It was a great year and now we look back and recognize the sport we love so dearly.
Racer of the Year
Description: Given to the best racer over the course of 2018.
And the Nominees are:
Lewis Hamilton
Scott Dixon
Naoki Yamamoto
Jean-Éric Vergne
Jonathan Rea
Kyle Kirkwood
And the winner is... Scott Dixon
This was due. Scott Dixon's 2018 season at a glance: His fifth IndyCar championship, three more victories to leave him on 44 victories, third all-time behind A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti. He had nine podium finishes, became the fourth driver to reach the century mark in that category and he finished the year third all-time on 105 behind Andretti and Foyt. His 13 top five finishes elevated him to second all-time on 154 and he is behind only Andretti.
On top of all of Dixon's IndyCar escapades in 2018, he won in the GT Le Mans class in the 24 Hours of Daytona with Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook, his third victory in the event after winning overall twice.
Dixon has been a habitual winner for the last 15 years. He has never gone more than five seasons without a championship. He is at the top of the mountain when it comes to IndyCar. He wins in cameo appearances in sports cars.
Dixon is a treasure of the 21st century. He might not run the frantic and diverse schedule of the legends from the 1960s and 1970s but he is not a one-trick pony. I am sure he has come across a car that has been tough to handle but if that is the case it doesn't take long for him to get it under control. The man has won in everything and this year he did it again with victories in an IndyCar and a Ford GT.
He rarely puts a wheel wrong. He had his mistakes this year. He ran into the back of Takuma Sato at St. Petersburg but he still recovered from that and the subsequent penalty to finish ninth. He had 15 top ten finishes from 17 races and was running at the finish of every race. He completed 2,364 of 2,368 laps; Iowa was the only race he finished off the lead lap and Alexander Rossi was the only one to complete more laps.
The man has a standard few should be able to live up to and yet every time Scott Dixon gets behind the wheel of a race car all qualms are squelched. He has enough fuel to make it to the end, he is going to pass ten cars from 14th on the grid, he will get out of any situation in a better position than he started.
Very few drivers can live up to Scott Dixon's level of expectations and Dixon does it every time.
On the other nominees:
Lewis Hamilton also won his fifth championship this year and he did it again with 11 victories, 11 pole positions, 17 podium finishes and a single-season record of 408 points. The man is tied with Juan Manuel Fangio for second most championship all time and he is 18 victories behind Michael Schumacher's record of 91 victories. The man is in similar shoes to Scott Dixon.
Naoki Yamamoto had a great year and did something only three other drivers had done before. He won the Super Formula championship and the Super GT GT500 championship in the same season. It is an incredible feat to be successful in both single-seaters and a vehicle with fenders in the same year. Yamamoto won three races in Super Formula and came from behind in the finale to win the championship from Nick Cassidy and he and Jenson Button won once in Super GT but they had four podium finishes on their way to that championship.
Jean-Éric Vergne had success in pretty much every car he stepped in. He won the Formula E championship with four victories and he won three times in five European Le Mans Series starts. In Formula E, Vergne scored in every race and held off Lucas di Grassi for the title.
Jonathan Rea continues to break records in World Superbike and 2018 was another year where Rea continued his dominance. He won 17 races, including 11 consecutive to end the season, and he surpassed Carl Fogarty for most victories in series history. On top of that, his 17 victories matched the single-season record for victories, which Doug Polen set in 1991 and Rea matched last year as well. Rea won his fourth consecutive championship and tied Fogarty's record for most championship. I bet he will have another record in 2019.
We do not often bring drivers in developments series into the discussion because it is a lower level and there are more races and grid size can vary from very small to very large but Kyle Kirkwood deserves a bit of recognition. He won 28 of 32 races he entered this season across U.S. F2000, F3 Americas and the IMSA Michelin Encore at Sebring in an LMP3 car. In U.S. F2000, he won 12 of 14 races, including 11 consecutive to end the season. His other two finishes were fifth ands second. In F3 Americas, albeit it with grids no larger than a half-dozen, he won 15 of 17 races and his other finishes were second and fourth. He won the IMSA Michelin Encore with Roman De Angelis. He has a long way to go but that was not a bad year for a 20-year-old.
