The Halo Rule

Get ready for change boys and girls because the visual of race cars is changing before your very eyes.

At Thursday's Formula One test from Barcelona, Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen ran an installation lap with the halo device attached to his SF16-H. 

Change is here. It's not in the living room with its feet on the coffee table but it just rang the doorbell and your significant other is about to open the door and welcomed change into the house and offer it something to drink. 

People don't like change. It's natural to not like change. If someone doesn't like change it doesn't mean they are ignorant or irrational or Neanderthal. It means they are human. Change takes time to get use to and instead of kicking people into the deep end, people should slowly be exposed to change. That is how the halo should be introduced into motorsports, especially Formula One and IndyCar. 

While the accidents of Jules Bianchi and Justin Wilson are fresh in the minds of many, the exposure of a driver's head isn't something that must be addressed immediately. Those were freak accidents and not an epidemic that is taking the lives of a dozen drivers every year but it is still a potential risk that should be addressed and improved on. 

The Formula One paddock is split over the halo and I am sure the IndyCar paddock is split just the same. Some are struggling with the proposed change and others are open to and willing to embrace it. Eventually the halo will have to be race tested and I propose that be sooner rather than later. It won't happen in Formula One but IndyCar should be begging to be the Guinea pig.

IndyCar has nothing to lose. If anything, it would gain so much from having the halo. First off, there is the capitalistic aspect. It appears the #20 Chevrolet of Ed Carpenter Racing will not be a full-time entrant as a road/street course driver has yet to be found and St. Petersburg is only a week away. To keep an entry on the IndyCar grid full-time, here is what the series should do: 

IndyCar should give Ed Carpenter Racing a Leader Circle spot. The series should then go to the FIA and say they are willing to run the halo on one car for the entry 2016 season and has put $1.25 million (the rumored amount for a 2016 Leader Circle entry) behind the effort but would need the FIA and the Formula One teams to match what IndyCar was putting behind the effort. IndyCar would allow the FIA to watch the car and work with the team throughout the season as the halo was tested. 

It would be a win-win as $1.25 million is chump change if it were split amongst the Formula One teams. Each team would pay a little bit to get a critical piece tested and it would be more affordable for the Formula One teams than going to an airstrip and straight-line testing the halo or heading to Silverstone or Barcelona during the season to test it. IndyCar wins as it would get another full-time and both sides would benefit as Ed Carpenter, one of the most if not the most experienced oval driver would get to provide insight on it on ovals. The funding provided from the Leader Circle program and the FIA/Formula One teams could go toward making sure a qualified driver would be behind the wheel on road and street courses. I first thought Oriol Servià would be a perfect option as he is experienced and wouldn't have to worry about giving feedback while trying to learn the circuits. However, if the FIA and Formula One teams would rather have a driver they were more familiar with, such as Jean-Éric Vergne, Pedro de la Rosa, Nick Heidfeld or Sébastien Buemi, then that could also be another option. 

Having the halo on the #20 Chevrolet would get fans use to seeing it without shoving it down their throats. It would allow for it to grow on people and get use to seeing it on track. I would hope by the end of the season, let's say by Pocono, a second halo could be attached to a car and there could be two halos on track for the final three races. At the end of the season, both series would have loads of information to go on and improvements could be made together. 

For 2017, the halo could be slowly integrated to more teams and possibly slowly integrated into Formula One. For IndyCar, by the start of 2017 it could be a rule that each multi-car team must have at least one entry with a halo. All of a sudden, there would be seven halos on the grid. Maybe for Formula One it could be one car per team runs a halo. By 2018, perhaps people will be accustomed to it to the point that a full grid of them would not be a bigger deal. 

As for now, IndyCar should be on the phone with the FIA and try to get one on the grid for St. Petersburg. It would be something people would tune in to see. It would put IndyCar in the international motorsports headlines, which IndyCar rarely gets for something positive and it would put IndyCar in a position to be the first to exploit the potential commercial benefits of halos. 

The current design has its flaws most notably openings that could allow debris to still hit a driver's head. The middle bar doesn't look good at all and while Räikkönen said visibility wasn't that different, why not get rid of the obstruction now before a driver blames the halo on why he couldn't avoid hitting another car. I was wondering why couldn't a windscreen be put in to protect the driver's head from debris coming in at eye level and to remove the solid bar. Windscreens aren't revolutionary. From LMP1 cars to stock cars to GT cars, they all have windscreen. Why couldn't what would resemble a giant visor be the next step for the halo and why couldn't that step be made sooner rather than later? 

Especially if you're IndyCar, think of the potential commercial relationships that could be made, especially if IndyCar could be the series that turns the halo into the visor. Safelite would be a natural partner and even better, Safelite is based in Graham Rahal's backyard of Columbus, Ohio. 

