Morning Warmup at Mid-Ohio

 

(Photo credit: Joe Skibinski, Penske Entertainment)

Hello again!

I haven't updated anything here in a while, but I hope you have been following me on Frontstretch, where I have been providing a lot of IndyCar content.

It's raceday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Complex, where the NTT IndyCar Series has 80 laps of racing in front of it later this afternoon. Here are a couple of storylines I'm keeping an eye on.

Graham Rahal. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars have come to life this weekend, with Rahal and teammate Christian Lundgaard made the Fast 6, and Rahal making his first front-row start in over four years. He will start next to polesitter Colton Herta on the front row, and was quickest in the morning session. Rahal hasn't won an IndyCar race since 2015, is today the day?

The Weather. Rain has been in the area all weekend, although all of the IndyCar sessions have been run in dry conditions. With the race schedule to go green at 1:53 p.m. EDT and rain expected a couple of hours later, it will be interesting to see what might happen if rain falls in the closing laps of the race. 

Conor Daly. Daly is stepping in for Simon Pagenaud this weekend after the Frenchman wasn't cleared to race after a massive shunt on Saturday morning. While he starts from the back of the field in the 27th position, he was 12th-quick in the warmup and seemed really happy with the car. Daly is looking for a job after parting ways with Ed Carpenter Racing last month, and this is a good opportunity for him to show what he's got. Daly has a lot of experience jumping into rides on short notice, so it's no surprise to see him get up to speed so quickly.

The podium;

Winner: Graham Rahal. Yeah, I'm going there. Momentum is everything on a race weekend, and he has lots of it going right now. I'm not sure how he's gonna do it, but I think he's gonna do it.

2nd: Alex Palou. The points leader is one of the hottest drivers in the world at the moment. With three wins in his last four races, Palou has finished on the podium each of the last two years. 

3rd: Colton Herta. Herta has won back-to-back poles but is still in search of his first podium of the year. Today is his day.

Have a great race!

About Last Sunday...

Welcome to June!

It's a little crazy to think that the Month of May has ended for another year. Speaking of crazy, I had a month. I was in Indy every weekend, spent seven nights in four different hotels, and was in the stands for my 25th Indianapolis 500.

Oh yeah, I also found time to run the Indy Mini Marathon for the first time in seven years.

It was a wild month, which culminated with one of the wildest finishes we've ever seen.

I've had a few days to think about what transpired over the race's final 50 miles, and here's where I am at with it.

I hated the way the race finished, but I'm happy with the guy who won.

Let's start with the latter. There is no question that Josef Newgarden both earned and deserved that win. He drove a brilliant race from the 17th starting position and when he found himself in a spot where he could go after the win, he took it.

That's what champions do. It took him 12 tries to get there, but Newgarden finally found his way to Victory Lane, and sent his career into a whole new stratosphere.

As I said in an article I wrote for Frontstretch: this win adds more significance to his wins and championships, and is a good place to start thinking about the fact he is already an all-time great, and where he will be on various lists when his career ends. He's still only 32 and has a 500 win, two championships, and is tied for 14th all-time in wins, leaving him five victories away from cracking the top 10 wins list.

For context, here's who he passes to get there: Johnny Rutherford, Rick Mears, Helio Castroneves, Paul Tracy, and Dario Franchitti. Pretty heady stuff.

So the coronation of Newgarden is complete, so let's talk about the end of the race. Simply put: the last red flag should never have happened. I know, I know, that changes the race winner, and would've made Marcus Ericsson a back-to-back champion.

But the idea that race control decided to put the Greatest Race in The World on the line for a one-lap shootout was misguided, not to mention, dangerous. When the decision was made, I really feared for the driver's safety.

That's not being dramatic, either. The shorter you make a race, the more drivers are going to risk in order to win. Just look at the Cup Series on a weekly basis, and the crazy decisions that drivers make during overtime periods. 

On that side it's different. Cup cars are almost bulletproof, and if drivers want to bang each other around, it doesn't scare me all that much. Except on plate tracks...yeah, that's a little too insane.

I get the idea of a green flag finish. But if you aren't going past the race distance, sometimes that's not always going to happen. And, for the record, I have no interest in overtime periods or going past the race distance in IndyCar. Given the number of times races end under yellow, it's unnecessary.

Not to mention it can get expensive, and given IndyCar doesn't have a money-printing machine, tearing up cars just to finish under green isn't what is in the series' best interests.

I had no problem with the first two reds. They were in windows that gave race control the ability to restart the race under the rules and protocols. The last one didn't, and therein lies the problem.

I get that there is risk, and I know that the drivers accept them. But to put 21 drivers, 21 human beings, might I add, at additional risk to satisfy a small percentage of people is just not right. As I've said before, I've met or interviewed almost all of the drivers in the paddock. They are people to me, and I care about them. 

I get it: race control is made up of human beings too. I know they had their reasons for the final red, and that the decision had to be made quickly. I just think standards need to be put into place so that it doesn't happen again.

There were 350,000 people at the race. Most of us have traditions that started long before this year, and finishing under a yellow wouldn't change those. Would people have gone home a bit disappointed? Sure. Would they have walked away saying "screw this, we aren't coming back next year"? I highly doubt it.

The decision to end the race would've left people disappointed. There's no doubt in that. But the number of people at the race and watching on television or listening to the radio who would've kicked IndyCar to the curb over a yellow flag finish would've been miniscule. Those people aren't fans and probably never would be, if that's what it took to push them away from one of the most competitive and exciting racing series on the planet.

In terms of media, social media, and all media in between, a hit was going to come with whichever decision race control made. If you aren't going to make everyone happy -- which never happens -- why not make the decision that 1) stays true to the concept of competition and 2) what is best for all of the participants involved?