Ironically, I just noticed this is the third consecutive year a New Zealander has won Racer of the Year and it has been a different New Zealander each year. How about that?
Past Winners
2012: Kyle Larson
2013: Marc Márquez
2014: Marc Márquez
2015: Nick Tandy
2016: Shane van Gisbergen
2017: Brendon Hartley
2014: Marc Márquez
2015: Nick Tandy
2016: Shane van Gisbergen
2017: Brendon Hartley
Race of the Year
Description: Best Race of 2018.
And the Nominees are:
Overton's 400
The second Hockenheim race from the spring DTM weekend
Petit Le Mans
Thailand Grand Prix
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
And the winner is... Petit Le Mans
It is a ten-hour race and despite the length there was plenty of green flag racing and all three classes were undecided heading into the final laps. On top of all that many teams were stretching it on fuel.
While many teams fought for a race victory, there were championships to be decided. None of the classes were wrapped up entering the finale and championship leads changed hands over the course of the day. The Prototype championship was between the #31 Cadillac of Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran and the #54 Oreca of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett. At points it seemed the #54 Oreca was going to do enough to take a surprising championship away from a DPi entry. Braun and Bennett had to gamble and it didn't work out. They finished a spot ahead of Nasr and Curran but three points behind the Brazilian and American in the championship.
Corvette had the most comfortable lead of the three classes entering Petit Le Mans but the #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio García had an off and went behind the wheel. The race was no longer for the victory but getting the car back on track and getting it to the finish. The Corvette crew got the job done in what was a bit more of a nervy night than expected.
GT Daytona was where the fight was always at the top with the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow taking on the #86 Acura of Katherine Legge for the title. These two teams were at the front and it seemed Legge was going to have to win the race as Sellers and Snow were on their game. None of the three and none of their, Álvaro Parente and Trent Hindman for Legge and Corey Lewis for Sellers and Snow, put a wheel wrong and Legge may have finished second but with Sellers and Snow in third the Lamborghini drivers took the title.
Championship aside, the fight for the overall race victory proved to be one for the ages. The #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque and the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Renger van der Zande went toe-to-toe with the #5 Cadillac stretching the fuel while van der Zande was flying through to the front. Albuquerque led by a second and a half at the start of the final lap but heading into turn ten the car started to cough and van der Zande went pass to take the victory for him, Jordan Taylor and Ryan Hunter-Reay while the #5 Cadillac fell to fourth with the two Mazdas getting pass in the final corner.
It was a ten-hour race that never let up. There was not a dull moment for the entire event and the finish did not disappoint.
On the other nominees:
I will cover the Chicagoland NASCAR Cup race in a moment but it was the best NASCAR race of the year from start to finish. It was a consistent race. It was not marred by cautions and the race flowed. There were drivers coming and going, plenty of passing and a great finish.
The DTM has a bit of a reputation to overcome and sometimes it is a boring series with too many team orders within the manufactures but the second race of the season saw a great three-way battle between BMW's Timo Glock, Audi's Mike Rockenfeller and Mercedes-Benz's Gary Paffett. Glock and Paffett dueled early and traded the lead. Rockenfeller got in this battle late but Glock was clear enough to win the race and curse in joy over the radio about the sensational race.
MotoGP made its debut in Thailand at the circuit in Buriram and the unknown produced a race that was a great battle from start to finish. Marc Márquez led early but Valentino Rossi took his turn in the lead and Andrea Dovizioso moved up to second. Rossi would slip back and Dovizioso inherited the lead. The Italian led for most of the race but Márquez remained on his rear tire and Maverick Viñales found himself in the fight. The three riders were tight in the closing laps but it became Dovizioso vs. Márquez when the final lap started. Márquez had a history of failed final lap passes on Dovizioso but in Thailand he made it stick and held on for the victory with 0.270 seconds covering the top three.
