Category: US Sports

In a season of unknowns and new challenges, there was one constant… Scott Dixon. The new universal aero kits turned the pecking order on its head and completely disregarded all the form books, leading to sensational racing and a championship duel that went right down to the last race. The top three drivers in the championship – Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Will Power – all ended equal on three wins, but it was the races in between that counted, and there Dixon shone.

Here we’ll dissect the season, looking the most notable driver’s years as well as a few other honourable mentions.

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi) – 1^st – 3 wins – 678 points

What to say about Dixon… he’s one of those drivers that you run out of superlatives for within the first race of watching him. Something that Rossi said earlier in the season is as close as you get to doing Dixon’s form this year justice – ‘Dixon never has a bad race’. His worst finish came at Iowa with a twelfth but that was on a day where many other title contenders also struggled, meaning he lost very little.

One of the highlights of Dixon’s season has to be his dominant win at Toronto which saw him nearly double his championship lead while all his title rivals faltered in quite a major way. That said, consistency was the real winner for Dixon in 2018; with him finishing all but two races in the top ten, he was always going to be a tough driver to beat. Texas saw Dixon pick up the championship lead and, nine races later, Sonoma sealed title number five, after leading the standings for nine straight races.

Alexander Rossi (Andretti) – 2^nd – 3 wins – 621 points

The third year of Rossi’s IndyCar venture saw his best season yet, getting within a whisker of his first championship. Despite three wins and a further five podiums, Rossi couldn’t topple Dixon – even though his season was hardly inconsistent, completing all but two laps. Rossi only had three finishes outside the top ten and pulled off some of the best overtakes all season, only once really coming to blows as a result. That once was at Sonoma and, with double points on offer, it forced Rossi to kiss goodbye to his title aspirations.

For Rossi, the best moment of his season is much harder to pick out. The back-to-back wins at Mid-Ohio and Pocono come close but the Indy 500 was really where the Andretti driver came into his own. After nothing short of a disaster in qualifying, Rossi started the 500 from thirty-second but made remarkable progress throughout the race, completing multiple risky overtakes to finish fifth, after being in with a shout of the win at some points in the race.

Will Power (Penske) – 3^rd – 3 wins – 582 points

It’s been a long time since the top Penske in the championship was only third. After years of dominance, Penske were finally overhauled by both Chip Ganassi and Andretti, curtesy of the regulation changes. Nevertheless, Power didn’t have a half bad season, though his six DNFs didn’t do anything to help his championship challenge. Consistency was the key this season, more so than it has been in the past, and Power was anything but that.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of Power’s season came in the Month of May where the 2014 series champion was utterly dominant, first winning the Indy GP and then the all-important Indy 500 to take the championship lead, albeit only briefly. It was Power’s first Indy 500 win and he was elated after the race, introducing the world to the ‘Will Power crazy eyes’, much to the amusement of the rest of the paddock.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti) – 4^th – 2 wins – 566 points

Hunter-Reay will be annoyed at having spent the majority of the season in teammate Rossi’s shadow, yet 2018 was far from all doom and gloom for the #28 driver. Six DNFs hardly helped his cause and he was never really a factor in the championship however, Hunter-Reay did end his 41-race win drought in the second race at Detroit before going onto win the final race of the season at Sonoma.

Hunter-Reay would certainly win ‘Celebration of the Year’ (if it was actually a thing) with his frolics following his victory at Detroit. Sticking to a pre-race bet, the 2012 champion climbed into the fountain by the side of the track, even riding one of the carved lions at one point… it was certainly an unforgettable moment!

Josef Newgarden (Penske) – 5^th – 3 wins – 560 points

Newgarden had one aim and one aim only this season: retain the championship. After a fairly promising start with two wins from the first four races, Newgarden’s season started to unravel from there on, only clocking up one more appearance on the podium with a win at Road America.

There’s no one race where it all went wrong for the defending champion, it was just a culmination of not-so-good races that hampered any chance he had at taking his second championship. Despite leading the most laps and equalling most wins, fifth was the best Newgarden could do, just getting piped by Hunter-Reay for fourth at Sonoma.

 

 

 

 

Simon Pagenaud (Penske) – 6^th – 2 podiums – 492 points

Going winless with his worst season since 2015 was certainly not what Pagenaud was planning to do this season. Admittedly, sixth place in the championship isn’t all that bad but the world has come to expect more of Penske drivers. It took until Texas for Pagenaud to take his first podium of the season with a second-place finish behind Dixon, before his second and most recent podium three races later at Toronto, again behind Dixon. It’s not what he was hoping for, but it could’ve been a whole lot worse.

