following one another, as we have seen in past road course races, including at this track. 

IndyCar doesn't want to race into October, because of football. I am not saying the season has to go deep into autumn, but a race like this shows that this early portion of the season is not only nice for spectators because they are not frying in the grandstands, but also for what happens on track. 

17. I liked that there were two different race distances. I understand why the Saturday race was 75 laps for television. That distance did make it a straight-forward two-stop race, but it worked out and we saw three cars going for the lead for most of it and a two-car battle down to the wire. The 85-lap distance is great, though it was a three-stop race for everyone. No one attempted a two-stop race, though it went caution-free and would have possibly worked for a team. 

I like the different race distances for the doubleheaders, the only problem is ten laps is a big difference. This 75-lap race was always in danger of being more boring than the 85-lap race, because the strategical element was nonexistent. If we ran ten more 75-lap races, we are more likely to have eight or nine stinkers, while the 85-lap distance would have a few bad ones, but likely have more races people applauded. 

For what this weekend was, I think IndyCar did a great job make it different from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

18. We will get a few weeks off, but our eyes are on St. Petersburg. The finish line is in sight and we have a championship race to dissect for 21 days.

Morning Warm-Up: 2020 Harvest Grand Prix Race Two

Josef Newgarden fights back in title defense at Harvest GP

Josef Newgarden picked up his third victory of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season and gave new life to his championship defense in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. The victory brought Newgarden within 40 points of Scott Dixon and, at the current deficit, the title battle will continue to the St. Petersburg finale in three weeks. Newgarden had not finished better than seventh on the IMS road course before yesterday. Newgarden has never swept a doubleheader weekend and he has never had podium finishes in both races of a doubleheader weekend. The only time he has won consecutive races was at Toronto and Mid-Ohio in 2017.

Alexander Rossi picked up his third consecutive podium finish yesterday after a runner-up finish to Newgarden. It was Rossi's first podium finish on the IMS road course. His previous best finish at the track was fifth in 2018. Rossi has not won this season, but his first and only victory of the 2017 season came in the penultimate race at Watkins Glen. Rossi finds himself one point outside the top ten of the championship and he has only been in the top ten of the championship after one race this season, the second Iowa race.

Rinus VeeKay has been the darling of the weekend, after he won his first career pole position on Thursday and scored his first career podium finish on Friday. It was Ed Carpenter Racing's first podium finish on a road/street course since Newgarden was second at Watkins Glen in 2016. Today will be VeeKay's 13th start. Five drivers have scored their first career victory in their 13th start: Bill Vukovich, Jimmy Bryan, Dick Atkins, Kenny Bräck and Marco Andretti.

Colton Herta ended up fourth yesterday and, outside of his three victories, Herta has never stood on the podium. Yesterday was the fourth time Herta has finished fourth in his IndyCar career. He has six consecutive top ten finishes, one off his career best streak, which spanned the final three races of 2019 and the first four races of 2020. Herta is now third in the championship, but 118 points off Scott Dixon and he has been mathematically eliminated from championship contention. 

Felix Rosenqvist picked up his second top five finish of the 2020 season yesterday with his fifth-place result. His only other top five finish was his victory in the second Road America race. Rosenqvist has started in the top ten in ten of 12 race this season, but he has only started in the top five once. He started fifth in the second Mid-Ohio race and was caught up in a first lap accident. 

Will Power was sixth in the first Harvest Grand Prix race, his fourth consecutive top ten finish. Prior to this streak, Power had two top ten finishes in the first eight races of the 2020 season. The only times Power has finished in the top five on the IMS road course are his three victories and all three of those victories he started on pole position. Power has never finished better than his starting position in eight IMS road course starts. 

Graham Rahal has three consecutive top ten finishes after he was seventh in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. Rahal has not started a race in the top five since the second Road America race. He has finished better than his starting position in the eight races since that Road America race. Rahal has been the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher in seven of 12 races this season. 

Jack Harvey ended up eighth yesterday, the ninth top ten finish of his IndyCar career. Harvey's third place finish in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis remains the only top five finish in his career. He has started in the top five six times in his career and his average finish when starting in the top five is 13.667.

Scott Dixon will have to do some work to clinch the title today after he finished ninth yesterday. Dixon's championship lead is down to 40 points. If Dixon wins today, he will need Newgarden to finish third or worse and score fewer than three bonus points to clinch the championship. There is a chance Newgarden could leave this race with the championship lead. Dixon has to finish at least 16th to maintain the championship lead into St. Petersburg. 

Marcus Ericsson was tenth yesterday, his eighth top ten finish of the season. Despite Ericsson's strong results, he has been the top Chip Ganassi Racing finisher only once, at the second Mid-Ohio race. He has been the worst Ganassi finisher in four races, the Indianapolis 500, the second Gateway race and the first Mid-Ohio race and yesterday in the first Harvest Grand Prix race.

Max Chilton fell one position shy of his first top ten finish since 2017 in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. It was a strong race for Chilton, with him starting ninth on his way to finish 11th. He had consecutive top ten starts between the 2019 season finale at Laguna Seca and his first start of 2020 in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Chilton started tenth in both races. Today will be Chilton's 70th start. Thirteen drivers have had their first career victory come after their 70th career start including Bryan Herta, Christian Fittipaldi, Roberto Moreno and Arie Luyendyk.

Conor Daly matched his best road course finish of 2020 with his 12th-place result yesterday. Daly was 12th on the IMS road course in July. Daly has yet to finish in the top ten with Ed Carpenter Racing this season. The only other team Daly did not score a top ten finish for in his IndyCar career was Harding Racing, where he drove for three races in 2018. 

Charlie Kimball ended up 13th and he has finished outside the top ten in eight consecutive races. Kimball has been the top A.J. Foyt Racing finisher in nine of 12 races and the top qualifier in seven of 12 races. 

James Hinchcliffe's first race in the #26 Honda saw him finish 14th, the final car on the lead lap. He has started 18th or 19th in his last three starts on the IMS road course. He has finished outside the top ten in six of eight starts on the IMS road course. 

Santino Ferrucci's 15th-place finish yesterday was his worst on the IMS road course, as it was the first time Ferrucci did not finish in the top ten at the track. That result dropped Ferrucci outside the top ten of the championship for the first time since the second Iowa race. He has not been worse than 12th in the championship since he was 21st after this year's season opener at Texas.