While not a popular location, Azerbaijan has had some good Formula One races and this year was no different. Sebastian Vettel led from the start until his pit stop on lap 31. Valtteri Bottas took the lead and nine laps later a collision between Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen bringing out the safety car and being Bottas' saving grace as he was able to make his pit stop and remain in the lead. The safety car gave Vettel a shot at Bottas but he locked up his tires and fell down to fourth. It seemed to be Bottas' race until he suffered a puncture with three laps to go. Lewis Hamilton went by to the lead, Kimi Räikkönen took second and Sergio Pérez overtook Vettel for third. Hamilton won the race and took the championship lead.
Past Winners
2012: Indianapolis 500
2013: British motorcycle Grand Prix
2014: Bathurst 1000
2015: Australian motorcycle Grand Prix
2016: Spanish Grand Prix
2017: All the races at the World Superbike/World Supersport weekend at Phillip Island
Achievement of the Year
Description: Best success by a driver, team, manufacture, etc.
And the Nominees are:
Johan Kristoffersson winning 11 of 12 World Rallycross races this season on his way to the championship
Robert Wickens for winning IndyCar Rookie of the Year despite missing three races
Will Power's qualifying record of four pole positions, nine front row starts and an average starting position of 2.6875.
Christopher Bell's seven victories as a rookie in NASCAR's second division
Colin Braun and Jon Bennett finishing second in the Prototype championship with an Oreca
And the winner is... Robert Wickens for winning IndyCar Rookie of the Year despite missing three races.
Robert Wickens entered the 2018 season as a bit of a dark horse. He was the forgotten Canadian talent in the sense that the driver once winning in the Atlantic Championship, who then won in GP3, Formula Two and Formula Renault 3.5 unfortunately never made it to Formula One and spent the better part of his 20s in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, a series that mostly goes unnoticed in North America.
While remembered as a promising talent a decade ago, expectations were muted for a driver who had not raced single-seaters for seven years. Any concerns about his competitiveness were dashed in the first race weekend. He took pole position at St. Petersburg, led the most laps of the race and it were not for contact with Alexander Rossi he might have won on debut or at least finished second.
St. Petersburg was not a fluke. He led laps at Phoenix; he qualified well again at Long Beach and was competing for a race victory in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with Will Power.
Almost every place was new to him and yet it never took him long to get his bearing and get to the front. He led in his first time at Texas and may have won if it were not for contact with Ed Carpenter, who was a lap down. He was challenging for the victory at Iowa. He had podium finishes at Toronto and Mid-Ohio. Everything seemed to be pointing to the Canadian getting his first victory before the season was out and he was on the cusp of a championship fight if he could get the results he needed in the final few races before Sonoma.
Unfortunately, we know Wickens' rookie season was marred at Pocono when an accident ended his season on the spot and has led to a lengthy recovery from a spinal cord injury. Despite his absence, Wickens had enough of a gap to win Rookie of the Year despite not running the final three races. On top of that, he finished tied with his teammate James Hinchcliffe for tenth in the championship with Hinchcliffe holding the tiebreaker because of his Iowa victory.
There is no doubt that had Wickens been in the final three races not only would he clinch Rookie of the Year at least a race if not two races early but he would have fought for fifth in the final championship standings. He ended the season with four podium finishes, only Dixon, Rossi, Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay had more. He led 187 laps, only Josef Newgarden, Rossi, Power and Dioxn led more. In year one, Wickens found himself fighting with IndyCar's best and not trying to make his way out of the middle of the pack.
Wickens took a jump in 2018, leaving the confines of Mercedes-Benz's DTM program, one he had found quite a bit of success in to return to open-wheel racing and North America, a discipline and a place his career had taken him away from. He returned and it never felt like he had left. There was no learning curve to overcome. He never seemed out of his element even at the ovals, which where completely new to him. His immediate ascension to the top of IndyCar won him many supporters and in year one he became one of the series' most beloved drivers.
On the other nominees:
I don't not talk about rallycross that often and it isn't my cup of tea but when you win 11 of 12 rounds in any series and are going against other respected drivers and at the level of talent of Mattias Ekström, Sébastien Loeb, Petter Solberg and others it deserved to be recognized. Johan Kristoffersson had a great season and he has had success in touring cars as well to his rallycross to success. He had a great year.