Business potential aside, the halo is at the door and instead of fighting it and kicking and screaming we must give it a chance. At the same time, Formula One and IndyCar should slowly get people use to it. IndyCar should grab the ball on this one and make sure it is on the grid immediately. There are too many positives for IndyCar to standby and watch Formula One bicker about the halo concept. The FIA and Formula One teams should want IndyCar to be the Guinea pig. I am sure they will pitch in because it would be more affordable than the teams having to do their own research and development. 

The first Indianapolis 500 featured arguably the first rearview mirror and that car was the winning Marmon Wasp of Ray Harroun. Imagine if the 100th Indianapolis 500 winner featured a halo. The storylines would be like nothing IndyCar has seen in a long time. A halo car will win the Indianapolis 500 soon. Why not have it at least be a possibility this May?

2016 Verizon IndyCar Team-By-Team Preview: Chip Ganassi Racing

Another year, another Team Penske collapse, another Ganassi title. That was 2015. From day one it appeared Penske was going to dominate but no one dominated. Penske couldn't seal the deal. The door was open and Scott Dixon ripped the door off its hinges in the season finale while the Penskes couldn't keep from running into one another. Ganassi enters 2016 looking for its seventh title since reunification.

2015 Chip Ganassi Racing Review:
Wins: 3 (Long Beach, Texas, Sonoma)
Poles: 2 (Indianapolis 500, Mid-Ohio)
Final Championship Positions: 1st (Scott Dixon), 3rd (Will Power), 8th (Tony Kanaan), 12th (Charlie Kimball), 20th (Sage Karam), 25th (Sebastián Saavedra).

2016 Drivers:

Scott Dixon
The New Zealanders may have scored his fourth title but even he admits he didn't have a dominant 2015 season. After failing to score a top ten in the first two races, Dixon bounced back to win his first Grand Prix of Long Beach and that led a string five consecutive top ten finishes. A win a Texas was the highlight of a consistent summer. He put himself in a position to be in contention come the season finale and drove a phenomenal race while the rest of the championship contenders faltered.

Numbers to Remember: 
11- Consecutive seasons with a victory for Dixon. He is tied with Bobby Unser, Emerson Fittipaldi and Hélio Castroneves for the record. One victory in 2016 would give him the record.

4- Victories behind Michael Andretti for third all-time in IndyCar victories. He is also one victory for fourth all-time but that seems like a given.

369- Laps from 5,000 career laps led. Only five other drivers have reached that milestone (Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Michael Andretti, Al Unser and Castroneves)

Predictions/Goals:
Scott Dixon will set the record for most consecutive seasons with a victory. Dixon has finished in the top three of the championship the last nine seasons. He has finished in the top four of the championship the last ten seasons. It doesn't appear that streak will be coming to an end in 2016. Expect another two-three victories this season for Dixon. If he does want a fifth championship, he is going to need to score more than four podiums.

Tony Kanaan
In his second season with Chip Ganassi Racing, Kanaan showed he was still a force but fell short on victory. While he was beat straight up at Texas and Fontana, a mechanical issue ended a promising run at Iowa and two accidents at Indianapolis and Pocono. While Kanaan surprisingly struggled on ovals, he had a very good season on road and street circuits, picking up four top fives seven top tens from ten races. Those four top fives were the most for Kanaan on road and street circuits since 2011.

Numbers to Remember: 
41- Kanaan is 41 years old.

249- Consecutive starts for Kanaan dating back to Portland 2001. He has made 310 total starts in his career.

15- Consecutive seasons with a podium.

Predictions/Goals:
I think this will be Kanaan's final full season in IndyCar. We will see him continue at Indianapolis for the next five years or so but I think Kanaan will struggle in 2016 and he will see the writing on the wall. He will regress on road and street circuits but you can't rely on the five ovals for bolstering a season. Kanaan will get a couple top fives but he will finish on the outside the top ten in the championship.

Charlie Kimball
In his fifth season, Kimball put up some good results but the neutral results cancelled out his impressive runs. After his best finished was 12th from the first four races, Kimball scored a fifth and a third in the two Indianapolis races. He would only score two top tens in the nine races after the Indianapolis 500 but would finish third in the season finale at Sonoma.

Numbers to Remember: 
6- Career podiums. Ironically, Kimball has two on ovals, two on road courses and two on street courses.

5- Consecutive seasons with a finish outside the top twenty before the Indianapolis 500.

1- Season with double digit lead lap finishes. He had 12 in 2013. The last two seasons he has had nine lead lap finishes.

Predictions/Goals:
Kimball will have a typical season once again. He has never been great in qualifying and I don't see that changing. I think Kimball will score a few top fives and a handful of top tens but he will finish fourth among the four Ganassi drivers. He will be in the top fifteen of the championship.

