First Impressions: Mid-Ohio 2016

1. Simon Pagenaud won this race from pole position and Will Power finished second. They started first and second respectively. This was anything but a race where they drove away and were never challenged. This was a race where it didn't look either were going to win. Pagenaud was aggressive despite a sore back and he is taking the championship by the scruff of the neck. He isn't sacrificing any points to anybody. It was an impressive drive. The championship appears to be over barring someone winning the final four races or three of the final four with another top five finish. Pagenaud controls the championship but, as we saw today, he will not take a breather. He is as focused as anyone behind him.

2. Speaking of Power, when Pagenaud passed him for what ultimately ended up being the race-winning pass, those two made contact maybe three times in one lap. Power doesn't want to lose but he was ahead of Pagenaud for a fair portion of this race after the first stint. It seemed he was going to be able to hold off Pageanud and at least make up a few points in the championship and now he has slipped back another 13 points. Power has finished on the podium in five consecutive races but it might not matter if Pagenaud keeps bringing the car home. Pagenaud has now finished 23 consecutive races. His championship rivals need him to have at least one retirement in hopes of taking the Astor Cup. 

3. Carlos Muñoz finished third and he benefitted from pitting early on the first stint before the caution for Scott Dixon's accident. Muñoz needed this as he looks to keep his job at Andretti Autosport. This is the third consecutive Mid-Ohio race to feature an Andretti Autosport car on the podium. He looked good but will it be enough? He jumps ahead of Alexander Rossi as the top Andretti driver in the championship. It will be hard for Andretti Autosport not to keep him if he finished top of the four drivers.

4. Graham Rahal finished fourth in what was a good day for him but a day I bet he wishes was a little bit better. He was strong all weekend and really shouldn't be disappointed with a fourth but when you were a championship contender last year and won at Mid-Ohio last year, anything but replicating that success isn't good enough. 

5. James Hinchcliffe finished fifth in a day that appeared to be falling into Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' lap. SPM has been the best Honda team in the last three races. Andretti Autosport really hasn't been that bad but SPM has picked up the Honda flag while Andretti had a few bad races. 

6. Conor Daly rolled the dice and finished sixth. He stopped about five laps before entering the pit window for final stops and stayed out when the leaders pitted under caution. Daly pulled away from the tussling Penskes and he stopped with six laps to go. Dale Coyne Racing worked strategy out well for another race. I am not sure Daly can win a race this year but he is knocking on the door. He is in line for a promotion but there is a logjam of talent that Daly will have to work his way through.

7. Spencer Pigot finished seventh, a career-best for him! He, just like Muñoz, benefitted from stopping early in the first stint and they hung around the top ten all day after that. He has looked good on the road/street circuits and he deserves a full-time ride but I don't know where he will get it. I am not sure Ed Carpenter Racing can expand its operation. Pigot deserves more and I think he will get it.

8. Charlie Kimball finished eighth as usual. Kimball finishes seventh-12th every weekend. He is a consistent driver. While all the other Ganassi drivers faltered, Kimball stood strong. I am not sure he will ever develop into a driver who can grab a race by the reins and steal it but he can bring the car home in a good position nine times out of ten. 

9. Takuma Sato was on track for successive top five finishes and then Sébastien Bourdais made contact with him with four laps to go and dropped Sato to ninth. Still a good day for Sato but he knows it could have been better. Just when it appears Sato's days at A.J. Foyt Racing are over he strings together a bunch of good finishes and makes it hard for Foyt to fire him.

10. Josef Newgarden finished tenth but he should go up to Roger Penske after this race and demand Penske hire him for 2017 because this is two consecutive races Newgarden has had really good days ruin because a Penske driver clipped him. Juan Pablo Montoya clipped him at Toronto and Power did it today after Newgarden passed him. Had it not been for the contact, Newgarden might have been battling for the victory. 

11. A quick run through the field. Juan Pablo Montoya finished 11th and led a few laps after trying to go off strategy but binning that before seeing it out. Tony Kanaan faded to 12th. Marco Andretti went from 21st to 13th. Alexander Rossi did nothing all-day and finished 14th. Hélio Castroneves may or may not have blocked Scott Dixon and ended the New Zealander's race. Max Chilton did nothing and finished 16th

12. Mikhail Aleshin had this race in his hand. He stopped early in the first stint and ended up being the leader because he stopped before the caution. This race was his as he had a 10-plus second lead and when the caution came out with 29 laps to go, putting the field in position to get their final stops under caution, all Aleshin needed was a clean stop and he would have exited as the leader. He had a clean stop. His exit from his pit box was the problem. He drove right into Josef Newgarden (man, what a rough day for Newgarden) and Aleshin threw the race away. He is quick but too aggressive at times. He tried to seize the moment but ended up slamming into reality that a victory was in his pocket. He won't do it again but will he ever find himself in this position again? We will have to wait and see.

13. Ryan Hunter-Reay finished 18th but was in position for a top ten (and a top five when taking the Sato-Bourdais contact into consideration). The team didn't get his car full of fuel on the final stop, a pit stop where Hunter-Reay lost two positions for absolutely nothing. He had to conserve. The team stubbed its toe all month. It had a great day and choked on it. It hasn't been a bad year for Hunter-Reay. It has been a catastrophic month and Hunter-Reay needs to hope he can revive the magic at Pocono.

14. RC Enerson finished 19th but if it wasn't for stalling on his second pit stop he would have finished in the top ten, heck he could have been in the same boat as Daly, trying to save fuel and running in the top three with ten laps to go. Enerson passed the audition and there should be no question about him running Watkins Glen and Sonoma. Heck, I would let him run Pocono (actually, that is asking quite a bit. I would call Sage Karam for Pocono).

15. Sébastien Bourdais, Jack Hawksworth and Scott Dixon all didn't take the checkered flag. The championship is falling away from Dixon. Unless he wins the final four races, he won't get his fifth championship.

16. Now there are two weeks off for the Olympics and then Pocono. Today would have been Justin Wilson's 38th birthday. It is hard not to think about him when you say Pocono and vice versa. There will be a lot of emotion heading back to Pocono. There is a lot of time to mull them over. 

Morning Warm-Up: Mid-Ohio 2016

Simon Pagenaud picked up another pole position at Mid-Ohio

For the sixth time this season, Simon Pagenaud will lead the field to the green flag of a Verizon IndyCar Series race. The Frenchman won pole position with a lap at 63.8700 seconds, a new track record at the 2.25-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Pagenaud's previous best starting position at Mid-Ohio was third. This is the 34th time in IndyCar history a driver has won at least six pole positions in a season. Pagenaud won two of the previous five races he has started on pole position with a second in the second Belle Isle race. Pagenaud could become the first driver to win three races from pole position in a season since Will Power won four in 2011. Power joins Pagenaud for an all-Team Penske front row. Power qualified less than a tenth behind his teammate. This will be Power's fifth front row start at Mid-Ohio. Last year, Power started second but finished 14th. He has failed to lead a lap in his last three starts at Mid-Ohio.

Josef Newgarden qualified third, his third consecutive top five starting position at Mid-Ohio and the fourth time he has qualified in the top ten at Mid-Ohio. Despite the success in qualifying, Newgarden's best finish at Mid-Ohio is 12th on two occasions. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver is coming off a 22nd-place finish at Toronto. He has finished sixth and third after his previous two finishes outside the top twenty. After two consecutive starts outside the top fifteen, Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified fourth, his eighth consecutive top ten start at Mid-Ohio. Hunter-Reay has nine top ten finishes in ten Mid-Ohio starts. Charlie Kimball qualified fifth, his fourth top five start of the season, a career-high for the Ganassi driver. Kimball matches his best qualifying effort at Mid-Ohio. He won from fifth on the grid at Mid-Ohio in 2013. Graham Rahal rounds out row three next to his former teammate. Rahal won last year's Mid-Ohio race form 13th on the grid.

Hélio Castroneves missed out on the final round of qualifying and will start seventh. This is the tenth time Castroneves will start seventh in his career. He has finished in the top ten on eight occasions from seventh on the grid. The first time he started seventh was at Mid-Ohio in 1999. He finished seventh that day. Juan Pablo Montoya matches his best starting position at Mid-Ohio in eighth position. Montoya won from eighth at Mid-Ohio in 1999. James Hinchcliffe will start ninth, his second-best starting position at Mid-Ohio. All three of Hinchcliffe's top ten finishes at Mid-Ohio came when he started outside the top ten. He finished third at Mid-Ohio in 2014 from 17th on the grid. Mikhail Aleshin makes it an all-Schmidt Peterson Motorsports row five. Aleshin has two top ten finishes on the trot.

Scott Dixon will start 11th, the fourth time in his career he has started outside the top ten at Mid-Ohio. Dixon won from 22nd on the grid at Mid-Ohio two years ago. Last year, Dixon led 22 laps before finishing fourth. It was the first time Dixon led laps on Mid-Ohio and did not go on to win the race. Alexander Rossi advanced to the second round of qualifying for the first time in his career at Mid-Ohio and will start 12th. Rossi is still looking for his first top ten starting position of his career. Rossi started 12th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis after Newgarden and Rahal had their times disallowed from qualifying and he went on to finish tenth. Max Chilton and Tony Kanaan make it an all-Ganassi row seven. This is the second consecutive race where Chilton missed out on the second round of qualifying by one position. Kanaan has eight top ten finishes in ten starts from 14th on the grid.

Carlos Muñoz qualified 15th for the third consecutive race and this is the fourth time he has started 15th this season. He has yet to finish in the top ten from 15th on the grid. Sébastien Bourdais joins Muñoz on row eight. Bourdais has started outside the top ten in seven races this season and has finished in the top ten in six of those races, including a victory from 13th at Belle Isle in June. Jack Hawksworth qualified 17th in the #41 ABC Supply Co. Honda. The British driver has finished on the lead lap in only three races this season, both Indianapolis races and Road America. RC Enerson will make his IndyCar debut from 18th on the grid. Enerson won last year at Mid-Ohio in Indy Lights and finished fourth in the other race.