Will Power is a surefire bet when it comes to qualifying. His worst starting position was seventh in 2018. Yes, he missed the Fast Six at Sonoma but he is frequently in the top six and when he is in the Fast Six you can almost pencil him in for the front row. It is rare for him to go out in a qualifying session and only look like he is going to start fourth or fifth. It is front row or bust and that has transitioned to the ovals as well. If he can keep it up in qualifying a second championship will come in a matter of time.
Christopher Bell was the one great driver in NASCAR's second division last year and he might not have won a championship but he was the best driver. No rookie had ever won that many races in NASCAR second division and a fair amount of great drivers have passed through that series. He will be in the Cup series soon and it would come as no surprise to anyone if he was winning early when takes that step up as well.
Like Bell, Colin Braun and Jon Bennett did not win a championship but nobody expected any LMP2 team, let alone CORE Autosport to challenge for the championship. These two were consistent and took advantage of the opportunities that were laid out before them. They used strategy to make sure Braun was in the car late and more times than not Braun was the best driver down the stretch. They fell short of a championship but proved many people wrong.
Past Winners
2012: DeltaWing
2013: Sebastian Vettel for winning nine consecutive races on his way to a fourth consecutive title
2014: Marc Márquez: Setting the record for most wins in a premier class season.
2015: Justin Wilson Memorial Family Auction
2016: Jimmie Johnson for his seventh NASCAR Cup championship
2017: Jonathan Rea: For becoming the first rider to win three consecutive World Superbike championships.
Moment of the Year
Description: The Most Memorable Moment in the World of Racing during the 2018 season.
And the Nominees are:
Sebastian Vettel going off from the lead at Hockenheim
The first corner of the Belgian Grand Prix
Robert Wickens' accident at Pocono
Sophia Flörsch's accident at Macau
Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson battle at Chicagoland
And the winner is... Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson battle at Chicagoland
This was the best race of the NASCAR season and I do not mean it was the best finish therefore it was the best race. It was the best race from start to finish. It was an active race with a lot of passing; many different leaders and you could not go away because something was always happening.
It was a race where the low line and the high line were equal and it was just a matter of what you could get the most out of. This race saw Kyle Busch lead but Kyle Larson chip away from the high line and with the benefit of lapped traffic he got to Busch's bumper and it became a three-lap fight for the victory.
The race ended with the shouting Dale Earnhardt, Jr., as Kyle Larson attempted to pass Busch in turns one and two only for both to bump into the wall and bang into each other. Larson had the lead entering turn three but Busch got a clean shot at the rear of Larson's Chevrolet. Busch went up the track and brushed the wall again while Larson was sideways and trying to keep his car from completely going around.
Busch made it to the line first, Larson kept the car from going around and finished second and it kicked off the summer with a glorious race and a finish that matched it.
It wasn't a dirty move from either driver. It was hard racing and not the carelessness we see in NASCAR finishes at times. After the race, Busch and Larson shook hands and laughed about the hard fought battle on the final lap. Both drivers raced each other hard and physical and both had respect for each other.
On the other nominees:
The German Grand Prix may go down as the turning point of the 2018 Formula One season for years to come. Vettel entered as the championship leader and was starting on pole position with Hamilton down in 14th. It was a chance for him to tightened his grasp with the summer break looming. He was not challenged and the only thing that beat was a bit of moisture in the stadium section. He was off, Hamilton's charge to the front was given a boost, he would take a historic victory and reclaim the championship lead, which he never surrendered.
The first corner of the Belgian Grand Prix justified the introduction of the halo. Fernando Alonso's McLaren surfed over the Sauber of Charles Leclerc and after multiple replays it was clear had the halo not been there the floor of Alonso's car would have made contact with Leclerc's helmet. We don't know how severe the contact would have been or if Leclerc would have been injured but it did show that the halo can prevent those occurrences. We didn't have to worry about Leclerc's well being. He was able to drive back to the garage, get out of the car and go home and be ready for the Italian Grand Prix the next week. A lot of critics found themselves changing their tune.