 

Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne) – 7^th – 1 win – 425 points

Bourdais was definitely one to peak early in 2018, taking his one and only win at the very first race of the season on the streets of St. Petersburg and then waiting fifteen races for his next podium at Portland. The win at St. Pete was rather gifted to Bourdais by Rossi’s rather overambitious move on race leader Robert Wickens, demoting the pair and leaving Bourdais in the clear to take his first win since the same race last year, and also his first since his huge crash at the Indy 500 that saw him sit out the majority of 2017. The Frenchman is on the up once more and should be a force to contend with in 2019.

 

James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) – 10^th – 1 win – 391 points

Talk about a season of up and downs… Hinchcliffe’s had it all! From the heartbreak of getting bumped at the Indy 500 to the jubilation of taking his first win since his life-threatening 2015 Indy 500 crash and then the very difficult circumstances, for the entire team, that rounded out the season.

Iowa couldn’t have been better for Hinchcliffe, stealing the win off Newgarden in the last stint, but the whole season really ended on a downer for SPM with Wickens’ Pocono crash. Hinchcliffe and Wickens are close friends off-track and the crash clearly impacted Hinchcliffe’s performances in the races following Pocono – SPM were glad to be done with 2018, and you can hardly blame them.

Robert Wickens (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) – 11^th – 4 podiums – 391 points

It was the rookie season that, very unfortunately, proved too good to be true for Wickens. He burst onto the IndyCar scene by taking pole in his first race at St. Petersburg and so nearly took his first win in the same race, only being thwarted by an overambitious Rossi – starting a friendly rivalry that would resurface throughout the season. Wickens also took ‘Rookie of the Year’, beating Andretti’s Zach Veach by 77-points but, somehow, the win managed to elude him, despite coming oh-so close on a number of occasions.

That all, however, faded into obscurity with Wickens’ devastating Pocono wreck that’s left him with an uncertain future. The Canadian’s started to give social media updates on his long road to recovery and SPM have said that the #6 will remain reserved for Wickens, as and when he’s ready to come back, however long that may take.

Zach Veach (Andretti) – 15^th – 2 Top Fives – 313 points

While fellow rookie Wickens took the world by storm, Veach quietly got on with some very impressive performances in his first IndyCar season. Veach was probably in the best team to be in as a rookie with three strong teammates to rely on for data and some amount of coaching, but that’s not to take away from the work that the young American has put into this season. He never really grabbed the headlines but Veach delivered five Top Ten finishes and two Top Fives, ending up 79 points off teammate Marco Andretti.

Tony Kanaan (A.J. Foyt) – 16^th – 4 Top Tens – 312 points

Sixteenth in the championship is certainly not where you expect to find arguably one of the best drivers on the grid, but it’s true testament to just how difficult this season has been for Kanaan and A.J. Foyt alike. Kanaan left Chip Ganassi at the end of 2017, after reported fallings-out with the team, and joined A.J. Foyt with the aim of making them championship contenders once again. The less that’s said about Kanaan’s 2018 the better… the fight to get back into title contention is going to be a tough one for A.J. Foyt, to put it lightly.

That rounds out the 2018 IndyCar season, and what a season it was! Old hands facing new challengers was always going to be good and we expect more of the same next year, with even more drivers desperately wanting to get into the mix.

Drivers Champion: Scott Dixon
Manufacturers Champion: Honda
Rookie of the Year: Robert Wickens

Full Championship Standings:

1. Scott Dixon
2. Alexander Rossi
3. Will Power
4. Ryan Hunter-Reay
5. Josef Newgarden
6. Simon Pagenaud
7. Sebastien Bourdais
8. Graham Rahal
9. Marco Andretti
10. James Hinchcliffe
11. Robert Wickens (R)
12. Takuma Sato
13. Ed Jones
14. Spencer Pigot
15. Zach Veach (R)
16. Tony Kanaan
17. Charlie Kimball
18. Matheus Leist (R)
19. Max Chilton
20. Gabby Chaves
21. Ed Carpenter
22. Jordan King
23. Zachary Claman De Melo (R)
24. Jack Harvey
25. Carlos Munoz
26. Pietro Fittipaldi (R)
27. Santino Ferrucci (R)
28. Rene Binder (R)
29. Conor Daly
30. Kyle Kaiser (R)
31. Patricio O’Ward (R)
32. Helio Castroneves
33. JR Hildebrand
34. Stefan Wilson
35. Oriol Servia
36. Alfonso Celis Jr. (R)
37. Colton Herta (R)
38. Danica Patrick
39. Jay Howard
40. Sage Karam
41. James Davison

The 2018 season finale promised much but delivered even more, bringing a thrilling race that rounded off an altogether amazing season. Scott Dixon proved why he’s regarded as the best all-rounder on the grid, taking his fifth championship to go equal in the record books with the great AJ Foyt. However, Alexander Rossi’s day was largely defined by lap one. But amongst all that was going on, it was easy to lose sight of the fact that Ryan Hunter-Reay took only his second win of the season.

