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.