Max Chilton
The former Marussia F1 driver will make his IndyCar debut for Chip Ganassi Racing. Chilton ran 13 of 16 Indy Lights races last year. A mechanical failure prior to the Freedom 100 kept him from making his first racing laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval while he missed the Toronto round due to commitments with Nissan at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Chilton won his first Indy Lights race at Iowa and ended the season with four podiums, three pole positions and a fastest lap in the final five races.

Numbers to Remember: 
115- Starts in GP2, GP2 Asia, Formula One and Indy Lights since he made his first GP2 start in 2010.

13- Retirements in those 115 starts.

6- Podiums in 13 Indy Lights starts.

Predictions/Goals:
I see Max Chilton as the favorite for Rookie of the Year. I think he will be the second best Ganassi driver in the championship. He will get at least one podium but could get more. Perhaps more importantly, Chilton will bring the car home in one piece more times than not. He will have his struggles to get up to speed but I think by Indianapolis, he will be fine and he will get at least two top tens on ovals.

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series seasons commences with Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13th. ABC's coverage of the race will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET.

2016 Verizon IndyCar Team-By-Team Preview: Ed Carpenter Racing

When Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing merged prior to the 2015 season, it appeared to be a marriage that would benefit all parties and it did. The two teams combined and it saw Josef Newgarden have a breakout season, winning two races and fighting for the championship into the season finale. However, life is a bitch and oil prices have fallen through floor and Wink Hartman had to pull out of the team and Sarah Fisher followed. Now the team is back to Ed Carpenter Racing and money is tight. Will this team be able to repeat its 2015 performance and can this team keep two cars on the grid?

2015 CFH Racing Review:
Wins: 2 (Barber, Toronto)
Poles: 1 (Milwaukee)
Final Championship Positions: 7th (Josef Newgarden), 21st (Luca Filippi), 27th (Ed Carpenter), 31st (J.R. Hildebrand).

2016 Drivers:

Josef Newgarden
The Tennessean had the season we had all been waiting for in 2015. He won two races and could have won another three. Newgarden also scored his first career pole position and first career top ten in the Indianapolis 500 in 2015. He took on the big boys and ended up being one of six championship eligible drivers at the Sonoma season finale only to have a poor pit stop end his hopes of playing stunner. While Newgarden had a great season, there were plenty of occasions where his race ended in the barriers.

Numbers to Remember: 
345- Laps led by Newgarden in 2015, more than any other driver.

10.0- Average finish on ovals in 2015.

14.76- Average finish in his 17 oval starts prior to the 2015 season.

Predictions/Goals:
Newgarden will take a step back from 2015 but still have a few good results. I think he will win a race and more specifically win on an oval. He needs to finish more races and not get in as many accidents as he did in 2015. I expect him to be in that scrum for 7th to 14th in the championship but more likely ending up in the top ten than ending up on the outside of the top ten.

Ed Carpenter
With only six races lined up for Carpenter, it is already difficult for him to get good finish, as his opportunities are limited. His first three races ended in retirements, two because of accidents and one because of a mechanical failure. One of those accidents occurred in the Indianapolis 500 and that was after he suffered an accident in qualifying. He would rebound for back-to-back top tens at Milwaukee and Iowa but an engine failure at Pocono ended his season 44 laps early.

Numbers to Remember: 
12.19- Career average finish on short tracks.

5- Consecutive top tens on short tracks.

3- Career top tens in 12 Indianapolis 500 starts. He also has three 11th-place finishes in the Indianapolis 500.

Predictions/Goals:
One goal is to make sure the #20 Chevrolet runs all 16 races. Things do not appear to be promising for the car and the talk is the car might not be at St. Petersburg. Losing the #20 for the road/street course races would be a terrible loss for IndyCar. Hopefully ECR can find a partner for Ed Carpenter. While it appears Luca Filippi is moving on to Dale Coyne Racing, there are plenty of drivers on the outside (J.R. Hildebrand, Gabby Chaves, Tristan Vautier, Jack Harvey) who could be a great partner for Carpenter. As for Carpenter himself, I think he will get at least three top tens and at least one top five but I think victory will just be out of his grasp.

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series seasons commences with Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13th. ABC's coverage of the race will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET.

2016 Verizon IndyCar Team-By-Team Preview: Dale Coyne Racing

What? It's March 1st; it's just under a fortnight until the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season opener from St. Petersburg and we are already previewing Dale Coyne Racing? How could that be? There must be some mistake? Nope. Mr. Seesaw himself appears to have all his ducks in a row after rotating through drivers like underwear in 2015. Does Coyne have a 1-2 punch that could take the team from cellar dweller to contender? While both of Coyne's drivers enter with IndyCar experience, neither has run a full season and while yet to be confirmed, one has never run an oval. Can this team stun IndyCar with its underrated talent?

2015 Dale Coyne Racing Review
Wins: 0
Best Finish: 4th (Belle Isle 2)
Poles: 0
Best Start: 11th (Belle Isle 1)
Final Championship Positions: 22nd (Tristan Vautier), 26th (Rodolfo González), 29th (Pippa Mann), 34th (Francesco Dracone), 36th (Carlos Huertas), 38th (James Davison).