Really, it was a perfect weekend for Hunter-Reay. The #28 Andretti driver took pole and led 80 of the 85 laps (only not leading for short periods during the pit stop sequences) to beat Josef Newgarden to fourth in the championship. Realistically, Dixon had the pace to put up more of a challenge than he did to Hunter-Reay but there was no need as Rossi was behind him and that was all that mattered. He was quite happy to leave Hunter-Reay to take the glory of the race in return for a safe championship. The Andretti driver dedicated the win to Robert Wickens, who continues his recovery. He released this video message shortly before the race started.

Dixon’s nickname around the paddock is ‘The Iceman’; always cool, calm and collected, even in the most frantic of situations. Dixon’s always the one to keep his head while those around him lose theirs, but he ran a very clever race at Sonoma. Always making sure he wouldn’t get caught out by a caution and bringing the car home in one piece. After the madness of Portland, Dixon was probably relieved to have a calm race and, having finished in the top two, he left Rossi no opportunity to even think of taking the championship.

Rossi was clearly kicking himself over the first lap in the post-race interviews – it was the last thing he needed, especially at Sonoma. The #27 Andretti driver started sixth and was eager to make up positions from the moment the flag dropped. Rossi tried to pass teammate Marco Andretti but ended up running into the back of the #98, gaining a puncture, broken front wing and a long drive back to pit road.

The American got back out into the race and, after briefly being a lap down, was clearly on a charge, overtaking five cars after the one and only caution, brought out by Graham Rahal stopping on track, played into his hands. However, it wasn’t enough and Rossi was unable to withstand late race pressure from Sebastien Bourdais, eventually conceding the position after running out of fuel and finishing the race in seventh. Rossi was clearly downbeat after the race but he’ll be determined to take his first championship next season, having missed out this time.

The Team Penske duo of Will Power and Josef Newgarden mathematically could have a shot at the title. However, neither were in a position to win the race and when Spencer Pigot’s car was pulled behind the pit wall, they both slipped out of contention. Power still managed to finish third while Newgarden’s race was less fruitful, finishing eighth after stalling on his first pit stop. In the other Team Penske, Simon Pagenaud finished fourth after trying, but failing, to make his 2017 race-winning three-stop strategy work again.

Things didn’t get any easier out on track for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (SPM) with their three cars finishing fifteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth respectively. This rounded off what has been a dreadful end to a promising season. SPM will be happy to see the back of this season, ready to start afresh in 2019, albeit without Wickens.

On a much lighter note, Indy Lights champion Patricio O’Ward had a brilliant weekend; stunning in qualifying and he followed it up in the race, having initially struggled with tyre wear. After qualifying fifth, the race was a baptism of fire for the Mexican who had quite a lot of cars behind him at one point. He had dropped as low as fifteenth but soon found the confidence to overtake and make his way back into the top ten in his very first IndyCar race. Fellow debutant Colton Herta was rather overshadowed by O’Ward all weekend, eventually finishing as the last runner on the lead lap in twentieth.

That concludes what’s been a stellar first season for the new universal aero kits but, while some things change, others don’t… Dixon is still the man to beat. We’ll have reviews and features for you over the off-season but, for now, it’s over and out.

Full Race Results:

1. Ryan Hunter-Reay
2. Scott Dixon
3. Will Power
4. Simon Pagenaud
5. Marco Andretti
6. Sebastien Bourdais
7. Alexander Rossi
8. Josef Newgarden
9. Patricio O’Ward (R)
10. Ed Jones
11. Santino Ferrucci (R)
12. Tony Kanaan
13. Jordan King (R)
14. Zach Veach (R)
15. James Hinchcliffe
16. Pietro Fittipaldi (R)
17. Jack Harvey
18. Carlos Munoz
19. Matheus Leist (R)
20. Colton Herta (R)
21. Max Chilton
22. Charlie Kimball
23. Graham Rahal

DNF – Spencer Pigot, Takuma Sato

Championship Results:

1. Scott Dixon
2. Alexander Rossi
3. Will Power
4. Ryan Hunter-Reay
5. Josef Newgarden
6. Simon Pagenaud
7. Sebastien Bourdais
8. Graham Rahal
9. Marco Andretti
10. James Hinchcliffe

—

Rookie of the Year – Robert Wickens (11th)
Manufacturers Champion – Honda

There is just one race to go for the 2018 IndyCar season which means it’s crunch time for the championship. Mathematically, there are four contenders – Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi, Will Power and Josef Newgarden – however, realistically there are only two as both Power and Newgarden would need nothing short of a miracle to win, as we’ll get to later.

Sonoma is double points, adding another element to an already tense decider and meaning that there’s even less margin for error, as if that margin wasn’t small enough already! Going into Sonoma, Dixon leads Rossi by 29 points with Power and Newgarden tied, 58 points back from Rossi and 87 from Dixon.