Spencer Pigot and Takuma Sato will start on row ten. Pigot has yet to lead a lap in his IndyCar career. Sato has never led a lap at Mid-Ohio and his average finish at Mid-Ohio is 17.7. Sato finished fourth at Mid-Ohio in 2011. Marco Andretti and Conor Daly will start on the final row of the grid. This is the fifth time Andretti has started on the last row of the grid this season. He has finished in the top ten twice from the final row of the grid. This will be the seventh time Daly has started on the 11th row of the grid in his career.

CNBC's coverage of Honda Indy 200 from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will begin at 2:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 2:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.

Track Walk: Mid-Ohio 2016

IndyCar returns to race by the hillside at Mid-Ohio

The 12th round of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season takes place at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Simon Pagenaud's championship lead was reduced to 47 points after Will Power picked up his third victory of 2016 at Toronto. IndyCar heads to Scott Dixon's backyard. The New Zealander has won five times in 11 starts at Mid-Ohio. Dixon's average finish at Mid-Ohio is 3.72 and he has finished in the top ten in his last ten starts at the track. Dixon finds himself fourth in the championship, 83 points behind Pagenaud after being leapfrogged at Toronto by Hélio Castroneves. This year's Mid-Ohio race occurs on what would have been Justin Wilson's 38th birthday. Wilson finished second last year at Mid-Ohio, the penultimate start in his IndyCar career.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday July 31st. Green flag at 2:45 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: CNBC.

Announcers: Brian Till (Leigh Diffey is on Formula One duty), Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, Kate Hargitt and Robin Miller will work the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday: 
First Practice: 10:00 a.m.-11:15 p.m. ET (75 minutes).
Second Practice: 2:00-3:15 p.m. ET (75 minutes. NBCSN will have live coverage of this session).
Saturday:
Final Practice: 9:45-10:30 a.m. ET (45 minutes).
Qualifying: 2:00 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have live coverage of this session).
Sunday:
Warm-Up: 10:15-10:45 a.m. ET (30 minutes).
Race: 2:45 p.m. ET (85 laps).

Five Races To Complete, Six Proven Drivers Winless

Four drivers who won in 2015 have yet to score a victory this season and two Brazilians haven't won a race since 2014. 

Hélio Castroneves' most recent IndyCar victory came at Belle Isle in 2014 and in the 39 races since that day the Penske driver has seven runner-up finishes, including at Toronto two weeks ago, and three third-place finishes. While Castroneves has been in position to get a victory, those chances haven't come late in the season the last two years. He hasn't finished in the top ten of an IndyCar race after July 22nd since the 2013 season. In 2014, Castroneves' best finish in the final five races was 11th with an average finish of 14.8. Last year, Castroneves' best finish in the final four races was 11th with an average finish of 14.25. Mid-Ohio hasn't been great for Castroneves in recent years, as he has finished 15th or worse in four of the last five Mid-Ohio races. 

Tony Kanaan's drought is a dozen races shorter than his fellow countryman's and he hasn't been on the podium as much as Castroneves since his last victory. Kanaan has three runner-up finishes the last two seasons but while Kanaan hasn't been on the podium, he has been in the top ten. Kanaan has ten top ten finishes in 11 races this season, including six consecutive top ten finishes, and 16 top tens in the last 19 races. He finished fifth last year at Mid-Ohio after two consecutive finishes outside the top twenty at the 2.25-mile road course. Kanaan has never finished on the podium at Mid-Ohio with a fourth in 2007 being his best finish at the track. 

James Hinchcliffe is the top of the in the championship drivers who won last year and are still searching for victory in 2016. Since the Canadian's most recent victory at the rain-shortened NOLA race, he has finished on the podium twice, including a third at Toronto two weeks ago. If history tells anything about Hinchcliffe is the Canadian won't be victorious in the Buckeye State. Of Hinchcliffe's four victories, three came after finishes outside the top ten and Hinchcliffe has never finished on the podium in successive races and only three out of ten times has Hinchcliffe finished in the top ten after a podium including a seventh in the 100th Indianapolis 500 after a third in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

Like Hinchcliffe, Carlos Muñoz's victory in 2015 came in a rain-shortened race and the Colombian has only one podium, a second in this year's Indianapolis 500, since his maiden IndyCar victory came at Belle Isle. Muñoz heads to Mid-Ohio after finishes of 12th and 17th at Iowa and Toronto respectively. The Colombian has finished fourth and ninth at the track in his only starts. Muñoz hasn't had multiple podiums in a season since his rookie year when he has three third-place finishes. However, none of Muñoz's six podiums have come on a natural-terrain road course with three occurring at 2.5-mile ovals and three on street circuits. 

Graham Rahal won last year at Mid-Ohio but the Ohioan has not been victorious since he pleased the hometown crowd. He finished second after a tough battle with Simon Pagenaud and lapped traffic at Barber and he finished third at Road America however Rahal enters after two consecutive finishes outside the top ten. He hasn't had three consecutive finishes outside the top ten since the he failed to finish in the top ten in the final three races in 2014 and first race of 2015. Rahal could join his father Bobby, Michael Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser, Jr., Alex Zanardi, Hélio Castroneves and Scott Dixon as drivers to win in successive years at Mid-Ohio. He could also join Bryan Herta and Max Papis as the only drivers to win in multiple seasons at Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay won two of the final four races last year and he enters Mid-Ohio with two podiums and six top ten finishes, one off his total all of 2015 with fives races remaining. After an engine failure at Iowa and a 12th at Toronto, Hunter-Reay is looking for his first victory of 2016 and a somewhat elusive victory at Mid-Ohio. Mid-Ohio was the sight of Hunter-Reay first career podium in 2003 and the American driver has nine top ten finishes in ten starts at the track. He has also started in the top ten nine times at Mid-Ohio. Hunter-Reay's last four victories have come on ovals with Barber 2014 being his most recent victory on a natural-terrain road course. 

Youth Springs at Dale Coyne Racing

RC Enerson will make his IndyCar debut in the #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. The Floridian started 2015 in Indy Lights but his season ended after the Freedom 100. In the first eight races, Enerson's best finish was third at Phoenix. Last year, Enerson finished fourth in the Indy Lights championship behind Spencer Pigot, Jack Harvey and Ed Jones and Enerson won at Mid-Ohio to cap off a season that saw him score 15 top ten finishes from 16 races. Enerson also won at Mid-Ohio in U.S. F2000 in 2014. 

Enerson could become the first American driver to make his IndyCar debut with Dale Coyne Racing since Geoff Boss at Laguna Seca in 2003. Dale Coyne Racing had hired Rocky Moran, Jr. to race at Long Beach last year but Moran, Jr. was unable to make his IndyCar debut after he broke a wrist in practice and Conor Daly substituted for him. Should Enerson start Mid-Ohio, he will become the 11th youngest at 19 years, 4 months and 25 days old. Enerson will be the first driver with a last name starting with the letter "E" to start an IndyCar race since Tomáš Enge raced at Motegi in 2006. 

Mid-Ohio is the only race scheduled for Enerson at this time but there is a chance he is entered for Watkins Glen and Sonoma. Gabby Chaves will return to the #19 Honda to complete Texas. No driver has been announced for the Pocono race. 

Road to Indy

Ed Jones continues to lead the Indy Lights championship and the Emirati driver extended his championship lead to 24 points after Toronto. The Carlin driver has 268 points while Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' Santiago Urrutia on 244 points. Andretti Autosports' Dean Stoneman dropped to 31 points behind Jones after he had a mechanical issue keep him from participating in the second race from Toronto. Félix Serrallés is a point behind Stoneman after a victory at Iowa and a second in race one from Toronto. After three consecutive sixth-place finishes, Kyle Kaiser scored a pair of thirds at Toronto and has 233 points. Zach Veach rounds out the top six on 221 points. 

Felix Rosenqvist swept the weekend at Toronto but the Belardi Auto Racing driver will not be at Mid-Ohio as he will be competing in the 24 Hours of Spa as a Mercedes-Benz factory driver. André Negrão, Shelby Blackstock, Zachary Claman DeMelo, Dalton Kellett, Neil Alberico and Garrett Grist round out the entry list. Juan Piedrahita is not entered with Team Pelfrey after 43 consecutive Indy Lights starts. 

Indy Lights will race at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday and 12:20 p.m. ET on Sunday. 

Pato O'Ward and Aaron Telitz are tied atop the Pro Mazda championship at 297 points. O'Ward has six victories to Telitz's five victories but Telitz has nine podiums to O'Ward's eight podiums. Telitz has won the last four races, which follows a stretch where O'Ward won five consecutive races. Last year, O'Ward finished seventh and sixth at Mid-Ohio in Pro Mazda while Telitz finished third, third and second in the three U.S. F2000 races. 

Nico Jamin and Will Owen are tied on 207 points with Jamin finishing on the podium in the last three races, including runner-up finishes at Road America and Toronto. Owen finished third in both Road America races and fourth in both Toronto races. Owen's best finish was second in the first race on the IMS road course. Jake Parsons round out the top five in the championship with 177 points, seven ahead of Nicolas Dapero. TJ Fischer finished sixth in both Toronto races. Bobby Eberle, Bob Kaminsky and Kevin Davis are three national class entries for Mid-Ohio. 

Race one for Pro Mazda will be at 8:35 a.m. ET on Saturday with race two at 6:00 p.m. ET Saturday.

Twenty-two cars after entered for the U.S. F2000 triple-header at Mid-Ohio. Canadian Parker Thompson enters as the championship leader on 270 points. Twenty points behind the Canadian is Australian Anthony Martin. Both Thompson and Martin have four victories this season but Thompson has eight podiums to Martin's six podiums. Third in the championship, on 228 points, is Victor Franzoni, who won at Toronto and has seven podiums this season. Australians Jordan Lloyd and Luke Gabin round out the top five in the championship on 199 points and 179 points respectively. Lloyd won the first race of the season at St. Petersburg and he has three runner-up finishes since then, including a second at Toronto. Gabin's best finish is a second at Barber. 

Yufeng Luo sits sixth in the championship on 164 points but hasn't been on the podium since his victory in race two from St. Petersburg. A point behind Luo is Robert Megennis, the top American in the championship. Megennis has finished third twice this season but not since Barber. Nikita Lastochkin sits on 116 podiums, a point ahead of Ayla Årgen. Årgen missed the Toronto round but returns for Mid-Ohio. Garth Rickards rounds out the top ten of the championship on 106 points, one ahead of Dakota Dickerson, who finished fourth at Toronto, his best finish of the season. 