2016 Drivers:

Conor Daly
After years of winning in the North American and European ladder systems and playing the role of substitute while dabbling in sports cars, the Irish-American will finally get his chance at IndyCar full-time. Daly enters with five IndyCar starts under his belt and has had a few positive outings. While a fire kept him from taking the green flag in last year's Indianapolis 500, Daly scored a top ten while substituting for James Hinchcliffe at Belle Isle and he stayed out of harms way at Toronto.

Numbers to Remember: 
3- Lead lap finishes in Daly's IndyCar career.

5- Daly has been running at the finish of all five of his IndyCar starts (Note: Daly did not take the green flag in last year's Indianapolis 500, therefore, he did not start the race).

18.78- Average finish for Dale Coyne Racing entries in 2015.

Predictions/Goals: 
While Daly has been held in high regard for the past few years, rookies typically do not light the world on fire in IndyCar and Daly's work isn't cut out for him this year as at least Max Chilton and Alexander Rossi will also be competing for Rookie of the Year honors and Spencer Pigot could also add his name to that list. Since reunification, three of eight Rookie of the Years have finished in the top ten of the championship and one of those include Simon Pagenaud, who was considered a rookie in 2012 despite having run a full-season of Champ Car in 2007. Had Pagenaud not been considered a rookie, the next best rookie was Josef Newgarden in 23rd. Daly will get a handful of top tens but will somewhere around fifteenth in the championship.

Luca Filippi
The Italian drove for Dale Coyne Racing at the Phoenix test and while Filippi hasn't been confirmed in the #19 Honda, it would be a massive kick to the crotch if he wasn't in the car at least for St. Petersburg. Filippi has made at least one IndyCar start each of the last three seasons. In 2013, he run a few races for Bryan Herta Autosport after the team released Alex Tagliani and in 2014, Filippi ran the Houston and Toronto doubleheaders for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Last year, Filippi was the road/street course driver in the #20 Chevrolet for CFH Racing and he scored a second place at Toronto to give the team a 1-2 finish. Filippi had double the amount of top ten finishes (4) to Mike Conway's top ten total in 2014 when the Brit was the #20's road/street course driver.

Numbers to Remember: 
5- Five Italians have previously raced for Dale Coyne Racing (Guido Daccò, Fulvio Ballabio, Alessandro Zampedri, Mauro Baldi and Francesco Dracone). A sixth (Andrea Montermini), qualified for Surfers Paradise with Dale Coyne Racing in 1994 but withdrew from the race after an accident in qualifying.

13.9- Filippi's average finish in 2015 after making ten starts with CFH Racing.

5,265- Amount of days between the last IndyCar victory for an Italian and St. Petersburg. The last Italian victory was Max Papis at Laguna Seca on October 14, 2001.

Predictions/Goals: 
Filippi has never ran an oval event but he has adapted to IndyCar well. This team is hard to predict. Not every team and driver can win a race and not every team and driver can finish in the top ten of the championship. I think Dale Coyne Racing will make a big step forward if this is the driver line-up for the full season but even with these two drivers, it is hard to imagine either cracking the top ten in the championship. I see Filippi getting a top five or two and having a handful of top tens. I think he will edge Daly in the final championship standings but he might not even crack the top fifteen. Both drivers are talented and if neither cracks the top fifteen of the championship it just proves the level of depth of the IndyCar grid.

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series seasons commences with Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13th. ABC's coverage of the race will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Musings From the Weekend: Look Into the Lights

It is Leap Day! The quadrennial occasion for you to misdate checks as March 1st. Atlanta was a busy hub for motorsports. Jimmie Johnson tied Dale Earnhardt for seventh in NASCAR Cup Series victories. NASCAR keeps proving it can come up with even more absurd rules. The British reign of dominance in World Superbike continues from one of its old colonies. IndyCar tested in Phoenix. Formula One tested in Barcelona. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Look Into the Lights
IndyCar wasn't the only series on track at Phoenix last week. Indy Lights tested on Thursday and the sophomore season for the IL-15 is shaping up to be what we all hoped the freshman season for the chassis would have been. The grid appears to be ballooning to 16 entries and the quality of drivers appear to be at a level we haven't seen in that series in a long time. Today will go through the tentative 2016 Indy Lights grid and preview each driver. Where else would we start but with the defending championship-winning team.

Juncos Racing
Kyle Kaiser: The California-native returns for his second season in Indy Lights. Last year, Kaiser had a tale of two seasons. While he showed speed comparable to his teammate and eventual champion Spencer Pigot, Kaiser had a trend of running into the back of people. After three last-place finishes in the first six, Kaiser settled down and scored five top tens in the final ten races and finished sixth in the championship. If Kaiser can keep up on his consistency from the end of last year, he could win a race or two in 2016.