The title permutations are vast in numbers and, with bonus points also on offer, almost entirely unpredictable. For a quick reminder, the bonus points are awarded as follows: one point for pole, one point for leading any number of laps and two extra points for leading the most laps, meaning that the most any one driver can pick up is four.

Here we’re going to run through the most likely outcomes, excluding the unpredictable factor of the bonus points.

To put it simply, if Dixon finishes ahead of Rossi, that’s game over as the margin would go up rather than down. If Dixon is first or second, he wins the championship no matter what Rossi does. Also, if Rossi finishes lower than tenth, Dixon is crowned champion. For Rossi to win the championship, he really needs to win the race and bank on Dixon being third but preferably lower, given the bonuses.

If Rossi finishes second, he’ll need Dixon to be fourth or lower and if Rossi’s third, Dixon would have to finish tenth or lower. Rossi can technically win the championship from as low as tenth however, that would involve Dixon being classified 25^th or lower which would essentially mean him getting completely wiped on the first lap.

The best course of action for Rossi would be, quite obviously, to win the race and then just hope either some misfortune befalls Dixon, or that he’s got enough of his Andretti teammates near him to back him up. Equally for Dixon, he’ll be targeting a top two finish to prevent Rossi even getting a look in.

However, all this is very easy to say, doing it is another matter entirely. IndyCar has proven time and time again just how unpredictable the racing can be – even last race when Rossi looked nailed on for the win and then had it snatched away through mistimed cautions. The crumb of comfort for Rossi is that Dixon hasn’t finished in the top two since his win at Toronto five races ago and the #27 Andretti driver has finished ahead of his rival for three of the last four races. Then again, Dixon beats Rossi 9-7 over all the races so far this season.

One other thing to note is that if Dixon and Rossi end up equal on points, the countback isn’t so simple. Pre-Sonoma, the pair are equal on wins, seconds and thirds, only being split on fourths where Dixon has one more. The rule book states: “In the case of a tie in the championship, IndyCar will determine the champion based on the most first place finishes. If there is still a tie, IndyCar will determine the champion by the most second place finishes through last place finishes, until a champion is determined.” This means that, as is stands, Dixon would win on countback should the pair be equal however, if Rossi finishes within the top three to equal Dixon, Rossi would be the champion.

And there’s more…

As I mentioned earlier, the Penske duo of Power and Newgarden are in with a shout of the title but their chances don’t exactly look great. For either of them to walk away from Sonoma champion they would have to win the race with Dixon 24^th or lower and Rossi 10^th or lower. Basically, for those two it’s a case of try to win the race and then just hope.

In all this, Dixon is the only one who is in some control of his own fate because he has a way to win the championship where it doesn’t matter what anyone else does. For the other three, they can win the race but are then entirely dependant on where the others finish… it could end up being very close!

The title could be decided by just a handful of points or much more – only the 85 laps of Sonoma will tell. One thing is for sure though, leaving Sonoma, we’ll either have a five-time champion in Dixon or a new champion in Rossi with a very slim chance a two-time champion in either Power or Newgarden… someone’s got to win it, it’s just a question of who.

After months of speculation, IndyCar have finally confirmed their 2019 calendar. This new calendar sees one new entry, one returning event and two races that are sadly leaving, as well as a few switch arounds.

St Petersburg starts the season as it has done for many years, but you don’t have to go very far into the season to find the first change. Phoenix is no more and has instead been replaced by the Circuit of the Americas, an addition that has been expected for some time. The omission of Phoenix means that the first oval race of the season will be the Indy 500 which is certainly a change from years past.

Long Beach and Barber have been switched around for the third and fourth races compared to last year. After that, the run from the Indianapolis GP right through to Road America remains unchanged order-wise. The ever-anticipated Indy 500 is in its customary slot of the last weekend of May with the Detroit double-header and Texas Motor Speedway falling on the next two weekends to form the seasons first triple header of race weekends.

Road America follows Texas as it did in 2018 and then the next change in the calendar is after that. This change is, however, a fairly minor one with Toronto and Iowa switching places – meaning the ovals are more spread out.

Mid-Ohio, Pocono, Gateway and Portland all remain in the same order for the most oval-heavy stretch of the season. There’s a bigger gap between the penultimate round at Portland and the final round for 2019, standing at three weeks as opposed to two in 2018.

That final round is also the final change of the season. For only the second time since IndyCar became the series it is today, there will be no Sonoma race. The Californian track joined the IndyCar calendar a year into its being in 2008, holding the season finales from 2015 to 2018. It’s a sad loss for IndyCar, but two California races probably going to work.

Replacing Sonoma is perhaps the most exciting change to the calendar; after fourteen years away, Laguna Seca is finally back, and it’ll be the season finale. It won’t be long until the IndyCar’s will be descending the famous corkscrew once more, and the drivers can hardly wait for it!

