The year blasts by and every year it seems to go quicker. It is the final day of June. It is hot and humid outside. Le Mans is over. Formula One is back in Europe. MotoGP is already on break. In contemporary motorsports, the end of June doesn't really signal a transition in the season. With how long some championships go, it doesn't feel like the end is near. That will come in August, but June is a transition point in the year, and things will be moving quickly.
IndyCar Tidbits
We are nearly halfway through the 2023 IndyCar Series season, and there have been a few notable things to happen this year that should be noted.
Kyle Kirkwood's Company
Somewhat unexpectedly, Kyle Kirkwood scored his first career victory in the third race of the season at Long Beach. Kirkwood won the race from pole position, but prior to that weekend Kirkwood had one top ten finish, which coincidentally came a year prior at Long Beach.
Kirkwood's Long Beach victory came in what was his 20th career start. Entering that race he had one top ten finish and zero top five finishes. How many drivers that took 20 starts or more to get their first career victory had zero top five finishes and one top ten finish or fewer?
Eighty-eight drivers had their first career victory come in their 20th start or later prior to Kirkwood. Of those 88 drivers, only one other driver had zero top five finishes prior to his first career victory. Who was it?
Buddy Lazier!
Buddy Lazier did not win in his first 56 starts. In his 57th, Lazier won the 1996 Indianapolis 500. Not only was it Lazier's first career victory, but it was his first career top five finish. Entering that race, Lazier had only three career top ten finishes. He was ninth in the Denver street race in 1991, seventh at Michigan in 1992 and tenth in Vancouver in 1992. Lazier had not finished in the top ten in his previous 28 starts spread over nearly four years before he won that Indianapolis 500.
Lazier's three top ten finishers were the fewest for a driver who took 20 starts or more for a first career victory prior to Kirkwood. The only other driver in this category that had five top ten finishes or fewer is Robbie Buhl, who had five top ten finishes prior to his first career victory at Loudon in 1997, Buhl's 21st career start, but one of those results was a top five finish. Buhl was third in the inaugural Indy Racing League event on January 27, 1996 at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Florida.
Along with Buhl, there are four other drivers who took 20 starts or more for a first career victory and had only one top five finish prior to that victory.
They are Bobby Olivero, Jaques Lazier, Alex Barron and Mike Conway.
Olivero won in his 21st start in the USAC Gold Crown race held at Springfield in 1982. His only top five result prior was a fifth in the 1977 California 500 at Ontario. Jaques Lazier won in his 23rd career start at Chicagoland in 2001. Lazier's first career top five finish came three races prior when he was third at Nashville Superspeedway, a race that of course his brother Buddy won.
Speaking of Nashville, Barron's first career victory was there one year later. It was Barron's 45th career start. His first top five finish was five races earlier when Barron was fourth in the Indianapolis 500, earning him co-Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors with Tomas Scheckter.
As for Conway, his first career victory was the 2011 Grand Prix of Long Beach, his 26th career start. However, like Buhl, Conway's best finish prior was a third, which is ironic because when Conway finished third at Sonoma in 2009 he was driving for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, which had Buhl as one of its co-owners at the time.
Romain Grosjean's Company
Kyle Kirkwood is in pretty exclusive company. Romain Grosjean is in less exclusive company, but he is still in rare air, though Grosjean probably wishes this wasn't the case. We all know the Frenchman has come close to winning races in his IndyCar career, he just hasn't yet.
Five times has Grosjean been runner-up in IndyCar competition. In those five runner-up finishes, Grosjean had a valid shot at victory in at least three of them, and that isn't including St. Petersburg this year where Grosjean should have at worst finished second but ended up 18th.
How many drivers have at least five runner-up finishes in IndyCar history but zero victories?
Fittingly, the answer is five. Grosjean is tied with Russ Snowberger and Raul Boesel on five. Geoff Brabham had six runner-up results. Vitor Meira holds the record with eight.
Snowberger, who to date is the only Maryland-born driver to start an Indianapolis 500, had five runner-up finishes in the first 35 starts of his career spanning from September 5, 1927 at Altoona to September 4, 1950 at Pikes Peak.
Well, Grosjean has one up on Snowberger because Grosjean had five runner-up finishes in his first 34 starts.
Boesel had all five of his runner-up finishes come driving for Dick Simon Racing from 1992 through 1994. Boesel also has the distinction of being the most experienced IndyCar driver without a victory, going 0-for-199 in his career. Boesel led the most laps at Milwaukee in 1993 from pole position, but Nigel Mansell took the lead with 19 laps to go and Boesel was second.