U.S. F2000 will race at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday. Race two will be at 1:45 p.m. ET on Saturday with the final race occurring at 9:15 a.m. ET Sunday.

Pirelli World Challenge

After a month off from the most recent round at Road America, Pirelli World Challenge returns to competition at Mid-Ohio. Two-dozen cars are entered for the GT/GT-A/CUP race while there are 17 entries in the GTS class.

K-PAX Racing McLaren's Álvaro Parente leads the GT championship with 1,147 points, 52 points ahead of Wright Motorsports Porsche's Patrick Long. Parente was four victories and has 12 top tens from 13 races this season while Long sits on three victories and has finished in the top ten in the last 11 races. Cadillac drivers Michael Cooper and Johnny O'Connell are the next two drivers in the championship, with the younger Cooper leading the elder statesman on 1,029 points to O'Connell's 961 points. O'Connell has finished outside the top ten in four of the last six races while Cooper has won podium since his victory at Barber. Kyle Marcelli rounds out the top five in the championship on 925 points. The CRP Racing Audi driver is one of three drivers to have three consecutive podiums along with Parente and O'Connell.

James Davison has 898 points but has only one podium from the first 13 races. Last year, Davison finished second in both races at Mid-Ohio. The Nissan driver is ten points ahead of Acura's Ryan Eversley, who swept the weekend at Road America last weekend. Adderly Fong finished third and second at Road America, the first podiums of the season for the Bentley driver. Fong is a point behind Eversley. Nissan's Bryan Heitkotter hasn't had a podium since finishing second in the first race of the season at Austin.

Michael Lewis returns for his second round with Calvert Dynamics Porsche. K-PAX Racing's Austin Cindric and Colin Thompson haven't had top five finishes since St. Petersburg and Austin respectively. Jon Fogarty has five top tens from 13 races but the Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing McLaren driver's lone podium was in the second race of the season at Austin. Spencer Pumpelly replaces Peter Cunningham at RealTime Racing Acura. Cunningham missed the Lime Rock Park round but finished second and fourth in his return at Road America.

The GT races will take place at 4:35 p.m. ET Saturday and 11:00 a.m. ET Sunday.

In GTS, ANSA Motorsports KTM Brett Sandberg leads the championship with 995 points, 35 points over Blackdog Speed Shop Camaro's Lawson Aschenbach. Sandberg has two victories, one fewer than Aschenbach but the New Jersey-native has four runner-up finishes while Aschenbach has two runner-up finishes. Aschenbach was also penalized 27 points for avoidable contact at Mosport. Ginetta driver Parker Chase is third in the championship on 917 points with four podiums but still looking for his first victory of the season. Roush Racing Ford's Nate Stacy is fourth in the championship on 863 points. SDR Motorsports Lotus driver Scott Dollahite has three podiums and eight top five finishes from ten starts and sits fifth in the championship on 784 points despite missing the St. Petersburg round.

Jack Roush, Jr. swept the weekend at St. Petersburg but the Ford driver has only had one podium in the last eight races and is sixth in the championship on 721 points. Maserati driver Mark Klenin has 625 points, seventh in the championship, and has one top five finish this season. Racers Edge Motorsports SIN driver Jade Buford has won three of his six starts and had five top five finishes this season. Buford's teammate Scott Heckert has two podiums and six top five finishes from eight starts. Tony Gaples is looking for his first top five finish of the season in the second Blackdog Speed Shop Camaro.

The first GTS race will be at 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday and 10:45 a.m. ET Saturday.

Fast Facts

This will be the eighth IndyCar race to take place on July 31st and the first since Bryan Herta won at Michigan in 2005.

Chip Ganassi Racing has won ten of 31 Mid-Ohio races. Team Penske has seven victories in 31 Mid-Ohio races.

Honda has won three of the four Mid-Ohio races in the DW12-era.

Last year's podium of Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson and Simon Pagenaud started 13th, 14th and 15th respectively.

Simon Pagenaud has four consecutive top ten finishes at Mid-Ohio, including three podiums in his last four starts. Pagenaud has finished 22 consecutive races dating back to the 2015 Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Will Power has completed 610 laps of a possible 610 laps in his seven career Mid-Ohio starts. Power hasn't led a lap at Mid-Ohio since 2012.

Josef Newgarden's average finish in four Mid-Ohio starts is 15.0 with his best finish being 12th. His average starting position is 8.5.

Juan Pablo Montoya's average finish in four Mid-Ohio starts is 11.75 after a victory, a 24th and two 11th-place finishes. His best start at the track is eighth.

Mikhail Aleshin has finished fifth and sixth in his last two starts. He has never had three consecutive top ten finishes in one season. He score four consecutive top ten finishes from the end of 2014 to this year's season opener at St. Petersburg when he finished eighth and seventh at Milwaukee and Sonoma in 2014, finished 10th at Sonoma in last year's season finale and fifth at St. Petersburg.

The average starting position for a Mid-Ohio winner is 3.77 with a median of two.

The first 29 Mid-Ohio races were won from within the first four rows of the grid.

The last two Mid-Ohio races were won from 22nd position and 13th position.

Mid-Ohio could join Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the only active IndyCar track with three consecutive winners starting outside the top ten.

The Milwaukee Mile had three consecutive winners from outside the top ten from 1959-1960. Rodger Ward won from 19th in the August 1959 race. Ward then won from 11th on the grid the following June. Len Sutton would win the August 1960 race from 11th on the grid.

The average number of lead changes at Mid-Ohio is 4.45 with a median of four.

The average number of cautions at Mid-Ohio is 2.033 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 7.9 with a median of 8.5. 

Possible Milestones:

Scott Dixon needs to lead 19 laps to pass Bobby Unser for sixth all-time in laps led.

Tony Kanaan needs to lead 6 laps to reach the 4,000 laps led milestone.

Sébastien Bourdais needs to lead 46 laps to reach the 2,500 laps led milestone.

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

James Hinchcliffe needs to lead 49 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Takuma Sato needs to lead 64 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Predictions

Scott Dixon gets his sixth victory at Mid-Ohio and Simon Pagenaud's championship lead will shrink after this race. Josef Newgarden finally gets a top ten at Mid-Ohio and not only does he get a top ten but he finishes in the top five. Graham Rahal will be the top Honda qualifier. Conor Daly will be the top Dale Coyne Racing qualifier. Ryan Hunter-Reay gets a top ten finish. Max Chilton finishes in the top fifteen. At least one podium finisher starts outside the top ten. The final lead change will occur in the final ten laps. Sleeper: Alexander Rossi. 

Musings From the Weekend: Throw Away Day/Exposed Rear

Kyle Busch led 231 of a possible 253 laps and swept the NASCAR races from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Indianapolis wasn't the only place a Toyota was victorious. The FIA World Endurance Championship returned to competition for the first time since Le Mans and world champions finally put one in the win column. A famous American team hit the century mark. After three years of coming up short, a Frenchman is now raking in the victories. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Throw Away Day
This isn't going to be an intellectual post that makes you look at an aspect of motorsports in another light. This is a throw away, "I came up with this playing a round of golf and solving all the world's problems" post. This post pushes reality not to the point of completely insanity but falls within the boundaries of what is realistic.

The world could use a little less NASCAR. Thirty-six weeks, really 38 weeks with two exhibition races, is too much. The world has changed from twenty years ago when NASCAR started its ascension to the throne of American motorsports and NASCAR is beyond the point of saturation. This isn't some drastic, "cut 12 Cup races" solution. There needs to be fewer Cup races and a reduction to 32 races would be enough to keep fans satisfied.

Unfortunately, reducing races mean tracks are going to be losing dates. It's just a nature of the beast. Loudon doesn't need two races and leaving it in the Chase would be sufficient. Dover keeps cutting back each year and should be only one race but it wouldn't be a Chase race. We don't need two races at Kansas. It keeps its May race. Pocono is good but not great. Maybe Pocono's only race could be extended to 500 miles to make up for the loss of a date. There is also only one race that matters at Bristol. The early spring race is a shell of what it once was and the night race in August is the only time NASCAR should go to Bristol.

That would be a five-race reduction but there would be replacement. Give Iowa Speedway a race. Just get it over with. Stop teasing Iowa. Give it a race. Who cares that at most track would hold 40,000. Give Iowa a race, allow the track to charge $150 a ticket and let a Cup race be the track's cash cow.

The season would still start at Daytona with Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Fontana following. If this were to happen in 2018, Easter would follow Fontana and after Easter would be Martinsville. Texas, Richmond, Kansas, Talladega and Dover would round out a six-week stretch before an off-week before Memorial Day weekend. Move the All-Star Race to Thursday night before the 600-miler at Charlotte to give the teams a proper week off at home and slot Iowa into the schedule the Saturday night after Charlotte. Michigan would follow Iowa and move Chicago after Michigan. Chicago has never been a great kickoff for the Chase and the weather rarely cooperates for that race. Chicago belongs in the early summer. Sonoma would be the final race of the first half of the season.

After an off-week would be the July Daytona race with Kentucky continuing to create a pair of Saturday night races. Pocono gets to be one of the final few races before the Chase with Indianapolis and Michigan occurring before the final off week in the season.

Just to clear up where we are, 21 races have been scheduled and we are still in the middle of August. I would rather not have a Chase but keeping this within the boundaries of what is realistic, there is going to be a Chase and the Chase should begin in August. August a dead point in the American sports calendar. We are a few weeks away from football season, a few weeks away before people start investing in baseball and starting earlier would give NASCAR attention at the front end and have the champion crowned before the heart of football season.

The final 11 races would be run over 11 consecutive weeks, the longest stretch of the season. Watkins Glen would be the final race before the Chase and it should be. Name a more unpredictable race that Watkins Glen. It leaves the door open for an A.J. Allmendinger or some other driver between 21st and 30th in the championship to steal a Chase position. Isn't that what NASCAR wants from the final "regular season" race?

The Chase begins with Bristol, Darlington and Richmond. Talk about a murder's row for an opening round. Five hundred laps at Bristol, 500 miles at Darlington and Richmond and all of them are night races. Loudon kicks off the second round followed by Talladega and Martinsville. Charlotte is the first 1.5-mile track in the Chase and the first race of the third round. Texas and Phoenix keep their positions as the antepenultimate and penultimate rounds. Homestead is the finale on the final Sunday in October.