Simon Pagenaud has finished outside the top fifteen in five of the last six races and his 16th-place finish yesterday was his worst since he retired from the 2015 Grand Prix of Indianapolis because of a gearbox failure. Pagenaud has not started in the top five for a race since he was third in the Texas season opener. His last top five start on a road/street course was fourth at Mid-Ohio last year. 

Álex Palou started 17th and finished 17th yesterday. Both were better than how Palou did in July on the IMS road course, but he has not had a top ten finish since his seventh-place result in the second Road America race. He is 63 points behind VeeKay in the Rookie of the Year battle. He will have to outscore VeeKay by at least 14 points to prevent the Dutch driver from clinching it in the second Harvest Grand Prix race. 

Takuma Sato has finished outside the top fifteen in the last three races after Sato ended up 18th in race one. Sato has never started in the top ten on the IMS road course and he has never led a lap at the track. He has qualified behind his teammate Rahal in the last three races.

Hélio Castroneves' first race with Arrow McLaren SP ended up in a 20th-place finish. Twentieth was also Castroneves' most recent finish for a team other than Team Penske nearly 21 years ago at Fontana with Hogan Racing. Castroneves has finished outside the top ten in his last five starts. 

Sébastien Bourdais' first race with A.J. Foyt Racing ended up in a 21st-place finish. Bourdais has never finished in the top ten in his first start with a team and his best finish in a second race for a team was ninth with Dragon Racing in that sensational drive with a Lotus engine at Barber Motorsports Park in 2012. 

Patricio O'Ward picked up his worst finish of the season with a 22nd-place result in race one and it also doubles as the worst finish in O'Ward's IndyCar career. His previous worst was 19th in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. O'Ward could become the first driver to score a first career victory in the 21st start of a career since Rosenqvist did it back in July at Road America. Only three drivers had their first career victory come after a finish of 22nd and those three drivers are Roger McCluskey, Bryan Herta and Mike Conway. 

Sage Karam was 23rd yesterday, matching his IMS road course finish from July. Karam has finished outside the top twenty in five consecutive starts and in eight of his last nine starts. Dalton Kellett scored his worst road course finish yesterday in 24th. 

Marco Andretti's engine failure saw his best starting position on the IMS road course end with his worst finishing position. Andretti has finished dead last in three of the last five races. 

Qualifying for Harvest Grand Prix race two will be at 10:20 a.m. ET. The first qualifying group will feature VeeKay, Herta, Andretti, Rosenqvist, Chilton, Rahal, Hunter-Reay, Ericsson, Palou, Castroneves, Karam, Kimball and Kellett. 

Newgarden will lead the second qualifying group that features his championship rival Dixon, his Penske teammates Power and Pagenaud as well as Harvey, Rossi, O'Ward, Daly, Bourdais, Hinchcliffe, Ferrucci and Sato.

NBC's coverage of Harvest Grand Prix race two begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 2:31 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 75 laps, ten laps shorter than race one.

First Impressions: 2020 Harvest Grand Prix Race One

1. I know this is a little later than normal, and this is going to be quicker than normal... 

Josef Newgarden needed to have his best race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course today and he got it, taking a victory that was much closer than the 14.294 seconds on paper. At the start, Newgarden was a part of the trio that pulled away from the field with Rinus VeeKay and Colton Herta. During the second stint, Newgarden led for a portion but the alternate tires on Herta's car elevated the #88 Honda into the lead. However, the alternate tires fell off toward the end of the stint and brought Newgarden back into the race. 

Herta stopped earlier than the window would allow for him to make it on fuel and it handed Newgarden the race. Newgarden made his final stop later, came out significantly ahead and Herta had to conserve, running mostly in the 73-second range to make it to the end. Meanwhile, Newgarden had clear track and fuel to burn. No one was going to touch him. 

This victory cuts his deficit to Scott Dixon to 40 points, within the necessary margin to make St. Petersburg a contested finale, but not small enough to mean Newgarden is out of the woods for tomorrow. One slip up and Dixon could leave this weekend with the Astor Cup strapped into the passenger seat of his daily driver. Only half the job was completed today and Newgarden has more work to do. 

2. Alexander Rossi drove an impressive race up to second. Rossi had battles throughout the field, first with Dixon, which saw him be penalized for exceeding track limits on the Hulman straightaway. He had to sacrifice a position and then had to fight back for that spot. Once he got it and after the pit cycle, he fought with Rinus VeeKay and Will Power to get up to fourth. With Herta saving fuel, that allowed Rossi to catch him and Felix Rosenqvist and soon Rossi was second. 

Rossi got no favors from Takuma Sato, who was already a lap down and many seconds off the next car ahead of him. Rossi likely would not have caught Newgarden, but the gap would hav been much smaller than 14.294 seconds. 

This was another race where Rossi started on the back foot in eighth. He was in the unfortunate qualifying group yesterday and ended up eighth on the grid. If he had ended up starting on one of the first two rows, he likely would have been in the Herta/Newgarden battle from the start. Either way, he gets his third consecutive podium finish, though victory remains elusive.

3. For a moment, I thought this was only going to be a good day for Rinus VeeKay. VeeKay stared on pole position and had a good opening stint but did not have the pace of Herta and Newgarden. The Dutchman settled into the top five and I thought he would come home fifth or sixth and I would get to say he did reasonably well. 

However, VeeKay turned it on in that final stint. With Herta saving fuel and Rosenqvist unable to get ahead, VeeKay caught both and passed both and ended up third, his first career podium finish. The Rookie of the Year award is his. This was another impressive day. 

4. Colton Herta salvaged fourth after another race where Herta struggled on alternate tires. We can go back to Road America last year, where he started on pole position and got the tire strategy wrong, doing two stints on alternate tires, even though he lost significant time on the first stint. At Portland later that season, Herta again started on the front on the alternate tire but could barely hang on to finish the stint and lost the lead before he even made it for pit stops. 

Today, Herta stopped earlier than the window would allow, and he had to run a tight fuel save for 25 laps, while the rest of the field stopped three to six laps later. I am not sure if that has anything to do with driving style or car setup, but it is a pattern. Herta should have been on the podium today and probably should have been on the top step. For how strong he ran those middle stints, there is no excuse. The top drivers take what Herta did over the first 50 laps and turn it into a victory, not a fourth-place result. Fourth is still good, but it should have been better.

