Track Walk: Barber 2025

The fourth round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season will be the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix from Barber Motorsports Park. After running three races over a span of 62 days, the Barber Motorsports Park round kicks off a stretch seven-races over the next 63 days, ending at Mid-Ohio on July 6. This will be the first of five consecutive weekends of competition for the NTT IndyCar Series. Next week will be the Grand Prix of Indianapolis before Indianapolis 500 qualifying the weekend after that. Then comes the Indianapolis 500 on May 25 and the Detroit Grand Prix caps it all off on June 1.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday May 4 with green flag scheduled for 1:47 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 3:30 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 11:30 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:02 a.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 1:47 p.m. ET (90 laps)

* - FS2 will have coverage of first practice. FS1 will have coverage of all action on Saturday and the morning warm-up. 

Honda's Hot Start

For the first time since 2021, Honda has opened the season with three consecutive victories, and it looks for four consecutive victories to open a season for the first time since 2020. Not only has Honda won the first three races, it has four of the top five in the championship and five of the top seven.

Leading the way is Álex Palou, who has won two races and finished second in the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Palou has scored 142 points out of a maximum of 162 points from the first three races. His three-race podium streak is his longest since 2023 when he won three consecutive races and also had a runner-up finish at Toronto cap off a four-race podium streak. At Barber Motorsports Park, Palou has never finished worse than fifth. He won on debut at the circuit in 2021, and he has led a lap in three of his four visits to Alabama. 

Kyle Kirkwood was the only one standing in the way of Palou going three-for-three to start the 2025 season. Kirkwood won from pole position at Long Beach and he led 46 of 90 laps. It was the first time Honda has led the most laps in a race this season. Kirkwood is second in the championship as he has finished fifth and eighth in the first two races, but he is 34 points behind Palou. Kirkwood does have five consecutive top ten finishes dating back to last season. Last year, he was tenth at Barber, his best result at the circuit in three appearances.

Quietly in fourth in the championship is Felix Rosenqvist on 88 points. Rosenqvist has finished in the top five of the last two races, the first time he has had consecutive top five finishes since the final two races of the 2019 season. For the second consecutive season, the Swede has opened with three top ten finishes from the first three events. That included a fourth-place finish at Barber. This weekend marks Rosenqvist's 100th start in IndyCar.

Rounding out the top five in the championship is Scott Dixon. On 86 points, Dixon opened the season with a runner-up finish at St. Petersburg and he has followed that with a pair of top ten finishes in California. Dating back to last season, he has two runner-up finishes and five top ten results in the last six races. Dixon's track record at Barber Motorsports Park is well-known. Six runner-up finishes, nine podium finishes and 13 top ten finishes in 14 starts. Dixon is returning after his worst results at the track. He was 15th last year. In two of the last three years, Dixon has failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying. In the other 12 years, Dixon has made the final round of qualifying. 

This likely has not been the start to the season Colton Herta was hoping for, but there are worse places to be than seventh in the championship. Herta is trailing Palou by 69 points through three races. Herta has started no worse than fourth in the first three races, and he has finished fourth and seventh in the last two events after pit lane issues cost him a promising result at St. Petersburg. Herta has never finished better than eighth at Barber, which came last year. He has never started better than ninth and he has never led a lap in five starts.

For Honda's hot start to continue, it must flip a three-year slump on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. Its most recent victory at Barber was Palou's triumph in 2021. Honda has had one podium finisher in each of the last three Barber races. Since the return of engine competition in 2012, Honda has won three of 12 Barber races. 

Andretti Global has not won since a wet race in 2013 with Ryan Hunter-Reay. Takuma Sato is responsible for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's only victory at the track in 2019.

Team Penske's Slow Getaway

While Honda will be looking to buck a trend, Team Penske will hope it is business as usual at Barber Motorsports Park. Team Penske has won the last two Barber races, and it has won eight of 14 races all-time at the 2.3-mile course. 

Scott McLaughlin is responsible for those last two victories. McLaughlin leaped from fourth to first after a strong battle with Romain Grosjean in 2023. Last year, McLaughlin won from pole position with 56 laps led. The New Zealander became the fourth driver to win consecutive Barber races. 

It has not been a bad start to the 2025 season for McLaughlin. Tire strategy is what foiled his St. Petersburg race. He led the first 40 laps from pole position, but he could not overcome a mid-race stint on the alternate tire compound. This dropped him to fourth. Mechanical issues were a mercy blow after a bad qualifying performance at Thermal Club, but McLaughlin bounced back to finish sixth in Long Beach. 

Will Power had the poor start to the season with an opening lap accident at St. Petersburg, but Power has rebounded, and in the last two races he has had to fight from behind for results. At Thermal Club, Power started 21st and drove to sixth. At Long Beach, Power went from 13th to fifth. Through the first three events, Power's average starting position is 15.667.

Power has an incredible record at Barber Motorsports Park. Two victories, five podium finishes and 11 top five finishes in 14 starts. He has finished fourth or better in the last four races. However, he has only led eight laps over the last six visits to Barber, including one-lap last year. His most recent victory at the circuit was in 2012.

The 2025 season started on a good note for Josef Newgarden, but the song quickly turned sour. Newgarden was third at St. Petersburg but was stuck in the middle at Thermal Club and finished 13th. Everything sunk to rock bottom at Long Beach when seat belt issues forced Newgarden to make two extra pit stops and derailed a possible top five finish. He ended up two laps down in 27th. Dating back to last season, Newgarden has finished 26th or worse in three of the last six races. 

Barber is a positive location for Newgarden. It is the site of his first career victory in 2015. His first Team Penske victory was at Barber in 2017 and he won for the third time in 2018. However, in the last four races, he has finished 13th or worse. He has not made the final round of qualifying at Barber since he won pole position for the 2018 race. 

Team Penske is looking to avoid going winless through the first three races of a season for the first time since 2021. The bad news for Penske is only once has it won three consecutive Barber races. That was from 2016 through 2018 when combining Simon Pagenaud's victory with Newgarden's pair. Penske's three drivers occupy eighth, ninth and tenth in the championship with McLaughlin leading the way on 69 points, Power sits on 63 points and Newgarden is on 58 points.

Some Surprises

Though there is nothing stunning about Álex Palou winning two of the first three races and Kyle Kirkwood manufacturing a dominant drive in Long Beach, there have been some surprises through the first three races of the season. 

Two came at Long Beach. Sting Ray Robb ended up finishing ninth and Kyffin Simpson was tenth. For Robb, it matches his career-best finish and it was his best result on a road/street course. For Simpson, it was his first career top ten finish in the 20th race of his career. 

Simpson has improved his finishing position in each of the first three races. After finishing 15th and tenth in the two California races, Simpson has consecutive top fifteen finishes for only the second time in his career. He was 14th at Barber and 15th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last year. 

Not only did Robb match his career-best finish at Long Beach, he also picked up his best starting position in his IndyCar career. Robb qualified 19th, and it was only the second time he has started in the top twenty in his career. Along with his top ten finish and career-best qualifying effort, Robb is also the top Juncos Hollinger Racing driver in the championship through three races. Robb sits on 39 points in 20th while Conor Daly has 32 points in 21st. 

Expectations were high for Christian Lundgaard as he moved to Arrow McLaren, but I do not think anyone expected Lundgaard to start this well. He has finished eighth, third and third over the first three races. This has the Dane as the best Chevrolet driver in the championship in third on 96 points. Lundgaard is responsible for three of McLaren's four top ten finishes. 

Meanwhile, Patricio O'Ward was second at Thermal Club, but he has finished outside of the top ten in the other two races. This is actually the second consecutive season O'Ward has finished on the podium and outside the top ten in the other two races of the first three to open a season. 

Worst of all for McLaren is it has a driver outside the top twenty in the championship. After a taste of IndyCar to close 2024, Nolan Siegel's first full season has not gotten off to the best start. Classified as 25th at St. Petersburg after Will Power ran into the back of him on the opening lap, Siegel followed that result with a 19th-place finish at Thermal Club and he battled food poisoning at Long Beach on his way to finishing 20th.

The results might not be spectacular for Prema through its first three IndyCar events, but Robert Shwartzman has done some wonders despite facing some adversity. After mechanical issues limited his participation at St. Petersburg and Thermal, Shwartzman was still 20th in the season opener, a spot behind senior teammate Callum Ilott. At Thermal Club, Shwartzman was the top Prema finisher, though in 22nd. 

At Long Beach, Shwartzman started on the primary tire and he used that strategy to get Prema its best finish in IndyCar, an 18th and it was three spots ahead of Ilott. Meanwhile, Ilott is three from the bottom in the championship, 25th on 25 points and only ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco and Jacob Abel. 

Barber Motorsports Park might not be the place to expect a surprise, but it is a place that has kept us on our toes. In 2022, Rinus VeeKay took pole position for Ed Carpenter Racing, and he led 57 laps before finishing third. Along with Sato's victory in 2019, Sébastien Bourdais was on the podium with Dale Coyne Racing. 

The Quarter Pole

With a 17-race calendar, the fourth race is essentially the quarter pole for the season, and the fourth race of the year is a good benchmark for how the championship will play out.

All 93 champions since the 1947 American Automobile Association season had at least one top ten finish within the first four races of the season. Seventy-two of those champions were top ten finishers in the first race of the season. Ninety-one of the 92 champions had at least one top ten finish within the first three races. The only champion that did not get his first top ten finish until the fourth race was Danny Sullivan in 1988. Sullivan cracked the top ten with a runner-up finish at Milwaukee that year.

Eleven drivers entered this weekend are still looking for their first top ten result this season, starting with Santino Ferrucci, who is 13th in the championship. The others are Graham Rahal, David Malukas, Christian Rasmussen, Conor Daly, Robert Shwartzman, Nolan Siegel, Louis Foster, Callum Ilott, Devlin DeFrancesco and Jacob Abel.

Going a step farther, 92 of the 93 champions since 1947 have had at least one top five finish within the first four races of the season. Gil de Ferran is the lone exception. De Ferran's first top five result in the 2000 season was his victory at Nazareth, the fifth race of that season. Only one champion since reunification did not finish in the top five in one of the first two races. That would be Dixon in 2015. 