The off weekends would be better spread throughout the season, the teams would get an extra month in the offseason and ending the season earlier could perhaps lessen the yearly hemorrhage of viewers that NASCAR experience every autumn. It won't happen but it's not too crazy to be reality.

Exposed Rear
J.R. Hildebrand and Tony Kanaan were testing aero kit options last week at Mid-Ohio and the American test driver for Ed Carpenter Racing shared this photo with the world.

Doin' a little configuration testing... 👀 pic.twitter.com/F9IdrvCKXo

— JR Hildebrand (@JRHildebrand) July 21, 2016

Both drivers ran without the rear tire guards/pods/whatever you want to call it. The reaction from fans was praise and led many to say the remove of the rear bodywork improve the aesthetic to the car. While many have been critical about the bodywork, as it did not fall within the general idea of what an IndyCar should be, let's realize why the pieces were included in the first place.

When Dallara unveiled this chassis in May of 2011, IndyCar had been coming off of a slew of accident caused by wheel-to-wheel contact. Most notable was Mike Conway's accident in the 2010 Indianapolis 500 that sent the British driver into the catchfence and left him with a broken leg and fractured vertebrae. The year before that, Vitor Meira and Raphael Matos made wheel-to-wheel contact that left Meira with two broken vertebra. In 2007, Dario Franchitti got airborne twice in consecutive weeks from wheel-to-wheel contact and running into the rear wheel of Kosuke Matsuura. Of course the 2011 season would end with the fatal accident of Dan Wheldon, not solely caused by wheel-to-wheel contact but it played a role.

Of course many of you will be quick to point out the accidents, such as Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal at Long Beach in 2012 and Takuma Sato and Dario Franchitti at Houston in 2013 where cars still got airborne despite the presence of the rear wheel guards/pods/whatever you want to call it. However, as then-IndyCar vice president of technology Will Phillips pointed out after the Andretti-Rahal incident, the rear wheel guards/pods/whatever you want to call it were never going to eliminate wheel-to-wheel contact but rather reduce it.

I think it is safe to say the amount of rear wheel contact has been reduced. Look at the most recent race at Toronto. Juan Pablo Montoya made contact with the rear tire guard/pod/whatever you want to call it of Josef Newgarden and both drivers were able to continue. Newgarden had to pit to replace damaged body part but had the bodywork not been there, Newgarden and Montoya's races could have ended in on the spot. The same can be said when Hildebrand made contact with Hélio Castroneves during this year's Indianapolis 500. Without the pieces, Hildebrand likely would have punctured Castroneves' tire in the middle of the front straightaway and who knows how that would have ended with Castroneves entering turn one.

Before celebrating the end of rear wheel guards/pods/whatever you want to call it, consider the alternative. A perceived better looking car could mean a few more cautions each race and more races with driver's races ruined by sliced tires or worse, cars climbing over one another from wheel-to-wheel contact.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Kyle Busch but did you know...

Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix and took the championship lead.

Pierre Gasly won his second consecutive GP2 feature race and Sergey Sirotkin won the sprint race from Budapest. Matt Perry and Alexander Albon won in GP3.

The #1 Porsche of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley won the 6 Hours of Nürburgring. The #36 Signatech Alpine-Nissan of Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stéphane Richelmi won in LMP2, the third consecutive victory for the team. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado won in GTE-Pro. The #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda won in GTE-Am.

Kyle Larson won the Truck race at Eldora last Wednesday night.

Shane Van Gisbergen won the Supercars Saturday race at Queensland Raceway. Craig Lowndes won the Sunday race, making it the second consecutive weekend sweep for Red Bull Racing Australia.

The #8 Starworks Oreca of Renger van der Zande and Alex Popow won the IMSA race from Lime Rock Park. The #4 Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner won in GTLM, the 100th victory for the factory Corvette team. John Potter and Andy Lally won in GTD driving the #44 Magnus Racing Audi.

The #24 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R of Daiki Sasaki and Masataka Yanagida won Super GT race from Sportsland SUGO. The #31 apr Toyota Prius of Koki Saga and Yuichi Nakayama won in GT300.

Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar has one final week before it takes a summer vacation. The series is at Mid-Ohio.
Pirelli World Challenge returns after a month off at Mid-Ohio.
All Road of Indy Series will be at Mid-Ohio
Formula One also has one final week before summer vacation. Hockenheim hosts that roadshow.
The 24 Hours of Spa will begin on Saturday.
The Suzuka 8 Hours will be contested for the 39th time.
NASCAR returns to Pocono.
Rally Finland will be the eighth round of the 2016 World Rally Championship season.

An Itch That Maybe Should Remain Unscratched: Returning From Retirement

Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s concussion-like symptoms sidelined him for last week's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race from New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the driver of the #88 Chevrolet will miss the next two races because of the symptoms. Alex Bowman, the 23-year-old Arizonan stepped up at Loudon to substitute for his NASCAR Xfinity Series car owner but Jeff Gordon returns to make his 798 NASCAR Cup start at Indianapolis this weekend and is scheduled to be at Pocono the following week.

Gordon retired from full-time competition after last season and the four-time NASCAR Cup champion and five-time winner at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has not been in a car since he stepped out of the car and became a color commentator for Fox's NASCAR broadcast. Motorsports has seen its fair share of drivers coming out of retirement to either fill-in or because a driver can't stay away from where they made their living.

Gordon's return comes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; a place where arguably more drivers have hopped back behind the wheel after previously announcing their career was done. Danny Ongais had been out of IndyCar for almost nine years when he replaced Scott Brayton after the Michigan-native lost his life practicing for the Indianapolis 500 in 1996. Ongais started in the back of the field and went from 33rd to seventh in what would be his final Indianapolis 500. Gordon Johncock, Johnny Rutherford and Al Unser were all Indianapolis 500 winners who couldn't stay away in May even though full-time competition was long behind them. Michael Andretti stopped driving full-time when he became a team owner but still returned to run the Indianapolis 500 twice, with a third in 2006 and 13th in 2007 to cap off his career.

NASCAR has a slew of drivers, especially in the last decade and a half, who announced their retirements and then went on to start another couple dozen races. Mark Martin announced his farewell tour for the 2005 season and then went on to make another 244 NASCAR Cup starts, which included a dream 2009 season where Martin won five races and finished second in the championship and ironically ended with Martin substituting for an injured Tony Stewart and he substituted for an injured Denny Hamlin earlier that season. Bill Elliott retired in 2003 but made 97 more NASCAR Cup starts over the next decade. Terry Labonte retired after 2004 but made 73 Cup starts after that and his most recent start came in 2014. While Martin had respectable results even in his final season, arguably the only reason both Elliott's and Labonte's careers were extended was because of the past champions' provisional. Elliott and Labonte became a meal ticket for struggling, underfunded teams to get into a race and hopefully draw sponsors. Elliott's final top ten finish was in 2004, ironically at Indianapolis as a part-time driver, but his career would end with 93 consecutive races finishing outside the top ten. Labonte's final top ten finish was in 2006 and his 11th place finish in the 2014 July race at Daytona came in a rain-shortened race.

North American drivers aren't the only one who couldn't stay away. Michael Schumacher retired after 2006 and nearly returned to Ferrari after Felipe Massa's accident at Hungary in 2009 but a neck injury kept him out of the seat. However, Schumacher would return to Formula One the following year when Mercedes bought Brawn GP. He could add to his 91 Grand Prix victories with a third in the 2012 European Grand Prix being his lone podium in his stint at Mercedes. Niki Lauda retired after the 1979 season and was out for two years before returning with McLaren in 1982 and he would add a world championship in 1984.

With Gordon's return this weekend, there is excitement and nervousness about Gordon's return. His career ended on a high in a fight for the championship. He went out swinging. While Gordon likely won't go down the path of Elliott, Labonte and Martin who arguably held on too long, this stint could be a glimpse of what it would have looked like had Michael Schumacher substituted for Felipe Massa in 2009. Schumacher wasn't race fit at that time and the Ferrari wasn't particular great that season. Gordon has been out of a car and hasn't been in a driver mindset since November. Gordon waltzing in and winning at Indianapolis is the fairytale many are imagining but history and logic sing a different tune. Perhaps Gordon could get a top ten finish but the Jeff Gordon of old will not be inside the #88 Chevrolet this weekend. These two starts won't ruin Gordon's career and put him in the category of those who retired too late but it just may be the final nail in the coffin anyone yearning for him return to full-time competition.

Musings From the Weekend: Cutting Out the Little Guys

There was a lot of contact in Toronto as the track deteriorated underneath the competitors. MotoGP had another wet race but it ended in the dry with a familiar winner. NASCAR raced at Loudon and Joe Gibbs Racing swept the two races. A Canadian won at home and another Canadian won in the Netherlands. A few drivers swept the weekend. There was some late drama in the European Le Mans Series race at Red Bull Ring. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Cutting Out the Little Guys
For 30 years, IndyCar has raced around Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The event seen the highs of the premier open-wheel series of North America, held strong during the split, slipped after hiatus because it couldn't be squeezed on to the 2008 schedule after reunification and has been holding its own since returning in 2009. The race moved to June for the first time last year because of the Pan American Games were hosted by Toronto and this year the race returned to its comfortable home in the middle of July, albeit with an altered course that features a tighter final three corners and a twisty pit lane. While Toronto is traditionally a race that drivers, teams and fans enjoy, it would be wrong to ignore that the fact the race isn't as celebrated as it once was.

Toronto still draws a respectable crowd but not the same size as it did in the 1990s and even the final years of Champ Car. The race weekend featured all three Road to Indy Series, Stadium Super Trucks, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada and NASCAR's Canadian series as undercards to the IndyCar race but that full plate of motorsports doesn't seem to be helping the issue. Editor-in-chief of RacingNorth Stephanie Wallcraft, formerly of More Front Wing fame, wrote early last week about an event at Shannonville Motorsport Park, three hours east of Toronto that featured Canadian Touring Car Championship, Toyo Tires F1600 Series, F1200 Series and a GT Invitational.