5. Felix Rosenqvist had a quiet top five finish. Though, I think we have to say it could have been better because he caught Herta in no time at the start of that opening stint and while Herta continued to run 73-second laps, Rosenqvist was stuck and race pace was around a high 71-second or low 72-second lap time. Rosenqvist should have passed Herta early and then ran away with a second-place result. 

This is still a good day for Rosenqvist considering his season, but like Herta, this has to be better and the top drivers in IndyCar today would have at least finished second in Rosenqvist's position, not fifth. 

6. Will Power got air going wide in the final corner and that cost him positions late to Rossi and VeeKay, but he still picked up a sixth-place result. Power was in or around the top five all race, though was never a factor in this one. I have to admit this is a day Power should not be angry about. He has been angry after a lot of races this season. Yes, he made that mistake, but a great save followed. I think sixth is respective of how Power's day was.

7. Graham Rahal had a spun very early in this race and you would never know it because he ran flawless afterward. That spin did not set him back. It did not throw off strategy. He was actually catching Power at the end. Without that spin, Rahal likely finishes fourth or fifth. He would have been in that battle late. 

This is kind of the tale of Rahal's season and really the last three years, he is seventh-place driver, and that is not a knock, but push come to shove, he ends up sixth or seventh or eighth. He runs well but that final piece is missing. 

8. Jack Harvey was not mentioned once and ended up eighth. Harvey might be mad that this finish came after starting sixth, but Harvey is a single-car team, one of two single-car teams. This was Harvey's fifth top ten finish this season. The two-car, and sometime three-car, A.J. Foyt Racing has three top ten finishes. The two-car Dale Coyne Racing has six top ten finishes. The two-car Ed Carpenter Racing has six top ten finishes. The other single-car effort Carlin has four top ten finishes. 

Harvey is pulling his weight. There were a couple of races that went against earlier in the year, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis being one of them, and his championship position could be a lot better if a caution or two fell in his favor. Harvey should be proud of this season and there are still two races to go. 

9. And here is the championship leader. Scott Dixon ended up ninth but was around fifth or sixth for most of this race. Dixon was one of the handful of guys struggling on his tires in the final stint, and it cost him. He lost two positions in the final laps when he went off in turn seven, and that cost him four points. 

The good news is Dixon built up enough insurance that a mistake like that still has his lead at 40 points. If he exits this weekend with a 50-point lead, all he will have to do is start St. Petersburg to win the championship. If he has a 49-point lead, all he needs is for Newgarden not to win pole position and start to take the title. Of course, he is only 14 points away from making sure he can seal the title this weekend and then St. Petersburg will be for kicks and giggles. 

Fourteen points is doable. Newgarden has to repeat today's performance again while Dixon knows he can do better and likely will. 

10. Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top ten. It was a good day. Ericsson started 15th, he didn't make any mistakes, he was already over six seconds behind Dixon when Dixon went off, so he wasn't a threat to take away more points from his teammate. He made it three Ganassi cars in the top ten. That's good enough today. 

11. Max Chilton was painfully close to that elusive top ten finish! Chilton was 11th and started ninth. Carlin has some good cars. We saw what Conor Daly could do on the ovals. The pace is there. I know I kind of put Carlin down before in the Harvey point, but four top ten finishes for this team is impressive. I think Chilton could pull out a top ten in one of the next two races, more likely tomorrow than St. Petersburg. 

12. I going to take the final 14 finishers in chunks: Conor Daly was nowhere close to his teammate and that is not a good sign considering Daly has 62 IndyCar starts to VeeKay's 12. The #20 Chevrolet has not had road course pace this season. Daly matched his best road course finish of 12th, which came at the IMS road course in July. Charlie Kimball was 13th, which is good for A.J. Foyt Racing but the team has work to do. James Hinchcliffe was the best of the late season substitutes in 14th.

13. Santino Ferrucci had another off-road excursion and contact with another driver deep into a breaking zone, this time with Ryan Hunter-Reay into turn one. Ferrucci actually had multiple times he went wide into turn one. He is aggressive, but overly aggressive too much. It cost him a shot at a top ten finish today. 

14. Simon Pagenaud could not work strategy magic today and went from 22nd to 16th. Álex Palou took himself out of the race after a penalty for an improper pit exit on his first stop. I think Palou did the same in practice yesterday. Today's mistake hit him harder and he finished 17th. Takuma Sato was never a factor in 18th. Ryan Hunter-Reay had some pretty bad damage after that hit from Ferrucci and was 19th.

15. Hinchcliffe might have finished on the lead lap, but all the late season substitutes struggled this weekend. Hélio Castroneves was 20th and Sébastien Bourdais was 21st. I am not sure we can take much from this weekend. Neither driver has been in the car on a road course during the season. Bourdais had push-to-pass issues from the start. Patricio O'Ward had a pit lane issues, at least one spin or half-spin and another time he went off course. I am not sure what dropped him to 22nd.

16. I honestly think Sage Karam should return to Indy Lights next year. I don't think he has lost the ability, but he has done next to no road course races over the last five years and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing had not done road courses since 2013 before this year. Karam needs more seat time. Dalton Kellett was 24th, but he was salvaged a last-place finish when Marco Andretti lost his engine with six laps to go. Andretti qualified fifth, but this was another race where the race pace did not match. He had just fallen out of the top ten when his engine detonated. An 11th-place finish was not the kind of day Andretti was hoping for from fifth on the grid, but an engine failure that late is much worse.

17. I am going to save overall thoughts on the Harvest Grand Prix weekend until after tomorrow, but IndyCar had a tremendous race on a Friday afternoon in October on the television channel USA. This was probably the best race of the season and it could not have happened for a more obscurely schedule time and place. I think the conditions had a lot to do with it. It was not brutally hot. The tires could wear but the grip was there for drivers to attempt aggressive moves, and most of those paid off.

Tomorrow will be different with ten fewer laps, it will likely be a two-stop race, although Kevin Lee pointed out that the cooler temperatures meant the cars burned more fuel so maybe tomorrow will be a three-stop race. I bet a handful of drivers try to stretch it and make it on two stops. I am looking forward for what race two could be.