IndyCar announces returns to Laguna Seca after fourteen-year absence

One thing that you do notice about the new calendar is the slow but constant demise of the oval races. There’s only one less on the 2019 calendar than there was on the 2018 but it seems more noticeable now – of the 17 rounds, only 5 are at ovals. This is comes as part of the slow move away from ovals and their dangers, many of which were highlighted by Robert Wickens’ horrendous crash at Pocono. It’s a change that the entire IndyCar community are just going to have to get used to.

These are exciting times for IndyCar with everything pointing to a certain Fernando Alonso joining the series for the 2019 season and with more drivers than ever able to fight for a more unpredictable title… bring on 2019!

2019 Season Calendar

10^th March – St. Petersburg (S)
24^th March – Circuit of the Americas (R)
7^th April – Barber Motorsports Park (R)
14^th April – Long Beach (S)
11^th May – Indianapolis GP (R)
26^th May – 103^rd Indy 500 (O)
1^st June – Detroit Race 1 (S)
2^nd June – Detroit Race 2 (S)
8^th June – Texas Motor Speedway (O)
23^rd June – Road America (R)
14^th July – Toronto (S)
20^th July – Iowa Speedway (O)
28^th July – Mid-Ohio (R)
18^th August – Pocono Raceway (O)
24^th August – Gateway Motorsports Park (O)
1^st September – Portland (R)
22^nd September – Laguna Seca (R)

(R) – Road Course
(S) – Street Course
(O) – Oval

Schedule subject to change

Takuma Sato took only his third IndyCar career win at Portland in a race that was turned on its head time and time again by the four cautions. Ryan Hunter-Reay came home second, but it was not enough to salvage his title challenge while Sebastien Bourdais returned to the Portland podium, ten years after winning the last race at the track.

 

Sato was never the one anyone had pegged on for the win. First it was Alexander Rossi and then, when his challenge faded, it was Hunter-Reay and maybe even Bourdais but never Sato, yet here we are! Perhaps the pivotal moment of the race for Sato came shortly before the second caution – the #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver was the last to pit for the first stops, meaning when the end of the race came around, he had four laps more fuel that Hunter-Reay. This proved crucial, but it was the last two cautions that pushed him to the front of the field, at least once Max Chilton was forced to pit after coming up short. That means Sato takes his first ever permanent road course win – with his two other wins being Long Beach (street course) and the Indy 500.

In the first half of the race, Rossi looked nailed on for not only the win but a huge points swing in the championship with title rival Scott Dixon well down the order. At one point, Rossi had a seven second lead over teammate Hunter-Reay, but his race was brought crashing down by the second and third cautions. Will Power caused the second caution of the day by nosing into the barriers at Turn 12, eliminating Rossi’s lead, while Zach Veach caused the third by spinning – catching Rossi out in the pits and leaving him down in 17^th. From there, Rossi fought back as hard as he could but eighth proved to be the best he could do, unable to pass Charlie Kimball in the latter stages of the race. Rossi’s deficit in the championship has increased to 29 points, but it didn’t always look that way…

Dixon said after the race that he wanted to cry after the Lap 1 crash that very nearly ended his race, but, in true Dixon style, he drove the recovery drive of all recovery drives to finish the race in fifth, extending his championship advantage. It all started when James Hinchcliffe got squeezed at Turn 2 by Veach, causing the #5 to spin. Hinchcliffe in turn collected Ed Jones, Graham Rahal, Dixon and Marco Andretti, the latter of whom ended up flying backwards over both Jones and Hinchcliffe, eventually coming to a rest upside down. It’s a wonder they all walked away from that with Jones having scuff marks on his helmet from Andretti’s car, Hinchcliffe being very nearly hit and Andretti ending with his helmet touching the ground.

Amongst all that, it was easy to forget about Dixon but the #9 Chip Ganassi driver managed to keep his engine running and, once his path was cleared, was able to re-join the race with only a scuffed front wing to show for his ordeal. That was, however, not the last of Dixon’s dramas. After the first stops, Dixon received a drive-thru penalty for speeding in the pit lane and, later on in the race, he was very nearly taken out at Turn 1 by first Josef Newgarden and then Spencer Pigot. Despite all this, Dixon came home in fifth in what was a true testament of why he’s regarded as the best driver in IndyCar. Something that Rossi said a few rounds back really rings true here, “Dixon never has a bad race”.

Portland wasn’t really a good race for any of the title contenders other than Dixon. We’ve already covered Rossi’s troubles and Newgarden had pretty much the same fate, finishing down in tenth. Hunter-Reay has been ruled out of title contention as he heads into Sonoma 136 points back with only a maximum of 105 points on offer while Power’s day couldn’t have been much worse if he’d tried. It was all going so well until the first restart when he lost all speed and with it a heap of places. This was later attributed to a gearbox issue that plagued the rest of his race and made pit stops a very difficult affair. Eventually, Power hit the barriers at Turn 12, bringing out the second caution, and effectively ending his race – he did re-join but he was seven laps adrift of the lead.