The Shannonville event drew many local racers, marshals and volunteers. The Canadian Touring Car Championship and the F1600 Series were once support series for the IndyCar Toronto weekend but as IndyCar has developed the Road to Indy ladder system, the local series have been bumped from the billing in favor for IndyCar-related series. Green Savoree Racing Promotions, the promoter of the Toronto race, has all the right in the world to choose what series it wants to fill the weekend but perhaps have a more local show would boost attendance.

Bringing in local racers, whether they are 16-year-old boys and girls starting their racing career with dreams of making it to the top or 36-year-old men doing it as a hobby, will draw out there local families to watch their son/daughter/husband/wife compete at a notable race weekend. Imagine the excitement if someone were to hear a family member would be racing the same weekend on the same track as the IndyCar race. It's like when a high school football teams makes it to the state championship game and it is at an NFL stadium. Family members will go the extra mile to make it to the title game. Consider there were ten cars entered for the Pro Mazda weekend and the F1600 Series had over two-dozen cars entered at Mosport in the spring and at the Canadian Grand Prix while at Shannonville there were 20 CTCC entries. How many more people would F1600 have drawn out compared to Pro Mazda?

I loved the Road to Indy ladder system and Pro Mazda is currently evolving before the introduction of the new car in 2018 but it is ok if Pro Mazda doesn't go to Toronto in favor for local series that may sell more tickets. Pro Mazda has plenty of other chances to race with IndyCar and next year the series will only have one street course race (likely St. Petersburg) as the series cuts back on race weekends in hopes of making the final season with the current chassis more affordable. Maybe 2017 will see CTCC and/or F1600 at Toronto and the Canadian motorsports community can avoid this split weekend with the locals going in one direction and the premier open-wheel series in North American going in the other.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Will Power but did you know...

Marc Márquez won the wet-to-dry MotoGP German Grand Prix. Johann Zarco won the Moto 2 race. Khairul Idham Pawi won the Moto3 race.

Matt Kenseth won the NASCAR Cup race at Loudon. Kyle Busch won the Grand National Series race on Saturday.

Felix Rosenqvist swept the Indy Lights races from Toronto. Aaron Telitz swept the Pro Mazda races and is tied with teammate Pato O'Ward for the championship lead. Victor Franzoni and Parker Thompson split the U.S. F2000 races.

The #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca-Nissan of Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche and Ryō Hirakawa won the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring. The #2 United Autosports Ligier-Nissan of Alex Brundle, Christian England and Mike Guash won in LMP3 after the #18 Duquesne Engineering Ligier-Nissan of Dino Lunardi, David Hallyday and David Droux was penalized for not respecting minimum pit stop reference times. The #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rory Butcher, Andrea Bertolini and Robert Smith won in GTE.

Robert Wickens and Jamie Green split the DTM races from Zandvoort.

João Paulo de Oliveira won the Super Formula race from Fuji.

Coming Up This Weekend
FIA World Endurance Championship returns to action at the Nürburgring.
Formula One will be in Hungary.
NASCAR runs the Brickyard 400.
The Supercars head to Queensland Raceway.
IMSA takes Prototype Challenge, GT Le Mans and GT Daytona to Lime Rock Park.
Super GT returns to racing at Sportsland SUGO after a two and a half month hiatus.

First Impressions: Toronto 2016

1. Will Power stole it and is now tied for the lead in IndyCar victories with three, all three coming in the last four races. He is on a championship-run with four consecutive podiums and took a big junk out of Simon Pagenaud's championship lead, now trailing his teammate by 47 points with five races remaining. It wasn't one of those typical Will Power victories where he starts on the front row and leads 75% of the laps. He pitted at what ended up being the right time as Josef Newgarden hit the wall in turn five. The rest of the leaders had to pit, Power didn't. Sometimes races play out that way. Last year Power arguably lost the race at Toronto because of a caution, today he won it because of a caution. What goes around comes around.

2. Hélio Castroneves had a flat tire and had to go off strategy and the Brazilian benefitted just like his teammate. Castroneves can get good finishes but when was the last time he ransacked a race and was clearly the car to beat? He picks up good finishes but can he run down a championship? We know Will Power can. I question if Castroneves has that ability.

3. James Hinchcliffe rolled the dice, ran 39 laps on the final stint and gets on the podium for the first time in his career in IndyCar at Toronto. Hinchcliffe has never had good luck at home. He made his luck today. Maybe he can turn hometown success into a late season run up the championship standings.

4. Tony Kanaan had a 35-lap stint and had to pit in the final ten laps for fuel-only. He exited in fourth and finished there. I was a little surprised he couldn't get by Hinchcliffe but his tires were a half-dozen laps older than Hinchcliffe.

5. Takuma Sato had the same pit strategy as Hinchcliffe and finished fifth. He was never a factor in this race and sometimes top five finishes fall into your lap.

6. Mikhail Aleshin finishes sixth, his second consecutive top ten finish. Aleshin really raced Sato hard for fifth. I am shocked they didn't take each other out considering how aggressive they are.

7. Sébastien Bourdais had a better car than seventh. I bet he could have ended up on the podium had the caution and pit stops not fallen the way they did. He was definitely better than the five drivers that finished ahead of him.

8. Scott Dixon dominated this race and then a caution bit him. He worked his way back to eighth but what looked to be Dixon's springboard race into the title fight was actually Will Power's springboard. I think everyone can understand if Dixon feels frustrated. He will put this behind him and know there are five races to go, four of which he could arguably win.

9. Simon Pagenaud finishes ninth and while he loses ground to Power, he doesn't lose much ground to Dixon. Once again, he didn't have a great day but other championship rivals had days just as bad, if not worse.

10. Marco Andretti benefited from the Newgarden caution and gets his second top ten of the season. It hasn't been a great month of July for Andretti Autosport. One car out of four in the top ten is disappointing. Perhaps they can turn it around in the final five races. They looked really good after Indianapolis. Where has that momentum gone?

11. Charlie Kimball finishes in a typical Charlie Kimball position of 11th. He is always somewhere between seventh and 12th.

12. Ryan Hunter-Reay had a bad day turned ok. Contact with Charlie Kimball on lap one, another wing change late in the race and he still finished 12th. Once again, Andretti Autosport needs to get out of the month of July.

13. Let's wrap up the rest of the field: Graham Rahal finished 13th and didn't do much all day. The Dale Coyne Racing entries of Luca Filippi and Conor Daly didn't do much with their starting positions in the top half of the field. Filippi finished 14th, his best of the season and Daly was 15th. Alexander Rossi was 16th and wasn't mentioned much in this race. Carlos Muñoz had a flat tire and finished 17th. Max Chilton has finished 21st, 22nd, 20th, 19th and now 18th in the last five races. Spencer Pigot finished 19th and wasn't a factor. Juan Pablo Montoya hit Josef Newgarden, bumped Charlie Kimball, Conor Daly, Ryan Hunter-Reay and he hit the wall. Jack Hawksworth was in position for a top ten until he hit the turn five wall.

14. Josef Newgarden's title hopes may have been delivered a knockout punch. After two great showings at Road America and Iowa, his accident today was a big blow, especially since he will not restart the Texas race. Unless he wins three of the final four races he will be competing, 2016 will not be the year Newgarden lifts the Astor Cup.

15. Toronto needs to be rejuvenated and I am not taking about the fans because it was another really great Canadian crowd. However, curbs are coming apart. I don't mind the pit lane being in a unique position but that unique position is tight for crews and it is tight in the final few corners. I think the tight final corners hurt racing into turn one. There just seemed to be fewer passes into turn one compared to other Toronto races. Maybe IndyCar should move the start/finish line to Shoreline Drive (the straightaway leading to turn three) or maybe the pit lane should move to the other side of Shoreline Driver, which would give the crews more room and widen turns eight through 11 for the drivers. Something needs to be done at Toronto but I doubt it is going to get done at all let alone for 2017.

16. IndyCar gets a week off before heading to Scott Dixon's backyard of Mid-Ohio. Five races remain and the final four occur over four consecutive weekends. Oh the season is ending so quickly.

Morning Warm-Up: Toronto 2016

Scott Dixon tries to get back in the title fight at Toronto

Scott Dixon won pole position on the final lap of qualifying with a lap at 59.9073 seconds. It is Dixon's first pole position since last year at Mid-Ohio. Dixon's previous best starting position this season was second at Long Beach and Road America. He finished second at Long Beach and 22nd at Road America after he suffered an engine problem seven laps into the race. Dixon won from pole position at Toronto in the 2013. That is Dixon's most recent victory from pole position.  It was his second victory of the weekend as he swept the doubleheader. Hélio Castroneves will start second after being knocked off by Dixon. The Brazilian ran a lap of 59.9425 seconds in the final round of qualifying. Castroneves has finished on the podium in three of the last four Toronto races, including a second to Dixon in 2013 but he hasn't won a race from second starting position since Richmond 2005. Castroneves has led a lap in the last four Toronto races.

Simon Pagenaud and Will Power start on an all-Team Penske row four. This is Pagenaud's fifth consecutive race starting in the top five. His average starting position this season is 3.416. The Frenchman's average finish on road and street circuits this season is 4.71 and he has led a lap in every race this season except for Phoenix and the Indianapolis 500. Power trails Pagenaud by 75 points after the Australian finished second at Iowa, two positions ahead the Frenchman and has finished on the podium in three consecutive races. Sébastien Bourdais qualified fifth for his 13th race at Exhibition Place. He has started in the top five eight times at Toronto and has finished in the top ten there 12 times. The hometown boy James Hinchcliffe will start a career best sixth at Toronto. His previous best at his home race was eighth. His best Toronto finish is eighth.

Conor Daly will start a career best seventh at Toronto. Daly has finished 21st in the last two races after his accident at Road America and his retirement at Iowa for handling issues. Daly finished 12th last year from 19th on the grid at Toronto substituting for James Hinchcliffe. Josef Newgarden joins Daly on row four. Newgarden won last year at Toronto from 11th on the grid and led 30 laps, tied with Will Power for the most led. Juan Pablo Montoya qualified ninth despite an accident on Friday and mechanical issues in the practice session before qualifying on Saturday. Last year, Montoya finished seventh, his first top ten finish at Toronto. Rounding out the top ten will be Mikhail Aleshin. The Russian is coming off his second top five finish of the season last week at Iowa. Aleshin's only retirement this season was his accident in the Indianapolis 500.