Morning Warm-Up: 2020 Harvest Grand Prix Race One

Rinus VeeKay sits on pole position for first Harvest GP race

Rinus VeeKay scored his first career pole position with a lap of 69.6903 seconds in qualifying for Harvest Grand Prix Race One. This is Ed Carpenter Racing's first pole position on a road course in team history. Three of ECR's previous four pole positions have come at Indianapolis, but on the oval for Indianapolis 500 qualifying with team owner Ed Carpenter. VeeKay picked up his first career top five finish on the IMS road course in July with a fifth-place finish. He was also fourth in the second Gateway race. The last Ed Carpenter Racing driver with three top five finishes in a season was Josef Newgarden in 2016, who had six that season. ECR has not had a podium finish on a road course since Newgarden was second at Watkins Glen in 2016 and the team has not won a road/street course race since Toronto 2015, when Newgarden led a 1-2 victory for then CFH Racing with Luca Filippi in second. 

Josef Newgarden will start next to his old car on the front row and because of the doubleheader qualifying format, since Newgarden topped his group, he got a bonus point and cut the gap to Scott Dixon in the championship down to 71 points. This is Newgarden's best starting position on the IMS road course. This is Newgarden's second-worst track with at least three starts. Newgarden's average finish on the IMS road course is 14.6 and only picked up his first top ten finish at the track in July when he was seventh. He has led a lap in the last three IMS road course races. The only track where Newgarden has a worse average finish is Fontana at 16.8.

Colton Herta missed out on pole position by 0.0145 seconds and will start in third position. Herta is looking for his second consecutive victory after he won the second Mid-Ohio race last month. Herta has never had consecutive podium finishes in his career and his three victories are his only three podium finishes in his career. His father Bryan never won consecutive races and the only time Bryan had consecutive podium finishes were three consecutive third-place finishes at Kentucky, Nazareth and Chicagoland in 2003.

Will Power joins Herta on row two. This is the 12th time Power has started fourth in his career. He has won four of those previous 11 starts, but he has finished 14th or worse in five of those starts from fourth. This is one of five tracks where he has three victories. The other tracks are Pocono, São Paulo, Sonoma and Toronto. Power is one of four drivers to have completed all 581 laps run on the IMS road course. 

Marco Andretti will start fifth, a personal best for him on the IMS road course and his first top five start on a road course since fourth in the 2018 season finale at Sonoma. It has been 154 starts since Marco Andretti's most recent victory at Iowa in 2011. That is currently 30 starts more than the current record for most starts between victories. Graham Rahal had 124 starts between his victories at St. Petersburg in 2008 and Fontana in 2015. Andretti has finished worse than his starting position in seven of 11 races. He has won on the IMS road course before, in Indy Lights in 2005 when the Liberty Challenge was a support race for the the United States Grand Prix. 

Jack Harvey starts next to Andretti in an all-pink car row six. This is Harvey's 13th time in 31 races he is starting in the top ten. In those previous 12 races, he has six top ten finishes. He has the seventh-best average starting position this season at 9.25. Like Andretti, Harvey has an Indy Lights victory on the IMS road course and that came in 2015.

Felix Rosenqvist qualified seventh and he will hope to do better than his Grand Prix of Indianapolis performance. In July, Rosenqvist started ninth on this track but dropped to 15th. He has finished worse than his starting position in six of 11 races this season. He has not led more than eight laps in a race this year. He led eight laps in his victory at Road America in July and he led eight laps in the Indianapolis 500. Last year, he led 15 laps or more in three races, including 15 laps led from pole position in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Alexander Rossi starts eighth. Rossi has consecutive podium finishes entering the first race of the Harvest Grand Prix. Rossi has had a stretch of three consecutive podium finishes in each of the last two seasons. In 2018, he had two stretches, starting the season with a third, a third and a first at St. Petersburg, Phoenix and Long Beach respectively. Later that season, he won at Mid-Ohio and Pocono before finishing second at Gateway. Last year, he was second at Texas, won at Road America and was third at Toronto.

Max Chilton is coming off his best finish of the season, a 13th in the second Mid-Ohio race, and he will start ninth for the first Harvest Grand Prix race, his best start of the season. Back in July, Chilton started tenth, but finished 16th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. His best finish on the IMS road course was seventh in 2017. Chilton has not had a top ten finish in his last 36 starts. 

Patricio O'Ward rounds out the top ten. O'Ward will be making his 20th career start and he could become the fourth driver to get a first career victory in a 20th career start joining Walt Brown, Bobby Grim and Justin Wilson. O'Ward has finished better than his starting position in eight races. He started and finished 12th in the second Iowa race. In the two races where he finished worse than his starting position, O'Ward was second from pole position in the second Road America race and third from second on the grid in the first Gateway race.

Graham Rahal rolls off from 11th on the grid. Rahal has not won a race in his last 54 starts. His most recent victory was the second race of the 2017 Belle Isle doubleheader. In his last 54 starts, he has six podium finishes, 16 top five finishes and 38 top ten finishes. The only times Rahal has had a podium finish in one of the final three races of a season was a third in the penultimate race of 2009 at Motegi and second in the 2016 finale at Sonoma. He has won three times when starting outside the top ten, including from 13th at Mid-Ohio in 2015.

Scott Dixon will start 12th and with Newgarden topping his qualifying group, Dixon's lead is shaved down to a 71-point championship lead after Newgarden topped group one. Dixon could clinch the championship today if he finishes second and scores at least one bonus point with Newgarden finishing in 25th. If Dixon wins the race and only scores one bonus point, he would need Newgarden to finish 15th or worse to clinch the title. Dixon was tenth in his last two starts at Mid-Ohio. Dixon has not had three consecutive races without a top five finish since 2017, when he had finishes of eighth, tenth, ninth and sixth from Iowa to Pocono. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay scored his worst starting position of the season in 13th. Prior to this, Hunter-Reay had started 12th three times in 2020. In Hunter-Reay's career, he has finished in the top five of the 12th race of the season only twice, third at Mid-Ohio in 2011 and a victory at Iowa in 2014. He has finished outside the top ten in nine of the 15 times he has contested the 12th race and six of those were finishes outside the top fifteen. 

Conor Daly will start 14th, 13 positions behind ECR teammates Rinus VeeKay. Daly has yet to be the top finisher in a race for Ed Carpenter Racing in 2020. Daly's average finish in five starts with Carlin was ninth with four top ten finishes. With ECR, his average finish is 18.1667 with his best finish being 12th, which came at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

For the second consecutive race, Marcus Ericsson occupies the 15th position on the grid. Ericsson has seven top ten finishes this season, but the only time he has been the top Ganassi finisher was in the last race at Mid-Ohio when finished fifth. Ericsson led his fourth lap of the season in that Mid-Ohio race. He has led six races in his IndyCar career, but he has never led more than two laps in a race. He led one lap in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in July.