It's a competition. I went to a Cubs game against the Mets last week. The Cubs fell behind early and eventually lost by a score of 10-1. Was I disappointed? Absolutely, and do not get me started about the disappointment that has been this entire season.

(Editor's note: I take the Chicago Cubs very seriously.)

Still, it's how the game is sometimes. And the fact is, you can't make everyone happy. I'm still a Cubs fan, and I'm still going to watch games on TV and go to more games this season. My Cubs fandom isn't based on one random game on a Thursday night. If it were, I would've chucked them into Lake Michigan long ago.

Racing's the same way to me. Take Alex Palou's win at the Indy GP. Palou won by more than 15 seconds, and there were gripes that the race was "boring" because it didn't have an exciting finish. That's a problem, because we've kind of reached the mode in racing where the quality of the race is defined by its finish.

What got lost in thinking the race was boring was not appreciating a driver who was so on top of his game that he dominated a field of very good racers in what amounts to a spec car. That's the story! That kind of drive is to be appreciated because it takes a special kind of circumstance for someone to pull that off. 

Races are races, just like baseball games are baseball games. The NBA Finals start tonight, if Denver leads by 30 after three quarters and the fourth quarter is just 12 minutes of glorified garbage time, that's just what it is, just like a hotly-contested and very exciting race that featured 52 lead changes among almost half of the drivers in the field finishing five miles short of completion is what it would've been as well.

If the race had ended under yellow with Ericsson the winner, he would've earned it just the way Newgarden did. The body of the race as a whole was exciting in its own right, it didn't need a Game Seven moment to make it memorable As a fan, and a media member, that would've been an acceptable outcome as well. 

There is a level of integrity to competition. If you want to argue that if that is the case the red should never fall under any circumstances, I can see your point, and it's valid. I think there is still integrity in taking steps to try to finish under green, but there has to be a point reached where everyone agrees that for the sake of the competition and the competitors involved, a green finish can't happen.

To the drivers' credit, I think the final lap went as best as it could've. Everyone took care of each other and came home in one piece, which is what we expect out of IndyCar drivers. 

In the future, it shouldn't come down to that. I think going forward that strict, transparent protocols need to be put into place as to what circumstances lead to a red flag, and at what point that should be abandoned.

That needs to happen now, because for a lot of reasons, it matters.

Morning Warm-Up at the GMR Indy Grand Prix

Welcome to May!

Today is the 44th anniversary of my first-ever trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While back then it was for Pole Day, today it is for the GMR Grand Prix. It's great to be back in the media center for the first time in four years as I'm covering the event for Frontstretch.com.

There were a lot of surprises in qualifying, most notably Rahal Letterman Lanigan putting two drivers in the Firestone Fast 6, with Christian Lundgaard capturing his first career pole and Jack Harvey notching a much-needed P4 starting spot.

A lot of the usual suspects didn't have such good luck in qualifying, meaning the race could be pretty exciting as drivers hope to use on-track passing and pit strategies to make their way up front. 

Here are a few drivers and storylines I'm keeping my eye on:

Romain Grosjean. After running up front at Texas and posting runner-up finishes the last two races at Long Beach and Barber, the Andretti Autosport driver has shown it's only a matter of time before he finds his way to Victory Lane. While he finished second in his first effort on the road course in 2021, he hasn't performed well since, and today he starts 18th. After only managing the 22nd-fastest lap in morning warm-up, he's got some work to do.

Felix Rosenqvist. The Swede has sat on the pole twice here, so he knows the fast way around, and after a dreadful first two races at St. Pete and Texas, he's rebounded with top 10 finishes the last two races. With Alex Palou (allegedly) moving to Arrow McLaren next season, Rosenqvist is the driver on the spot when it comes to any Silly Season discussions. Sealing the deal and starting a run of good results is much-needed.

(Editor's note: I don't think Palou leaving Ganassi is a done deal. Palou is a generational driver, a "winner" in Chip Ganassi vernacular, and given Ganassi's rivalry with McLaren's Zak Brown, he would love to stick it to him by keeping him. Chip didn't fight so hard last fall to make Palou honor the last year of his contract, he did it to try and show him why he needs to stay.)

Team Penske. All three cars missed the setup big-time in qualifying, with Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin qualifying 12th, 13th, and 16th respectively. Pit strategy at Barber gave the win to McLaughlin and put Power on the podium in third, and they will need to do more of the same today.

Colton Herta. Last year Herta started P14 and went on to win the race with a brilliant drive in the wet. He starts 14th again today, but was third-quick in warmup. His career at IMS on both the road course and the oval has always been hit-or-miss, which one is it going to be today?

First-time winner. Nine of the top 11 starters haven't won a race on the Indy Road Course, so there's a good chance we can see a first-time winner. The darkhorse might just be Graham Rahal, who hasn't won in 93 races dating back to when he swept the weekend at Detroit in 2017.

Predictions!

Winner -- Alex Palou

Runner-up -- Marcus Ericsson

Third -- Christian Lundgaard

Enjoy the race!

Photo: Penske Entertainment, Paul Hurley

Morning Warm-Up at Barber

 It's race day in Alabama! The weather is beautiful here and we are set for a great day of racing.

A couple of housekeeping items:

First, congrats to IndyCar, ZOOM Motorsports and Barber Motorsports Park on announcing an extention through 2027. As Mark Miles said, if it's spring, we are going to be racing in Alabama.

I'm happy. I first came to this track with John Cummiskey Racing in the fall of 2016 and absolutely love the place. It's great to be here this weekend for the first time since 2019.

Also, I'm covering the race this weekend for Frontstretch. I've already written a couple of articles for them, check them out!

My first story was about Rinus Veekay posting his best qualifying effort of the season.

The other is about Agustin Canapino. He was so great to talk to and it was a fun story to write. He's definitely a guy who is easy to root for. 

Alright, alright, alright. On with the rest.