Luca Filippi returns to IndyCar and will start 11th in his fifth start of the 2016 season. Filippi has made the second round of qualifying 11 times in 14 opportunities. His best finish this season was 17th at Long Beach. Tony Kanaan joins Filippi on row six. This is the third time this season Kanaan has started outside the top ten. He started 19th at St. Petersburg and finished ninth and he started 18th in the Indianapolis 500 and finished fourth. Jack Hawksworth and Max Chilton comprise an all-British row seven. Hawksworth started and finished 14th last year at Toronto. His last top ten finish was an eighth at Mid-Ohio 12 races ago. Chilton's average finish from the last four races is 20.5 and he has not finished on the lead lap since the Indianapolis 500.

Carlos Muñoz is the top qualifying Andretti Autosport entry for the second consecutive race in the 15th position. Muñoz remains eighth in the championship but the Colombian has never finished better than 17th at Toronto. Graham Rahal joins Muñoz on row eight. Rahal is ninth in the championship, five points behind Muñoz. He finished 16th last week at Iowa and he is looking to avoid successive finishes outside the top ten since the final two races of last season. Charlie Kimball and Ryan Hunter-Reay will be on row nine. Hunter-Reay and Kimball finished 1-2 at Toronto in 2012. It was Kimball's first career podium finish. Kimball has four top ten finishes and three finishes of 20th or worse at Toronto. Hunter-Reay has finished outside the top ten in five consecutive Toronto races and the American looks to avoid consecutive finishes outside the top twenty for the first time in his career.

Alexander Rossi qualified 19th for his Toronto debut. Rossi has been the top Honda driver in the championship since Belle Isle. He currently is seventh in the championship on 286 points, 123 points behind Pagenaud. This is Rossi's second worst starting position in his career. He started 20th at Barber and finished 15th. Takuma Sato rounds out the top twenty. Sato has retired from four of his eight Toronto races but he has three top ten finishes at the track. Spencer Pigot and Marco Andretti make up the final row. Pigot won both Indy Lights races last year at Toronto. Andretti has started on the 11th row in three of the last four races. He finished ninth from 22nd on the grid at Belle Isle 2.

CNBC will have live coverage of the Honda Indy Toronto tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. ET with green flag at 3:08 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: Toronto 2016

IndyCar and Toronto celebrate an anniversary

IndyCar and Toronto hits a milestone this year as 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the legendary street race. There have been for different winners in the last four Toronto races. Josef Newgarden won last year at Toronto and heads to Exhibition Place coming off a victory at Iowa, which has elevated him to second in the Verizon IndyCar Series championship, 73 points behind Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud. Newgarden could become the first driver to win consecutive races at Toronto since Scott Dixon swept the 2013 doubleheader. This is the final street circuit race of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday July 17th. Green flag at 3:08 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: CNBC.

Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, Kate Hargitt and Robin Miller will work the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday: 
First Practice: 10:00 a.m.-10:45 p.m. ET (45 minutes).
Second Practice: 2:30-3:15 p.m. ET (45 minutes).
Saturday:
Final Practice: 9:30-10:45 a.m. ET (45 minutes).
Qualifying: 1:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have live coverage of this session).
Sunday:
Warm-Up: 10:30-11:00 a.m. ET (30 minutes).
Race: 3:08 p.m. ET (85 laps).

Penske Dominating 2016; Needs a Breakthrough at Toronto
Through ten races, Team Penske has six victories, nine pole positions and 14 podiums and while Simon Pagenaud leads the championship, Will Power is third and Hélio Castroneves is fifth. Team Penske is having the season in 2016 everyone expected in 2015 but now the team heads to a track they have only one victory at since 2009 and has won only two of 32 previous Toronto.

Will Power has won at Toronto twice and won driving for Penske in 2010 but the Australian has had a teeter-totter relationship with Exhibition Place. While having two victories, four podiums and five top fives in 11 Toronto starts, he has four finishes of 15th or worse. He has started in the top five in eight times at Toronto and he has led a lap in eight Toronto starts.

Hélio Castroneves has also made 11 starts at Toronto but success has come in recent years. After his best finish being tenth in his first seven Toronto starts, the Brazilian has two podiums and five top tens in his last six Toronto races. He has started no worse than seven at Toronto since 2012.

Simon Pagenaud has been all over the place at Toronto. His best finish is fourth, which has occurred on two occasions but his next best finish is ninth while he has an 11th and two 12th place finishes. He has started fourth, third and second in his last three Toronto starts but he has only led 30 laps at Toronto and hasn't led since the first race in 2014.

Iowa hasn't been kind to Juan Pablo Montoya and the Colombian heads to another thorn in his side in Toronto. Montoya's seventh last year was his first top ten at Toronto in five starts. His previous finishes at Toronto were 22nd, 24th, 18th and 19th and he has never led a lap at the track. His average starting position at Toronto is 8.4 but with a 22nd starting position in the first race in 2014 skewing the numbers. Removing that 22nd, his average starting position is 5.0.

Honda Needs "Homefield" Advantage
Honda has one victory from the first ten races and while it was the Indianapolis 500, it will only be an anomaly. The manufacture needs to start racking up victories to at least make 2016 appear competitive in the history books. If Honda is going to win a race, it mind as well be the race it sponsors.

Graham Rahal nearly won the other race Honda sponsors at Barber. Had it not been for the back marker of Jack Hawksworth, Rahal would have won that day and not had to nurse a car home to a second place finish with the left portion of his front wing missing. Rahal finished ninth last year but his average Toronto finish is 14.0 in tenth starts and his best finish is fifth and his average starting position isn't much better at 12.4.

James Hinchcliffe will be the lone Canadian in the lone Canadian race on the IndyCar schedule. While the race is in his backyard, Hinchcliffe's best finish is eighth on two occasions and ironically both those came in the second half of Toronto's lone two doubleheaders in 2013 and 2014. His best start at Toronto is eighth and that came in the second race in 2014 after the field was set by points. He has never led a lap at home and has one lead lap finish.

It may be surprising to some to find out the Honda driver with the best average finish at Toronto is Marco Andretti. Andretti's average finish of 9.6 is behind only Sébastien Bourdais (5.7) and Scott Dixon (8.1) among active drivers. He has two top fives and six top tens in nine starts despite having an average starting position of 15.6. Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Toronto in 2012 but in the five races since his victory his finishes at Toronto have been 18th, 19th, 21st, 21st, 14th and 19th. Carlos Muñoz has the worst average finish among active drivers at 18.2 after three 17th place finishes and a 22nd in four starts.

Road to Indy
All three Road to Indy Series will be in action at Toronto.

Indy Lights is fresh off of a race at Iowa won by Félix Serrallés after the Puerto Rican passed Zach Veach late in the race while navigating lapped traffic. Ed Jones finished third at Iowa and extended his championship lead to 23 points over Dean Stoneman, who finished fourth at Iowa. Santiago Urrutia finished fifth at Iowa but trails Jones by 29 points. Serrallés is 36 points behind Jones with Veach in fifth, 40 points behind the Carlin driver.

Kyle Kaiser finished sixth for the third consecutive race and for the fifth time in the last seven races. Fittingly enough Kaiser is sixth in the championship, 46 points behind Jones. Shelby Blackstock is seventh in the championship on 138 points, 97 points behind Jones. André Negrão is a point behind Blackstock with Canadian Zachary Claman DeMelo returning home ninth in the championship on 130 points. Felix Rosenqvist has missed the last three races due to Mercedes commitments but he is still tenth in the championship on 120 points and is a point ahead of Juan Piedrahita, who hasn't missed a race this season. Canadian Dalton Kellett is three points behind Piedrahita. Neil Alberico sits on 116 points. Garret Grist returns for his second Indy Lights weekend. He finished seventh and tenth at his debut weekend at Road America.

Indy Lights will race at 12:25 p.m. ET on Saturday and at 11:15 a.m. ET on Sunday.

After winning five consecutive races and six of the first seven Pro Mazda races this season, Pato O'Ward still comfortably leads the championship despite finishing fourth in both Road America races and Aaron Telitz sweeping the weekend. Telitz is 28 points behind his Team Pelfrey teammate. Will Owen has four podiums in five races and is 90 points behind O'Ward. Nico Jamin trails O'Ward by 99 points with Nicolas Dapero 119 points back of the Mexican driver. Jake Parsons is two points behind Dapero. TJ Fischer finished fifth and sixth in his Pro Mazda debut weekend at Road America.

The first Pro Mazda race will be at 5:20 p.m. ET on Saturday with race two at 9:25 a.m. ET on Sunday.

There is a tied atop the U.S. F2000 championship Anthony Martin has won three consecutive races and is level with Canadian Parker Thompson on 217 points. Thompson has also won three races this season. Thompson owns the tiebreaker with two second place finishes to Martin's none. Victor Franzoni is 43 points behind Martin and Thompson and the Brazilian five podiums this season but has yet to win a race. Jordan Lloyd sits fourth in the championship on 160 points with Luke Gabin rounding out the top five on 149 points. Yufeng Luo is sixth in the championship with 135 points. Robert Mengennis is the top American in the championship, sitting in seventh with 129 points.

U.S. F2000 will race at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday and 8:25 a.m. ET on Sunday.

Fast Facts
This will be the 13th IndyCar race to take place on July 17th and first since 2005 when Sébastien Bourdais won the inaugural Grand Prix of Edmonton.

Toronto has been run on July 17th twice before. Al Unser, Jr. won there in 1988 and Michael Andretti won there in 1994.

Honda has not won at Toronto since Scott Dixon swept the 2013 doubleheader.

Sébastien Bourdais has two victories, five podiums, eight top fives and 11 top tens in 12 Toronto starts. Bourdais has never started worse than tenth at Toronto.

Alexander Rossi and Max Chilton will be making their Toronto debuts. Chilton did not run at Toronto last year in Indy Lights because he was racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Nissan.

Luca Filippi returns to the #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda after Gabby Chaves ran the last six races for the team. Filippi finished second last year at Toronto. His best finish in his first four races with Dale Coyne Racing was 17th at Long Beach.