Sébastien Bourdais makes his 2020 IndyCar season debut from 16th position in the #14 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing. This is A.J. Foyt Racing's second-best starting position on a road course this season. Charlie Kimball started 13th for the second Road America race. This is the fifth different team Bourdais has driven for in his IndyCar career. He has had at least one podium finish in the last seven seasons, and he has won a race in five of the last six seasons. His best finish on the IMS road course is fourth, which came in 2014, 2015 and 2018.

Álex Palou is 17th in the championship and he will start 17th for this race. Palou has alternated top Dale Coyne Racing finisher with teammate Ferrucci in the last six races. Palou has not had a top ten finish in the last seven races, but he has been the top DCR finisher in four of those races.

James Hinchcliffe replaces Zach Veach in the #26 Gainbridge Honda and Hinchcliffe will start 18th. Veach was averaging a starting position of 17.9 in the #26 Honda. In the 12th race of the season, Hinchcliffe has finished in the top five the last four years, and he has finished in the top ten the last seven times he has started the 12th race of the season. 

Hélio Castroneves will make his first start with Arrow McLaren SP from 19th position. The last time Castroneves started 19th was the 2017 Indianapolis 500, where he finished second. This is the first time Castroneves has driven for a team other than Team Penske since October 31, 1999 when he drove for Hogan Racing at Fontana. Castroneves has won the last three IMSA races with Acura Team Penske and co-driver Ricky Taylor. 

Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top twenty on the grid, his worst starting position on a road course this season. Ferrucci has only led laps at three tracks in his IndyCar, Gateway, Belle Isle and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval. This will be Ferrucci's 33rd career start. The only driver to pick up a first career victory in a 33rd career start was Johnny Rutherford at Atlanta in 1965.

Sage Karam returns for his third start of the season in the #24 Oil2Soil Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and he will start 21st, his best starting position of 2020. Karam will have contested every race at IMS in 2020 and this will be his most starts in a season since he ran 12 of 16 races in 2015. He has finished outside the top twenty in his last four starts and seven of his last eight starts dating back to the 2016 Indianapolis 500. The one exception was a 19th-place finish in the 2019 Indianapolis 500.

Simon Pagenaud will start 22nd, the fifth time he has started outside the top twenty this season after having only five starts outside the top twenty in 114 races from Texas 2013 to the end of the 2019 season. Pagenaud has not had a top five finishes in the last five races. This is Pagenaud's longest stretch without a top five results since he opened the 2018 season with eight consecutive finishes outside the top five. He has five top five finishes in seven IMS road course starts. He has finished in the top five in the 12th race of the season the last four years. Pagenaud did win the other scheduled Friday race earlier this season at Iowa.

Charlie Kimball will start 23rd for the second consecutive race. After finishing fifth in the first three Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Kimball has finished 21st, 20th and 18th in his last three starts on the IMS road course. He has finished outside the top ten in the last seven races, his longest stretch since he did not get a top ten in the final three races of 2014 and the first four races of 2015. That slump ended with a fifth-place finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

Takuma Sato brought out a red flag in the first qualifying group and Sato will start 24th, his worst starting position since he stared 24th in the 2015 Indianapolis 500. Sato has won one of the final three races in each of the last two seasons. However, outside of those two victories, Sato has no other podium finishes this late in the season. The only other time he has finished in the top five this late in a season was a fourth at Sonoma in 2014 and he has finished outside the top fifteen on fifteen occasions in the final three races of the season. 

Dalton Kellett will make his final two starts of the season this weekend in the #41 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing and he will start the weekend from 25th on the grid. Kellett's best finish was 20th in both Road America races. He has not finished on the lead lap yet his season.

USA's coverage of Harvest Grand Prix race one will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 4:00 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: 2020 Harvest Grand Prix

IndyCar is back at the IMS Road Course

The antepenultimate round and the penultimate round of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season will be a first-time event, and possibly a one-time only event, the Harvest Grand Prix from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and it will be a doubleheader. This race is named after the Harvest Auto Racing Classic, held on September 9, 1916. Johnny Aitken swept the three races that made up the Harvest Auto Racing Classic in 1916. The first two races, a 20-miler and a 50-miler, were non-championship events and the 100-miler counted toward the championship. Those three victories gave Aitken 16 victories at IMS, a track record that still stands to this day. It was the final official race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway other than the Indianapolis 500 until the Brickyard 400 in 1994. 

Coverage
Time: Race one coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday October 2 with green flag scheduled for 4:00 p.m. ET. Race two coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday October 3 with green flag scheduled for 2:31 p.m. ET.
Channel: USA (Race one on Friday), NBC (Race two on Saturday)
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule 
Thursday:
First Practice: 2:25 p.m. ET (75 minutes)*

Qualifying: 6:20 p.m. ET*

Friday:
Race: 4:00 p.m. ET (85 laps)
Saturday:
Qualifying: 10:20 a.m. ET* 
Race: 2:31 p.m. ET (75 laps)

* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.

And Then There Were Seven

Three races remain and with 162 points left on the table, seven drivers are alive for the IndyCar championship. That could quickly drop to five drivers at the Harvest Grand Prix.

Scott Dixon's pair of tenth-place finishes at Mid-Ohio has cut his championship lead over defending championship Josef Newgarden down to 72 points. It was 96 points heading into the Mid-Ohio weekend. Dixon and Newgarden are the only drivers with multiple victories this season, they are the top two drivers in laps led and they are the only two drivers to complete every lap this season. 

Dixon has six podium finishes and eight top five finishes while Newgarden has stood on the podium four times with six top five finishes. Over half of Newgarden's laps led came in his victory in the second Iowa race. The only times Dixon has led over half a race was this Texas victory where he led 157 laps and 111 laps at Indianapolis. Neither driver has led a lap in the last three races. 

Patricio O'Ward finds himself 118 points off the lead and O'Ward has not finished worse than 12th this season, having taken the checkered flag in every race. He has completed all but two laps, finishing a lap down at Texas and in the second Iowa race respectively. He has been in the top four of the championship since his runner-up from pole position in the second Road America race. 