Alexander Rossi, Marcus Ericsson, Marcus Armstrong, Kyffin Simpson, Rinus VeeKay and Sting Ray Robb are the additional drivers without a top five finish through the first three events.

Eighty-eight of 93 champions since 1947 stood on the podium after one of the first four races that season. Jimmy Bryan went the longest before standing on a podium in an eventual championship season. Bryan's first podium result in his 1956 championship year was in the sixth race, a victory in Springfield. The other four drivers, Chuck Stevenson in 1952, Al Unser in 1985, de Ferran in 2000 and Dixon in 2018, all didn't get on the podium until the fifth race of the season. 

Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power have all finished in the top five this season but have yet to stand on a podium. 

Sixty-four of 93 champions won one of the first four races that year. Ten champions did not win until the fifth race with three not winning until race six, seven not winning until race seven, two not winning until race eight, and one not winning until race ten. Three champions did not win for the first time until after the tenth race of that season. There have also been three winless champions.

Last year, Álex Palou's first victory came in the fourth race of the season. Christian Lundgaard, Scott Dixon, Patricio O'Ward and Josef Newgarden have all been on the podium this season, but none have been on the top step yet.

Of the 17 champions since reunification, ten of them won one of the first three races. Of the seven champions that did not win one of the first three races, five of them did not pick up their first victory until race six or later. In the last 11 seasons, the eventual champion has had his first victory come within the first seven races of the season.

Indy Lights

After 63 days, Indy Lights is back for its second round of the season. 

Dennis Hauger won the season opener from St. Petersburg and the Norwegian driver has 54 points and a 14-point lead over Lochie Hughes. Caio Collet rounded out the podium and Collet is 19 points behind Hauger. Myles Rowe was fourth with Salvador de Alba finishing fifth. Rowe and de Alba are 22 points and 24 points back respectively. Jordan Missig was sixth and he is 26 points off Hauger.

While there has been two months since the last Indy Lights races, there have been some changes to the driver lineup.

Chip Ganassi Racing has brought in Bryce Aron to take over the #9 Dallara from Jonathan Browne. Browne had funding issues that led to the announcement earlier this week that the Irishman would not return for the remainder of the season. Browne was seventh at St. Petersburg. Aron had finished 13th in the season opener driving for HMD Motorsports.

Aron exiting isn't the only change for HMD. Sophia Flörsch will not return after finishing 12th at St. Petersburg. The #24 Dallara will remain on the grid and Evagoras Papasavvas will make his debut. Papasavvas had already committed to running three races at Gateway, Road America and Mid-Ohio with HMD prior to the start of this season. Papasavvas was fourth in the U.S. F2000 championship the previous two years.

Max Taylor will also make his Indy Lights debut this weekend as Taylor and Nikita Johnson were scheduled to split the #18 Dallara from the start of the season. Taylor is also competing the USF Pro 2000 championship full-time this season, and he is third in the championship through the first six races.

Since 2021, HMD Motorsports has won four of five Indy Lights races at Barber Motorsports Park. Jacob Abel won last year's race for his family's team.

The Indy Lights race is scheduled for 11:36 a.m. ET on Sunday May 4. The race is scheduled for 35 laps.

Fast Facts

This will be the fourth IndyCar race to take place on May 4, but the first since 1912 when three races were run in Santa Monica, California. George Joerimann won the Chanslor & Lyon Trophy Race, Ralph DePalma won the Jepsen Trophy Race, and Teddy Tetzlaff won the Dick Ferris Trophy Race.

This will be the second Barber Motorsports Park race to run in the month of May. Patricio O'Ward won the 2022 race on May 1.

Four drivers won a race in the month of May prior to winning the Indianapolis 500 (Jimmy Murphy in 1922 at Cotati Speedway in Santa Rosa, California, Johnny Rutherford in 1976 at Trenton, Will Power in 2018 at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Simon Pagenaud in 2019 at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Only three times has the Barber race winner gone on to win the championship that season (Simon Pagenaud 2016, Josef Newgarden 2017, Álex Palou 2021). 

The average starting position for a Barber winner is third with a median of 2.5.

The worst starting position for a Barber winner is ninth (Will Power 2012).

The pole-sitter has won six of 14 Barber races.

Forty of 42 podium finishes have started intside the top ten. 

The only two podium finishers to start outside the top ten at Barber have come in the last two races. In 2023, Will Power went from 11th to third. Last year, Linus Lundqvist went from 19th to third.

In ten of 14 Barber races has at least one of the podium finishes started outside the top five. In zero Barber races have multiple podium finishes started outside the top five.

The average number of lead changes in a Barber race is seven with a median of seven. 

Ten of 14 Barber races have had six lead changes or more. 

Nine of 14 Barber winners have led at least half the laps in the race. 

The average number of cautions in a Barber race is 2.2857 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 8.714 with a median of 7.5. 

There has never been a caution-free Barber race, but 11 of 14 races have had two cautions or fewer. The 2016 race had only one caution for one lap when the initial start was waved off.

The most cautions in a Barber race was six in 2011, which was also the only Barber race not to feature a lead change.

Last year's Barber race had four cautions, the third-most in event history.

Predictions

Christian Lundgaard continues his tear at McLaren and not only will he be the best finisher for the team at Barber, Lundgaard will be the first-place finisher, and he will kick-off a frenetic four-hour period for McLaren as it will win the Miami Grand Prix as well. Penske does have a representative on the podium. Álex Palou is not on the podium, but he has a top five finish. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has its first top ten finish of the season. Nothing falls on the circuit. A rookie does finish in the top fifteen. Will Power will have his best qualifying run of the season. At least two Andretti Global drivers score their best Barber finish. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.

Best of the Month: April 2025

And in a blink, a third of the year is gone. It goes quick and with the end of April comes comfort. Every series you can imagine is in competition. There have ben big events but the biggest are still to come. Plenty has happen, more is to come. What a wonderful time of year!

Every month has its own bit of excitement, and as is the way in the year 2025, every month has its own bit of constroversy and discontentment. We try to focus on the positives here. There has been plenty of chatter about what has been wrong. We covered that on a rather regular basis. We try to end the month on a high note.

IndyCar Tidbits

Normally, I wait until we get deeper into the season to start picking at what we have seen in an IndyCar season, and through April, there hasn't been much to pick up. Not a lot spectacular can happen over three races, but there is some meat on that bone and instead of waiting until June, let's do some picking now while it is still fresh. 

First Three Victories on a Street Course

Our only two winning drivers so far this season have made some waves. IndyCar's most recent winner, Kyle Kirkwood, picked up his third career victory earlier this month at Long Beach. It was the second time Kirkwood has won the Grand Prix of Long Beach after he won the event two years ago. Also in 2023, he won what is currently the last street race run in Nashville. 

Three victories all on street courses. Has that ever happened before in IndyCar history? 

It is a good question to ask seeing as how prevalent street courses have been in IndyCar over the last four decades. One note on this one, there was a time where every road course race was a street race. There were no permanent road courses. They would shut down the roads in Santa Monica, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Tacoma or Riverhead, New York and hold races. It was much easier to do back then. Less traffic. 

With all due respect to the likes of Ralph DePalma, Ralph Mulford, Louis Chevrolet, Earl Cooper and Teddy Tetzlaff to name a few drivers, we are only considering modern street races, which really started with the inclusion of Long Beach in 1984. 

There is also a matter of what is a street course in the modern sense. Cleveland and Edmonton were not street courses in the sense city streets were closed off for an event. Both were airports. Part of St. Petersburg's course is a runway, but most of that circuit is on public roads. Belle Isle were streets but streets within a park and hardly causing havoc to local traffic trying to get to work for two or three months of the year. Most of Houston's Reliant Park circuit was parking lot, as was the second Denver "street" course, which used the Pepsi Center parking lot. The Meadowlands circuit was pretty much all parking lot.   Caesars' Palace's two races were run in its parking lot. Even part of the Nashville course Kyle Kirkwood won on was parking lot and not really real streets.

For the sake of everyone's sanity, if it was a temporary circuit, we are classifying it as a street course. 

Kirkwood didn't set any history, but he did join a small group of drivers to have their first three victories on street courses. 

The first to do it was Paul Tracy. Tracy's first career victory in 1993 was at Long Beach. Tracy followed that up with a victory at Cleveland and Toronto later that season. His fourth career victory was at Road America. 

The next to do it was Will Power. Power's first career victory was in 2007 on Champ Car's lone race on the second iteration of a Las Vegas street circuit. Later that season, Power won at Toronto. In 2008, Power won the final Champ Car race in Long Beach. If you thought three was enough, guess again. Power's first six victories were on street courses. In 2009, he won at Edmonton before he opened the 2010 season with consecutive victories at São Paulo and St. Petersburg. His seventh career victory came on July 4, 2010 at Watkins Glen. 

There is one driver who won more than three races in his IndyCar career and all of them came on street courses. Do you think you know who it is? It shouldn't be that much of a surprise but it will likely stun you.

Ready...?

It's Mike Conway! Conway won the 2011 Grand Prix of Long Beach. After going winless in 2012 and announcing he would no longer run ovals, Conway was mostly out of the picture in 2013. He did get a one-off with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at Long Beach. That led to another opportunity with Dale Coyne Racing at Belle Isle. In the first race of the Belle Isle weekend, Conway took a surprise victory. This morphed Conway into a road course ace and with Ed Carpenter stepping away from road and street courses to only run the ovals in 2014, Conway was the natural driver to complete the duo in the #20 Chevrolet. 

The partnership paid off almost immediately. Conway won his second start of the 2014 season, this one at Long Beach. Then Conway won a timed race in Toronto. That would be Conway's final IndyCar victory and he has not started an IndyCar race since Sonoma in August 2014. 

Kirkwood became the fourth driver in modern IndyCar to have his first three victories come on street courses. He has a long way to go to make major history in most street course victories to open a career, but he is halfway to matching it.