Here are three things I'm looking forward to seeing today.

Romain Grosjean is on pole, will he get his first win today? Last year was absolutely awful for the former F1 pilot, but he has rebounded in a big way in 2023. He captured his second pole of the season in Saturday's qualifying and is coming off a runner-up finish to teammate Kyle Kirkwood at Long Beach two weeks ago. He was only 23rd-fastest in this morning's warmup, but it's hard to gauge anything from that. After qualifying yesterday he and Alex Palou -- who will start next to Grosjean on the front row -- remarked how much they like this track as it reminds them of tracks they grew up racing on in Europe. If a driver likes a racetrack, chances are they will race well there.

Track position matters. In the 12 previous races here, the winner has come from one of the first three starting positions nine times. That means the teams a little further back in the field may try to go with a three-stop strategy in hopes of catching some breaks with yellow flags, not to mention to get off of the red alternate tires as quickly as possible. 

Moving up. As far as who can come from the back, I have two drivers in mind. Alexander Rossi had the fourth-quickest time in Round 1 of qualifying but then lost a second in the Round 2 and will start 10th on the grid. He posted the best lap in warmups this morning, so we'll see what he has in the race.

Another driver is former teammate at Andretti Autosport, Colton Herta. Surprisingly, Herta only has one top 10 finish here in IndyCar (10th in 2022) and starts 14th today. That said, he has been among the top 5 in the two practice sessions and warmup, so the car is good, but he will need a lot of help to move forward.

Predictions!

Winner -- Romain Grosjean

Runner-up -- Alexander Rossi

Third -- Alex Palou

Enjoy the race, and remember, when we wake up tomorrow, it's gonna be May!

Photo: Romain Grosjean

Photo Credit: Me!

And Heeere We Go Again

 

If you were at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday, or watched the PPG 375 on television, no doubt you watched a crazy thrilling race that checked off all of the boxes.

The race had it all: hundreds of on-track passes, close, intense racing, and three of the best drivers on the planet (Josef Newgarden, Pato O'Ward and Alex Palou) getting it on at the front of the field for the win, with lots of other drivers right behind them racing just as hard to try and join the party. Some are calling it the race of the year, and I can't say I disagree.

Yep, the race had everything.

With one exception -- a green flag finish.

Despite everything else that happened Sunday as IndyCar put on it's best race at Texas in years, lots of fixation is involved with the yellow brought out by Romain Grosjean's crash with about 2 1/2 miles left in the race.

And, as usually happens when a race ends under yellow -- which doesn't happen often, mind you -- the conversation comes up about taking the NASCAR approach and going with green/white/checker finishes.

As I spent the almost 14 hours driving back from Texas yesterday, I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to write about this, because it's a tired conversation. How tired? I discussed this topic in January, as in, January of 2011.

Plus, it's never gonna happen, for a couple of reasons:

* IndyCar doesn't have to do everything NASCAR does.

* It's never gonna happen.

I'll admit it, I'm a purist. If a race is 500 miles, it's 500 miles. If it is 375 miles -- as was the race distance on Sunday -- it's 375 miles. That said, whatever happens inside that race distance is fair game, such as dropping a red flag after a late caution, within reason.

I've been a race fan since I was nine years old, but I also grew up playing and passionately following stick-and-ball sports, so I am kind of a purist. Sports are supposed to be entertaining, but at their core they are competitions. Sometimes that leads to great games, sometimes it doesn't.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the NCAA men's basketball championship in Houston Monday night between UConn and San Diego State. I've been watching college basketball for longer than I've been watching racing, and I definitely checked off a bucket list item by going to the game.

In the end, UConn won the game by 17 points (76-59) and even when SDSU pulled close in the second half, they were in control for the final 36 minutes of the game. I don't see anyone complaining.

Last year, the first two NBA games I went to (Suns-Heat, Bucks-Warriors), had halftime scores of 71-40 and 77-38. Again, no hand-wringing from basketball fans, because that happens sometimes. It's sports.

But we have this thing in racing where everything, especially the finish, has to be on-the-edge-of-your-seat, heart-in-your-throat shootouts to the checkered flag. For the life of me, I don't know how we got here. It seems like the idea of "that happens sometimes, it's sports", doesn't really apply to racing any longer.

What also makes the conversation tired is that it completely dismisses the last two restarts, which had some of the best racing I've seen in a while. What those guys did down the stretch was inhuman. In the post-race press conference, Jenna Fryer from the Associated Press asked this question:

What wires you guys to do something that stupid?

Here were the replies:

Pato: To win.

Palou: Yeah, but, I mean, you have no other option, so... You just put your right foot there and close a little bit one eye (smiling). You hold everything tight, that's it.

Josef: This was a real race today, which was fantastic. But I think in this sport you definitely can't think about the potential. It's just you got to go pretty flat out if you want to drive the cars at a high level. It's impossible to drive these things at the level you need to without blocking everything else out. I think that's what you get from a lot of drivers here.

That's the point here: instead of harping on missing out on what would have been about 35 seconds of racing, maybe we should focus on what did happen. These guys did some absolutely crazy things out there. Having another 35 seconds of racing wouldn't change that.

When it comes down to it, here's the biggest reason I'm against it.

It's personal to me.

Over the last few years I've met a lot of drivers. Of the 34 drivers shown on the IndyCar website, I've had one-on-one interviews with 18 of them. Seven of them I've had on my podcast, The Rumble Strip. I'm not close friends with any of them by any means, but I've gotten to know them as people and I care about them.

I understand it's dangerous, but where do we draw the line? We draw it at the G/W/C because in open wheel cars, it's unsafe. Drivers going after the win within the confines of the race distance is fine. But if you watched the movie Rush, Niki Lauda makes several references to the fact that he can deal with 20 percent of risk.