Zachary Claman DeMelo: The Canadian will be the youngest driver on the grid. DeMelo is 17 years old and won't turn 18 until April 20th. DeMelo comes to Indy Lights after a handful of races in a handful of Formula Renault 2.0 series in 2015 as he drove for Fortec Motorsports. There isn't much to go on for DeMelo. He has won three Canadian National Karting Championships but this is a big step forward. I don't see DeMelo being a championship contender.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
RC Enerson: The Floridian returns for his second season in Indy Lights. Last year, Enerson won at Mid-Ohio and scored five podiums in sixteen starts. Outside of 13th in the second St. Petersburg race because of an engine failure, Enerson finished every race inside the top ten. Enerson was the fastest in the Phoenix test and one of two drivers to run a sub-22 second lap. He is with the right team and I expect the soon to be 19-year-old (his birthday is March 6th) to be a championship threat.

André Negrão: He has not been confirmed for the 2016 season but the Brazilian did test for SPM at Phoenix and turned some heads. Negrão was third fastest at the Phoenix test. The Brazilian has raced in Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2 but didn't stand out in either series. He scored two points and 111 points in 52 FR3.5 starts and finished in the top ten of the championship once. In GP2, Negrão's best finish was fifth on two occasions (both at Monza). He finished in the points nine times in 41 GP2 starts. I think Negrão could hold his own in 2016 but not be a championship contender.

Santiago Urrutia: The defending Pro Mazda champion will graduate to Indy Lights and drive for SPM. He was second fastest at Phoenix. The 19-year-old Uruguayan won the Pro Mazda title after a year in GP3 and not scoring any points. Historically, Pro Mazda champions do well in Indy Lights. The five Pro Mazda champions prior to Urrutia won in Indy Lights the following year and two of those driver went on to win the Indy Lights title (Tristan Vautier and Pigot). I expect Urrutia to be in it until the end.

Heamin Choi: The Korean driver made his Indy Lights debut at Laguna Seca last autumn and he tested at Phoenix. While the 32-year-old driver hasn't done anything of substance in his career, he was tenth fastest at the Phoenix test. Just remember that Ethan Ringel won pole position for the Freedom 100 driving for SPM and Ringel finished 11th in the championship when only 11 drivers ran more than three-quarters of the races in Indy Lights.

Carlin
Félix Serrallés: The Puerto Rican driver moves to Carlin from Belardi Auto Racing. He won at Milwaukee last year and had another podium at Long Beach but Serrallés had five finishes outside the top ten, which is quite impressive when you consider most races only featured a dozen drivers. He was also the only driver to be disqualified from a race in 2015 after failing post-race inspection at Toronto 1. Serrallés showed blips of speed in 2015 and was fourth fastest at the Phoenix test but his inability to avoid contact cost him last year and that has followed him from his days in Europe. He is with a championship caliber team but I don't see him being able to put together the results to make a title run.

Ed Jones: The Emirati driver won his first three Indy Lights starts but would fail to get back to the top step of the podium in the final 13 races. Jones would keep himself in the championship discussion throughout the season but a disastrous round at Mid-Ohio where he finished ninth in both races. He struggled last year on the ovals and a tire failure at Indianapolis didn't help. An improvement at the ovals could be the difference between winning the title or finishing third or fourth in the championship. Jones is definitely a championship contender in 2016 and expect him to win multiple races.

Neil Alberico: Runner-up in the 2015 Pro Mazda Championship, Alberico gets promoted to Indy Lights and joins a stout team. The Californian won four races in 2015 but dreadful weekends on the IMS road course and Toronto kept him from taking the fight to Urrutia. Alberico has run four seasons in the Road to Indy system (two in U.S. F2000 and two in Pro Mazda) and he had finished runner-up in the championship in each of his second seasons in those series. He knows the tracks and I think he will be able to carry that speed up to the next level but he might have to wait until his sophomore year in Indy Lights to make an assault on the championship.

Belardi Auto Racing
Zach Veach: The Ohioan returns are missing out on the 2015 season. The lone race Veach ran in 2015 was in the Prototype Challenge class at the IMSA Laguna Seca race. He finished fourth in class. Veach finished third in the 2014 championship behind Gabby Chaves and Jack Harvey after winning three races and scoring nine podiums driving for Andretti Autosport. While Veach was a championship contender the last time he ran in Indy Lights, I think the 2016 grid is a lot deeper than the last time Veach raced. He might get a victory but I see him finishing in the back half of the championship.