That wasn't even Boesel's worst defeat. The Brazilian led 120 of the first 224 laps at Michigan in 1994 before he lost an engine while leading with 27 laps remaining. Boesel never led in any of this other runner-up finishes. The only other time he led a lap in a race where he finished on the podium was the 1989 Indianapolis 500. He led lap 36 before finishing third, six laps down.
Brabham was runner-up in his third career start, the final USAC-sanctioned race at Pocono in 1981. He lost the lead to A.J. Foyt four laps prior to rain ended the race early. It was Foyt's 67th and final IndyCar victory. Three years later, Brabham was runner-up to Mario Andretti in the first Grand Prix of Long Beach under CART sanctioning. Later that season, Brabham was runner-up to Al Unser, Jr. at Portland in what was Unser, Jr.'s first career victory. A little over a year later, Brabham was runner-up to Unser, Jr. at Cleveland, Unser, Jr.'s third career victory.
In 1987, Brabham, was runner-up in consecutive races, again at Pocono, but this time in a race Rick Mears dominated. Then at Road America, again to Andretti as Andretti led all 50 laps and Brabham was second, 41.08 seconds down the road.
For those keeping score at home, Brabham was runner-up to IndyCar's all-time leader in victories, the driver currently third all-time in victories, the driver ninth all-time in victories and the driver 13th all-time in victories, who also is one of four drivers with four Indianapolis 500 victories.
Sheesh! Brabahm only led 51 laps in his career, 32 of which came in his third and fourth career start. There were the 15 at Pocono and then he led 17 from pole position at Riverside before a handling issue took him out of the race.
And that brings us to Mr. Meira. Meira's close calls were well documented during the 2000s in the Indy Racing League. But here's a reminder...
He was second in consecutive races in 2004, first to Dan Wheldon at Richmond, then seven days later at Kansas to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Buddy Rice by 0.005 seconds and Meira had led the penultimate lap.
The following season Meira was second in the Indianapolis 500 to Wheldon and second at Kentucky to Scott Sharp by 0.078 seconds. For 2006, he moved to an under-funded Panther Racing and still finished runner-up three times! There was a stunner at Watkins Glen when he was second to Scott Dixon. He hung with Team Penske's Sam Hornish, Jr. at Richmond to take second. Then Meira led the most laps at Michigan only to lose out to Hélio Castroneves.
Meira's final runner-up finish would be in the 2008 Indianapolis 500 to Dixon, a race Dixon had covered, but what would be the first of four consecutive runner-up finishes for Panther Racing in the Indianapolis 500.
How does Grosjean's runner-up finishes compare? He has finished second to not one but two first-time winners. The first time was in his first runner-up finish in the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis to Rinus VeeKay. The second was earlier this season to Andretti Autosport teammate Kyle Kirkwood at Long Beach. Grosjean was second in the second IMS road course race in 2021 to Will Power. In 2022, Grosjean was runner-up to Josef Newgarden at Long Beach. The fifth runner-up finish for Grosjean was at Barber Motorsports Park earlier this season behind Scott McLaughlin. Not to forget mentioning Grosjean has twice finished runner-up from pole position!
That is plenty of heartbreak for one day.
Bet on Newgarden
With his victory in the Texas this April, the 2023 season is the fifth consecutive in which Josef Newgarden has won an oval race. Newgarden has won an oval race in seven of the last eight seasons with 2018 being the lone blemish. IndyCar doesn't run many oval races at this time. It hasn't run many in the last decade. For one driver to win an oval race for five consecutive seasons is a tad impressive.
Prior to Newgarden, the most recent driver to have a five-season streak of oval victories is Ryan Hunter-Reay from 2011-2015. Hunter-Reay is the only other driver to have a five-season streak take place entirely since reunification occurred.
But let's look bigger picture. How many five-season streaks of oval victories have taken place since the resumption of competition after World War II? Keep in mind the championship was entirely ovals essentially from the restart of racing in 1946 through the mid 1960s, then it was still rather oval heavy throughout the 1970s into the 1980s before more road and street course races were introduced during the CART-era. It was more balanced until the split and then for the first nine seasons of the Indy Racing League the schedule was only ovals.
So how many were there? Let's list them from longest streak down to those five-season streaks.