Racing within the confines of how IndyCar does it is in my own personal comfort zone of 20 percent, and I think the drivers feel that way too. But setting things up for an "exciting finish" goes beyond that to me. If you watch enough NASCAR, you know the crapshoot of G/W/C finishes. Lots of cars have been torn up during "overtime" as drivers make crazy moves to try and win the race or improve on their finish.

Guys lose their heads at the most critical part of the race. You'd love to say that IndyCar drivers wouldn't do that, but they are extremely competitive humans. Anyone who competes in anything at the professional level has a competitive fire that we can't comprehend. 

And with open wheels, what is a pretty spectacular crash in NASCAR turns into an unsafe and possibly serious accident in IndyCar. So we're going to go past the scheduled distance of the race and take that risk?

Screw. That.

Like I said, these guys are real, actual people to me, and I couldn't talk to them, interview them, or cover them with the thought in the back of my mind that, "I need to be entertained, and you must do everything you can to entertain met, whether you like it or not!".

Nope. That isn't how it works for me.

Thankfully, the powers-that-be in IndyCar feel the same way.

Three Things: PPG 375 Edition

 Good morning from Texas Motor Speedway!

It's cloudy and a bit windy, but the rain is expected to hold off until after the race finishes, so we seem good to go for the PPG 375. Here are a few things I'm thinking about from the media center.

1) The High Line. As I discussed in my Frontstretch article a few days ago, there was a time when TMS was a two-groove racetrack, which provided plenty of action. But because of the resin solution NASCAR has applied to the second lane to help stock cars get better grip, that second line has gone away and there has been a lot less passing than in previous races. IndyCar has tried to address the situation by adding a "high-line" practice to give drivers an opportunity to rubber-in the second lane. Most of the drivers said after practice Saturday that it seems to work better in Turns 1&2, but not so much in 3&4. I'm not sure if we will get a lot of side-by-side racing -- except down the stretch when someone my take a chance -- but it will help in traffic and passing slower cars.

2) Penske vs. Ganassi vs. McLaren. Yes, it will be a clash of the titans up front, as these three teams swept eight of the top 10 starting positions and then put 10 of the 11 cars between the three stables in the top 13 in final practice. 

3) Experience matters. One thing I also mentioned in my above-mentioned story is that since 2008, the race has been won all but twice by a driver with at least one of these criteria on their resume: an IndyCar championship, an Indy 500 win, or 100 career starts at the time of their TMS victory. The only two exceptions to that rule are the late Justin Wilson (2012) and Pato O'Ward (2021). Wilson, of course, fulfills the experience criteria given everything he ever drove, and O'Ward will more than likely will meet those criteria in the future. In Saturday's final practice, five-time TMS winner Scott Dixon was fastest and two-time winner Josef Newgarden was second. The guy in third? Just two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato, who will definitely be a factor in a Chip Ganassi Racing machine.

Predictions!

Winner -- Felix Rosenqvist. When it comes to TMS, you can call the 31-year-old Swede "Fast Felix". Rosenqvist captured his second straight TMS pole Saturday, and nearly won the race in his first try in 2019. Oh yeah, he also finished fourth at Indianapolis last year. If he stays out of trouble career win No. 2 is in his sights. He's also motivated -- with his future still a bit up in the air, a win here would be a big help towards an extension with Arrow McLaren.

Runner-up -- Scott Dixon. Remember the criteria I mentioned above? Nobody touches Dixon. Six championships, five wins at TMS and an Indy 500 win. Since 2018, Dixon has three wins and last year finished fifth despite not having a stellar car. Another experience item? Dixon has led more laps at TMS than 16 drivers have completed in total. Dude's the king here.

Third place -- Alexander Rossi. The newly-minted Arrow McLaren driver finished fourth at St. Pete and qualified third for today's race. Rossi races well when he's happy (most drivers do) and he has a good car underneath him. Like Rosenqvist, he's motivated...or at least should be. Remember when we thought Rossi was the next big IndyCar driver? We don't talk about him all that much anymore, and I think he has a lot to prove this year.

Follow me on social and Frontstretch

I'm so excited to be covering IndyCar this year for the website Frontstretch. I'm also happy that they are gracious enough for me to continue blogging as well. Make sure you check me out!

I'm also on social! Follow me on both Twitter and Instagram @15daysinmay.

Enjoy the race!

PPG 375 Preview

 After a four-week break, we're back racing!

No April Fool's here, as IndyCar is back at Texas Motor Speedway today for Sunday's PPG 375. The first practice just finished, and I'll have some more content as the weekend goes on, both here and on Frontstretch, who I am working with this weekend.

Click here to read my Frontstretch article, where I talk about IndyCar's history at TMS.

Here are a few drivers and teams I am keeping my eye on this weekend:

Scott Dixon. The 42-year-old Kiwi is the winningest IndyCar driver at Texas with five victories, and has won three of the last six races there. While Dixon is a perennial contender for the IndyCar championship, a win at Texas has usually been a harbinger of things to come, as he has won at TMS and gone on to win the championship on four occasions.

Josef Newgarden. Since joining Team Penske in 2017, Newgarden had 10 oval wins, and since 2019 he has notched two wins and four total podiums at Texas. In 2022, Newgarden only led three laps, but led the one that counted as he squeaked by teammate Scott McLauglin at the stripe to pick up the first of his season-leading five victories. After finishing a disappointing 17^th at St. Pete earlier this month, he needs a bounce-back performance to get back into the title fight.

Andretti Autosport. Between its four entries, Andretti destroyed a lot of equipment at St. Pete in what was a disappointing weekend. But sometimes the result and the execution are two different things, as the team was fast off of the truck and swept the front row with Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta. Herta, who turns 23 on Thursday, is seeking his first oval win, as so far his seven IndyCar wins have come on road and street courses.

