Zeb Wise and Brady Bacon won the first two features on the dirt track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After that rain washed out Friday through Sunday and there will be two NASCAR races on Monday. Rain shortened the Super Formula race from Okayama and it was a half-point affair. Meanwhile, Scott Dixon might not be the only New Zealander winning a championship this year in a single-seater series. IMSA had its race of the season in the penultimate round of its 2018 season. Romano Fenati should probably be punted out of the Moto2 and the entire grand prix landscape for eternity. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
How IndyCar Could Make the Championship More Inclusive
The final week of the IndyCar season is here and four drivers are vying for the Astor Cup. This year's finale will also mark the end of trips to Sonoma for the Verizon IndyCar Series (it will also make the end of the Verizon's title sponsorship but that is another story).
IndyCar has had the title decided in the final race for 13 consecutive years. IndyCar and most forms of motorsports are individual sports. Unlike other individual sports, IndyCar hits reset at the end of the season while tennis and golf have rankings that remain in place even after the calendar changes to a new year. You could argue nothing is broken in IndyCar but this might be the time to do something different.
Instead of resetting the points when 2019 starts leave them in place. In tennis, the points earned for a tournament count toward the world rankings for a calendar year. The 2018 points would be what the drivers have but once the first race of the year is held at St. Petersburg and once the 2019 St. Petersburg race is run the points earn in that race count toward the ranking while the 2018 points would be dropped and that would be the process through each race of 2019.
It would be slightly different than what we have now but it would still be similar. Bad results would mean sliding down the rankings. Great results would mean a driver would be moving up. It might take longer to get noticed unlike the start of a season now where a pair of good results could have an unfamiliar face in the top five or ten of the championship. Rookies would need more time to stand out. Robert Wickens would not be hanging around the top of the standings from day one.
We are afraid of change but we also should avoid unnecessary complication. However, in playing with numbers and looking at what tennis does, it has me thinking about whether or not the current championship system is best. I am not saying there should be a playoff but IndyCar could provide a championship structure that allows more to compete.
It may sound radical but why couldn't IndyCar do something different, such as have the championship be decided by the best four oval results and the best four road/street course results? You may be saying that is the stupidest thing you ever heard but with teams such as Meyer Shank Racing competing part-time with Jack Harvey and Juncos Racing competing part-time with a handful of drivers it would give these teams something to compete for. Instead of just competing and trying to gain experience a part-time could strategically run for a championship. Why would that be a bad thing?
The Association of Tennis Professionals world rankings are based on the four grand slam tournaments, the eight Masters 1000 tournaments (tournaments that pay 1000 points to win, a grand slam tournament pays 2000 points) and the six best results in all other tournaments. IndyCar's best eight results championship could follow a similar format. Two oval races and two road/street course races could be fixed to the rankings. Obviously Indianapolis would be one of the oval races. I would make Pocono the other while the best two of the remaining three ovals would count toward the rankings. As for road/street courses, I think Long Beach and Road America would make sense as the two races fixed to the rankings with the best two results from the remaining ten road/street course races deciding the championship.
What would the championship look like heading into the final race with this format? Power would lead on 403 points but have 70 points to defend from last year's Sonoma race. Newgarden would be second on 388 points with Dixon on 371 points and Rossi would be the final driver that could finish in the top spot with the American entering on 353 points.
If Power does not score at least 41 points in this race, his second road course result that would count toward the championship would be the 40 points for his runner-up finish at Belle Isle. This means Power could finish with anywhere from 373 points to 437 points. Newgarden is defending 82 points from last year's Sonoma race and because of the rough nature of his season, if he does not score at least 33 points, his second road/street course result would be the 32 points he scored for his fourth place finish at Mid-Ohio, meaning his final score could range anywhere from 338 points to 410 points.
Dixon would also be defending points from last year's Sonoma race. He finished fourth and picked up 64 points but the good news for Dixon is he has his Toronto victory, which earned him 53 points, as insurance so if he finishes seventh or worse, he would only lose a maximum of 11 points. His final points total could range anywhere from 360 points to 411 points.