Bobby Unser - 9 (1968-76)
Johnny Rutherford - 9 (1973-81)
Rodger Ward - 7 (1957-63)
A.J. Foyt - 7 (1973-79)
Gordon Johncock - 7 (1973-79)
Scott Sharp - 7 (1997-03)
Sam Hornish, Jr. - 7 (2001-07)
Tony Bettenhausen - 6 (1946-51)
Jimmy Bryan - 6 (1953-58)
A.J. Foyt - 6 (1960-65)
Hélio Castroneves - 6 (2001-06)
Tony Kanaan - 6 (2003-08)
Johnnie Parsons - 5 (1948-52)
Parnelli Jones - 5 (1961-65)
Tom Sneva - 5 (1980-94)
Rick Mears - 5 (1987-91)
Michael Andretti - 5 (1996-2000)
Eddie Cheever - 5 (1997-01)
Dan Wheldon - 5 (2004-08)
Scott Dixon - 5 (2006-10)
Hunter-Reay - 5 (2011-15)
Newgarden - 5 (2019-23)*
This is only the 22nd time since World War II a driver has won an oval race in five consecutive seasons! If Newgarden didn't have that one brain fade at Iowa in 2018, we could be looking at an eight-year streak, which would be far more historic, but five is still remarkable, and knowing Newgarden this streak could continue for some time to come.
As impressive as Newgarden's streak is, do you notice any names missing?
Mario Andretti never won oval races in five consecutive seasons. Neither did Al Unser. Al Unser, Jr. never won oval races in consecutive seasons, let alone five consecutive. Emerson Fittipaldi's longest streak was three seasons, as was Bobby Rahal's. Dario Franchitti never did it. Will Power had a four-year streak from 2016-19.
Patricio O'Ward is the only other active driver with an active multi-season streak and O'Ward is at two seasons with three oval races remaining to extend it to three.
Leaving It Late
Newgarden didn't lead this year's Indianapolis 500 until lap 157. How many Indianapolis 500 winners didn't lead their first lap of the race until lap 157 or later? It is more than you likely think.
There are the obvious two, Dan Wheldon in 2011, who only led the final lap, and Joe Dawson in 1912, who only led the final two laps after Ralph DePalma broke down. Graham Hill led the final ten laps in 1966. His first lap led was lap 191. Mark Donohue led the final 13 laps in 1972, lap 188 to 200. Gaston Chevrolet's first lap led on his way to victory in 1920 was lap 187. Chevrolet led the final 14 circuits.
Emerson Fittipaldi only led the final 16 laps in his 1993 victory, lap 185-200. Al Unser, Jr. didn't lead until lap 183 in his fourth victory in 1987. Louis Meyer didn't lead until lap 182 in his first Indianapolis 500 victory in 1928.
Here is fun one, Joe Boyer led the first lap of the 1924 race, but in his #9 Duesenberg. He didn't lead with the #15 Duesenberg until lap 177, so the winning driver led before lap 157 but the winning car didn't. That was also the case with Mauri Rose in 1941. Rose led lap 39-44 but in his #3 Maserati. Rose didn't lead in the #16 Wetteroth-Offenhauser until lap 162. The Indianapolis 500 sure has some kind of history.
Hélio Castroneves didn't lead until lap 177 in his second victory in 2002. The following year, Gil de Ferran didn't lead until lap 170.
Takuma Sato also did not lead until lap 157 when Sato won in 2020. However, Sato did lead 27 of those final 44 laps.
Your answer is 14. Newgarden became the 14th "500" winner not to lead before lap 157.
No Repeat Finishes
Last year, I kept track of the drivers that did not have a repeat finish during the season, and Alexander Rossi had 17 different finishing positions over the 17 races, the first driver to have a different finishing position in every race since Eddie Cheever in the 2001 Indy Racing League season, but the 2001 season had only 13 races and Rossi set the record for most different finishing positions in a season.
How does 2023 look through eight races?
Six drivers have yet to have a repeat finish this season.
Scott McLaughlin (13th, sixth, tenth, first, 16th, 14th, seventh, eighth)
Kyle Kirkwood (15th, 27th, first, 12th, 14th, 28th, sixth, ninth)
Felix Rosenqvist (19th, 26th, seventh, ninth, fifth, 27th, third, 20th)
Rinus VeeKay (21st, 11th, 26th, 16th, 13th, tenth, 18th, 12th)
Graham Rahal (sixth, 24th, 12th, 17th, tenth, 22nd, 25th, 11th)
David Malukas (tenth, fourth, 20th, 19th, 26th, 29th, 23rd, 27th)
Beside the inagural season of the IRL, which was only three races in length, every season in this series has had at least one driver start a season with nine different finishing positions. In five of the last six seasons, at least one driver has opened the season with 12 different finishes in the first 12 races.