Colton Herta's Mid-Ohio victory lifted him to fourth in the championship and Herta finds himself trailing Dixon by 129 points. Mid-Ohio was his first podium finish of the season, but he has five top five finishes. Fifty-seven of his 72 laps led this season came in his Mid-Ohio victory, but he has led in the last three races and four of the last five. 

Will Power picked up his first victory of 2020 in the first Mid-Ohio race and his championship hopes hang by a thread, with Power 150 points off Dixon. Power has four podium finishes; however, he has finished outside the top ten in six of 11 races this season. He has led a lap in eight races this season, more than any other driver in IndyCar. 

Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato will head to the Harvest Grand Prix with a mathematical shot at the championship, but that could vanish in the first race this weekend. If Dixon scores at least six points in race one, Sato will be eliminated from the championship. If Dixon scores at least seven points in race one, Rahal will be eliminated. Both Rahal's and Sato's hopes also hang on Dixon possibly missing the remainder of the season and would require either driver to score the maximum 162 points from the final three races.

Dixon could clinch the championship after race one if he scores at least 36 points more than Newgarden. That means Dixon would have to finish at least second with a few bonus points and Newgarden finishing in one of the last positions. For the remainder of the championship eligible drivers, the key number to be below after the first Harvest Grand Prix race is 108 points, but with Dixon likely starting both races, a driver will have to be under 103 points heading into the Saturday race. 

In terms of keeping the championship alive heading into the St. Petersburg finale, a driver will have to be within 54 points, and with Dixon likely starting the St. Petersburg finale, which should feature at least 24 cars, a driver will have to be within 48 points of Dixon after this weekend to have the championship go to the wire.

Looks Who's Back!

There are a few familiar faces returning to the IndyCar grid for the Harvest Grand Prix. 

For the first time in the 21st century, Hélio Castroneves will make an IndyCar start for a team other than Team Penske. Castroneves will step into the #7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet in place of Oliver Askew, who is experiencing concussion-like symptoms stemming back from his accident at the Indianapolis 500.

Askew had started the four races following Indianapolis, a pair of doubleheaders at Gateway and Mid-Ohio. In the four races, he completed 549 of 550 laps and had finishes of 14th, 17th, 19th and 15th. His finishing position was worse than his starting position in the last three races. 

Castroneves last drove for a team other than Team Penske at the 1999 CART finale with Hogan Racing, where the Brazilian spent the first two years of his IndyCar career. In 39 starts with Hogan Racing, Castroneves' best finish was second at Milwaukee in 1998 and at Gateway in 1999. In those two seasons, he never had a top five finish on a road or street course, with his best result being seventh at Belle Isle and Mid-Ohio in 1999. Castroneves missed the Grand Prix of Indianapolis for the first time in his career in July. In six IMS road course starts he has two podium finishes, three top five finishes and five top ten finishes. He has completed 499 of 501 laps. 

James Hinchcliffe will drive the #26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Autosport, in place of Zach Veach and Hinchcliffe will be in the car for the St. Petersburg finale at the end of the month. Veach had decided to step away from the car after it was decided he would not return to the team for the 2021 season. Veach opened 2020 with a fourth-place finish at Texas, matching his career-best, but he has finished outside the top ten in the last ten races and eight of those were results outside the top fifteen. 

Hinchcliffe had made three starts with Andretti Autosport in the #29 Genesys Honda this season, including an 11th-place finish in Grand Prix of Indianapolis and seventh in the Indianapolis 500. Hinchliffe's best finish on the IMS road course was third in 2016. 

Sébastien Bourdais will be making his 2020 debut with A.J. Foyt Racing in the #14 Chevrolet. Bourdais will drive the #14 Chevrolet in the two Harvest Grand Prix races and the St. Petersburg season finale ahead of a full-time ride with the team for the 2021 season. 

Bourdais had been originally scheduled to drive at St. Petersburg, Barber, Long Beach and Portland in the #14 Chevrolet before the pandemic shook up the schedule. He has spent his 2020 season driving the #5 Mustang Samplings Cadillac for JDC-Miller Motorsports in IMSA's DPi class with João Barbosa. He also drove the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Risi Competizione Ferrari in the GTE-Pro class with Olivier Pla and Jules Gounon. Risi Competizione ended up fourth in class. 

Dalton Kellett will drive in the #41 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing at the Harvest Grand Prix. Kellett has started five races this season with his best finish being 20th. He made his IndyCar debut at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis back in July and finished 21st.

Sage Karam will be back for his third race weekend of the season in the #24 Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Karam's other two race weekend were at Indianapolis. He had finishes of 23rd and 24th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500 respectively. 

Another Two Trips Around IMS

With the Harvest Grand Prix weekend taking place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, this gives the drivers two more races on the track the series has visited once a year since the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2014. 

The IMS road course is the first track to host three races in one season since 1979 when Atlanta, Michigan and Trenton each hosted three races in the inaugural CART season. Each track hosted a doubleheader first before hosting a single race later that year. 

This is the first time a road course has hosted separate race weekends on an IndyCar schedule since 1915 when the American Grand Prize and the William K. Vanderbilt Cup race were held on successive weekends at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. 

Scott Dixon won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis back in July ahead of Graham Rahal and Simon Pagenaud. It was Dixon's first victory on the IMS road course, it was Rahal's second runner-up finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and it was Pagenaud's fourth podium at the track. 

Dixon's victory snapped Team Penske's winning streak in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis at five consecutive races. It was Honda's first victory at the track since 2014 when Pagenaud won with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. 

Dixon had three runner-up finishes on the IMS road course prior to his victory earlier this year. He has led the third-most laps at the track with 66 led and he has the best average finish at 5.6. 

Will Power and Simon Pagenaud are tied with three victories apiece at the track, but Power has the most laps led, having led 210 out of 581 laps run in seven IMS road course races. Pagenaud is second all-time in laps led with 68 laps led. Power has won the pole position four times at this track, including back in July.

Pagenaud has one top ten finish in the last five races, and he has not had a top five finishes since he was fourth in the second Iowa race. The IMS road course is the track where Pagenaud has won the most at. The only other track he has multiple victories is Sonoma, which is no longer on the schedule. 

Rahal is one of three drivers with six top ten finishes on the IMS road course. Dixon and Pagenaud are the other two. With an average finish of 7.57, the IMS road course is Rahal's best track in terms of average finish with at least three starts. 

Sato is the most recent winner at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking his second Indianapolis 500 victory back in August. He was tenth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in July, his fourth top ten finish in that race, but he has never finished better than ninth at this track. 