Fewest Laps Led in Consecutive Victories

We opened the 2025 season with Álex Palou taking two victories on the spin and in a flash it felt as the season was over. The inevitable was on the fast track to happening. 

However, while Palou won the first two races, he didn't dominate either race. Patricio O'Ward dominated the Thermal Club race, but Palou had the better tire compound for the final stint, and he only led 13 laps. Palou was fortunate at St. Petersburg because if Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon was not having radio issues, Palou likely would not have won that race. Instead, Dixon could not properly communicate when to make his final pit stop and this allowed Palou to sweep into the lead. Palou led 26 laps in the opener. That was the second-most laps led in the race.

A combined 39 laps does not sound like much for consecutive victories. That had me wondering, what is the fewest laps led in consecutive victories? This is only going to take into account races since 1946.

There is an issue with this question from the start. There is the raw total number of laps led and then there is the percentage of laps led. A driver could lead ten laps at Road America. That doesn't sound like much, but it is about 20% of the race. Meanwhile, leading ten laps out of 300 laps in an Iowa race is really nothing.

Let's look at both, what is the smallest total number and what is the smallest percentage? 

While Palou led 39 laps, it was not the lowest total number of laps led in consecutive victories. It did crack the bottom five. What was lower?

At the very bottom is Johnnie Parsons. Over the final two races of the 1951 season, Parsons led the final ten laps at the Arizona State Fairgrounds after Tony Bettenhausen blew a tire while leading. In the finale at Bay Meadows, Parsons took the lead from Bettenhausen with 21 laps remaining. 

Next up is Bobby Unser, who only led 32 laps over a two-race winning streak during the 1967 season. That sounds low, but Unser led 32 of 46 laps over those two races. Unser swept a doubleheader at Mosport. Both races were scheduled for 40 laps, and Unser led the final 26 laps in the first race. A heavy rainstorm hit Mosport ahead of the second race. The race started in unbearable conditions and, after six laps, the race was called. Unser was declared the winner leading every lap. Why this race was counted as a full championship race despite only 15% of the scheduled distance being reached is a mystery, but those 32 laps led isn't that low when looking at the full picture. Unser led 69.565% of all the laps run.

Two other drivers led fewer than Palou's 39 laps in consecutive victories. Going back to the 1951 season, Tony Bettenhausen won the second race of the season at Milwaukee after he led the final 16 laps. Two weeks later at Langhorne, Bettenhausen led the final 19 laps on his way to victory, 35 total laps led over those two triumphs. 

Flash forward 71 years and in the second race of the 2022 season, Josef Newgarden led only three laps as he won at Texas Motor Speedway. After previously leading two laps during a pit cycle, Newgarden took the lead exiting the final corner to beat Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin in a photo finish. Three weeks later, Newgarden would lead the most laps at Long Beach, but he only led 32 laps as he held off Romain Grosjean and Álex Palou for victory. 

Palou's total laps led of 39 ranks as the fifth-fewest for a consecutive race winner. But what about the percentages?

Palou led 39 of 165 laps, 23.636%. Not high, but not the lowest and not really close to the lowest. 

Those 35 laps Josef Newgarden led over his consecutive victories in 2022 were 35 laps led out of 333 laps  run between Texas and Long Beach. That is 10.5105%!

 

Johnnie Parsons' 31 laps led in his consecutive victories to close the 1951 season were 31 out of 250 laps, 12.4%, the second-lowest for a consecutive race winner. 

Do you remember when Dan Wheldon won three consecutive races in 2005, including the Indianapolis 500? Of course you do. Do you remember how many laps he led? It wasn't many. It was 71 total laps over those three races. Wheldon led ten laps at St. Petersburg as he took first in the Andretti Green Racing 1-2-3-4 finish. At Motegi, he only led 31 laps and he only took the lead for the final time with three laps remaining after Tomas Scheckter ran out of fuel. In the Indianapolis 500, Wheldon led 30 laps. That is 71 out of 500 laps of racing in those three events. That is 14.2%.

Tony Bettenhausen's 35 laps from his pair of victories in 1951 was 35 out of 200 laps. Bettenhausen led 17.5% of the laps in his consecutive victories, tied for the fourth-lowest percentage. Sam Hornish, Jr. also led 17.5% of the laps run over his consecutive victories late in the 2003 season. Hornish, Jr. led 40 of 200 laps at Chicagoland Speedway and 30 of 200 laps at Fontana. 

Two other drivers have won consecutive races in IndyCar history and led less than 20% of the laps run over those races. There is another three-race winning streak on the list. In the summer of 1998, Kenny Bräck won at Charlotte, Pikes Peak and Atlanta. Over those three races, led Bräck led 121 of 616 laps, 19.6428%. 

The year prior to that, Arie Luyendyk won the Indianapolis 500 and the next race at Texas Motor Speedway. Luyendyk led 81 of 408 laps, 19.8529%, over those two races. 

To round out the top ten lowest percentages, Wally Dallenbach led 22.91667% of the laps run (55/240) between his two victories at Milwaukee and Ontario in the summer of 1973. That Ontario race was a 40-lap heat ahead of the California 500 the following weekend, but it was still a championship race. Then we have Palou's 23.636% in ninth. Ryan Hunter-Reay's three-race winning streak in the summer of 2012 over the Iowa, Milwaukee and Toronto races takes tenth as Hunter-Reay led 135 of 560 laps, 24.107% of the laps run. 

It is kind of fascinating that we have never really had someone get lucky twice. Nobody caught a brake and won consecutive races on fuel mileage while only leading a combined six laps over both events. In all those years of the Indy Racing League where cars were two abreast for ten rows for 200 laps, nobody ever took the lead with two to go in consecutive races and snagged two victories out of nothing. 

I guess it is hard to get lucky twice. 

The McLaren Inevitable

This came up at the Thermal Club round because it looked like we were poised to see a splendid day for the McLaren organization. Oscar Piastri won the Chinese Grand Prix that morning and Patricio O'Ward was starting on pole position for the Thermal Club race that afternoon. McLaren was in prime position to sweep the races. 

Knowing McLaren's deep-rooted history in both series, we knew almost from the second we woke up that Sunday afternoon in March that the last time McLaren won a Formula One race and an IndyCar race on the same day was May 2, 1976. James Hunt won the Spanish Grand Prix from Jarama. Johnny Rutherford won at Trenton. 

Fun fact about that day, Hunt was not the winner of the Spanish Grand Prix when May 2, 1976 ended. Hunt took the checkered flag first on the road, but he was disqualified for his car being too wide post-race. Niki Lauda left Spain as the winner. McLaren appealed the disqualification and on July 6, 1976, Hunt was reinstated as the winner as the 1.5 centimeters difference was deemed "minimal" and the rule over the car's width had not been created until the day before the Spanish Grand Prix. 

This sequence surrounding the Spanish Grand Prix was included in Ron Howard's 2013 film Rush, based on the Hunt-Lauda championship battle in the 1976 season. I appreciated Howard including such minutia in the film even though post-race scrutineering penalties and appeals are not the sexiest thing to include in a racing movie. Good job, Ron!

Were there any other occasions where McLaren won in Formula One and IndyCar on the same day and no trophies switched hands after inspection? 

Technically yes.

The year before McLaren won the Spanish Grand Prix from Montjuïc in Barcelona with Jochen Mass. The race was stopped after 29 laps due an accident that killed four spectators. Later that afternoon on April 27, 1975, Johnny Rutherford won at Trenton... however, this was a non-championship race. Rutherford won  a leg of the "World Series of Auto Racing," a four-legged series that included a race from USAC's sprint car, midget car and stock car divisions as well. While Rutherford won the IndyCar leg, A.J. Foyt won the four-race series overall. 

McLaren has won in both series on the same day, but McLaren has never won championship races in both series on the same day and ended that day as the race winner in both series. 

As we know, the Thermal Club race did not work out for McLaren and Álex Palou took the victory over Patricio O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard. 

There will be seven more opportunities for McLaren to win in both series on the same day in 2025. It starts this upcoming weekend. IndyCar is at Barber Motorsports Park and Formula One is in Miami. 

Then there is May 25 with races in Monaco and Indianapolis. The following week, Formula One heads to Barcelona and IndyCar to Detroit. On June 15, IndyCar is at Gateway and Formula One is in Montreal. July 6 sees Silverstone host the British Grand Prix, and IndyCar will be at Mid-Ohio that afternoon. 

Formula One will race at Spa-Francorchamps on July 27. IndyCar will be at Laguna Seca later that day. When Formula One returns from its summer break, it will be in competition at the Dutch Grand Prix on August 31. A few hours after the checkered flag from Zandvoort, IndyCar will run its finale from Nashville (By the way, is there a greater indication of where these two series stand than the day Formula One returns from its summer break, IndyCar is ending its season? Oof).

This feels inevitable. It is going to happen and we will have to live with hearing about it even if it becomes obnoxious. 

Most Laps Led Before First Indianapolis 500 Victory

This doesn't have anything to do with the first three IndyCar races of this season, but looking ahead to this year's Indianapolis 500, I heard it mentioned that Álex Palou has led 119 laps in the Indianapolis 500 as Palou enters this May still looks for his first career victory in the "500."

That had me wondering, what is the most laps led in an Indianapolis 500 career before winning the Indianapolis 500?

To be clear, these are the total number of laps led prior to the race in which the driver won for the first time. 

For example, all the rookie winners had zero laps led. You would think that is obvious, but technically don't all first-time winners have at least one lap led prior to winning the race? You only win once you lead lap 200, or whatever lap is declared the final lap should weather or daylight determine the end of the race. Technically, Alexander Rossi had led ten laps before he won the Indianapolis 500 because the 11th lap Rossi led in the 2016 race was lap 200.

We are not getting caught in those semantics. Who has the most?

It likely isn't a surprising answer. 

It took Tony Kanaan 12 attempts to win the Indianapolis 500. In Kanaan's first 11 Indianapolis 500 starts, he led 221 laps. Kanaan famously led in his first seven Indianapolis 500 starts, which set the record for most consecutive Indianapolis 500s led until Will Power led in an eighth consecutive "500" in 2020. 