Takuma Sato has finished 20th or worse in five of eight Toronto starts but he has finished fifth and tenth in his last two races at Exhibition Place. Last year, Sato qualified a career best eighth at Toronto.

Jack Hawksworth has completed 206 laps out of 206 laps in his three Toronto starts. His best finish at the track is sixth.

Spencer Pigot swept last year's Indy Lights races.

The Toronto track record is 57.143 seconds set by Gil de Ferran in 1999.

The average starting position for a Toronto winner is 3.87 with a median of three.

The last two Toronto races have been won from 11th on the grid.

Toronto could join Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the only active IndyCar track with three consecutive winners starting outside the top ten ten. Mid-Ohio could also join Indianapolis Motor Speedway with that feat.

The Milwaukee Mile had three consecutive winners from outside the top ten from 1959-1960. Rodger Ward won from 19th in the August 1959 race. Ward then won from 11th on the grid the following June. Len Sutton would win the August 1960 race from 11th on the grid.

The furthest back a Toronto winner has come from is 13th (Michael Andretti 2001).

The average number of lead changes at Toronto is 4.09 with a median of four.

The average number of cautions at Toronto is 3.645 with a median of three. The average number of caution laps is 14.806 with a median of 13.

Possible Milestones:
Scott Dixon needs to lead 10 laps to reach the 4,800 laps led milestone and he needs to lead 75 laps to pass Bobby Unser for sixth all-time in laps led.

Tony Kanaan needs to lead 22 laps to reach the 4,000 laps led milestone.

Will Power needs to lead 1 lap to reach the 3,000 laps led milestone.

Sébastien Bourdais needs to lead 47 laps to reach the 2,500 laps led milestone.

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

James Hinchcliffe needs to lead 49 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Takuma Sato needs to lead 64 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Predictions
Scott Dixon takes the victory over Sébastien Bourdais and Will Power. A Honda will finish in the top five and Andretti Autosport has at least two cars finish in the top ten. One driver in the top seven of the championship finishes 18th or worse. One driver 15th or worse in the championship finishes eighth or better. Team Penske does not win pole position this weekend and at least one Penske driver starts outside the top ten. One driver jumps three positions forward or falls three positions back in the championship after this race. Sleeper: Marco Andretti.

Musings From the Weekend: Consistency is Good When Scheduling

Josef Newgarden dominated the IndyCar race at Iowa. Lapped traffic decided the Indy Lights race. Drivers behaved themselves at Silverstone. Nico Rosberg and company violated the radio regulations and it only cost him 10 seconds. A few drivers won for the second consecutive weekend. World Superbike put on two good races from Laguna Seca. Teammates swept a weekend in Australia. Someone won for the first time in nearly three years. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Consistency is Good When Scheduling
Scheduling became a major topic in the NASCAR world heading to Daytona after Brian France was asked about possible scheduling changes and the potential for a Cup race to be run on a weeknight. France dismissed any changes and weeknight races being attempted.

Changes will be tougher as each track now has a five-year contract with NASCAR. Any new tracks added to the schedule will have to wait until 2020 at the earliest but a deal can always be made in the business world. Races are equivalent to the charters NASCAR issued to teams. If you want one, buy one. I am sure if a track not on the NASCAR schedule or a track wants a second Cup race, it could write a large check and buy one but as for a track losing dates at NASCAR's discretion, that won't happen.

People complain about the NASCAR schedule being stagnant and boring. Predictability is a good thing when it comes to scheduling in all forms of motorsports. Unlike team sports where schedule change every year because it's not realistic to schedule 82 games or 162 games in the same order year after year, NASCAR is a motorsports series that tours around country and needs to have date consistency for its events to be successful.

An apt comparison would be to tennis or golf. Like NASCAR, the ATP, WTA and PGA schedules are pretty much the same every year and they have their schedules organized to minimize travel and maximize on weather. Imagine if in tennis the Australian Open moved from January to August and Wimbledon moved from July to February and the US Open went from early-September to the middle of March. Those changes wouldn't just screw up those events but events leading up to the grand slam tournaments. All the events in Asia-Pacific preceding the Australian Open would have to move. The grass court events in Germany and the Netherlands would have to move if Wimbledon moved. It would be a massive headache for the players if the schedule were completely jumbled up every year.

That doesn't mean NASCAR shouldn't visit new venues but it has to be realistic. How many tracks currently not hosting a NASCAR Cup race could host one today? Other than Iowa, which it seems like everyone and their brother have been yelling for NASCAR to go to for the past five years, there aren't that many. Many racetracks built during the boom in racetrack construction that occurred from the late-1990s to the early-2000s lost out. They built tracks hoping a NASCAR Cup race would come and it never happened. Nashville Superspeedway opened the same year as Chicagoland and Kansas but after a decade without a Cup race and despite being regularly feed Grand National Series and Truck races, the doors were closed. Pikes Peak International Raceway opened the same year as Fontana and was closed within a decade without ever being close to getting a Cup race. Add to the list Gateway (which lost everything and has since gotten a Truck race back) and Memphis along with tracks such as Milwaukee, Nazareth, Mexico City and Montreal, which all had long histories prior to getting NASCAR's lower two national touring divisions but never were in contention for Cup races.

Other than Iowa, maybe Road America is the only other venue that could host a NASCAR Cup race today. Circuit of the Americas has the infrastructure but the finances likely aren't there. It isn't practical for NASCAR to add a new track every three seasons. NASCAR created an environment where tracks fought fortune but ended up eating themselves and getting nothing out of it.

Adding new venues doesn't solve NASCAR's problem of having too many races and its races being too long. NASCAR could live with cutting back the schedule by a couple races. It doesn't need to drop ten races but could live if it cut four to six races. As long as the Chase exists, and it looks like it is going to be here for the rest of eternity, NASCAR should want to end the season a few weeks earlier. The Chase now begins the second week of the NFL season. It is consistently head-to-head with the NFL on Sundays. NASCAR could absolutely benefit from starting the Chase in the middle of August when there is less competition from North American sports.

Maybe a new way of thinking is realizing the schedule is fine the way it is, there really aren't that many options in terms of new tracks for NASCAR and you shouldn't be looking for scheduling changes to create excitement.

A Couple Extra Thoughts From Iowa
Josef Newgarden might have dominated Iowa but he gave a lot of credit to J.R. Hildebrand, who has been testing for Newgarden since Newgarden suffered his injuries at Texas. I have to think Hildebrand is making himself look really good within the IndyCar paddock and as a cheap option in free agency next year. While Newgarden and even Conor Daly are making themselves look really good, Hildebrand is hanging around and finishes in the top ten each year in the Indianapolis 500. With Hildebrand's technological background, I would think he would be a great fit for Team Penske. The guy lectures at Stanford. He seems like the perfect fit for Penske. Hélio Castroneves might not like him after what happened at Indianapolis this year but with the ages of Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya, Penske could replace both those drivers with Hildebrand and Newgarden. That probably won't happen but Hildebrand deserves at full-time ride somewhere.

Perhaps Indy Lights oval races need to be a little bit longer. The one gripe with IndyCar oval weekends are the lack of on-track activities and the Pro Mazda Iowa race being cancelled due to low car counts didn't help solve that problem. If IndyCar and the tracks can't add more on-track products, then maybe the simplest solution is giving more of what is already there. The IndyCar race is already 300 laps and it took an hour and 52 minutes to complete. That is a fair amount of track time. The Indy Lights race was 100 laps and took just under 35 minutes to complete. There are some hurdles to extending Indy Lights races. First, Indy Lights don't do live pit stops. I can't imagine these cars could go much longer than 100 laps on one tank of fuel and one set of tires. The series would either have to introduce live pit stops for a few races or the series could run doubleheaders at ovals. There could have been twin-100s at Iowa. There are logistical issues. Rain early on Sunday cancelled Indy Lights qualifying and fortunately the Indy Lights could be raced as scheduled. Had it been a doubleheader, one race likely would have been moved to after the IndyCar race or cancelled altogether and canceling a race wouldn't solve IndyCar's problem of lack of on-track activities at ovals.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden but did you know...

Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix.

Tom Sykes won both World Superbike races from Laguna Seca.

Brad Keselowski won the NASCAR Cup race at Kentucky, his second consecutive victory. Kyle Busch won the Grand National Series race and William Byron won the Truck race.

Félix Serrallés won the Indy Lights race at Iowa.

Pierre Gasly won the GP2 feature race from Silverstone. It was his first victory since September 28, 2013 when he won at Circuit Paul Ricard in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. Jordan King won his second consecutive sprint race. Alexander Albon and Antonio Fuoco split the GP3 races.

Dane Cameron and Eric Curran won the IMSA race at Mosport in the #31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. The #54 CORE Autosport Oreca of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett won in PC. The #67 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook won their third consecutive race in GTLM. The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Jens Klingmann and Bret Curtis won their first race of the season in GTD.

Red Bull Racing Australia teammates Jamie Whincup and Shane Van Gisbergen swept the Supercars races from Townsville, Australia.

Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar makes its summer trek to Toronto.
MotoGP heads to Germany.
NASCAR will race at Loudon for the first time this season.
Just two weeks after hosting the Austrian Grand Prix, the Red Bull Ring hosts European Le Mans Series.
DTM will be at Zandvoort.
Super Formula will be at Fuji.

First Impressions: Iowa 2016

1. Talk about a beat down. Josef Newgarden dominated. I believe he led 292 laps of a possible 300 (He actually led 282 laps, still impressive nonetheless). He couldn't be caught. On restarts, no one could even get side-by-side with him. I was thinking after Indianapolis that he was going to win at Iowa because he has been one of the best drivers on short ovals since 2014 and could have won at Milwaukee and Iowa last year. After his accident, I thought he was going to miss Road America and because of the consistent G-loads at Iowa would miss Iowa and potentially miss Toronto because of how rough street circuits are on drivers' wrists. I thought his championship was over. Now, I think he is a contender. Sure, he is going to be able to restart Texas and that will cost him dearly but he knows there are five other races for him to capitalize on. The series heads to Toronto next week. He looked good a Pocono last year. If he wins two or three more races and doesn't have another retirement, Texas might not matter. He could be going toe-to-toe with Simon Pagenaud at Sonoma.