Arrow McLaren. Pato O’Ward won here in 2021, Felix Rosenqvist nearly won the race in 2020 and sat on pole last year, and Alexander Rossi has two podiums to his credit at TMS. In other words, don’t be too surprised to see the papaya triumvirate at or near the front on race day. O’Ward, who finished second at St. Pete, is on a bit of an oval hot streak. After a mid-race penalty at Texas put him a lap down and led to a 15^th-place finish at TMS a year ago, he finished second at Indianapolis, had a win and a runner-up finish at Iowa, then was fourth at Gateway.

The Rookies. Between simulator work and time given for testing last week, first-year drivers have a feel for TMS, but for all three rookies this year, next Sunday will mark the first large-oval race of their careers, if not their first oval ever. While Sting Ray Robb had a start at Iowa in IndyNXT last season, for Benjamin Pedersen and Agustin Canapino, this will be the first times in their lives that they have only turned left in a race. While getting an oval race in is a good thing with the Indianapolis 500 looming on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how they fare against such a talented and experienced feel.

IndyCar is on a condensed schedule next weekend, with practice, qualifying and final warmup all happening on Saturday, with the race scheduled to start just after 11 a.m. CDT Sunday.

Fearless 2023 IndyCar Predictions

 Welcome to the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season!

Finally, after thousands of long, lonely days without racing, the series is finally ready to get it on this weekend on the streets of St. Pete.

(Editor's note: It has actually only been 173 days since the last day of the 2022 season, but my sentence makes it a little more dramatic, don't you think?)

I am so excited to be covering the series for Frontstretch, and will be on-site at several races over the course of the summer. Most of my work will go there, but sometimes you need to make musings or write freely without the corporate overlords looking over your shoulder, so expect to see the more fun-type of writing appear in this space, as it has for more than 12 years.

Wow, 12 years! Thanks to everyone who is still with me after all of this time. It's crazy to think it's been that long, and even crazier to think that there just aren't a lot of true bloggers left. 

Anyway, it's prediction time, so here are a few thoughts about what I envision seeing over the course of the 2023 season. And of course, since I am a credentialed member of IndyCar media, they will be completely objective and without any bias whatsoever.

Yeah, right. You guys know me better than that! It's my blog! That's what it's here for!

Anyway, on with the predictions.

2023 IndyCar Champion -- Alex Palou. This year could, quite simply, be the most wide-open championship fight that this series has ever seen. I legit think that there are close to 10 drivers who, if everything goes right, can be holding the Astor Cup in September. And "things going right" will be the key because with the depth of the field, I don't see anybody piling up a lot of wins, it's going to take a consistent, Will Power-type season to get it done. Except for a couple of hiccups, that's what Palou did en route to the 2021 championship, and to have gone through everything he did last year and still kept it together win the final race of the season and finish fifth in points shows that he's a monster. I still think he is one of the three-best drivers in the paddock, and is only getting better.

With hindsight from what happened last year in mind, here's another prediction: Palou stays at Ganassi in 2024 and beyond. Chip Ganassi is a pretty sharp guy, and I don't think he fought the way he did solely to force Palou into honoring the last year of his contract. If he truly had an issue with Alex or his performance, he simply would've let him walk. This was about keeping a generational talent on his team, especially with another generational talent approaching the end of his career. Ganassi has lawyers, he knows the wording on the McLaren contract, and I think in the end it's gonna work out in his favorite.

2023 Indianapolis 500 winner -- Tony Kanaan. Come on, do you really think I'd pick anyone else? I'm still a shade skeptical as to whether or not this year will really be TK's last run at the Brickyard, but if it is, I'd like to see him go out putting his "ugly mug" on the Borg-Warner Trophy once again. If this is the end, I'm happy for him, but I'm a little sad as well as we will be watching the end of the career of one of IndyCar's great drivers, not to mention one of it's most popular ones.

If his 2013 win was anything, it proved that TK is The People's Racer. It's kind of like Rocky in a way, he just had a way of bringing us in every time he strapped into a car. It's about his passion and charisma, and how he made us feel, like we were in the car with him. Few drivers have had the highs and lows at Indy as TK has, and I think that's what made him such a massive figure to a lot of us. I don't know if it is possible for people to "will" someone to a win, but if it an actual thing, TK will have a lot of "will" behind him in May.

Rookie of the Year -- Sting Ray Robb. Originally I had Marcus Armstrong here, then, whoops, realized he wasn't doing the ovals this year, so Robb is our guy. Robb has been a champion in the Road to Indy ladder series, winning the Indy Pro 2000 title in 2019, and last year was the runner-up while in the IndyNXT series. Despite being just 21, Robb has gained plenty of experience in the ladder system, having run 95 races since 2017, and his knowledge of the tracks will be a big advantage for him. I think down the road Benjamin Pedersen will emerge as the best driver out of this class, as I have been impressed with watching him in person in US F4 and F3 Americas competition, and he has six top 5 points finishes in various American open wheel series over  the years. But the fact is, driving for A.J. Foyt Racing this year won't give him a chance to really showcase his talents. 

First First-Time Winner -- Kyle Kirkwood. Like the great DJ Khalid says, all Kirkwood does is win, win, win. While he didn't perform as well as I thought he might in his first season in IndyCar in 2022, he got the most important thing: reps and experience. Moving to Andretti Autosport will definitely changes his fortunes, and if early testing is an indication, he's going to get a chance to run up front.

Comeback Driver of the Year -- Colton Herta. Kinda weird, right? But, last year was an absolute disaster for the 22-year-old, with just one win on the season and two podiums. A solid season for most drivers, but Herta also had four finishes of P23 or worse, and came home just 10th in points. A lot of that points to a basic malaise that followed Andretti Autosport around all year, which, just like I mentioned with Kirkwood, looks to have changed this year. The main thing Herta talked about in the pre-season was the fact that the cars came off of the truck slow and they didn't have the time to catch up to the rest of the field. It's pretty simple -- if they fix that, they win.