Rossi would be playing with house money. His 353 points is his lowest possible points total because he retired from last year's Sonoma race and only scored 18 points that day. He already beat that this season, as his two best other road/street course results are his Mid-Ohio victory for 54 points and 36 points for third at St. Petersburg. He could score anywhere from 353 points to 421 points.
In case you are wondering where Robert Wickens would be in this system, he would be ninth. Consider that Wickens has missed two races and he is still seventh in the championship presently, this format would still fairly recognize his efforts for his rookie season.
You may be saying, "well, teams would only run eight races." Possibly, but it would still be beneficial to run all the races. It would allow a team more chances to improve their eight results and allow for a greater margin for error. If a team only ran eight races then that is it but if a team ran all 17 races then nine would be dropped. It would give teams wiggle room and it could possibly allow for more teams to take risks. The worst-case scenario is a risky strategy in a race backfires and that result is one that is dropped when it comes to the rankings.
With this championship format it could be argued IndyCar would be more enticing and teams could budget accordingly. Missing a race due to crash damage would not be the end of the world. Teams would have flexibility. It would be fine to be full-time one year and then cut back if a team didn't have the funding for a full slate of races the next. This increased flexibility would turn IndyCar into a series where more teams could compete for the championship.
This best eight results championship format would encourage more teams to run oval races, it would allow more teams to compete for the championship and it would allow drivers with a budget to do only a handful of races to compete for something. It would allow a driver who only has the ability to do six or seven races to potentially finish in the top ten of the championship and get the attention of a team or sponsor that he or she has the ability to running full-time.
This change in championship structure has its flaws. The double points nature of Sonoma makes it so that race lingers over an entire season and it becomes likely that race will be one of a driver's two best other road/street course races and all of a sudden, as we see with Dixon, a fourth at Sonoma outweighs a Toronto victory. The only way to rectify would be to make next year's Laguna Seca finale not double points, make Laguna Seca one of the two fixed road/street course races or make either Long Beach or Road America double points that way everybody's double points result counts to the final standings.
With that issue addressed this format could be something that makes it better for smaller teams and drivers struggling to find funding. A part-time team could be competing for a championship and that is something they could sell a sponsor on for enough funding to allow them to compete in the handful of races necessary to make a title push.
It would be a change and people would be angry and it likely would not draw any new fans to the series (because what has?) but IndyCar has a chance to do something different and do something that is more inclusive to competitors. It has a chance to revolutionize the championship in a way no other series is talking about. Every race would still count. Winning would still matter. The difference is the number of potential championship contenders would include those who currently are testing the waters. A trial year for a team could end up becoming a banner year. It would allow someone to come out and surprise us who we otherwise have few expectations for.
I am not saying this should be implemented but there is nothing wrong with thinking about it.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about the dirt races and the rain in Indianapolis but did you know...
Andrea Dovizioso won MotoGP's San Marino and Rimini Coast Grand Prix, his third victory of the season. Francesco Bagnaia won his sixth Moto2 race of the season and extended his championship lead. Lorenzo Dalla Porta won the Moto3 race, his first career grand prix victory. He won over championship leader Jorge Martin by 0.058 seconds and Fabio Di Giannantonio by 0.122 seconds.
The #22 Extreme Speed Motorsports Nissan of Pipo Derani and Johannes van Overbeek won the IMSA race at Laguna Seca, its second victory of the season. The #25 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing BMW of Connor De Phillippi and Alexander Sims won in GTLM, the team's second consecutive victory. The #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Katherine Legge and Álvaro Parente won in GTD, the team's second victory of the season.
René Rast swept the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from Nürburgring.
Yuhi Sekiguchi won the Super Formula race from Okayama. Nick Cassidy finished fourth and he extended his championship lead to four points over two-time Super Formula champion Hiroaki Ishiura and five points over 2013 champion Naoki Yamamoto.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar decides who will take home the Astor Cup in the series final appearance at Sonoma.
Formula One has a night race at Singapore.
NASCAR visits Las Vegas for the second time in 2018.
World Superbike is back! After over two months off the series will run at Algarve.
The Nürburgring is busy for a second consecutive week, this time with the Blancpain Sprint Series finale.
Supercars has its first endurance race with the Sundown 500.
Super GT will be at Sportsland SUGO.
The World Rally Championship returns to Turkey for the first time since 2010.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