The second-most laps led before a first Indianapolis 500 victory came nearly a hundred prior to Kanaan. Ralph DePalma led 200 laps between the first two Indianapolis 500s. In the 1912 race, DePalma led lap three through lap 198. Despite leading 196 laps, DePalma's Mercedes' broke down with two laps remaining. Combined with four laps led in the first Indianapolis 500 and DePalma had led a full 500 miles but had yet to lead the end of the 500th mile. Three years later, DePalma won the 1915 race with 132 laps led. 

Three other drivers have led at least 100 laps before they won their first Indianapolis 500. 

Bill Vukovich led 150s in the 1952 race and then won for the first time in the 1953 race. In Parnelli Jones' first two Indianapolis 500 starts, he led 147 laps. In Jones' third Indianapolis 500 start, he was victorious with another 167 laps led. Bill Holland led 143 laps as a rookie in 1947 only for teammate Mauri Rose to snatch victory when Holland had slowed down when his Lou Moore crew urged the drivers to watch their speed in the closing laps. Rose kept to push and Holland believed he had a lap led on Rose only for Rose to win by over 32 seconds. After finishing second against in 1948, Holland won the race in 1949.

A victory for Palou would make him the sixth driver to lead at least 100 laps before a first Indianapolis 500 victory, but Palou doesn't even have the most laps led among active drivers yet to win at Indianapolis. 

Ed Carpenter leads that list with 149 laps led. Marco Andretti is next with 144 laps led. Patricio O'Ward has led 93 laps, a victory for O'Ward would be the seventh-most. Joe Boyer had led 93 laps in his Indianapolis 500 career before Boyer won as a relief driver in 1924 with L.L. Corum. 

A surprising thing to me while going over these numbers is 37 of 75 drivers to have won the Indianapolis 500 had never led in the race prior to their victory. It isn't just the rookie winners, but a few notable names. 

A.J. Foyt did not lead in any of his first three Indianapolis 500 starts. Then Foyt won in his fourth.

Rodger Ward was a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. Ward's first Indianapolis 500 victory was in his ninth start. In his first eight starts, Ward never led a lap. 

Gordon Johncock also won two Indianapolis 500s in his career. Johncock also won his first Indianapolis 500 in his ninth start. In his first eight starts, Johncock also never led a lap.

Johnny Rutherford led zero laps in his first ten Indianapolis 500 starts. Then Rutherford won the 1974 race.

Neither Bobby Unser nor Al Unser led in the Indianapolis 500 before their first victories in 1968 and 1970 respectively. Bobby Unser had made five starts prior to his victory and Al Unser had made four. 

It is becoming less common though. Twenty-nine of those winners who had not led the Indianapolis 500 previously came in the first 63 Indianapolis 500s. In the last 45 Indianapolis 500s, it has only happened eight times, and only two of those have come in the last 20 years.

May Preview

We are going to have enough on the Indianapolis 500 over the next four weeks that we can put it aside for a moment to acknowledge Formula One's first trip to the United States, which occurs this weekend in Miami. 

Even though Formula One has boomed in popularity and now has three races in this country, I still feel rather grateful when Formula One is racing in the United States. Having experienced the dark days when there were years without a United States Grand Prix, it still feels like an honor anytime Formula One comes here.

It is different with three races. The money is flowing and Formula One loves coming over. There was a long period when Formula One's options in the United States were limited or non-existent. A decade ago, we were still wondering how long Austin would hang on and Indianapolis was the only other Grade 1 circuit. We were still smarting from the New Jersey race failing to get off the ground. We have come so far that if it was announced that a race would be taking place on the edge of the Hudson River today, it would undoubtedly happen. Talk about a complete 180º turn!

Miami might not be the greatest track in the world, but it does have its bright spots and it does draw a crowd. It feels like a passionate event and everyone wants to be there. The teams, the drivers, the crews, the spectators. Miami is a popular weekend. 

If there is one thing I wish was different is I wish the United States had a dedicated broadcast team like it did for so many years. Whether it be Bob Varsha, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett at Speed or Leigh Diffey with Hobbs and Matchett on NBC, it was nice to have a group of guys that were your own and gave you a special broadcast. It is the one downside to taking the Sky Sports feed. There isn't a connection to the American viewership. It doesn't feel like your group of guys. 

I wish we had that team as Formula One boomed with three races in this country as well as a network partner that was invested. ESPN shows the races and without commercial interruptions, but is there anything ESPN does to bring more Formula One to you outside the of the scheduled sessions on track? There might be a SportsCenter hit, especially for the North American race weekends, but there is not much extra that makes you feel like ESPN is invested in the series and the fans it draws. 

Either way, this will be a fun weekend. It will be a busy weekend with IndyCar and NASCAR racing at the same time. Everyone is going to love what that will do for viewership. It is great to have Formula One here, even if every race in the United States requires a small fortune to attend. 

Other Events of Note in May:

Formula One will also have races at Imola and Monaco this month. 

Formula E goes from Monaco to Tokyo to Shanghai.

NASCAR is running an All-Star Race no one is excited about and Prime Video broadcasts its first race, the Coca-Cola 600.

Supercross has two rounds remaining, Denver and Salt Lake City.

MotoGP has races at Le Mans and Silverstone.

Sports car racing has its final tuneups before Le Mans. ELMS races at Circuit Paul Ricard, the FIA World Endurance Championship has the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. IMSA has two races, Laguna Seca and Detroit.

Musings From the Weekend: Different Days Leading Into May

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Liverpool clinched the Premier League championship with four matches to spare. Marc Márquez's biggest rival is Marc Márquez. Jerez is an underrated venue. Meanwhile, we got a simulation of Madrid's Formula One track, and everyone is thrilled about it. There was a photo finish that proved to be inconclusive but we had to live with the winner anyway. Supercross found a new gem and it could have a few more new venues come 2026. There was testing in Indianapolis. Kyle Larson hit the wall. Team Penske was fastest. Now we wait, but these final days of April have been on my mind.

Different Days Leading Into May

I was thinking about this last week ahead of the Indianapolis 500 test. We know everything about those attempting this year's race. We have known all 34 entries since March 11th when Takuma Sato confirmed his return with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. There was an outside chance of a 35th entry, but over the last six weeks enough teams decided against fielding an extra car, and Katherine Legge took her funding to NASCAR.

There are 34 entries and that is a good thing. There have been plenty of years where we weren't sure there would be 33 entries. It was only three years ago a 33rd entry had to be scraped together. We should never see any negativity in 34 entries. I don't care that one car goes home. Don't want to go home? Beat one car. That is all it takes when there are 34 entries. It is different though that we aren't even in the month of May and we know all the entries. 

It should be noted this has been the norm really since the start of the DW12-era in 2012. There was a time when we would get to May 1 and we only knew 29 entries. There were times we didn't get entries formalized until May 16. Many things have changed. 

Along with the spec chassis and engine leases, we also have one qualifying weekend. Gone are the days when a team would have one entry comfortably in the field and then the backup car would be open for another driver to try and make the race on the second weekend. 

Even the way we qualify cars and what car can re-qualify has changed the game. Teams entered multiple cars because if one car made the race and was then bumped that car could not be re-qualified. That team and driver had to attempt with a different chassis. 

In a sense, the Indianapolis 500 has become more efficient and more realistic. Those years when there were 86 cars entered were lies. There were 36 or 37 legitimate entries, most of those teams had T-Cars, which were counted, and then you had teams with an extra entry or two in case of emergency. 

I went back and looked over some years not too long ago just to refresh my memory. 

In 2007, John Andretti's ride with Panther Racing was not confirmed until May 16. That was not on anyone's radar. On the same day, Roger Yasukawa secured the #24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry after Sarah Fisher had qualified 21st on the second qualifying day the previous weekend. Richie Hearn was confirmed in the Hemelgarn Racing entry the following day, as was Alex Barron with the Beck Motorsports entry.

In the following year, John Andretti wasn't announced as a replacement for Jay Howard at Roth Racing until May 10, and Andretti didn't make his first lap until May 14. In 2009, Tomas Scheckter secured the second Dale Coyne Racing entry on May 15. Bruno Junqueira secured the second Conquest Racing on May 16.

We have seen late deals in the DW12-era. Buddy Lazier's 2013 attempt was not formalized until May 12. It looked like there would only be 33 cars in 2013 until pole day when Katherine Legge and Schmidt Petersen Motorsports organized a 34th entry. Lazier and Legge made the race. Michel Jourdain, Jr. missed the race despite having his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing organized before the start of May.

It isn't only the middle of May deals we do not see anymore. Everything is locked up practically at the start of the IndyCar season. There was a time when some of the early deals would start coming up during the Long Beach weekend. Dan Wheldon's entry with Bryan Herta Autosport was not announced until April 16 at Long Beach in 2011. Buddy Rice's return with Panther Racing that same year was not announced until April 29, not Long Beach weekend but still in the lead up to the month of May. 

It is different. It is fine. There was excitement though when each week there could be an announcement. Some were surprises. Some deals we knew were the works and the "i's" and "t's" had finally be settled. This year, we have known for the last two months that there would be no surprises. 

With how IndyCar is in 2025, that is probably for the better. Everyone is focused on Indianapolis now to the point where every entry is running at 230 mph to make the race! It is highly competitive to qualify. When you don't have six entries getting settled in the final two weeks before qualifying, anything late in the game doesn't have a prayer. We have seen the unfathomable before, but for the cost, it is too much of a gamble. Every entry now requires over $1 million, over $1 million to get around $200,000 at minimum as a payout for starting the race. Only the top two positions would cover all expenses of a one-off attempt.

The qualifying format also plays a role. There are two days and you must qualify the first day. There is no bump day where a team can decide to roll the dice. We cannot get Tony Stewart 2004 shenanigans in 2025. We cannot get A.J. Foyt Racing deciding to spoil Arie Luyendyk, Jr.'s party and call Felipe Giaffone at a Babies "R" Us to come qualify the car. It is a loss though. There is a bit of whimsy in something being created out of the thin air and all of a sudden a team and driver are in the Indianapolis 500 against all expectations. 