2. Will Power finished second and this is Team Penske's third podium ever at Iowa. He improved as the race went on and passed Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon late to get to second. He hasn't had great runs at Toronto lately and he will need at least another podium for him to be a serious contender to Pagenaud.

3. Scott Dixon kept his nose clean and finished third. I thought he would have given Newgarden more of a challenge on the final restart. He lost some valuable points by slipping to third but he gained, albeit a minuscule amount, on Pagenaud.

4. Simon Pagenaud finished fourth and though he lost a little ground, he is still in control of this championship. The one race Power and Dixon are up front, Pagenaud doesn't falter. Penske teams have made it a habit to cough up championships. With six races to go, can Pagenaud prevent what was cost Power multiple titles, Hélio Castroneves multiple title and what cost Juan Pablo Montoya a title last year?

5. Mikhail Aleshin was the fastest Honda in qualifying and was the top Honda finisher in fifth. He deserved this fifth place finish. He kept his nose clean and he didn't get swallowed up by the big boys. The problem for Aleshin is he only has these races once in every six. He's good but not consistent enough to be a threat.

6. Andretti Autosport had a crappy weekend. Ryan Hunter-Reay had an engine fail in the race. Carlos Muñoz and Marco Andretti were stuck in the mud and could only finish 12th and 14th but Alexander Rossi clawed his way to sixth. He benefitted from a long first stint and having the cautions fall the right way but some races you need to make your own luck. Rossi did just that.

7. Tony Kanaan was seventh. This is the first time he has finished in the top ten at Iowa but not on the podium. He seemed to have a slight mechanical hiccup that dropped him out of the top five. He also got caught out by the final caution.

8. Sébastien Bourdais, like Rossi, worked strategy into his favor and just when it appeared he was going to be waved onto the lead lap and might have a run at the top five, he stalls on his pit stop and ends up a lap down. Eighth is still a great day for the Frenchman.

9. James Hinchcliffe has started 22nd three time this season and Iowa was the third time. He finished ninth today. If he could have qualified better, he could have at least challenged for a top five with his teammate.

10. Charlie Kimball finished tenth in a race where he didn't do much. He slipped back from the start and fell into a groove. Kimball has been consistent all year between eighth and 12th.

11. Takuma Sato finished 11th, a career best for him at Iowa. That is all.

12. Rest of the field: You know about Muñoz. Hélio Castroneves was caught out by a caution and he went from a top five to 13th two laps down. You know about Andretti. Jack Hawksworth finished 15th, which is all you can ask for him right now. Graham Rahal could have had a top ten but like Castroneves was caught out by a caution. Gabby Chaves had a glorified test session and finish seven laps down. Ed Carpenter had a gearbox issue ruin another race. Max Chilton spun and he has finished 21st, 22nd, 20th and 19th in his last four races. Juan Pablo Montoya had a mechanical issue end his race while he was in the top five. Conor Daly retired with handling issues. You know about Hunter-Reay.

13. Iowa used the Phoenix aero package and I think it is safe to say that aero package should never be used again and I bet the Honda teams feel the same way. No Honda had a chance in this race. There was more passing at Iowa then there was at Phoenix but I think we should do what Will Power called for at Phoenix: road course levels of horse power and much less downforce. Let's just try it. IndyCar has very little to lose.

14. If we are going to blow sunshine up Road America's butt when it has a great crowd, we have to put Iowa's nose in the shit when its crowd is poor. To be fair, the Iowa crowd wasn't that bad but it isn't what it was five years ago. The track wanted a late-Sunday afternoon race. It got it, it is likely going to get it next year after IndyCar and the track announced a two-year deal and a race for Sunday July 9, 2017 but something needs to be done. I have always thought Iowa has oversaturated its market with two NASCAR weekends and an IndyCar race and its worse now since all three weekends are within eight weeks. Even look at crowd for the NASCAR race there last month. It wasn't as good as it once was at Iowa. The late start benefitted IndyCar this year as rain hit the track at 10:00 a.m. and it took until almost 2:00 p.m. to dry. I think many liked when Iowa was a Saturday night race. It made sense to have a short track race on a Saturday night and the best Iowa crowds appeared to be when it was a night race but if the track wants this time slot then IndyCar and NBCSN shouldn't get any flack if the track struggles to get the gate revenue it wants. I don't want to see Iowa vanish from the IndyCar schedule but the track is making me nervous.

15. On to Toronto. I like having back-to-back weeks of races. I think it is a great way for the series to built momentum. You shouldn't be like NASCAR with 15 consecutive weeks of races but if IndyCar did back-to-back and three in four weeks, that is a good pace. It is tough on the teams, especially with the increase in testing during the season but hopefully the series can consolidate test days and lift that burden off the teams. Anyway, get your passports ready boys and girls.

First Impressions: Iowa 2016

1. Talk about a beat down. Josef Newgarden dominated. I believe he led 292 laps of a possible 300 (He actually led 282 laps, still impressive nonetheless). He couldn't be caught. On restarts, no one could even get side-by-side with him. I was thinking after Indianapolis that he was going to win at Iowa because he has been one of the best drivers on short ovals since 2014 and could have won at Milwaukee and Iowa last year. After his accident, I thought he was going to miss Road America and because of the consistent G-loads at Iowa would miss Iowa and potentially miss Toronto because of how rough street circuits are on drivers' wrists. I thought his championship was over. Now, I think he is a contender. Sure, he is going to be able to restart Texas and that will cost him dearly but he knows there are five other races for him to capitalize on. The series heads to Toronto next week. He looked good a Pocono last year. If he wins two or three more races and doesn't have another retirement, Texas might not matter. He could be going toe-to-toe with Simon Pagenaud at Sonoma.

2. Will Power finished second and this is Team Penske's third podium ever at Iowa. He improved as the race went on and passed Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon late to get to second. He hasn't had great runs at Toronto lately and he will need at least another podium for him to be a serious contender to Pagenaud.

3. Scott Dixon kept his nose clean and finished third. I thought he would have given Newgarden more of a challenge on the final restart. He lost some valuable points by slipping to third but he gained, albeit a minuscule amount, on Pagenaud.

4. Simon Pagenaud finished fourth and though he lost a little ground, he is still in control of this championship. The one race Power and Dixon are up front, Pagenaud doesn't falter. Penske teams have made it a habit to cough up championships. With six races to go, can Pagenaud prevent what was cost Power multiple titles, Hélio Castroneves multiple title and what cost Juan Pablo Montoya a title last year?

5. Mikhail Aleshin was the fastest Honda in qualifying and was the top Honda finisher in fifth. He deserved this fifth place finish. He kept his nose clean and he didn't get swallowed up by the big boys. The problem for Aleshin is he only has these races once in every six. He's good but not consistent enough to be a threat.

6. Andretti Autosport had a crappy weekend. Ryan Hunter-Reay had an engine fail in the race. Carlos Muñoz and Marco Andretti were stuck in the mud and could only finish 12th and 14th but Alexander Rossi clawed his way to sixth. He benefitted from a long first stint and having the cautions fall the right way but some races you need to make your own luck. Rossi did just that.

7. Tony Kanaan was seventh. This is the first time he has finished in the top ten at Iowa but not on the podium. He seemed to have a slight mechanical hiccup that dropped him out of the top five. He also got caught out by the final caution.

8. Sébastien Bourdais, like Rossi, worked strategy into his favor and just when it appeared he was going to be waved onto the lead lap and might have a run at the top five, he stalls on his pit stop and ends up a lap down. Eighth is still a great day for the Frenchman.

9. James Hinchcliffe has started 22nd three time this season and Iowa was the third time. He finished ninth today. If he could have qualified better, he could have at least challenged for a top five with his teammate.

10. Charlie Kimball finished tenth in a race where he didn't do much. He slipped back from the start and fell into a groove. Kimball has been consistent all year between eighth and 12th.

11. Takuma Sato finished 11th, a career best for him at Iowa. That is all.

12. Rest of the field: You know about Muñoz. Hélio Castroneves was caught out by a caution and he went from a top five to 13th two laps down. You know about Andretti. Jack Hawksworth finished 15th, which is all you can ask for him right now. Graham Rahal could have had a top ten but like Castroneves was caught out by a caution. Gabby Chaves had a glorified test session and finish seven laps down. Ed Carpenter had a gearbox issue ruin another race. Max Chilton spun and he has finished 21st, 22nd, 20th and 19th in his last four races. Juan Pablo Montoya had a mechanical issue end his race while he was in the top five. Conor Daly retired with handling issues. You know about Hunter-Reay.

13. Iowa used the Phoenix aero package and I think it is safe to say that aero package should never be used again and I bet the Honda teams feel the same way. No Honda had a chance in this race. There was more passing at Iowa then there was at Phoenix but I think we should do what Will Power called for at Phoenix: road course levels of horse power and much less downforce. Let's just try it. IndyCar has very little to lose.

14. If we are going to blow sunshine up Road America's butt when it has a great crowd, we have to put Iowa's nose in the shit when its crowd is poor. To be fair, the Iowa crowd wasn't that bad but it isn't what it was five years ago. The track wanted a late-Sunday afternoon race. It got it, it is likely going to get it next year after IndyCar and the track announced a two-year deal and a race for Sunday July 9, 2017 but something needs to be done. I have always thought Iowa has oversaturated its market with two NASCAR weekends and an IndyCar race and its worse now since all three weekends are within eight weeks. Even look at crowd for the NASCAR race there last month. It wasn't as good as it once was at Iowa. The late start benefitted IndyCar this year as rain hit the track at 10:00 a.m. and it took until almost 2:00 p.m. to dry. I think many liked when Iowa was a Saturday night race. It made sense to have a short track race on a Saturday night and the best Iowa crowds appeared to be when it was a night race but if the track wants this time slot then IndyCar and NBCSN shouldn't get any flack if the track struggles to get the gate revenue it wants. I don't want to see Iowa vanish from the IndyCar schedule but the track is making me nervous.

15. On to Toronto. I like having back-to-back weeks of races. I think it is a great way for the series to built momentum. You shouldn't be like NASCAR with 15 consecutive weeks of races but if IndyCar did back-to-back and three in four weeks, that is a good pace. It is tough on the teams, especially with the increase in testing during the season but hopefully the series can consolidate test days and lift that burden off the teams. Anyway, get your passports ready boys and girls.