Driver on the Hot Seat -- Jack Harvey. When Harvey picked up a podium finish for then-tiny Meyer Shank Racing organization on the IMS road course in 2019, it seemed like he was ready for a full-time gig, which came with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2020, but in three seasons, he's finished P15, P13 and P22 in points. Last year saw him post just one top 10 and six finishes of P20 or worse. He's 29 now, and with a lot of young drivers waiting to move up to the big leagues, this is his show-me season. 

I'm hitting send now, just in time for practice to begin! I hope you have a great IndyCar season, and I'll see you at the track!

They Did It Again

I've been a sportswriter for more than 20 years, and when I was just getting started I covered a lot of high school sports, including football.

Of course, back at the turn of the century, there were a few "old school" coaches still roaming the sidelines, and I enjoyed speaking to them because while they didn't always say things in the most correct of ways, they were always entertaining and fun to talk to.

One of those was a guy named Mike Curry. He had been coaching since the mid-70s and had won two state football championships in 1981 and 1986. He stepped down from coaching at Aurora Central Catholic High School in 2009 but stayed on to teach social studies -- in fact, both of my sons had him as a teacher while they were at ACC.

After a game, Mike would have you follow him to the equipment barn where he'd light up a smoke and tell you the truth about the game. If they played badly he said they did, and vice versa.

Once after a particularly tough game, I asked him about his team's turnovers that night, and his reply was something along the lines of: "we shot ourselves in the foot so many times tonight that we ran out of bullets".

As a fan of IndyCar for more than 43 years, that quote has come to mind many times over the years, when the series does something that shows that they were unable to get out of their own way...as usual.

This quote resurfaced again last week when the Iowa Speedway weekend schedule was released. It was so glowing! Carrie Underwood, Zac Brown, Kenny Chesney and Ed Sheeran are going to be there! It's going to be even better than last year!

And in the small print? Oh yeah, there will be cars on track. Oh, and another thing, tickets are going to cost more than last year. A lot more.

As expected, there has been a lot of pushback. I know social media represents just a slight piece of the IndyCar fanbase, but from what I've read there leads me to conclude that many people who bought tickets this year will not be returning in 2023.

I truly believe that the 2022 Iowa experiment was a successful one in terms of fans and fans enjoyment, but in the back of my mind I always wondered how they were planning on paying for it. I now have my answer.

Marshall Pruett covered a lot of the bases of this topic, and you can read his piece here. I'm not going to say I disagree with many of the points Bud Denker brings up in their reasoning to move in the direction they are going. But my question are these: how does this grow IndyCar? How does it truly bring in new fans? How does this not feel like a music festival with races as the in-between entertainment?

As a race fan, it feels that way. It reminds me of back in 1998 when I went to a Cincinnati Reds game on Beanie Baby Day. A large segment of fans waited in line to get their Beanie Baby, handed over their ticket, got their Baby, then turned around and walked out. They got what they came for, just like people who pay to get into a movie, watch a trailer for a future blockbuster, and leave.

For what they are bringing in, yeah, the cost is a bargain. However, that's not IndyCar's niche. It's always been about great racing for a low price, kids getting in free and some of the best access to the people who make the sport great.

That's what most of us want! Put it one way: I love EDM (Electronic Dance Music) and so do both of my sons. During the Indy 500, some of the biggest names in the genre play during the race in the Snake Pit. I listen to the replays on our way home the next on Sirius XM, and they are incredible shows. 

Combined minutes myself and my two sons have spent in the Snake Pit to see these great acts: Zero.

We aren't there to see EDM acts, we're there to see the Indy 500. I don't begrudge anyone who feels the other way around, either. As much as I love football, if I were to go to a city during the Super Bowl and they were having a huge EDM show during the game, the show would be my choice instead of the game.

But the Indy 500 doesn't make very many people EDM fans, and EDM fans rarely become fans of the Indy 500. In the end they are two standalone events. And that's OK, because the race is the star of the show, everyone knows it, and because of that fact both can coexist peacefully.

I think what they are doing to make Iowa a big deal is nice, but at the same time I find it an insult to race fans, and IndyCar fans who have been loyal to the series. With no massive media, content, and money resources like NASCAR, this series has to be about the fans, and they should be the main piece to every decision.

Some may argue that maybe some of these people will come to the track and become race fans. Sure, but what is the rate of return on that? I've seen soccer games in Europe, they are amazing and a lot of fun. When I return to Italy next year I'm probably going to go to a couple more. But at the same time, I have a Major League Soccer team that plays an hour from my house and I have never gone to a game.

Honestly, I just have no real desire to.

Sure, the people who come to the concert may enjoy the race, and may come back in 2024. But how does that help the series? How does it help sell tickets, get TV ratings and sell merchandise? I feel like the weekend will help make more new fans of the musical acts rather than the other way around.

If this were the goal of every race weekend, as the great Ragin' Cajun' himself James Carville said in the movie Old School: "Have at it, hoss", I'd get it. But when it's cheaper overall to go to other races, where do you think people are going to go? When airfare, hotel and race tickets are cheaper to go to sunny St. Pete in the wintertime than the Iowa green desert in the summer, what's gonna be the choice?

If this were being done in Long Beach, St. Pete or Nashville, it would be killer. It would be the perfect combination of racing and music, something I would buy into in a heartbeat, because I'd come to town a day earlier or a day later and enjoy the local scene. It would be worth it to me.

But putting on concerts and saying: "hey, stick around for the IndyCar race!" just doesn't sit with me.

I've been beating on this drum and I'll beat on it until the head breaks. Then I'll put on a new drum head and beat onto it some more: this isn't it.