I wrote about this before but the accidents that Wickens and Flörsch will leave a lasting imprint on all who follow motorsports. They will be hard to forget and can haunt us in the future. They will be flashbacks when things go wrong down the road. Sometimes the moments we remember are not always good. Sometimes the moment is a bad memory, a nightmare if you will. While these two accidents sucked and leave two promising drivers sidelined with no return date in sight, they are still here. They are alive. They have the ability to make a comeback and we are all rooting for their returns.
Past Winners
2012: Alex Zanardi
2013: 24 Hours of Le Mans
2014: Post-race at the Charlotte and Texas Chase races.
2015: Matt Kenseth vs. Joey Logano
2016: Toyota Slows at Le Mans
2017: Fernando Alonso announcing his Indianapolis 500 ride
Pass of the Year
Description: Best pass of 2018.
And the Nominees are:
Sébastien Bourdais on Scott Dixon and back marker Matheus Leist at Long Beach.
Stephen Simpson from third to first pass Jordan Taylor and Juan Pablo Montoya in the 6 Hours of the Glen.
Alexander Rossi from ninth to sixth and pass two lapped cars on the outside in turns one and two of the lap 146 restart in the Indianapolis 500.
Alexander Rossi from fifth to third on the outside in turns one and two of the lap 154 restart in the Indianapolis 500.
Lewis Hamilton's triple overtake on Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hülkenberg in turn one at Bahrain.
Daniel Ricciardo's pass on Valtteri Bottas for first in turn six.
And the winner is... Alexander Rossi for all his passes in the Indianapolis 500!
The ninth-to-sixth move was spectacular but on the following restart, Rossi went from looking up the inside of Hunter-Reay into turn one only to back off and then floor it on the outside and get pass Hunter-Reay, get to the outside of Simon Pagenaud and then complete that move on the outside of turn two.
The first set of passes was incredible. It was video game-esque level of picking drivers off. They fell behind Rossi as if they were standing still and the first move, included a pass on the lapped car of Spencer Pigot on the short chute where it appears Rossi didn't have an extra tenth of an inch on either side. A fraction in either direction and the two cars would have touched or Rossi would have been in the wall.
The passes were precise at 210 MPH in an unpopular line during unfavorable track conditions. It was slick. Cars were stepping out on best drivers all race because of the conditions and the aero package that reduced downforce on the front.
Rossi did what many thought would not be possible at Indianapolis this year but he worked his way from 32nd to fourth after 500 miles. It was a spectacularly thrilling run, one that gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. It was such a beautiful display of driving that it makes me want to cry.
On the other nominees:
Technically, Sébastien Bourdais' pass was deemed illegal because he crossed the blend line and he had to give the position back to Scott Dixon but forget the rules for a second, it was a superb move. He passed Dixon and carried his momentum to get by the lapped car of Leist. Some drivers would have overcooked it and ended up in the barrier and others would not have been as precise and made contact with Leist. Bourdais was smooth and if it weren't for a questionable rule this might have taken the top spot.
Watkins Glen is not a wide racetrack and it is especially narrow exiting the esses. Juan Pablo Montoya and Jordan Taylor were going at it in a hairy part of the racetrack and flying in out of nowhere was Stephen Simpson He went up the inside and Taylor could not slow him. Montoya likely had no clue he was there until Simpson emerged ahead entering the bus stop. Simpson went for it and it got him the victory.
Lewis Hamilton had a much faster car than Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hülkenberg but during the time of a pit cycle and cars on different strategies and going different paces it can lead to congested situations and this was one of them. Hamilton could be patient but run the risk of losing too much time. He was aggressive up the inside of the tight turn one at Bahrain. We have seen plenty of collisions there and with three cars around him it very well could have ended in tears but Hamilton made it stick.
One race later, Daniel Ricciardo found himself on the right tire strategy in China and he was passing drivers with ease. First it was Hamilton, then Vettel and with a dozen laps to go it seemed like Ricciardo's race to lose. Bottas would have to work hard to keep the Australian behind him but Ricciardo didn't mess around. He didn't wait until the turn 14 at the end of the longest straightaway. He saw his opportunity up the inside of turn six. Bottas tried to squeeze out the Australian but Ricciardo snuck pass and he was gone from there, taking an easy victory.