One to have a good race was defending Portland winner Bourdais who scored his first podium of the season since his win first time out at St Petersburg. Towards the end of the race, it looked like the Frenchman could challenge for the win, but it was not to be, and he dropped back from Hunter-Reay, finishing in a solid third place. Bourdais’ newest teammate, Santino Ferrucci, also had a good race, even if the results don’t show it. The American was running fairly high up in the order when his Dale Coyne conked out with a ‘fuel system issue’. Of course, Ferrucci comes with a fair amount of baggage after his time in F2 but IndyCar has given him a second chance, and he’s already proving his worth.

The other Dale Coyne car of Pietro Fittipaldi also had a decent race with the rookie scoring his first ever IndyCar Top 10, finishing ninth, just ahead of defending champion Newgarden.

The last mention of the day goes to Carlos Munoz who took part in his first non-oval IndyCar race for a long time, replacing the injured Robert Wickens. Munoz finished the race in a respectable twelfth place and is set to drive at Sonoma as well as Wickens continues his recovery. The latest Wickens news is that he’s been transferred to the IU hospital in Indianapolis and is due for more surgery of his ‘lower extremities’.

Next up for IndyCar is the very last round of the season at Sonoma which offers double points, meaning Dixon’s lead is far from safe…

Full Race Results:

1. Takuma Sato
2. Ryan Hunter-Reay
3. Sebastien Bourdais
4. Spencer Pigot
5. Scott Dixon
6. Simon Pagenaud
7. Charlie Kimball
8. Alexander Rossi
9. Pietro Fittipaldi (R)
10. Josef Newgarden
11. Tony Kanaan
12. Carlos Munoz
13. Gabby Chaves
14. Matheus Leist (R)
15. Jordan King (R)
16. Jack Harvey
17. Alfonso Celis Jr (R)
18. Max Chilton
19. Zach Veach (R)
20. Santino Ferrucci (R)
21. Will Power
22. James Hinchcliffe

DNF – Graham Rahal, Ed Jones, Marco Andretti

IndyCar returns to Portland’s road course, after a 10-year absence, for the penultimate round of the 2018 season. Scott Dixon holds a 26-point lead over Alexander Rossi with the title race now down to four drivers who each have three wins a piece – Dixon, Rossi, Will Power and Josef Newgarden.

Power was the victor last time out at Gateway, significantly boosting his own championship challenge while pushing teammate and reigning champion Newgarden down into fourth in the standings. The victory itself was a very strategic one with Power jumping long-time leader Dixon in the pit stops to take the win, despite an off-piste strategy call from Rossi to, in true Rossi style, stretch his fuel out longer than it should reasonably go in the final stint.

Simon Pagenaud picked up one of his best results of the season in fourth, but it was far too little too late to do anything to help his title challenge – the 2016 champion will not be adding another to his tally this season, though insists his Penske future is not in doubt despite various rumours.

Zach Veach took the top rookie slot and is really starting to shine, having been overlooked for most of the season due to his Andretti teammates and fellow rookie Robert Wickens. Wickens is out of action but teammate and close friend James Hinchcliffe had some promising news for the media at Portland, he said that Wickens was improving daily and that the first thing he said to Hinchcliffe was a comment about the compression gloves that he’s been wearing since the Pocono crash – it’s good to see that he definitely hasn’t lost his sense of humour!

Looking ahead to Portland and you have to go back to 2007 for the last IndyCar race there… and that’s when it was under the name of Champ Car. Then reigning champion Sebastien Bourdais took the win in the race that famously held the first standing start in Champ Car history – something that has certainly not become common-place in IndyCar.

Only a handful of the current grid have actually raced at Portland, obviously Bourdais has along with Power, Pagenaud and Ryan Hunter-Reay. For the rest, it’s a step into the unknown but those four don’t have much of an advantage given they haven’t been there since 2007 at the latest and for some it’s been even longer.

This absence means there no form book to go on and no previous set ups the teams can turn to. That should favour the bigger teams like Andretti and Penske over the smaller teams because they can gather more data as they have more cars, but only time will tell.

There are a lot of driver changes for this weekend… Carlos Munoz will take the wheel of the #6 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car, replacing the injured Wickens for the last two rounds of the season. Jordan King is back in the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing, taking over from the boss for Portland and Sonoma while Gabby Chaves stays in his seat at Harding after being replaced for three rounds.

Jack Harvey is here for the last two rounds of the season with the #60 joint entry between Meyer Shank Racing and Schmidt Peterson. Force India linked driver Alfonso Celis Jr is in the #32 solo Juncos entry with news coming this week that they’ll be running two cars next year and lastly, banned-F2 racer Santino Ferrucci returns to IndyCar in a third entry for Dale Coyne for the final two races.