To grow the sport you need access, and you need to appeal to younger fans. It's gotta be done through social media, eSports, access and content. It's gotta be an aggressive approach from the top to the bottom, from the series to the teams to the drivers, and it's gotta be done with everyone getting on board. And if you aren't on board, someone will get on board for you.

My wife works for a company that makes restaurant and residential cooking equipment, and they have the belief that the company needs to be re-invented every several years. So they do it. It's time for IndyCar to re-invent itself, and that's been needed for quite some time.

Every IndyCar-related activity should be open to the public, or somehow get the public involved. Everything needs to be streamed, and every decision needs to be made for what is best for racing fans. Because in the end, your product is racing, and your most important people need to be your fans. 

Make everything big, then make it bigger. Did you ever see the movie The One Hundred Foot Journey? It's a total chick flick, but I like it, so shaddup. In the movie, when the Indian family opens their restaurant, no one comes in. But when they add lights and music, and the father dresses up in traditional Indian wear, makes his restaurant seem like a big deal, and stands outside coaxing people in, they discover that they love the place, and its popularity reaches or even exceeds the stuffy, Michelin Star establishment across the street.

Which says something. I've eaten food prepared by a Michelin Star chef...it's so good it's mind boggling.

Papa knew what he had inside was amazing, he just needed to get people inside to try his food. He didn't need Bollywood stars, or Yo Yo Honey Sing, Benny Dayal or Arijit Singh to be there, because they weren't the star of the show, his food was. That's even hammered home with Hassan's story arc, going to Paris and becoming a big star, then coming home because he wanted it to be about the food.

In the end, IndyCar is about the racing. The racing should be the star of every weekend, not a sideshow. I'm all for doing what it takes to get racing fans new and old through the gates, but not like this.

Ovals, Ovals, and More Ovals

For as long as I can remember, IndyCar fans have clamored to have more ovals on the schedule.

Hey, I'm for it too, so don't look at this post as a dive into Negativetown.

But this conversation comes up a lot, and here's what usually happens: 

1) Everyone wants ovals.

2) IndyCar puts an oval on the schedule.

3) Nobody goes to said oval, TV ratings are bad.

4) Said oval falls off the schedule.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

It's obvious that Roger Penske wants more ovals on the schedule, because it is written about often, including this piece from motorsport.com yesterday. But the question(s) that also need to be asked include: How is that going to be done? and...What are we going to do differently this time? And perhaps a third great question: What is a viable oval that will become a great partner with IndyCar?

The last point is the most important. Right now IndyCar has what it spent years looking for, and that is date equity with great tracks and great partners. Just adding a track for the sake of doing so won't work, because the needs of the consumer are different than what they were years ago.

It's not just about the race anymore. People want (and expect) more from their experience than just one race. Gas, hotels, race tickets -- they all cost money, and that cost is rising exponentially faster than how people are making it. They want more for their dollar.

Natural road courses have found their niche. People go to those races because they can camp and enjoy a weekend that offers plenty of action on the track in a laid-back atmosphere where people can go watch the action anywhere on the property. 

Street courses have found theirs, too. Just like road courses, there is plenty of action on track with several different series and types of cars participating. You can wander around the course, and when everything is done you can head out to bars and restaurants with your friends and continue the celebration.

What do ovals offer? Most are out in the middle of nowhere, so you drive to the track, watch the cars go around, and go back to your hotel and watch TV. Sure, those tracks offer camping too, but it doesn't seem as popular as it is in different venues.

Ovals seem to be more for the die-hard fans, and the rest are for both the die-hards and the people who have fun when the circus comes to town once a year. Because IndyCar is a business, they have to accommodate both groups.

Lord knows they have tried. I went to the Milwaukee race the last few times it was held, and Michael Andretti did his best, and probably lost a lot of money in the process. So did Pocono, but honestly, until they get serious about some of the safety issues they have, there's no good reason to go back.

Did Iowa Speedway find the holy grail last summer? It seemed like it, with plenty of activities and sponsor activation from HyVee, the weekend was a rousing success. It also probably cost a ton of money, which if HyVee is willing to write it all off that's fine, but what other partner is willing to do the same? So far, none have stepped forward to make that commitment, although WWT Raceway is a great IndyCar partner and I have no problem with how they do their thing.

Not to mention that adding races adds costs to the teams. I don't know the exact costs to put a car on track per race, but I'm going to guess it's well into six figures. Adding events means more money needs to come from sponsors, and more possible expenses to the team, especially on ovals when crash damage can become very expensive. 

This isn't the days of alcohol and tobacco sponsorships, when money flowed from the spigots like cold, hard, green water. Back then, all of that could be covered with no problem. And yeah, for the big teams, that money can come from somewhere. But the big teams don't even cover half of the grid, what about everyone else?

Of course, everyone would find it, because racers race, and that's how it's done. How that helps the overall viability of the series is something worth the debate.

Look, we have good things right now, which is the first for the IndyCar universe in a long time. More cars are being added to the grid. More people are making an investment into the sport. We have date and venue equity for the first time in a long time. The paddock is full of talented drivers who have a passion for racing and for IndyCar. The series is better off than it has been in a long, long time.

The next step, though, is a big one. Our end is simple: go to the races, and if you don't go, watch it on TV (or Peacock, and quit crying over something that is $5 a month). Buy merch, encourage others to give IndyCar a chance, just be an overall good steward.

For IndyCar? Total rebuild. If we as fans are committed to them, they have to commit to us. Better social media, better online content, better marketing, better merch. Expect more from promoters. I covered the Texas race last year and the promotion and local marketing was awful. If they aren't willing to do that, then self-promote the race and do the hell out of it.

Overall, commit to doing more. As I blogged about last year, a Drive to Survive-type series would be great, but there are more pieces involved. DTS doesn't work without a total buy-in from everyone, including a massive buy-in on social media and a commitment to eSports.