Past Winners
2012: Simon Pagenaud at Baltimore
2013: Robert Wickens at Nürburgring and Peter Dempsey in the Freedom 100
2014: Ryan Blaney on Germán Quiroga
2015: Laurens Vanthoor from 4th to 2nd on the outside in the Bathurst 12 Hour
2016: Scott McLaughlin on Mark Winterbottom at Surfers Paradise
2017: Renger van der Zande: From second to first on Dane Cameron at Laguna Seca
The Eric Idle Award
Description: "When You're Chewing on Life's Gristle, Don't Grumble, Give a Whistle, And This'll Help Things Turn Out For The Best, and... Always Look On The Bright Side of Life."
And the Nominees are:
Sebastian Vettel: For Germany but also for not being able to keep up with Lewis Hamilton in possibly a superior car.
Daniel Suárez: For losing his Cup ride at Joe Gibbs Racing after two seasons in Cup and winning the championship in NASCAR's second division.
Valtteri Bottas: For being a consummate number two driver and not even getting one victory after his untimely tire puncture at the start of the final lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Brett Moffitt: For winning the NASCAR Truck championship and losing his ride before Christmas due to lack of funding.
Jamie Green: Going from third in the championship with 173 points and three victories to 18th on 27 points and scoring one top five finish.
And the winner is... Brett Moffitt: For winning the NASCAR Truck Series championship and losing his ride before Christmas due to lack of funding.
Brett Moffitt overcame the lack of funding with Hattori Racing Enterprises to win the NASCAR Truck Series championship this year. It was a popular story for a somewhat forgotten driver that had won the NASCAR Cup Series rookie of the year just three years ago.
The team beat the established and well-funded GMS Racing with previous champion Johnny Sauter and the flashy Justin Haley, the behemoth that is Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck series with Noah Gragson and the Truck series stalwart ThorSport Racing.
Moffitt had lost a ride the year before when Red Horse Racing closed after five races due to lack of funding. In the same situation in 2018, Moffitt won six races and had 13 top five finishes. At a few points during the season it seemed like the team was on the verge of closing and yet it always found a way to the racetrack and found a way to be at the sharp end of the grid.
The season ended with a championship but in the weeks after the glorious night the harsh reality of business came in and Hattori Racing Enterprises had to part with Moffitt because it needs driver that can help with the funding issue. Moffitt's title defense will have to come from somewhere else if he stays in the series.
Moffitt will land somewhere and he is not the first driver to win the championship and lose the ride due to funding but it is rare in NASCAR, especially in the national touring divisions and it just shows the difficulties these teams have to make ends meet. However, it is becoming increasingly common in NASCAR and we will have to wait and see if NASCAR does anything to decrease the spending and decrease teams having to rely on drivers to bring funding.
On the other nominees:
Vettel has come up a few times here and for the first half of the season he was trading blows with Hamilton and it seemed like he was going to have a legitimate shot at the title. Then Germany happened and he never recovered. He won the Belgian Grand Prix but that was it. Vettel would not finish ahead of Hamilton against until Mexico, where fourth place was enough for Hamilton to clinch the championship. He was there but yet he wasn't close.
Furniture Row Racing closing its doors was a terrible thing but it created a difficult game of musical chairs with five drivers and four seats at Joe Gibbs Racing. The extra driver entering the equation was Martin Truex, Jr. and Toyota was not going to let one of its champions get away. With Truex safe, Kyle Busch not getting the boot and Denny Hamlin having had a decade of success with Gibbs, it left the decision between Daniel Suárez and Erik Jones. Jones won a race in 2018. Suárez had yet to win in his two years in Cup. He was the one sent to the curb.
Valtteri Bottas could not get a break in 2018. Azerbaijan slipped through his fingers. He was beat straight up in China. He qualified on pole position and was apart of Mercedes-Benz's double retirement in Austria. When Vettel went off in Germany, it became Hamilton's race. He led from the start in Russia but team orders made it Hamilton's race again. He ended the season with four consecutive fifth place finishes. That day when Mercedes-Benz could make sure Bottas got his warm day in the sun never came. He has to look to 2019 with the wind in his face.