Santino Ferrucci returns to IndyCar for final rounds with Dale Coyne

This round is so crucial for so many drivers, for the title contenders it’s the last stretch of the season and they can’t afford a mistake while for most of the other drivers, they need to prove their worth for a seat next season with Silly Season in full swing and a certain Fernando Alonso kicking around.

The timings this weekend are much more UK friendly than they were at Gateway and, in addition to IndyCar, we’ve got the whole Mazda Road to Indy programme in attendance with all three’s seasons coming to a close and two championships still to sort out. All the MRTI sessions are available to stream, along with all IndyCar practice and qualifying as well. The all-important race is on BT Sport 2 on Sunday evening with the full schedule as follows:

Friday

Practice 1 – 6:45pm
Practice 2 – 10:35pm

Saturday

Practice 3 – 7:10pm
Qualifying – 11:20pm

Sunday

Race – 8:00pm

(All times BST)

Will Power took his fourth win of the season after a close strategy call saw him take the lead from Alexander Rossi in the closing stages, moving the Australian up to third in the championship. Championship leader Scott Dixon saw his advantage cut by another three points to 26 after he was unable to pass Rossi on the last lap.

Power didn’t have it all his own way, it was Dixon who took the pole, by virtue of being the championship leader after qualifying was rained off, and Power didn’t lead until 150 laps of the race had past. However, once Power was in the lead, he looked fairly untouchable – that was until Ryan Hunter-Reay caused the second caution of the day, the first coming courtesy of Sebastien Bourdais. This came at a time when it was very touch and go as to whether the drivers could make it to the end of the race with the fuel they had after the stops under the caution.

There were two options: push, burn the fuel and accept that you have to come in for a splash-and-dash or stretch out the fuel to make the end of the race, sacrificing pace. Power, Dixon and the like went for the first option, Rossi, true to his 2016 Indy 500 performance, opted for the latter. It very nearly didn’t work out for Power, but he came out of the pits just close enough to Rossi to be able to get past him – Dixon was not so fortunate with Rossi aided by traffic. Regardless of that, Power was the one who took the victory, putting himself within 70 points of leader Dixon with just two rounds to go.

Rossi remains second in the championship after coming home second on the road with his ambitious strategy not quite paying off. Rewind to earlier in the race and Rossi was trying for a move on then second-placed Power when he drifted high, missing the wall by the narrowest of margins. It was the save of all saves, not just for the Gateway race but also for the championship – a DNF at this stage of proceedings would spell disaster. When the questions over fuel mileage surfaced after the final caution, you could be fairly sure, given his previous form, that Rossi would hang it out until the end of the race, even if no one else did.

For a while, it looked like Rossi’s Andretti teammate Zach Veach might be in for a surprise result when he took the lead following the fuel stops for both Power and Dixon. However, it was too good to be true – Veach had pushed too hard and was forced to pit with just a few laps remaining however, his fifth-place finish is nothing to be ashamed of!

For championship leader Dixon, this race could’ve gone a lot better, given he started on pole, but, equally, it could’ve been a lot worse. This continues his so-so run of races since his win at Toronto, presumably with the championship firmly in mind. Dixon can afford to give two or three points away to Rossi but what he can’t afford is a DNF – it’s a smart move from IndyCar’s ‘Iceman’.

The often-forgotten Penske of Simon Pagenaud had a fairly decent race, finishing in fourth, but it was a tail of what could’ve been after a wide moment cost the Frenchman a sizeable amount of positions. He reckons he would’ve been in the lead battle had that moment not happened but fourth is what he got out of it in the end. The #22 Penske is long out of the championship but insists his future at the team is not under question, despite various silly season rumours surrounding him.

The other Penske of Josef Newgarden had a less than good day, finishing down in seventh and losing yet more ground in the championship – dropping down to fourth. It was a very frustrating race for Newgarden, he couldn’t match the more fuel-efficient Hondas and that was pretty much that for the final stint. It certainly wasn’t the repeat of last year’s victory that he’d hoped for with his gap to the championship lead now large but not insurmountable.

Another one to struggle was Hunter-Reay who is now just a few points away from dropping out of championship contention after two straight DNFs. If the crash with Robert Wickens at Pocono hadn’t extinguished his championship hopes, Gateway has with a loss of fuel pressure being cited as his reason for retirement.

Speaking of Wickens, just before the race got underway Schmidt Peterson released the promising news that the Canadian is now breathing unaided and speaking with his family. It’s a long road to recovery for Wickens, but at least there is one. Teammate and close friend James Hinchliffe struggled this weekend, clearly shaken by Wickens’ crash and sporting finger-less gloves as a result of his injuries sustained in that crash.

With Wickens still firmly in everyone’s minds, the paddock moves onto the penultimate race of the season at Portland which marks the end of the last triple-header of the season.