What about Mr. Rossi?
He finished fourth, 22nd and 22nd in the first three races. After finishing 17 races in 17 different positions, it took him three races this season to have a repeat and it came in consecutive races. But it gets better. Rossi was fifth in the Indianapolis 500 and then fifth in Detroit. Not only did he have a repeat position in the first three races and the repeat came in consecutive races but he had two repeats in the first six races and two cases of finishing in the same position in consecutive races.
In fact, it has been rather common to see a driver finishing in the same position in consecutive races this season. How many times has it happened? Well, here is a list of every driver to have it happen.
Álex Palou (fifth at Long Beach and Barber, first at Detroit and Road America)
Patricio O'Ward (second at St. Petersburg and Texas)
Scott Dixon (sixth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500, fourth at Detroit and Road America)
Rossi (22nd at Texas and Long Beach, fifth at Indianapolis 500 and Detroit)
Colton Herta (ninth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500)
Romain Grosjean (second at Long Beach and Barber)
Hélio Castroneves (21st at Long Beach and Barber)
Agustín Canapino (12th at St. Petersburg and Texas)
Simon Pagenaud (25th at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500)
Sting Ray Robb (27th at Barber and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, 22nd at Detroit and Road America)
Ten drivers have had the same finishing position in consecutive races on 14 occasions! Get this, every race this season has had someone finish in the same position as the race before!
Canapino covered St. Petersburg and Texas. Rossi covered Texas and Long Beach. Three drivers cover Long Beach and Barber. Robb covered Barber and the IMS road course. Three drivers cover the two Indianapolis races. Dixon covers the "500" and Detroit. Three drivers cover Detroit and Road America.
Does that sound bonkers? What does last season tell us?
Will Power (fourth at Texas, Long Beach and Barber)
Josef Newgarden (first at Texas and Long Beach)
Álex Palou (sixth at Toronto and Iowa I)
Patricio O'Ward (fourth at Gateway and Portland)
Simon Pagenaud (23rd in both Iowa races)
Conor Daly (17th at the IMS road course and Nashville)
Jack Harvey (20th at Iowa II and the IMS road course)
Devlin DeFrancesco (18th at Belle Isle and Road America)
Dalton Kellett (27th at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500)
Tatiana Calderón (25th at Road America and Mid-Ohio)
Over the entire 2022 season, only ten drivers had the same finishing position in consecutive races and it only happened ten times. Through the first eight races in 2022, it had only happened four times. Not only do we already have ten drivers that have achieved it in 2023 through eight races, but it has happened over three times more through the first eight races in 2023 than in the first eight races of 2022!
I cannot explain it! Let's see what happens over the final nine races of 2023.
Anniversary Victories
One final thing I noticed preparing for the Road America race was Hélio Castroneves was going to be racing on the 23rd anniversary of his first career victory. This year's Road America race was 23 years to the day of Castroneves' first career victory at Belle Isle.
I thought that was neat, especially since it has been 23 years. Castroneves is competing against drivers who weren't even born when he won his first career race. He isn't the first driver to ever compete against others who were not alive when he won the first time, but it does put into perspective the passage of time.
Sidebar, I also noticed Rick Mears' first career victory was on June 18. What are the odds that two of the four four-time Indianapolis 500 winners both had their first career victory occur on the same day? How have we not noticed that before? That is something!
Anyway, it was unlikely Castroneves was going to win this year at Road America, but it had me wondering how many drivers won a race on the anniversary of their first career victory?
For starters, a driver would need at least two career victories to accomplish this.
That cuts us down to 182 out of 298 IndyCar winners.
Of those 182 winners, only five have won a race on the anniversary of their first career victory.
Eddie Pullen's first career victory, on his debut nonetheless, was on July 5, 1912 on the five-mile Tacoma street course (remember that date and venue, it will come up again). Three years later, Pullen won on July 5, 1915 in Tacoma but this time on a two-mile board oval, his fourth career victory.