It is ok that the times are different. If the economics changed and it only cost $100,000 to attempt the Indianapolis 500... well that's never going to happen, but in theory we could see more entries come out of the woodwork. If the economics changed and sponsors were less weary to commit to deals in December, January and February we could see later deals, but that is a bad reason for such a change. Always remember to be careful for what you wish for. 

This has been the way for the over a decade, but it is one of those changes you couldn't really notice until enough time had passed. I don't know if the late deals made the event feel bigger. Comparing then to now it is still 34 or 35 drivers working on Indianapolis 500 entries. The difference is we saw the wheels in motion on some of those final deals because those drivers were hanging around during practice week. We knew there were spots open and drivers working to get a shot. All that business is now done long before winter turns into spring.

Lamenting what is gone is good for a moment. It places where you are in the present. It should not take over because it can blind you from the good that is around you. Change does not equal loss. Acknowledge the positives that are around especially where it is rosier.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Liverpool, but did you know...

Álex Márquez won MotoGP's Spanish Grand Prix, his first career MotoGP victory. Marc Márquez won the sprint race. Manuel González won the Moto2 race, his second victory.  José Antonio Rueda won the Moto3 race, his third victory of the season.

Austin Cindric won the NASCAR Cup Series race from Talladega. Austin Hill won the Grand National Series race. 

Lucas Auer and Ayhancan Güven split the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from Oschersleben.

The #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW of Connor De Phillippi and Kenton Koch and the #91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG of Jeff Burton and Philip Ellis split the GT World Challenge America races from Austin. The #68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota of Gresham Wagner and Tyler Gonzalez won the three-hour GT4 America race. Kyle Washington and Justin Rothberg split the GT America races.

Kalle Rovanperä won Rally Islas Canarias.

Cooper Webb won Supercross race from Pittsburgh, his fifth victory of the season. Tom Vialle won the 250cc race.

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar opens May at Barber Motorsports Park.

Formula One opens May in Miami.

Monaco kicks off the month of May with Formula E. 

NASCAR has a race in Texas.

European Le Mans Series will be at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Super GT has a holiday race weekend in Fuji.

World Superbike is scheduled for a weekend in Cremona.

Supercross heads into the Rockies and Denver specifically.

109th Indianapolis 500 Testing Recap

The sun did not miss a second of testing from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and with its presence the 34 entries for this year's Indianapolis 500 got two full sessions in preparation for the 109th edition of the famed race. With time maximized, all the drivers and teams had time to experiment with the hybrid system while also getting two-and-a-half hours with the qualifying boost levels. 

For the most part, it was a calm session, but there were a few major incidents that will leave teams with extra work and more questions ahead of the opening practice sessions in nearly three week's time.

Who was Quick?

With the teams running two different turbo boost levels, there were two sets of result from this test. 

In terms of race levels, Scott Dixon set the fastest lap with 130 Kilopascals of boost on Wednesday with a lap at 39.9677 seconds (225.182 mph). It was only 0.0101 seconds faster than Josef Newgarden in second. Takuma Sato was the third driver to run a lap above 225 mph with race boost levels. Sato's best lap was 0.0201 seconds slower than Dixon's top time. 

Honda had the hold on Wednesday's test results as the Japanese manufacturer took nine of the top ten spots. Marcus Armstrong was fourth at 40.0023 seconds, just ahead of Colton Herta (40.0254 seconds), Álex Palou (40.0380 seconds) and Hélio Castroneves (40.0985 seconds). Felix Rosenqvist made it three-for-three for Meyer Shank Racing, as he was eighth fastest (40.2261) seconds. Marco Andretti and Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top ten. 

In Thursday afternoon's session at race boost levels, no one broke into the 224-mph bracket. Palou ran the fastest lap at 40.1798 seconds (223.993 mph). Honda again held the advantage sweeping the top three, taking five of the top seven and seven of the top ten. After Rosenqvist (40.2926 seconds) and Kirkwood (40.2934 seconds), Conor Daly was the fastest Chevrolet Thursday afternoon at 40.3049 seconds, taking fourth and right ahead of Newgarden in fifth. 

Castroneves and Dixon were sixth and seven respectively while Patricio O'Ward's fastest race levels lap came on Thursday at 40.3512 seconds. Graham Rahal was ninth with a 40.3814-second lap, which was a tad slower than his best lap from Wednesday, 40.3737 seconds. Marco Andretti rounded out the top ten.

With the qualifying boost levels, Honda still had power in numbers in the top ten, but Chevrolet had the fastest speed. Scott McLaughlin ran the fastest time at 38.6788 seconds (232.686 mph), 0.0200 seconds fastest than Sato. Will Power was third, 0.0679 seconds off McLaughlin and Rosenqvist made it four cars covered within a tenth of a second as the Swede ran at lap at 38.7764 seconds.

Chip Ganassi Racing had Palou and Dixon in fifth and sixth. Andretti Global had Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta in seventh and eighth. Josef Newgarden was in ninth, making Team Penske as the only Chevrolet team represented in the top ten. Kyffin Simpson rounded out the top ten, 0.3968 seconds off McLaughlin. 

Only 27 entries registered no-tow laps in Thursday morning's session with the extra boost. Sato's lap, which was second fastest on the day, was the fastest no-tow lap at 38.6988 seconds (232.565 mph). Kirkwood was second on the no-tow report, 0.1841 seconds off Sato. McLaughlin did run the third fastest no-tow lap at 39.0823 seconds (230.283 mph). Louis Foster made it two Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers represented in the top five of the no-tow report (39.0858 seconds, 230.263 mph) while Simpson rounded out the top five at 39.0984 seconds (230.188 mph).

Herta took sixth on the no-tow report (39.1294 seconds, 230.006 mph) with Newgarden 0.0296 seconds behind him. Patricio O'Ward was eighth at 39.1756 seconds, only 0.0014 seconds faster than Power. Graham Rahal rounded out the top ten no-tow times at 39.1928 seconds (229.634 mph). 

What Did We Learn From the Qualifying Simulation Session?

Despite this test taking place nearly month prior to qualifying weekend and being run through the later part of the morning, the conditions during this test did replicate conditions teams can expect come the month of May.

I think speeds were quicker than expected considering the additional weight of the hybrid system.  It is early, and while the conditions were comparable to what we see on qualifying weekends, these laps are not  are going to be identical to what we see next month. 

Speeds still could be down overall with the addition of the hybrid but the drop off could not be as great as first anticipated. I don't think we are going to see a pole average drop from over 234 mph into the 228 mph range. I still expect pole position to be north of 230 mph. 

If anything, we have learned that Team Penske is still quick, Chip Ganassi Racing is still quick, Andretti Global is still quick and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing may have found something! We thought RLLR made good gains last year only for three of its four cars to be in a hairy situation again on Saturday qualifying, and Graham Rahal again was on the bubble in the closing moments of the last chance qualifying session. 

Sato led the way last year, and he picked up where he left off, but if Louis Foster is showing respectable times, the team should be happy. It is April and not every team is showing everything they have got. Even in that case, there should be some encouragement for RLLR, but we will need to see this speed during practice week.

Who Lost the Most?

The two cars that were destroyed in Thursday's test: Kyle Larson and Takuma Sato. 

Larson brushed the wall exiting turn one on his second lap of the day, and that led to a harder second hit in turn two as his right front suspension was broken. Larson was unable to get out and run again on Thursday. He did end Wednesday with the 11th-best time (40.2810 seconds, 223.430 mph).

Sato had only completed eight laps when the back of his car stepped out in turn one on Thursday morning. Immediately prior to Sato's accident, he had just set the fastest trap speed entering turn one. 

Larson's car was damaged but repairable. Sato's car was totaled, and considering the importance of a Speedway-dedicated car, Sato and RLLR is in a rough spot less than a month before the first practice session. 

It is better to have this accident on Thursday of the two-day April test and not the Thursday with fewer than 48 hours before the first qualifying run, but RLLR has lost a dedicated car that was likely its best weapon. Sato's team will return in May with a massive checklist hoping it will pick up where they left off and not need to be searching for much speed.

Santino Ferrucci lost an engine early on Wednesday and only completed 12 laps. Ferrucci was able to run a total of 102 laps on Thursday and did not miss a lap of the qualifying simulations session. 

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing ran the fewest laps among all the teams completing. Over the two days, neither D&R car completed 100 laps. Ryan Hunter-Reay ran 96 laps. Jack Harvey completed 86 total laps as he lost drive early in Wednesday's session as well, causing Harvey to miss most of the first day. 

Who Gained the Most?

Though Sato got into an accident, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing should feel good. The Thursday morning session saw RLLR put its cars second (Sato), 11th (Foster), 16th (Rahal) and 19th (Devlin DeFrancesco). Along with having three of the top ten of the no-tow times in that session, DeFrancesco was 17th. 

It isn't a guarantee RLLR will avoid trouble, but this quartet could have been leaving this test feeling much more weary of returning in May. 

Prema ran a combined 405 laps over the two days. Even better is Prema ran 405 laps without any issues, which has been a difficulty for Prema through its first three IndyCar race weekends. Robert Shwartzman ran 262 laps, the most of the test. Speed was not prevalent though. On Wednesday, Shwartzman was 28th and Callum Ilott was 32nd. On Thursday morning, Shwartzman was 25th and Ilott was 31st. In terms of no-tow times, Shwartzman was 19th out of 27 registered times, but Ilott was 25th. On Thursday afternoon, Ilott leaped up to 27th while Shwartzman was 31st and only 32 cars ran as Larson and Sato were sidelined. 

Prema gathered data, but now it must make strides next month when the tension increases.

While the fastest three Chevrolets from the qualifying simulation session were Team Penske entries, the next best Chevrolet in that session was Juncos Hollinger Racing's Sting Ray Robb in 13th at 39.1518 seconds (229.874 mph). Robb did not register a no-tow lap on Thursday, but Conor Daly was 14th on the no-tow chart (39.3526 seconds, 228.702 mph).

JHR had a good qualifying session last year, and Agustín Canapino was contending for a Fast 12 spot last year. It is only one session, but JHR looked good.

What About the Hybrid?