Full Race Results:

1. Will Power
2. Alexander Rossi
3. Scott Dixon
4. Simon Pagenaud
5. Zach Veach (R)
6. Spencer Pigot
7. Josef Newgarden
8. Ed Jones
9. Takuma Sato
10. Graham Rahal
11. Pietro Fittipaldi (R)
12. Ed Carpenter
13. Tony Kanaan
14. Marco Andretti
15. James Hinchcliffe
16. Matheus Leist (R)
17. Max Chilton
18. Gabby Chaves
19. Charlie Kimball

DNF – Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sebastien Bourdais

Sunday’s race at Pocono witnessed one of the scariest crashes in recent IndyCar memory. Robert Wickens was trying for an overtake on Ryan Hunter-Reay when the two collided, causing Wickens to spin and be launched into the catch-fence surrounding the track before being violently thrown around and eventually coming to a rest at the bottom of the track.

Quite frankly, it’s a wonder Wickens’ wasn’t killed in that crash, it was a monster and very similar, too similar, in fact, to that of Dan Wheldon’s in 2011 – the only difference is that Wickens’ car stayed upright and Wheldon’s did not. The general rule for motorsport is that a devastating ‘freak’ accident can just about happen once, then the necessary changes have to be made to make sure that it can’t have the same, similar or worse consequences again. Twice, however, is unacceptable. Twice is not a ‘freak’ accident, twice is fundamental problems.

It was only earlier this month that I was writing about how not as much was learnt from Wheldon’s crash as it should’ve been, and now look – that’s been proven in the worst way possible.

Safety in Motorsports Week: Dan Wheldon, A Horribly Perfect Storm

Sure, Wickens’ has survived but not without two broken legs, a broken arm, a bruised lung, spinal fractures and a spinal cord injury of ‘indeterminate severity’. That last part is the most worrying and no-one is yet willing to say what the prognosis looks like for Wickens – but, with racing put to one side, something that Sebastien Bourdais said is very true… “at least he’s alive”.

I’m normally one to support IndyCar when it comes under criticism from the rest of the motorsport world but it’s much harder this time round… there’s a lot of anger from a lot of people as to how this crash could’ve happened again.

One of the biggest problems is the catch-fence that surrounds every oval race track. Its primary function is to keep the race cars inside the race track and prevent any debris from finding its way into the crowd, and, on the whole, its very good at that. However, it also has a tendency to rip cars up in wrecks, causing them to rotate and causing a lot of damage to the car, and often the driver. If a car gets into the fence you know two things: 1) it was a very big crash and 2) the driver will be very lucky to walk away from it unscathed.

Wickens’ saving grace is that he stayed upright and didn’t come into contact with any of the fence posts, especially on a vulnerable part of his body – such as his head. That’s what did it for Wheldon, but the fact that you could have something as potential dangerous as a fence post lining a race track seems ludicrous in itself.

However, it’s all well and good criticising the catch-fences but what could they be replaced with? A replacement would have to be able to withstand the full force of an IndyCar without breaking while not having exposed reinforcements (i.e. fence posts), be able to catch any potential flying debris and not be so expensive that it can’t be rolled out at all ovals, all while not overly inhibiting the view of the spectators at the track. When you put it like that, you see just how big the problem that IndyCar faces is.

Surely, now that it’s been bluntly brought to the management’s attention twice in a fairly short period of time, they’ll be forced into taking action. There are enough questions of IndyCar this time round, when the accident was not fatal – it would be a hundred times worse a third time round, and there’s no saying what the next outcome could be.

That crash could be career ending for Wickens, or he might be able to return, depending on the severity of the spinal cord injury, but at least it was not life ending.

Wickens is not, however, the only scary reality to have come out of that crash.

Ryan Hunter-Reay is one very, very lucky driver to have no injuries from Pocono and be able look ahead to Gateway. Wickens’ spinning, aerial car came within inches of Hunter-Reay’s head, taking out the roll hoop just above him in alarming fashion. IndyCar have massively dodged a bullet with just that aspect of the crash… let alone the rest of it.

And the problems don’t end there. Wickens’ teammate James Hinchcliffe, having already cheated death once, was also caught up in the crash and suffered injuries to his hands. Luckily, nothing was broken, just some cuts and bruises but that too could’ve been a whole lot worse. A fairly sizeable piece of debris entered Hinchcliffe’s cockpit when Pietro Fittipaldi, left with no where else to go, made contact with him and, again, just a few inches different and this too could be a wholly different story.

With not overly different margins, that crash could’ve resulted in three badly injured, or worse, drivers, as opposed to just one. The fact that Wickens’ is the only one of those drivers not to be heading to Gateway is down to luck… not safety innovations.

Two things desperately need to be learnt from the Pocono crash: 1) the catch-fence, and especially fence posts, needs looking at and a safer alternative really needs to be found and 2) the introduction of driver head protection should be paramount with as little delay as is possible.

If those two warnings are not heeded, we could easily have the same supposedly ‘freak’ accident for a third time, and IndyCar’s luck is fast running out.