On the same day Eddie Pullen scored his first career victory at Tacoma, so did Earl Cooper. Pullen won the first race on July 5, 1912, and Cooper won the second. However, Cooper waited much longer than three years for his anniversary victory. Try 14 years! Cooper would win the 200-mile Independence Day Classic held on the 1.25-mile Rockingham Speedway board oval in Salem, New Hampshire. It was the penultimate victory in Cooper's career.
You know what is cooler than winning on the anniversary of your first career victory? Winning twice on the anniversary of your first career victory. What are the odds of that? Well, what are the odds of winning twice on the anniversary of your first career victory and all three of those victories being Indianapolis 500 victories? That is what Louis Meyer did.
Louis Meyer's first IndyCar victory was his 1928 Indianapolis 500 victory on May 30, 1928. Seeing as how Memorial Day was May 30 until the introduction of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act and, except for when May 30 fell on a Sunday, the Indianapolis 500 was held on May 30, it worked out that Meyer's 1933 and 1936 victories were both on May 30. He won those races on a Wednesday, a Tuesday and a Saturday respectively.
Speaking of Indianapolis 500 winners, Danny Sullivan's first career victory was July 8, 1984 in Cleveland. Six years later, Sullivan won on July 8, 1990 in Cleveland.
Meyer and Sullivan have company because they aren't the only drivers to win on the first career victory anniversary at the same track. Paul Tracy did it as well with Tracy's first career victory being on April 18, 1993 at Long Beach and Tracy then won on April 18, 2004 at Long Beach.
Along with these five examples of it happening, there are two close calls.
Tommy Milton, the first two-time Indainapolis 500 winner, scored his first career victory on September 15, 1917 at Narragansett Park in Providence, Rhode Island. Not only did Milton win his first career race that day but he won his second career race as well, winning the third championship race of the day at Narragansett. On September 15, 1923, Milton won at Syracuse, but it was a non-championship race. Milton won on the anniversary of his first career victory, but that victory doesn't count in the record books.
If you think Milton was special having his first two victories occur on the same day, he isn't alone. Cliff Durant had his first two victories occur on July 4, 1918 on the two-mile Tacoma board oval. Durant had only one other victory in his career. He won in Santa Monica on March 14, 1919. Durant technically never won on the anniversary of his first career victory, but he did win on the same day as his first career victory. That is something.
Can any other drivers possible win on the anniversary of their first career victory this season?
That depends. Marco Andretti could if he decides to run Gateway, which falls on August 27, the same day that Andretti scored his first career victory at Sonoma in 2006. It could also be the case for Gil de Ferran if de Ferran decided to return to IndyCar after nearly 20 years out of the series to run the Laguna Seca finale on September 10, which falls on the 28th anniversary of de Ferran's first career victory, which also happened at Laguna Seca.
July Preview
We have spoken about enough IndyCar and should focus on a championship that will be decided in July. Formula E has two rounds left, both doubleheaders in Rome and London.
With four races remaining, 116 points are left on the table. Twelve drivers are still mathematically alive for the championship.
Jake Dennis has five consecutive podium finishes and eight podium finishes from 12 races, but Dennis' 154 points is only one more than Nick Cassidy, who has won three times. Pascal Wehrlein has also won three times, but he has only one top five finish in the last eight races and Wehrlein has fallen to 16 points behind Dennis. Mitch Evans has two victories and trails by 32 points in fourth.
Jean-Éric Vergne and António Félix da Costa have each won once and they have 97 points and 93 points respectively. Maximilian Günther opened the season with no points from the first six races and he has since scored 78 points in the last six races to lift him to seventh in the championship, six points ahead of Sébastien Buemi, who has yet to stand on the podium this season.
Sam Bird has three podium finishes, but Bird has also not started two races and he has 62 points. Jake Hughes rounds out the championship top ten on 46 points. Defending champion Stoffel Vandoorne is clinging onto his title with 42 points while René Rast is barely alive with 40 points.
After the Rome weekend on July 15-16, any driver hoping to have a shot at the title in London over July 29-30 will need to be within 58 points of the championship lead. Currently, Vergne in fifth is one point to the good of that mark.
Other events of note in July:
IndyCar has Mid-Ohio, Toronto and a doubleheader at Iowa.
Formula One has four rounds and then will go on its summer break at the end of the month.
NASCAR has its Chicago street course race to lead off the month.
The 24 Hours of Spa also starts this month.
There is no MotoGP but World Superbike will run at Donington Park, Imola and Most.