Andretti Autosport got its first victory of 2020 with Colton Herta at Mid-Ohio last month, and the team picked up its first podium sweep since 2005 with Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay finishing directly behind Herta. Rossi retired from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis due to fuel pressure issues while running in the top ten. It was his second consecutive finish outside the top twenty at the IMS road course. Hunter-Reay has finished outside the top ten in the last three IMS road course races. 

Santino Ferrucci has finished in the top ten of both his IMS road course starts with finishes of tenth and ninth. Ferrucci sits tenth in the championship, five points ahead of Felix Rosenqvist and 19 points ahead of Rossi and Marcus Ericsson. Rosenqvist has finishes of eighth and 15th in his two IMS road course starts while Ericsson has finishes of 24th and sixth.

Jack Harvey has started third and second in his two IMS road course starts. Harvey was third in 2019 but was 17th in July after getting caught out during a caution before he made his second pit stop. 

Rinus VeeKay extended his lead in the rookie of the year battle at Mid-Ohio and with Oliver Askew out for this weekend, the battle is down to two drivers. VeeKay is 39 points ahead of Álex Palou. Palou has not had a top ten since the second Road America race. VeeKay was fifth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis earlier this year and Palou started 21st and finished 19th.

Final Doubleheader

This will be the fifth doubleheader of the 2020 season, the most doubleheaders in a season in IndyCar history. The 1968 season had four doubleheaders at Mosport, the Indianapolis Raceway Park road course, Langhorne and Mont-Tremblant.

No driver has finished in the top ten of all eight races apart of the four doubleheaders to take place, but Dixon leads the way with seven top ten finishes. The only blemish on the Kiwi's résumé was a 12th in the second Road America race. Dixon leads all drivers with five top five finishes from doubleheader weekends. 

Dixon and Newgarden have each won twice on doubleheader weekends, but Power leads the way with four podium finishes on doubleheader weekends.

Dixon has the best average finish at 5.75 ahead of O'Ward's 6.375, Newgarden's 6.5 and Power's average finish of eighth. The Andretti drivers of Herta and Rossi are fifth and sixth with average finishes of 8.5 and 9.625 respectively. Ericsson is averaging a tenth-place finish from doubleheader weekends and he is one of five drivers with at least six top ten finishes from these weekends along with Dixon, O'Ward, Newgarden and Herta. Pagenaud and Hunter-Reay round out the top ten with average finishes of 11.125 and 11.25 respectively. 

Team Penske leads the way with four victories, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing's three and Andretti Autosport's one. In terms of podium finishes, Team Penske leads with eight while Andretti has five, three of which came in the most recent race. Ganassi and Arrow McLaren SP are tied on four. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has two podium finishes and Dale Coyne Racing has one. 

Of the 21 drivers that contested all four doubleheaders, 20 drivers had at least one top ten finish from the eight races. The exception was Zach Veach, whose best finish was 16th in both Road America races. Of the 20 drivers with at least one top ten finishes, only Ferrucci, Harvey, Conor Daly, Charlie Kimball and Marco Andretti do not have a top five finish in one of those eight races.

Manufacture Battle

With three races remaining, the manufactures' championship continues, and it is advantage Honda in more ways than one. 

Honda has 910 points; 86 points clear of Chevrolet with three races remaining. Honda has won seven of 11 races, meaning Chevrolet can only match Honda's victory total for the 2020 season. On top of that, the Honda teams are doing better on their number of engines used versus the Chevrolet teams. 

Every Honda team has only used two of three engines allowed for this abbreviated 2020 season entering this weekend, while all but one full-time Chevrolet team is on its third engine with three races to go. The #4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet is the only team that has yet to use its third engine. 

Earlier this year, IndyCar announced the return of grid penalties for any entrant that exceeds the engine allotment, meaning any team that uses a fourth engine will have to fall back on the grid. With the final three races being road and street courses, if a team uses a fourth engine, a six-spot penalty will be assessed. 

It should be noted that once an entry exceeds the engine allotment that entrant cannot score points for the manufactures' championship, meaning top Chevrolet teams could no longer be able to contribute to the manufactures' effort, while a vast majority, if not all the Honda entries could be eligible to score points. 

Honda has won the manufactures' championship the last two seasons after Chevrolet won it for six consecutive seasons after rejoining the series in 2012. 

Welcome to October

This will be the first time IndyCar has raced in October since the 2013 season finale at Fontana, which Will Power won. That 2013 season's month of October started with a doubleheader at Houston, which Dixon and Power split.

There have been 150 IndyCar races held in the month of October. A.J. Foyt and Bobby Rahal are tied for the most October victories at six apiece. Foyt had four of those victories come at Sacramento with one at Phoenix and another at Silverstone. Rahal had four of those victories come at Laguna Seca with one at Phoenix and one at Nazareth.

Four active drives have victories in October. Power has won the last two October races at Houston and Fontana in 2013. Along with Dixon winning the first race in October 2013, he won at Homestead in October 2010. Bourdais' two October victories were at Surfers Paradise in 2005 and 2007. Hunter-Reay's first career victory was at Surfers Paradise in October 2003. 

Thirty drivers have won multiple October races with 13 drivers having won at least three times in the month and seven drivers with at least four victories. 

This will be the first natural-terrain road course held in October since the 2003 CART race at Mexico City, which Paul Tracy won. The 13 October races since have been held at Surfers Paradise, Texas, Fontana, Homestead, Kentucky and Houston.

Indianapolis 8 Hours

IndyCar is running on Friday and Saturday this weekend because the doubleheader was added to the already scheduled inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hours, the second round of the 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge season.

Twenty-two cars are entered for this race, 13 GT3 entries ten GT4 entries. 

The #7 Bentley of Jules Guonon, Maxime Soulet and Jordan Pepper won the 2020 IGTC season opener, the Bathurst 12 Hour back in February and they lead the drivers' championship. 

While Bentley won at Bathurst, Mercedes-AMG left with the manufactures' championship lead on 30 points, five ahead of Bentley. There are three Mercedes-AMG's entered for Indianapolis. George Kurtz, Colin Braun and Richard Heistand will be in the #4 Mercedes-AMG for DXDT Racing while David Askew, Ryan Dalziel and Ben Keating will be in the sister car, the #63 Mercedes-AMG. SunEnergy1 Racing is back with the #75 Mercedes-AMG for Kenny Habul, Martin Konrad and Mikaël Grenier. 