We already covered how the speed was not drastically down with the inclusion of the system, but it appears teams are still trying to figure out the best way to regenerate and deploy the electrical energy around the 2.5-mile speedway. 

When it comes to regeneration, that can happen naturally through braking or coasting off the throttle, or it can be done manually when the regeneration paddle on the steering wheel. The problem with IMS is the teams are not braking at all nor are the drivers off-throttle enough to fill the capacitor to its maximum level. This leaves it on the driver to manually regenerate the battery. 

Whoever has the best handle on regeneration will benefit, especially in qualifying. To what extent that difference makes remains a question. I don't anticipate a driver who can regenerate a little more and deploy a little more often will see a massive jump up the charts, the same way I don't think a driver who struggles regenerating energy will suffer. It could be the difference of a spot or two and when it comes to the various bubbles we see on the first qualifying day, that is where it will be most noted. 

That could be the differences of a driver being 11th or 13th. That could be the difference of a driver being 30th and locked in on Saturday or 31st and needing to qualify again on Sunday. We aren't going to see a driver go from 25th to ninth because of what they can get out of the hybrid system, but it could be the difference maker in these tight situations where it comes down to hundredths and thousandths of a second.

Who is Happy After This Test?

Take who is quick and copy them here. 

Team Penske. Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Global, Meyer Shank Racing and throw in Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Even though Sato was in an accident, RLLR had a good two days. 

We didn't really see any surprises at the top. It feels like what we normally expect at Indianapolis. It would not be a surprise if come qualifying Penske, Ganassi, Andretti and MSR are combining to take all Fast 12 positions. Penske will likely put all three cars in the top six. It is at least putting two in that final session.

Who is in the Middle?

Did you notice how we didn't mention Arrow McLaren?

Last year, McLaren didn't really do anything all that outstanding other than have Larson be second in the test. Despite that, McLaren was still a factor in qualifying and the race. O'Ward and Alexander Rossi were at the front late in the race and fighting for the victory, and Larson had good speed in practice and qualifying. This year, McLaren didn't do anything brilliant, but I don't think there should be any grand concerns. 

I just said don't be surprised if four teams sweep the Fast 12, but McLaren will be a factor. It will have at least one, if not two cars progress to Sunday's qualifying sessions.

However, I do think this was a quiet test from Nolan Siegel, more quiet than he likely hoped. Christian Lundgaard wasn't blowing anyone away, which might not be a bad thing. McLaren could be keeping its cards close to its chest, but let's keep this test in mind in case the team is closer to the middle come qualifying. 

We could be seeing McLaren accepting a tradeoff between the full seasons and Indianapolis. After having a full season lineup where O'Ward was constantly the flag bearer and was undoubtedly the lead driver, but come Indianapolis McLaren had Rossi who could provide a strong 1-2 combination for the team, we could be looking this year at a McLaren team where Lundgaard is equal if not ahead of O'Ward across the entire season, but come Indianapolis it could all be on O'Ward's shoulders. Just when it thought one problem was solved, here comes another. 

Ed Carpenter Racing is in the middle. None of its three drivers were knocking on the door to be the fastest. Until we get into practice and closer to qualifying, I don't know if that is a concern yet. It does feel like the field is more competitive at the top and that will only make it tougher for Alexander Rossi, Christian Rasmussen and Ed Carpenter to keep up ECR's good qualifying form at this place. 

A.J. Foyt Racing didn't turn any heads either. Whether Ferrucci's engine failure on Wednesday led the team to play it smart on Thursday is an unanswered question. The team didn't look poor, it just didn't make any waves, but Ferrucci has done that previously. He isn't always at the top but when it comes time to be serious, he is there. If Ferrucci wasn't making any waves, David Malukas was hardly noticed at this test. That is not a bad thing, but no one walked away from this test with any evidence to believe Malukas will be a factor.

Who Should be Satisfied

Juncos Hollinger Racing should be pleased with its speed and feel if it checks all the boxes during practice week, it will be in the field with comfort and could have one if not both cars in the top half of the grid. 

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing might not have run the most laps, nor was it threatening to be the quickest, but this year's test looked a lot like last year's test and D&R was fine when it was go-time. They aren't out of the woods and could have some work to do to find some speed, but they are on the right track. 

Who Should Be Nervous?

Prema, Dale Coyne Racing, but more specifically Jacob Abel, and as much as we celebrated RLLR above, they should still be preparing for the worst. 

For the past two years, RLLR has had at least one car in the last chance qualifying session. In 2022, when only 33 cars entered, RLLR had two cars on the last row. This team should feel a little nervous until it has all four cars qualified into the race. That could require a session on Sunday. RLLR should know the drill and not relax until the job is done. 

We touched upon Prema. It completed a lot of laps. It did not run the most impressive speeds. That could have been part of the plan all along. Instead of pushing at 100% and possibly running into an issue or going over the line, the key thing for this team was to generate data and go into the month of May with a lot of information. It is almost setting itself up to be ahead rather than behind. Prema doesn't have a track record at Indianapolis. Until it shows it can qualify, we are going to have some questions. 

As for Coyne, Rinus VeeKay will be fine. It might not be VeeKay's greatest ever qualifying performance and he might lose that streak of top seven starts, but VeeKay should be able to put a Coyne car solidly in at 20th or 23rd and not have to worry about bumping. 

Abel is a different story. He wasn't the slowest in the qualifying simulation. He was 28th, but he was hovering around the bottom the entire test. All he must do is crack the top 30 on Saturday and he can sleep easy for a week. With how this season has started and Coyne's recent struggles at Indianapolis, it feels in all likelihood Abel will be making at least one qualifying run on Sunday and not because he is one of the 12 fastest. 

Coyne doesn't have to prepare to win the race. It should be looking to produce a car that is good enough for 26th or 27th, enough to clear the danger zone. That is doable, but we know even that has been an area the Coyne team has struggled to reach. 

After two days of testing, everyone has time to think. Everyone will know what they want to try to go faster. Some know it must find something a chunk of time to be safe. Others will be looking to become a greater contender come race day. As much as we know, we will have more to learn, and there will be unexpected twist and turns as this great race grows near.

109th Indianapolis 500 Testing Primer

If you are hoping for some IndyCar action in the middle of your week, you are in luck. Over the next two days, the 34 entries for the 109th Indianapolis 500 will take to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in preparation for the series' greatest race. 

While we will see the usual shakedowns and programs for rookies and one-offs to get up to speed, this year's test will look a little different. There is a new wrinkle as part of the two-day session will be dedicated to qualifying setups.  

As with any test, there is much to wonder, but when it comes to Indianapolis, everything is raised to a higher level. We will have some answers, and possibly even more questions, when the 13-plus hours of testing are behind us. 

Schedule

Testing begins on Wednesday April 23 with a fragmented day. 

The veterans will be the first to take to the track for a two-hour session starting at 10:00 a.m. ET. Rookie Orientation and refresher programs will begin at noon, and that will be a two-hour session. At 2:00 p.m., the track will be open to all cars and the session will run until 6:00 p.m.

Thursday April 24 will see all cars allowed on track for five-and-a-half hours over two sessions, the first starting at 9:30 a.m. For the first time in the DW12-era, the teams will run the qualifying turbo boost levels for the first two-and-a-half hours of testing. Qualifying boost is set at 150 Kilopascals (kPa) while regular levels are 130 kPa during the race and for every practice day except Friday practice before qualifying. Teams will be able to make qualifying simulations until noon. 

After the qualifying simulations session, there will be a two-hour break before the teams return at race levels of turbo boost for the final three-hour session, which will conclude at 5:00 p.m.

Who must run Rookie Orientation and the refresher program?

There are four rookies entered for this year's Indianapolis 500, but only three have to complete the Rookie Orientation program. Nolan Siegel completed the program in October during a series test at IMS. This leaves Louis Foster, Jacob Abel and Robert Shwartzman as the remaining drivers to complete the ROP. 

Rookie Orientation remains three phases. The first phase requires ten laps between 205-210 mph. Phase two is 15 laps between 210-215 mph. The final phase is 15 laps at 215 mph or faster. 

Refreshers will be necessary for Marco Andretti, Takuma Sato, Callum Ilott, Kyle Larson and Devlin DeFrancesco. Andretti and Sato have not competed since last year's Indianapolis 500. Ilott started the first three races this season, but his last oval appearance was at Indianapolis last year. Larson is another Indianapolis 500 one-off and he has not been in a car since last May. DeFrancesco last competed at Indianapolis two years ago. 

Hélio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ed Carpenter completed their refresher programs in the October test.

For the refresher program, a driver must complete the final two phases or Rookie Orientation, 15 laps between 210-215 mph and 15 laps at 215 mph or faster. 

What Will This Test Tell Us?

Josef Newgarden has been the fastest in the pre-Indianapolis 500 test for four consecutive years and he has won the Indianapolis 500 the last two years. Based on that, the fastest driver in this test will win the 109th Indianapolis 500.

That is a stretch, but it will likely give us a good idea of where everyone stands.

Three of the top five finishers in the race were in the top five at the test. Larson was second-fastest and Arrow McLaren had the other two top five finishers. 

If there is anything we will learn it will come on Thursday morning with the qualifying simulations. Chevrolet and Honda split the top ten with five entries apiece in last year's test. When it came time for qualifying in May, Chevrolet took nine of the top 12 and then the top eight spots on the grid. 

Last year's qualifying speeds were at a record pace. On the Saturday qualifying session, the top thirty drivers all ran a four-lap average above 231 mph. Three of the four drivers that were relegated to the last chance qualifying session still ran above 230.6 mph over four laps in Saturday qualifying. Scott McLaughlin's pole speed was the fastest in event history at 234.220 mph. McLaughlin's four lap qualifying run was 0.0020 seconds fastest than the previous record, which Álex Palou set in 2023. In the last three years, pole position's average speed has been over 234 mph. 

In terms of the fight to make the race, only one of the bottom four in last year's test participated in the last chance qualifying session in May, and that was the eventual bumped driver Nolan Siegel. Ryan Hunter-Reay was the slowest in the test, but only completed seven laps due to mechanical issues. Hunter-Reay ended up making the Fast 12. Kyffin Simpson and Agustín Canapino were the other two in the bottom four, and they qualified on rows six and eight respectively.