Felix Rosenqvist: This is the man to watch out for. If this were the year 1998, Rosenqvist would be on Chip Ganassi's radar for an IndyCar seat. The Swede is coming off winning the European Formula Three championship. He was stuck in the series for four years due to inability to find the funding to take him up the ladder. In F3, Rosenqvist beat some current Formula One drivers. In 2012, he finished ahead of Pascal Wehrlein and Carlos Sainz, Jr. in the championship. In 2013, he topped Williams F1 development driver Alex Lynn. Last year, he took the title and beat Antonio Giovinazzi, who will be moving to GP2, Ferrari Driver Academy's Charles Leclerc and son of a Canadian billionaire and Williams F1 test driver Lance Stroll. And if you go back a little further, Rosenqvist finished fifth in the 2011 Formula 3 Euro Series ahead of Audi wunderkind Laurens Vanthoor and Daniel Abt and current IndyCar driver Carlos Muñoz. No Swede has ever won in Indy Lights and I expect that to change in 2016. Rosenqvist could take the title.

Andretti Autosport
Dean Stoneman: This is a story six years in the making. At 20 years old, Stoneman won the Formula Two championship in 2010. He would test for Andretti Autosport's Indy Lights team the winter after winning that title. However, testicular cancer put Stoneman's racing ambitions on hold for three years. He would return to competition in 2013 where he won five races in Porsche Carrera Cup UK and finished second on his debut weekend in GP3. The following year he would win five GP3 races on route to runner-up in the championship. Last year, Stoneman finished sixth in the Formula Renault 3.5 championship. Stoneman will be Andretti's thoroughbred and he will be battling for the title all season long.

Dalton Kellett: The Canadian is a Road to Indy veteran and will now take the next step to Indy Lights. While Kellett has never won a race in 58 starts across U.S. F2000 and Pro Mazda, he has been a driver who has consistently brought the car home with all four wheels intact and has 27 top tens finishes. He made his Indy Lights debut in 2013 at Baltimore, where he had an accident after one lap. I think Kellett will continue to be consistent and that could get him a top five every now and then but he won't light the world on fire. I expect him to finish just on the outside of the top ten in the championship.

Shelby Blackstock: Another Road to Indy veteran, Blackstock will be entering his second year in Indy Lights. He struggled in 2015 but scored a podium at Mid-Ohio and a fourth in the monsoon conditions that hit Toronto 1. Blackstock finished every race in 2015, the only driver to accomplish that and completed the second most laps behind only Ed Jones. I think Blackstock will finish ahead of Kellett in the championship but because of the depth of the grid he will fall down a few pegs in the championships standings.

Team Pelfrey
Juan Piedrahita: The Colombian moves from Belardi Auto Racing to Team Pelfrey in 2016. Team Pelfrey bought the assets of 8Star Motorsports, which won two races in 2015 with Sean Rayhall, in the offseason. Piedrahita is another Road to Indy veteran. He has made 80 starts across the three feeders series but he has never won a race. He has ten podiums in his career and that includes a third last year at Milwaukee in Indy Lights. This is set to be Piedrahita's third season in Indy Lights and with a third different team. I don't expect anything different from Piedrahita in 2016. He will have some good runs but for the most part be on the periphery.

Scott Hargrove: The 2013 U.S. F2000 champion is only signed on for St. Petersburg but hopefully this Canadian hopeful sticks around for the entire season. Hargrove lost the 2014 Pro Mazda title by ten points to Spencer Pigot after a wild Sonoma finale that saw Hargrove, Pigot, Hargrove's then-teammate Neil Alberico and Pigot's then-teammate Kyle Kaiser all making contact with one another only to have a mechanical failure end Hargrove's championship run. Hargrove made his Indy Lights debut last year with 8Star and after a fourth and sixth in his debut weekend at St. Petersburg, Hargrove was replaced by Rayhall. He would run three Pro Mazda races at the IMS road course in May and won seven of eight IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge Canada races with his one non-victory being a second place finish. Hargrove is the Canadian star IndyCar needs and they can't let him go to sports cars. He, Pigot, Kaiser and Alberico all had a wonderful rivalry brewing and those types of grassroots feuds are something that can only help IndyCar. Hargrove has plenty of talent to compete for the title but with his role at Team Pelfrey unknown beyond St. Petersburg, we can only hope he gets a shot to show what he has got.

McCormack Racing
Davey Hamilton, Jr.: The son of two-time IndyCar championship runner-up Davey Hamilton is scheduled to run the full Indy Lights season for McCormack Racing. Hamilton, Jr. won the King of the Wing Western Sprint Car Series championship last year. He and the team tested at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California over the winter but were not at the Phoenix test. It's not that Hamilton, Jr. will never be successful on road/street courses but I don't think he will be successful this season or even next year. He could be really competitive on the ovals but I think most of 2016 will be lengthy test session for the second-generation driver. He turns 19 years old on March 15th.

It's Leap Day
Last year, I suggested IndyCar run a race on Leap Day and make it a quadrennial event for the series to make it stand out. Read about it here.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Jimmie Johnson but did you know...