Porsche is tied with Bentley for second in the manufactures' championship on 25 points. Wright Motorsports will field the #20 Porsche for Fred Poordad, Max Root and Jan Heylen. 

Audi will field one car in a partnership between Team Hardpoint and WRT. Mirko Bortolotti and Markus Winkelhock will join Spencer Pumpelly in the #31 Audi. 

Honda, BMW and Ferrari all failed to score points at Bathurst and all three manufactures have multiple entries this weekend. 

Honda has three entries. The factory Team Honda Racing will have Mario Farnbacher, Dane Cameron and Renger van der Zande in the #30 Honda NSX. Racers Edge Motorsports will field two cars, the #80 Honda for Ziad Ghandour and Kyle Marcelli and the #93 Honda NSX for Trent Hindman, Shelby Blackstock and Robert Megennis. 

Walkenhorst Motorsport will field the pair of BMWs. Augusto Farfus, Nicky Catsburg and Conor De Phillippi will be in the #34 BMW with Martin Tomczyk, Nick Yelloly and David Pittard in the #35 BMW. 

Squadra Corse will have Martin Fuentes and Rodrigo Baptista in the #1 Ferrari. Vital Speed will field the #6 Ferrari for Trevor Baek, Jeff Westphal and Ryan Briscoe. 

Lamborghini and Aston Martin are championship-eligible entrants that are not entered for Indianapolis. 

Notable GT4 entries include Jason Bell, Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell in the #2 GMG Racing Audi, Michael Cooper in the #3 Motorsport USA McLaren with Michael McAleenan and Dan Rogers, James Sofronas, Elias Sato and Andy Lee in the #8 GMG Racing Audi and Andy Lally in the #17 TRG Porsche with James Rappaport and Derek DeBoer. 

Parkers Chase will be in the #25 CCR Team TFR BMW with Cole Ciraulo and Tim Barber and Bill Auberlen will be in the #82 Bimmerworld BMW with James Clay and Chandler Hull. 

The Indianapolis 8 Hours will begin at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday October 4. For teams entered in the GT World Challenge America, points will be awarded at the end of the third hour to make up for the lost round at Mosport. GTWCA teams could pull off the track after the third hour and have it in no way impact their points total earned or they could choose to continue for an overall result. 

Fast Facts

Saturday's race will be the seventh race to take place on October 2 and the first since Ed Carpenter won at Kentucky in 2011. It was Carpenter's first career victory.

Sunday's race will be the seventh race to take place on October 3 and the first since Adrián Fernández won at Fontana in 2004. It was Fernández's final career victory. 

Saturday will be Max Papis' 51st birthday. 

Scott Dixon could become the first champion to lead wire-to-wire since Sébastien Bourdais in 2006.

In July,  Scott Dixon became the seventh driver to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, joining Alex Lloyd, Jack Harvey, Dean Stoneman, Colton Herta, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud.

Josef Newgarden, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi or Takuma Sato could all become the eighth driver to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Marco Andretti, Rinus VeeKay, Newgarden, Herta or Harvey could become the first driver to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indy Lights and IndyCar.

Patricio O'Ward could become the first driver to win in Pro Mazda/Indy Pro 2000 and IndyCar at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Will Power leads all active IndyCar drivers with four victories at IMS (three Grand Prix of Indianapolis victories and one Indianapolis 500). 

Twelve competitors have at least five victories at IMS, including Michael Schumacher, Marc Márquez, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

If Power sweeps the weekend, he would become sixth driver with six IMS victories joining Aitken, Ray Harroun, who has eight victories, Louis Chevrolet, Joe Dawson and Eddie Hearne, who all have six victories.

Scott Dixon or Takuma Sato could become the first driver with three victories in a year at IMS since Sting Ray Robb swept the Indy Pro 2000 races at the track just prior to Labor Day weekend. Prior to Robb, the last driver to win three races at IMS in one year was Aitken when he swept the Harvest Auto Racing Classic in 1916.

Andretti Autosport could become the first team with consecutive 1-2-3 finishes since Team Penske at Mid-Ohio and Loudon in 1994.

An American driver has never won an IndyCar race on the IMS road course with the best finish being second on three occasions (Ryan Hunter-Reay 2014, Graham Rahal 2015, Rahal 2020). Hunter-Reay and Rahal are the only American drivers to finish on the podium in IndyCar races on the IMS road course. Hunter-Reay was also third in 2017. 

The only other American drivers to finish in the top five for an IndyCar race on the IMS road course are Charlie Kimball, Alexander Rossi, Spencer Pigot and Colton Herta. Kimball has three top five finishes.

The average starting position for an IMS road course race winner is 3.285 with a median of one. 

The last two winners on the IMS road course started on the fourth row. 

The average number of lead changes at the IMS road course is nine with a median of ten. The fewest number of lead change was four in 2017. The most was 12 in 2014.

The average number of cautions at the IMS road course is 1.857 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 7.857 with a median of eight.

Possible Milestones:

If Hélio Castroneves starts one of two races this weekend, he will become the fourth driver to reach 350 starts in IndyCar history, joining Mario Andretti, Tony Kanaan and A.J. Foyt in reaching that milestone.

Scott Dixon is two victories away from tying Mario Andretti for second all-time on 52 victories.

Will Power is one victory away from tying Al Unser for fifth all-time on 39 victories.

Ryan Hunter-Reay is two victories away from becoming the 22nd driver in IndyCar history to reach 20 victories.

Scott Dixon needs to lead 59 laps to become the fifth driver with 6,000 laps in an IndyCar career. 

Scott Dixon needs to lead 97 laps to surpass Hélio Castroneves for fourth all-time in laps led.

Josef Newgarden needs to lead 56 laps to become the 23rd driver to lead 2,500 laps in an IndyCar career.

Predictions

Alexander Rossi and Will Power split the weekend. Scott Dixon will lock up the championship early. Josef Newgarden will get his best finish on the IMS road course. Jack Harvey will get at least one top five finish and he will challenge for a podium finish. Sébastien Bourdais will get A.J. Foyt Racing its best finish on a road course. Patricio O'Ward will finish ahead of Hélio Castroneves in both races. Conor Daly will finish ahead of Rinus VeeKay in at least one race but Daly will be behind Castroneves in race one. Sage Karam will get at least one lead lap finish. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.