Jamie Green had a peculiar fall in the DTM championship. He was a title contender last year and this year he was dead last! Green didn't forget to drive and the DTM has this tendency. If you are not at the top at the start of the season you are likely never going to end up there. Green didn't get the results early and Audi focused on other drivers. He should turn it around and it would not surprise me if Green was up for a different award next year.
Past Winners
2012: Ben Spies
2013: Sam Hornish, Jr.
2014: Alexander Rossi
2015: McLaren
2016: Toyota
2017: Nick Heidfeld
Comeback of the Year
Description: The Best Comeback in the 2018 season.
And the Nominees are:
Lewis Hamilton: Winning the German Grand Prix form 14th on the grid and retaking the championship lead after trailing by eight points.
Scott Dixon: From first lap accident at the Grand Prix of Portland and trailing Alexander Rossi in the championship by 42 points to a fifth place finish and exiting Portland with a 29-point lead.
Force India: From administration and losing all its points prior to the Belgian Grand Prix to seventh on 52 points.
Lucas Mahias: Having a flat tire at Algarve only to have a timely red flag allow him the opportunity to win the ride back on a flat before the five-minute clock expired and having his disqualification from that race overturned to get the victory.
Billy Monger: Returning to racing after losing his legs and finishing sixth in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship with four podium finishes and a pole position at Donington Park.
And the winner is... Billy Monger: Returning to racing after losing his legs and finishing sixth in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship with four podium finishes and a pole position at Donington Park.
The man lost his legs and came back! Enough said. He won this back in April just by showing up for the first race. He extended his margin of victory in this category with each race and the results that followed. Monger finished third in the first race of the season and he scored fastest lap in the next race. He retired from one of 22 races. He had 15 top ten finishes.
Monger may not have won a race but one year after a horrific accident he was back in a race car, a step up from the F4 British Championship he was in the year before, and he was competitive. He is an inspiration and he is not done yet.
Next year, Monger is hoping to be in the FIA Formula Three Championship, two steps below Formula One. I do not know if he will make it to Formula One but the 19-year-old is not done racing and he will be around for a long time. His career may take him to the United States or Japan. It may take him to sports cars. He may make a living in touring cars but he is not going away. I can't wait to see where the future takes him.
On the other nominees:
Hamilton had never won a Formula One race from outside the top six positions and after starting 14th in Germany it appears his season was on the cusp of an uphill battle. Hamilton had a few sensational drives from further back on grid. In 2014, he went from 20th to third at Hockenheim and in the next race that season in Hungary he went from 22nd to third. In 2016, Hamilton started 21st and finished third in Belgium. He had some close calls but it never worked out. On a Sunday in Germany, the stars aligned under a rainy sky for Hamilton. He won from 14th and became the 14th driver to win from 14th or worse in a Formula One race.
It appeared the IndyCar championship was going to take a massive swing at Portland when Dixon was caught in the middle of torn up race cars but he drove away, the only one unscathed and he was still on the lead lap. He was far back and fighting just to claw some points out of Rossi's lead and then he had a pit lane speeding penalty. It seemed the championship lead was going to be Rossi's heading to Sonoma but a caution fell that shuffled the field, Dixon ended up ahead and the championship lead was his again. Not only was it his but he ended up extending it. It was a remarkable day.
For a while it was worrisome about Force India. The team was starting to flounder. It appeared Formula One was not only going to lose a team midseason but a competitive team as well. The good news was that the team entered administration and new investors pumped new life into the team. The bad news is the team had to forfeit 59 points and sixth in the constructors' championship. With nine races to go, Force India didn't make it all back but it finished seventh and was only ten points behind McLaren. What could have been disastrous turned out not to be so bad for this team.
Lucas Mahias was gone in this race and he was keeping himself in the championship fight. He lost the tire and it was a cruel bit of fate to happen so late in the race but an accident in another part of the circuit moments later drew out a red flag and it gave Mahias a second wind. The man rode in on a rim, had a few more falls along the way and somehow made it back. Yes, he would be disqualified but an appeal was successful and all of Mahias' frantic work was not for nothing.