Will Anything Change at the Top?

Team Penske, Arrow McLaren and Chip Ganassi Racing each had two of the top six finishers in the race. At the pre-"500" test last year, Penske, McLaren and Ganassi combined for five of the top six. Andretti Global had Colton Herta in fifth and Kyle Kirkwood in eighth during the test, and Kirkwood ended up finishing seventh in the race. 

Santino Ferrucci was able to qualify sixth last year, but faded to eighth in the race. It was the second consecutive year A.J. Foyt Racing had Ferrucci make the Fast Six. Felix Rosenqvist was a bit of a surprise last year, coming in tenth during the test, and Rosenqvist backed up his testing pace being the fastest Honda in qualifying in ninth. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay was the stunner last year cracking the Fast 12 with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. 

Hybrids

This will be the first Indianapolis 500 with the hybrid system after it made its debut at the Mid-Ohio weekend last summer. The hybrid system has not changed much in the IndyCar landscape. 

In 12 races since the hybrid was introduced, Team Penske has won five races, Andretti Global has won three times, Arrow McLaren and Chip Ganassi Racing has each won twice. 

Team Penske swept the Iowa doubleheader last year, but the partial track re-pave somewhat tainted what we could take away from that weekend. At Gateway, Team Penske went 1-2 with Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin. The three Penske drivers led a combined 201 of 260 laps. Gateway had its most passes since 2018. 

Milwaukee and Nashville both returned to the scheduled after an extended time away. Arrow McLaren and Penske split the Milwaukee weekend with Patricio O'Ward and McLaughlin taking the respective victories. Colton Herta closed out the season getting Honda on the board with its only oval victory in 2024 as Herta made a daring pass on O'Ward with five laps to go at Nashville. Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood started on the front row and led a race-high 67 laps before finishing fourth, just behind Newgarden.

For all the concerns leading into the three short oval races, all three races held between the two circuits had more than 650 total passes with an average of 694.333 passes per race. 

Kyle Larson?

Yes, Kyle Larson will be there, and there has been a rather calm mood over Larson's return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After being second fastest in the pre-"500" test and qualifying fifth on debut, Larson drove well but made a few notable errors in the race that cost him a better result. A bogged down restart and a pit lane speeding penalty dropped him to 18th at the checkered flag, but he did complete all 200 laps. 

Year two is not as simple as picking up here he left off. Larson will have the hybrid system to learn, a slight change, but a crucial one as most of his competition will have had extended time using the system. 

Larson, Sato and Andretti are the only three drivers entered in this year's race that have yet to use the hybrid system. Castroneves and Hunter-Reay each experienced the hybrid in last October's test. The other 29 drivers have all used the hybrid system in an IndyCar race.

Who Can Make the Most of Their New Environment?

There has been plenty of changes from last May, and that could see a big shakeup in who is running where. 

After three years never starting better than 28th with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Christian Lundgaard moves to McLaren. In each of Lundgaard's first three Indianapolis 500 starts, he has gone the distance, completing all 500 miles and he has made up at least 11 positions. With McLaren's general competitiveness, Lundgaard should be poised for his best month of May yet. 

Nolan Siegel is also new to McLaren when it comes to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While he fell short of making the race with Dale Coyne Racing, McLaren should provide him with a spot safely in the field. The issue with Siegel is he has yet to have a brilliant result at McLaren. Joining the team last June, his only top ten finish was a seventh at Gateway, but his average finish in 13 starts with the organization is 17.769, and Siegel has finished outside the top fifteen in seven consecutive starts. 

Alexander Rossi will be entering the Indianapolis 500 with his third different team. After two years with McLaren, Rossi is making his first trip to the Speedway with the "home team," Ed Carpenter Racing. Coming off three consecutive top five finishes and six in his first nine Indianapolis 500 starts, Rossi looks to cap off his first decade at the Speedway where it all started, first place. The good news for Rossi is ECR has produced at least one starter on one of the first two rows in eight of the last nine years. 

One of the men responsible for ECR's Indianapolis qualifying success is Rinus VeeKay, and for the first time in the Dutchman's career, he heads to the Speedway with a different team. It is quite a jump from ECR to Dale Coyne Racing, and VeeKay is taking over the #18 Honda, the lone car that failed to make last year's race. VeeKay has started no worse than seventh in his first five Indianapolis 500 starts. His time at DCR started on an exciting note with a ninth at St. Petersburg, but VeeKay has finished 17th and 19th in the last two races.

Some changes are from nothing to something. Last year, David Malukas was not competing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Malukas was nursing a wrist injury and a release from his McLaren contract before he ever got to start a race for the team. One year later, Malukas returns to IMS with A.J. Foyt Racing. Two years ago, Foyt had both its entries make the Fast 12. As noted above, Ferrucci has put Foyt in the Fast Six the last two years. Malukas started 13th and 23rd in his first two "500" starts, but those races ended in 16th and 29th-place finishes. 

Are Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Dale Coyne Racing Still at the Bottom?

Two years ago, RLLR and DCR combined for all four participants in the last chance qualifying session. Last year, the teams took three of the bottom four. In 2023, it was RLLR having a car miss the race. Last year, it was DCR's turn. If it wasn't for Marcus Ericsson's practice accident that forced the Swede to a backup car, we likely would have seen two consecutive years of RLLR and DCR sweeping the slowest four spots.

The previous two years tell us to expect these organizations to be at the bottom. Like the past two years, RLLR is showing up with four cars while DCR is showing up with its two full-time challengers. 

There should be hope for both teams. 

While Graham Rahal was in the bottom four last year and forced to sweat out another year on the bubble as the final qualifier took to the track, RLLR did have Takuma Sato make the Fast 12 and start tenth. DCR has brought in Rinus VeeKay, who again has never started worse than seventh in the Indianapolis 500.

Both teams have an ace up their sleeves. For RLLR, it is proven. Sato was able to extract something out of that machinery to be competitive and far from being bumped, and Sato has shown flashes of speed at Indianapolis with multiple organizations. We must wait and see on VeeKay. The Dutchman doesn't have to be wonderful to make everyone happy. He just has to be adequate. 

With each reason for these two teams to be positive, both teams share uncertainty in inexperience. Two of the four rookies entered this year drive for RLLR and DCR. RLLR also has a driver who was not entered in last year's race and spent all of 2024 on the sidelines. 

DCR missed last year's race with a rookie. Jacob Abel has started 2025 with humbling results. Abel has yet to start or finish better than 23rd, and he has yet to finish on the lead lap. Louis Foster's IndyCar career has started only slightly better than Abel's. Foster is coming off his best career finish, a 16th at Long Beach, but the RLLR driver was 27th and 24th in the first two races.

Throw in Devlin DeFrancesco and you have a driver whose average finish through the first three races is 22nd and he has yet to finish in the top ten in 37 IndyCar starts. In his first two Indianapolis outings, DeFrancesco had little trouble making the race. Driving for the Andretti organization, he qualified 24th and 25th. In each race, the Canadian moved forward, finishing 20th and 13th. 

Foster, DeFrancesco and Abel are three of the bottom four in the championship through the first three races. 

We haven't done little more than mention Graham Rahal, who is the only driver to have been in the last chance qualifying session in each of the last two years. Rahal only improved slightly from 2023. He went from 34th and out to 33rd and in by a hair. Rahal has been in rough form. He did open the season with finishes of 12th and 11th in the first two races, but he has not finished in the top ten in his last six starts.  

There were signs in last year's test that these teams would be in trouble. Besides Siegel down in 31st, RLLR had Katherine Legge in 29th and Pietro Fittipaldi in 30th. Legge ended up in the last chance qualifying session and was 31st on the grid. Fittipaldi took 30th in Saturday qualifying and was the last car to avoid the extra season. Graham Rahal looked clear of the drama in last year's test, but 19th was not far enough ahead, and Rahal still wound up on pins and needles over whether he would make the race until the final qualifier. 

If there is one team expected to join the fight at the bottom, it is Prema. Making its Indianapolis debut, Prema's first three races in IndyCar have been fair, but far from exciting for the right reasons. Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott have combined for three finishes in the top twenty over the first three events, but the average finish for the team is 21st, and its best finish is 18th. 

This will be Prema's first oval weekend, and the team famously had engineer Michael Cannon and lost Michael Cannon within a week this January. Cannon was previously at A.J. Foyt Racing and was credited for Foyt's Indianapolis qualifying success the previous two years along. Cannon has been labeled as a "guru of go" as he has produced fastest qualifiers for the likes of Ed Carpenter Racing, Andretti Global, Dale Coyne Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing.

Ilott's engineer Steve Barker is a familiar face, as the Barker and Ilotto worked together at Juncos Hollinger Racing. For Shwartzman, outside of his oval evaluation test at Nashville Superspeedway in March, this will be his first extended oval experience, and he is doing it with João Ginete as his engineer, who is also in his first year in IndyCar after previously working for the Haas F1 team. Prema has Robert Gue, who spent the previous 15 years as an engineer at the Sam Schmidt/Schmidt Hamilton Petersen/Arrow McLaren organization, as the R&D engineer and 2012 Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe works as the sporting advisor for the team.

Though there are gaps of inexperience, Prema has a collection of capable individuals who hope their collective experience will be enough to avoid a stressful first experience at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Nothing will be set in stone after this two-day test, but everyone will be hoping to be making the right strides toward the month of May.

IndyCar's Unanswered Questions: Most Top Ten Finishes

There is IndyCar action this week, but it is only a test session. We are just under two weeks until the next race weekend. Indianapolis 500 testing is important, but it doesn't mean much until May. Then again, Josef Newgarden was the fastest in last year's test and he wound up winning the race. Maybe this test will have all the answers? 

Anyway, it is something but not much more than nothing, and with some time until the next weekend of consequence, we can continue going into unanswered questions revolving around the series’ record book.