Jonathan Rea began his World Superbike title defense by sweeping the season opening round from Phillip Island. Nicky Hayden finished ninth and fourth in his first WSBK weekend since being a wild card entry at the Laguna Seca round in 2002.

Rookie Swiss rider Randy Krummenacher won on his World Supersport debut at Phillip Island. American P.J. Jacobsen finished fifth.

Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Grand National Series race from Atlanta. John Hunter Nemecheck won in Trucks.

Ryan Dungey won the Supercross race from Atlanta.

Coming Up This Weekend
Pirelli World Challenge season opens from Circuit of the Americas.
V8 Supercars opens its season on the streets of Adelaide.
AMA Supercross heads to Daytona.
NASCAR will be in Las Vegas.
World Rally will be in Mexico.

What Did We Learn From IndyCar's Phoenix Test?

Two days and nights of on-track are in the books from Phoenix International Raceway. With the season opener a fortnight away, what can we take away from the first official test of the season?

1. The Chevrolets Are Still Quicker Than Honda
But not by much. Hélio Castroneves ran the fastest lap of the two days at 19.2735 seconds with his Penske teammate Simon Pageant 0.0149 seconds back. The Ed Carpenter Racing pair of Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter were third and fourth, 0.0182 seconds and 0.0581 seconds back respectively. Marco Andretti was the fastest Honda over the two days at 19.3351 seconds and Ryan Hunter-Reay was the only other Honda in the top ten, 0.1251 seconds behind Castroneves.

The Honda engines used at this test did not have the 2016 performance upgrades, which are due for the season opener. How much are those upgrades worth? Who knows? Will they give the Honda's an extra tenth or two or are we talking a few hundredths of a second? Either way, Honda got its wish and was allowed to tweak their aero kits and in my eyes, now it's time for Honda to work for that extra tenth. If anything, Honda should realize that while Chevrolet won every pole position in 2015, there were plenty of races where Chevrolets just fell to the back and Hondas moved to the front.

I am sure the politicking will go back and forth between the two manufactures all season. Which brings us to point two.

2. Downforce Has Become a Battleground
Michael Andretti wants more of it. Will Power wants less and wants the turbo boost turned up to road and street course levels.

Both are saying they are looking out for the show just like politicians saying they are thinking about the children.

I don't know whom to believe. Could Michael Andretti be saying "more downforce" because he knows Honda can compete in terms of downforce and Chevrolet has the advantage in terms of sheer horsepower? I can't imagine how these teams could get more downforce generated. Did Michael Andretti not see the times that were posted?

Personally, I am with Power. Turn up the turbo boost, take off downforce and force the drivers to lift in the corners and really drive the cars.

To be fair to both Andretti and Power, we haven't seen how these cars race after tires degradation. The good news is we are getting to these problems in February, five weeks prior to the Phoenix race instead of during the race weekend. New vice president of competition Bill Pappas has already talked about removing downforce. I am sure a solution will be found before the race weekend.

3. The Track Record Was Shattered
A lot of people wondered how fast these cars could go at Phoenix and whether the track record was in danger entering this test. Arie Luyenduk's twenty-year-old track record (granted on a different configuration), was broken by 18 of the 21 drivers who took to the track this weekend. Castroneves, Pagenaud and Newgarden were all over three-tenths quicker. The top seven from the test all ran laps over the 190 MPH average.

Depending on what the aero package is when the series returns in April, that track record could officially fall.

4. Gabby Chaves Passed the Audition
Mikhail Aleshin couldn't enter the United States due to visa issues and that opened the door for Gabby Chaves to substitute for the Russian in the #7 Honda. While Chaves was 17th fastest with his best lap clocking in at 19.5699 seconds, he showed that he deserves a sophomore season and deserves it now.

Unfortunately for Chaves, IndyCar rides don't grow on trees. I bet Sam Schmidt wants to reward Chaves for stepping up at the last minute and being so competitive but that's not going to happen. If only that Colombian coffee company that back Carlos Huertas would sponsor Chaves. Perhaps Chaves could become the road/street course driver in the #20 Chevrolet as that has yet to be announced the full-time status of that car appears to hang in the balance. I hope the 2015 Rookie of the Year returns for an extended period in 2016.

5. The Rookies Held Their Own
While Spencer Pigot and Alexander Rossi were spectators, Max Chilton and Conor Daly were on the track and neither put a wheel wrong.

Chilton was 18th but only 0.2964 seconds behind Castroneves. Daly was 20th but only 0.4755 seconds back. With the field being so close, being toward the bottom of the speed chart isn't necessarily a bad sign. Both gained experience and that is what matters most entering the season.

