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| This was one of Tony Kanaan's worst seasons yet in IndyCar |
Tony Kanaan
After four years at Chip Ganassi Racing, the 2004 IndyCar champion moved to A.J. Foyt Racing, the seventh team of his IndyCar career and this was Kanaan's sixth season in the last seven that he drove a Chevrolet-powered car. During the season, Kanaan moved to third all-time in IndyCar starts and the Sonoma finale was his 300th consecutive start, extending the record he has held since Baltimore 2013.
What objectively was his best race?
Toronto! Toronto? Toronto, where a rash of accidents and pit strategy saw Kanaan go from 15th on the grid to sixth in the final results. Kanaan didn't do anything flashy but he led a lap through a pit cycle and he held his own and it was Kanaan's first top ten finish after three consecutive results outside the top ten. However, this would be Kanaan's final top ten of the season.
What subjectively was his best race?
Indianapolis. Despite having retired due to an accident in turn two late in the race and prior to that having to make an extra pit stop due to a tire puncture, which dropped him from the top ten, Kanaan was in contention for the first half of this race and it seemed like he would be in the top five late. He led 19 laps and the veteran was holding on in a car against the mighty Team Penske, Ed Carpenter Racing and Andretti Autosport.
What objectively was his worst race?
Indianapolis! That accident in turn two dropped him to a 25th place finish. It was one of two results outside the top twenty this season and his first of three retirements, but more on those in a moment.
What subjectively was his worst race?
I could say Indianapolis for the third consecutive time because at this point in Kanaan's career and with the team he is driving for a championship isn't realistic and the Indianapolis 500 is the only thing that can bolster his resume. For a guy who has won twice on road/street courses in his 21-year career and hasn't won on a road/street course since Belle Isle 2007, he isn't expecting to finish on the podium at almost two-thirds of the races but I will expand on this and say all the ovals were his worst races. Why? Because those races were the ones where things couldn't go wrong and they did.
Besides Indianapolis, Kanaan brushed the wall at Texas within the first 31 laps after starting sixth. He was lost all weekend at Iowa and finished eight laps down in 17th. A throttle issue ended his day at Pocono after 16 laps and at Gateway he was never a threat for the top ten.
The one good oval races was Phoenix, where he started ninth and finished eighth but we all know how notoriously difficult it was for passing at that track.
We all hoped ovals would be where Kanaan shined and outside of the first 250 miles at Indianapolis, it never happened.
Tony Kanaan's 2018 Statistics
Championship Position: 16th (312 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 4
Laps Led: 20
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 3
Average Start: 14.9375
Average Finish: 13.764
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| Matheus Leist had a trying rookie season in IndyCar |
Matheus Leist
The 19-year-old made his IndyCar debut after one season in Indy Lights, which saw Leist finish fourth in the championship after three victories, including a Freedom 100 victory after leading every lap from pole position. At one point in Indy Lights, Leist had won three races and led 129 of 180 laps in a four-race stretch and he was up to second in the championship.
What objectively was his best race?
Pocono! He finished 11th and ran a fair share of that race in the top ten but a late pit stop knocked him to 11th.
What subjectively was his best race?
I will say Indianapolis because Leist was respectable all month. He qualified 11th, one position behind Kanaan and he didn't stand out but he was on the lead lap all race and seemed to stay in the top fifteen for most of this one. He finished 13th and completed all 500 miles, one of two rookies to go the distance with the other being Robert Wickens, who finished ninth.
What objectively was his worst race?
St. Petersburg when he slammed the wall exiting turn three after 16 laps and finished 24th. To add insult to injury, Leist qualified third in a damp qualifying session. There were a lot of eyes on him after that and he was one of three rookies starting in the top four.
What subjectively was his worst race?
I am going to say St. Petersburg but we are going to cover four races here. Leist also had an electrical glitch at the start of the season opening race that caused him to lose a handful of positions before his collision with the barrier. Things were unraveling quickly from the start for Leist.
Other races to note: Phoenix is where Leist will infamously be remembered for losing a tire on a pit stop and then spinning around on the pit lane with three wheels and he looked like a putz through all that. His Texas race was over after five laps due to a fire. I would also add Pocono because Leist's team screwed up the pit strategy and he had to make an extra pit stop with 14 laps to go. If he were on strategy from the start he would have had a top ten result.
Matheus Leist's 2018 Statistics
Championship Position: 18th (253 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 0
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 1
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 17.5625
Average Finish: 16.764
An Early Look Ahead
Before looking ahead, let's look back real quick. Tony Kanaan and Matheus Leist finished 16th and 18th respectively in the championship with 312 points and 253 points respectively. This came one year after Carlos Muñoz and Conor Daly finished 16th and 18th respectively in the championship with 328 points and 305 points respectively.
What did Foyt gain by dropping both 2017 drivers? I am sure there was some extra funding going to the team by bringing in Leist with Kanaan but you have to think pairing Kanaan with one of either Muñoz or Daly would have been better for the team and the results would have been better.
But the truth is A.J. Foyt Racing has been terrible for a long time. The team hasn't had a driver finish in the top fifteen of the championship since Takuma Sato finished 14th in 2015 and that is the team's only top fifteen championship result in the DW12-era. If you expand that to since reunification, the only other top fifteen championship finishes for the team were Vitor Meira, who finished 12th in 2010; Darren Manning, who finished 14th in 2008; and Ryan Hunter-Reay finished 15th in the 2009 championship but he spent the first six races of that season with Vision Racing. The team hasn't had a top ten championship finish since Airton Daré finished ninth in 2002.
Kanaan and Leist will be retained for a second consecutive season in 2019 and I have to wonder how it can get better but also how can it get any worse? Leist didn't have a top ten in 2018, one tenth-place finish would be an improvement but outside of Pocono, where it took a third of the field being taken out, Leist was never a contender for the top ten on speed alone. His best two qualifying results on road/street courses were after sessions where rain took place. This feels like another case of A.J. Foyt Racing biting the bullet on a young driver and hoping they find a gem that no one else sees and the team got it wrong again.
The bar is low for this team and it is kind of depressing because this is the one team we seem to always write off at the start of the season and we are always right in doing so. The team has had a few false positives in recent years. It was leading the championship entering the 2013 Indianapolis 500! While newer teams such as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Ed Carpenter Racing have been race contenders in the DW12-era, the oldest teams on the grid still has not found a way to be competitive despite being one of the few teams to have paying seats. The constant funding makes the team's results, or lack thereof, even more disappointing.
The team has four podium finishes since 2012 and it has nine top five finishes since 2012. Why should we expect it to get better in 2019? We can probably put money on that it won't now and be collecting our winnings one year from today.