This one seems easy, and you would think there is already an easy answer, but there isn't. IndyCar's record book does not give an official list for top ten finishes. It keeps tracks of podium finishes, which it refers to as "top three finishes" and it tracks top five finishes, but not top ten finishes. The strange thing is on Fox's coverage this season when it puts up a career overview graphic, it lists career totals for victories, top five finishes and top ten finishes. 

Top ten is a natural category in the statistic department. It is a nice round number. People understand the significant of ten versus a top eight or top 14. It is a common statistical category in the motorsports world, and yet IndyCar does not publish official numbers on such an accomplishment. 

Which is only more strange as Scott Dixon approached 300 top ten finishes for his IndyCar career. Dixon entered 2025 with 297 top ten finishes. It was never listed that he was the all-time leader. It was never celebrated when he got the all-time lead. Even 300 was not a celebrated achievement when Dixon reached it at Long Beach.

Top ten finishes do have an odd place in IndyCar. For starters, for a good point of time during The Split, a top ten result was not a good day. Tenth out of 18 cars is not that stellar. Top ten only matters within a certain way of framing. Even with 22 or 24-car grids it is barely better than half the drivers out there. However, the top ten is still the first page of the graphics when post-race results are show on a broadcast, and in the days of print newspapers, it was easy to fit the top ten. It didn't mean nothing if it meant getting your name published. 

With Dixon approaching and then reaching the 300 top ten finish milestone, I thought it was best to get an idea of what the all-time leaders look like. To make this easy on myself, I figured it would be best just to track who has reached 100 top ten finishes in a career. That is a big round number and it clears a lot of clutter.

It also limited the number of drivers I had to check. For starters, no one can have 100 top ten finishes without 100 starts. Only 91 drivers have started at least 100 races in an IndyCar career, which feels a little low, but it does make it easier. 

We should begin with Dixon because to have 300 top ten finishes one must have started at least 300 races. Only ten drivers have reached 300 career starts. I figured Dixon was already the all-time leader. There was a slim chance someone, likely Mario Andretti had reached 300 top ten finishes as Andretti is the only other driver besides Dixon to reach 400 career starts.

Sure enough, I was right. Dixon was already the all-time leader prior to Long Beach. No other driver had reached the 300 top ten finishes milestone.  

Dixon is first on 300 as of last week. Mario Andretti is second on 258 top ten finishes. Only three other drivers have reached 200 top. Hélio Castroneves is third on 233 top ten finishes, five ahead of Tony Kanaan on 228 and then Al Unser, Jr. is fifth with 210 top ten finishes. 

Let's cover the rest of the top ten...

6. A.J. Foyt - 197

7. Will Power - 194

8. Michael Andretti - 192

9. Al Unser - 185

10. Bobby Rahal - 177

A.J. Foyt fell only three top ten finishes short of the 200 top ten finishes milestone. Will Power is only three behind Foyt and Power will likely reach the 200 milestone and likely hit it this season. He already has two top ten finishes this year, and in 15 of 18 full seasons in IndyCar Power has reached at least eight top ten finishes. 

Rahal is the only one of the drivers in the top ten to not reach 300 career starts. Rahal had 177 top ten finishes in 264 starts. 

11. Dario Franchitti - 167

12. Johnny Rutherford - 157

13. Gordon Johncock - 157

14. Rick Mears - 153

15. Bobby Unser - 150

Fifteen drivers have hit 150 top the finishes in a career. Rutherford is the only one of the top fifteen to finish in the top ten in fewer than half his starts. Rutherford's top ten finish percentage is 49.8412% (157/315). 

16. Paul Tracy - 146

17. Graham Rahal - 145

18. Ryan Hunter-Reay - 138

19. Jimmy Vasser - 136

20. Simon Pagenaud - 133

Four of the final five in the top twenty are past champions with Graham Rahal being the only non-champion. What surprised me the most is Rahal has seven more top ten finishes than Hunter-Reay and Rahal only surpassed Hunter-Reay in career starts at Long Beach. Rahal hit 295 and Hunter-Reay is on 294, though he will likely reach 295 at Indianapolis next month. Rahal could hit 150 top ten finishes. It feels like he will, but the last few seasons have been rather rough. 

21. Josef Newgarden - 131

22. Sébastien Bourdais - 125

23. Emerson Fittipaldi - 115

24. Roger McCluskey - 114

25. Tom Sneva - 110

26. Marco Andretti - 107

T-27. Wally Dallenbach - 103

T-27. Adrían Fernández - 103

29. Jim McElreath - 102

T-30. Alex Tagliani - 101

T-30. Oriol Servià - 101

That wraps up the drivers who hit the century mark in top ten finishes. One of the key ways to reach 100 top tens in longevity. There are many notable names not here but it wasn't for a lack of trying.

Rodger Ward ended his career on 99 top ten finishes in 150 starts. That is pretty good. Gil de Ferran hit 97 top ten finishes in 160 starts. Sam Hornish, Jr. only made 116 starts in his career. Though Hornish, Jr. did not reach 100 top ten finishes, he still finished his career with 80.

The raw number tells you one thing. The percentage tells much more. How do the top drivers look when it comes to top ten finish percentage? Let's again limit this to the drivers with at least 100 starts.

1. Tommy Milton - 87.2549% (89/102)

2. Eddie Hearne - 86.792% (92/106)

3. Ralph DePalma - 78% (78/100)

Let's stop with the top three because you probably notice something about them. They are all from the American Automobile Association-era of American open-wheel racing. These are the only three drivers who reached 100 career starts prior to USAC taking over as the sanctioning body in 1956. Things were much different in the first five decades of what we now consider IndyCar racing. 

Many races didn't have many more ten starters. On some occasions there would be multiple races in a day and some of these races were only 25 miles or 50 miles in length.

For example, on April 2, 1922, five races were held from the 1.25-mile board oval, Los Angeles Motor Speedway. The first four races were heats and 25 miles in length. The main event was 50 miles. The largest field was ten cars. Hearne had finishes of fifth, eighth (last in heat two), eighth (last in heat three) and fifth, and he did not make the main event. On that same day, Milton was second in the first heat, won the second heat and then won the main event.

In a sense, the early 20th century does not fall in line with post-World War II IndyCar. It is what it is but these are records we will likely never seen broken because IndyCar will not look that way ever again. The same way Cy Young won 511 games in the major leagues. 

4. Rick Mears - 75.742% (153/202)

5. Scott Dixon - 74.074% (300/405)

6. Dan Wheldon - 69.9924% (93/133)

7. Sam Hornish, Jr. - 68.965% (80/116)

8. Bobby Rahal - 67.034% (177/264)

9. Rodger Ward - 66% (99/150)

10. Don Branson - 64.8% (81/125)

The rest of the top ten looks more contemporary. It should come as no surprise that Rick Mears and Dixon are at the top. Mears is rather remarkable. Ever the consistent driver, this proves it. The same goes for Dixon. 

The next two drivers benefitted from the split. Dan Wheldon and Sam Hornish, Jr. ran entirely in the Indy Racing League. Only Wheldon was around post-reunification. For a good portion of the mid-2000s, the grid was 18-20 cars. Finishing in the top ten wasn't necessarily that impressive, and it was harder for a Chip Ganassi Racing driver or a Team Penske driver to finish outside the top ten than inside the top ten. It isn't Wheldon fault nor is it Hornish, Jr.'s fault. All they could do was compete in the series where they found an opportunity. Dixon benefitted the same way, as did every driver who competed in either CART or the IRL. 

Then you have expected names in Rahal and Ward and rounding out the top ten is... Don Branson?!?!

Ever the respected driver, Branson won six races in his career, had five finishes in the championship top five in 11 seasons, ten of which as a series regular, and he sadly lost his life in a sprint car race after the 1966 season. 

Taking the 11 seasons Branson competed in, he ranked tied for sixth in victories. Foyt and Ward were first and second on 32 and 24 respectively. Then it was Mario Andretti on nine, Eddie Sachs on eight, Jimmy Bryan on seven and Branson was tied with Parnelli Jones and Johnny Thomson. Considering the company he kept, this likely is not all those surprising. 

11. Simon Pagenaud - 64.251% (133/207)

12. Will Power - 64.0264% (194/303)

13. Al Unser, Jr. - 63.829% (210/329)

14. Mario Andretti - 63.390% (258/407)

15. Dario Franchitti - 63.0188% (167/265)

16. Alexander Rossi - 61.073% (91/149)

17. Tony Bettenhausen - 61.0169% (72/118)

18. Gil de Ferran - 60.625% (97/160)

19. Michael Andretti - 60.5678% (192/317)

20. Josef Newgarden - 60.0917% (131/218)

These are the remaining drivers who have finished in the top ten in at least 60% of their starts. It is a mix of 21st century contemporaries, drivers from just after the Second World War and the later portion of the 20th century. There are no surprises in this list. Perhaps Rossi being as high as he is but he has been a consistent driver even if he seems to live in ninth and tenth place. 

It will be fluid and the order will change with each race. Power, Rossi and Newgarden are all actively competing. Marcus Ericsson just made his 100th start and he was one top ten finish away from breaking into this 60% club. Instead, Ericsson is ranked 23rd behind Castroneves (59.137%) and Johncock (59.0038%). 

If Ericsson finishes in the top ten in the next three races, he joins the club. If Newgarden doesn't finish in the top ten at Barber Motorsports Park, he falls out of the club. The beauty of fluctuation!

We have looked at the past and checked where drivers fall. I guess what is next is looking at the future and who will be hitting milestones and where to drivers currently rank. 

When it comes to 100 top ten finishes, Alexander Rossi is the closest among active drivers. Rossi is nine away. Using 100 starts as the barometer to qualify, Álex Palou is 16 starts away, which means he will not put his name on the board until next season. Palou has 62 top ten finishes in 84 starts. That is 73.809%. 

Patricio O'Ward will hit 100 starts this year, as will Felix Rosenqvist, who will likely hit 100 in the next race from Barber. O'Ward has 57 top ten finishes in his first 92 starts, 61.956%. Rosenqvist will either conclude his 100th start with a 44% or 45% top ten finish percentage. 

There is always something to keep an eye on, and it will surely lead to another set of questions down the road.