Past Winners
2013: Michael Shank Racing at the 24 Hours of Daytona
2014: Juan Pablo Montoya to IndyCar
2015: Kyle Busch
2016: Max Verstappen from 15th to 3rd in the final 18 laps in the wet in the Brazilian Grand Prix
2017: Kelvin van der Linde: From third to first after a botched pit stop in the final 20 minutes in the 24 Hours Nürburgring
Most Improved
Description: Racer, Team or Manufacture Who Improved The Most from 2017 to 2018.
And the Nominees are:
Suzuki MotoGP: From 100 points, no podium finishes and no riders in the top ten to 233 points, nine podium finishes, Álex Rins finishing fifth in the championship and Andrea Iannone finishing tenth in the championship.
Jaguar Racing: From tenth on 27 points to sixth on 119 points in Formula E.
Gary Paffett: From tenth with one podium finish to DTM champion with three victories and ten podium finishes.
Joey Logano: From 17th with one victory to NASCAR Cup champion with three victories.
Kevin Magnussen: From 14th on 19 points to ninth with 56 points and 11 finishes in the points.
And the winner is... Gary Paffett
Paffett may have had a big jump from 2017 to 2018 but his 2018 season was a big jump over the previous five seasons.
Paffett may have more than doubled his points from 2017 to 2018 but his championship was also his first top five championship finish since he finished second in 2012. Prior to his victory in the season opener at Hockenheim, Paffett had not won since Lausitz in 2013. In 2014, he was 22nd in the championship on five points, ahead of only Vitaly Petrov, who did not score a point that season.
His three championship finishes from 2015 to 2017 were ninth, eleventh and tenth. He found something but was still off from where he was in the 2000s and off what it took to be a champion.
The 2018 season was a big turnaround. Not only did he win three races but he was on the podium in half of the races and there was no margin for error. Defending champion René Rast made a late surge, winning the final six races of the season but Paffett was able to hold off Rast by four points for the title.
On the other nominees:
Suzuki made a big stride in 2018 and if it wasn't for the conditions in Valencia it might have ended the season with a victory for Álex Rins. Suzuki was coming off of a rough year after Maverick Viñales left but 2018 was a step back in the right direction and it feels like the team is set up nicely for 2019.
Jaguar Racing made a big move up in Formula E and leaped ahead of a fair amount of teams that have been there since day one. Mitch Evans appears to be a forgotten talent, one of many drivers that Formula One has missed in the last five years and he might be the one to take Jaguar to the top of Formula E.
Joey Logano won last year at Richmond, had that race encumbered and he was not the same in 2017. He missed out on the NASCAR playoffs and was kind of forgotten. He won the spring Talladega race and made the playoffs. He ran well all year and when it came to the final ten races, Logano got the job done. He won at Martinsville and then won at Homestead to take the title.
Fourteenth to ninth does not sound all that impressive but when you consider Haas had never had a driver finish better than 13th in the championship and Magnussen had soured some people in recent years. However, this year Magnussen's 56 points is a career-high for him in a single season, he cracked the top ten and he finished five positions and 19 points ahead of his teammate Romain Grosjean, who has been with the team since day one. Magnussen took a step forward in 2018 and it was a long time coming.
Past Winners
2012: Esteban Guerrieri
2013: Marco Andretti
2014: Chaz Mostert
2015: Graham Rahal
2016: Simon Pagenaud
2017: DJR Team Penske
That is a wrap. We are at the end of the year and with a Formula E season opener behind us we can head into the holiday period and relax for a bit. We get a few days off around Christmas and spend the days in cold weather reflecting about the past and wondering about the future. The New Year and new seasons will be here shortly. It slowly gets going in January, picks up speed in February and come March it starts to feel familiar again and the year will flash before our eyes. It will be December again. The time will disappear and we will wonder where it went. We will think about the races we saw and feel like yesterday but were nine months ago. It will be sad but it will make us happy. The period will repeat.
Predictions will be here in the coming days. There will be the annual Christmas list and then it will be 2019. I thank all of you who read this. Thank you for taking the time.