6. A Lot of People Showed Up When It Was Free. Now, How Many Will Open Their Wallets?
The crowd was so big for this test that the track had to open another parking lot for fans. That sounds great but this is a free test. How many will shell out $50-$75 for two tickets? I was wondering if the track would be selling tickets during the test and I hope they were. I don't know what the crowd will be like. Anything in the 25,000-30,000 range should be taken as a victory by both the track and the series considering it has been 11 years since IndyCar last raced at the track. It's a little late for a title sponsor to jump on but that is something the track and series will need, along with a healthy size crowd, for this race to become a regular occurrence on the schedule.

7. Everyone Is Glad To Be In Phoenix
The Beatles' "Long, Long, Long" should be played prior to the first practice on April 1st. Phoenix is one of the handful of tracks people can't believe IndyCar has been away from for so long. This is a track that is apart of IndyCar's identity and yet IndyCar let it go. IndyCar has had great races on short tracks and the fact there aren't five or six on the schedule is hard to fathom. IndyCar should have figured out a way to make Milwaukee work (Step one: Not moving it to a different weekend every year and at a different time of the day). Along with Phoenix, Iowa and Milwaukee, IndyCar should be at Richmond, Loudon and Gateway as well as return to Fontana and Michigan and experiment with Darlington because I think we would all like to see what IndyCars at Darlington would look like. IndyCar need to find a way to work with these tracks.

It takes years for a race to build a following and they can't be abandoned after three or four tough years. These venues that actually exist and have roots in the ground are the venues IndyCar should be going to if it hopes to grow and not street circuits, which have a shelf life that is shorter than skim milk (Boston, Baltimore, Houston, I am looking at you).

8. Announcing a Driver is Returning is Not a "Big Announcement."
KV Racing tweeted they had a "big announcement" prior to today's test and that "big announcement" turned out to be that Sébastien Bourdais would be returning for another season. That's not a big announcement. You don't know invite your parents over for dinner to tell them that you are your spouse are still married. You do that when a child is on the way or someone got a promotion. The Baltimore Ravens aren't going to have an announcement that Joe Flacco is returning as starting quarterback.

Want to know what a "big announcement" is? KV changing its mind and running a second car for Gabby Chaves after seeing how good he ran on Friday. Or announcing an Indianapolis 500 entry for someone along the lines of Townsend Bell. Or doing something spectacular and announcing that KV is bringing a third engine manufacture into IndyCar for the 2017 season.

Those all would fall in the category of big announcement. Announcing the driver you have had for the last two seasons is returning for a third isn't a big announcement.

With that cleared up, we can now turn our eyes to the final two weeks of the IndyCar offseason. Teams will be testing in Sebring later this week. Two weeks. Two more weeks.

2016 Verizon IndyCar Team-By-Team Preview: Andretti-Herta Autosport

This is the quintessential present-day IndyCar situation. One team has a respectable season with a rookie driver. In fact, said rookie driver wins Rookie of the Year and does nothing but keeps his nose clean. He brings the car home in one piece week-in and week-out. Everything looks positive heading into the next season and then the parachute is cut just when it appears everything will fall gently into the new season. Bryan Herta Autosport appeared set to bring back Gabby Chaves in 2016 but everything fell to shambles when it appeared everything was going to work out. The bittersweet situation is one promising young driver is out but the merger with Andretti Autosport will keep an entry on the grid and another rising star will get an opportunity. That rising star is Alexander Rossi.

2015 Bryan Herta Autosport Review
Wins: 0
Best Finish: 9th (Belle Isle 1)
Poles: 0
Best Start: 12th (Milwaukee).
Final Championship Positions: 15th (Gabby Chaves)

2016 Driver

Alexander Rossi

The American driver paid his dues in Europe and after years of polishing his craft in the ladder system, Rossi finally made it to Formula One while also finishing runner-up in the GP2 Series championship to McLaren development driver Stoffel Vandoorne. Rossi made five starts in Formula One last season for Manor Marussia F1. He beat his Manor teammate Will Stevens in qualifying three times and finished ahead of him in four races. Rossi's best finish was 12th in the United States Grand Prix, the only lead lap finish for Manor in the entire 2015 season. 

Numbers to Remember: 

2- Rossi has made two starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Both were on the road course during the 2007 Formula BMW USA season. Rossi finished fourth and sixth in those two races. 

4- Victories at Road America in nine starts at the track between Formula BMW and Skip Barber National Championship. Rossi also had four GP2 victories in 53 starts. 

10- Rossi won ten races in the 2008 Formula BMW USA season. That was the last time Rossi ran full-time in United States.

Predictions/Goals:

Rossi makes the Rookie of the Year title fight extremely interesting. He will be going up against former Manor Marussia teammate Max Chilton and fellow American Conor Daly while Spencer Pigot could also be in contention for the Rookie of the Year fight. Rossi is with a great team and the team has brought in veteran engineer Tom German to work with the American. Unlike his fellow Rookie of the Year candidates, Rossi has never run an oval. I think Rossi will have some good runs and will have a few top fives. He will be somewhere between 11th-15th in the championship and in the thick of it for Rookie of the Year honors.