Just thinking "more ovals" like it's 1995 won't work. Just like the apron at IMS, it's gone and it's never coming back. 

I love IndyCar, which is why I do what I do, and why I keep coming back. But a new step needs to be taken. Put it this way: it's Tuesday and social media is still talking about Ross Chastain. And for good reason, I might add.

How often does that happen with IndyCar? It needs to be after every event, because at every race something worth talking about happens. I'm saying this because it needs to be said: it's time for IndyCar to stop expecting the drivers, teams and fans to be the voice of the series. They need to do their part too.

I think the small-but-mighty fanbase has made it clear. We are all-in. Is IndyCar ready to do the same, or are they going to keep having the same discussions, over and over, resulting in the same things, over and over.

Your move, guys.

Herta's Locked In

 To no one's surprise, it was announced that Colton Herta had signed a contract extension with Andretti Autosport.

Probably a big surprise is the length -- it runs through 2027 -- and the price tag, as Marshall Pruett reported that it most likely made the 22-year-old the highest paid driver in IndyCar. By a pretty steep margin it appears. 

Since coming to AA and IndyCar full-time in 2019, Herta has proven to be the real deal. In four seasons he already has seven wins and 11 podiums as he has finished as high as third in the season standings. This past season, his only win came on the Indy road course at the beginning of May, but overall had a disappointing campaign as he ended up 10th in points.

In the end, Herta gets what he wants: he's getting paid, has job security, becomes the leader among the drivers in the AA stable (with the departure of Alexander Rossi to Arrow McLaren SP), gets to continue working with his dad, Bryan, and still has a window of opportunity for Formula 1.

I think the final two points I made are the most important. I really think he enjoys working with his dad, and why not? They've had a great amount of success together, and, despite some of their interactions on the radio that gets replayed on TV, they get each other and I think his dad has had a lot to do with the success he's had.

Plus, the F1 thing. Herta has made it clear that racing in F1 is something that is important to him if the opportunity presents itself. Between his tests with McLaren and the ongoing potential of Michael Andretti and his partners securing a F1 team, it is a possibility. And, like Herta says, he's 22...he could go overseas for a few years and could come back and still have a long IndyCar career ahead of him.

Frankly, I don't blame any driver for wanting to test the waters in F1. Love it or hate the idea, F1 is considered worldwide as the pinnacle of the sport. You become a global name, brand and commodity, and lots of financial opportunities come along with that. Think about when you were 22 -- wouldn't that have been crazy appealing?

I mean, it would for me. Hell, I'm 53 and that would appeal to me right now!

Of course, much of the F1 hopes hinge on Herta earning enough points for a Superlicense, as Nathan Brown describes in detail here. The target number is 40 points, and Herta has 32. A great 2023 might give him enough points to make him eligible, but contractually he now can't move to F1 until after the 2025 season.

Plus, the even bigger question: given Andretti Autosport's recent form, can he have enough points when he needs them?

For the record, I hate the Superlicense criteria. I get why it is in place, and I also understand that it is weighted towards F2 and F3 for a reason: to encourage drivers to follow a European ladder system. But the fact that it is difficult to get there through IndyCar is BS. You can say anything you want about F2 and F3, but neither of those series compare to the competition and talent level that exists in IndyCar.

You mean to tell me that winning an F2 title is tougher than beating Scott Dixon, Will Power, Joef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Alex Palou and the rest of the field in IndyCar? Don't come at me with that. As Palou showed in FP1 the USGP in Austin last weekend, IndyCar drivers can run with anyone.

The fact is, Herta is good enough to run in F1. Whether or not he gets that opportunity is where the debate exists.

I'm not unearthing anything amazing by saying this, but in order for that to happen, Andretti Autosport needs to get its stuff figured out. All we've seen from this team over the last couple of years is poor form, bad pitstops and badly prepared cars. I truly believe that Rossi and Herta are two of the, at worst, 20 best open wheel drivers on the planet. But the last three years absolutely were three wasted, and lost, years of Rossi's career. All of the sudden, Rossi is 31, and while he has a lot of career left, it's right now shorter than it once was.

Rossi has had enough, which is why he moved to AMSP, and I think immediately becomes a championship contender again. As of right now, AMSP has replaced AA in the Big 3 in the IndyCar paddock with Penske and Ganassi.

The one thing I think Herta has on his side is his youth. Even if F1 doesn't work out, and even if AA doesn't get its stuff together -- which is highly doubtful -- Herta will only be 27 when this contract ends, leaving him free to move to Penske or Ganassi if the opportunity is there.

While the IndyCar is in great hands for the future with all of the young talent in the series, the fact is that five years from now, it will have a completely different identity. Many of the older drivers will have probably retired, and the young guys will be the faces of the series. Herta will be one of them.

So while on the surface, there are some questions concerning his signing, Herta is exactly where he wants (and needs) to be. 

Ranking The Contenders

In boxing back in the day, the last three rounds of a 15-round fight were called the "championship rounds". Beaten, exhausted and probably questioning why they got into this line of work in the first place, the final rounds where when fighters dug deep within themselves and found the mental toughness to finish the fight.

The bell to the final round has five drivers answering it. They have all reached this point in different ways, but, as always, the IndyCar season always delivers multiple drivers with championship hopes at the end of the season. Wait, how does this always happen? Oh yeah, it's the best racing series on the planet.

So who will be holding the Astor Challenge Cup later on today at Laguna Seca? Let's look at the contenders:

Will Power (503 points): I'm going to admit this straight out that I want to see Power win his second championship. As I argued a few weeks ago, this is the best overall season in his long open wheel career, and it should end that way. Though he has just one win on the year, and has only led 318 of the possible 2173 laps this year, he has been consistent, completing every lap this season while picking up 11 Top 5 finishes. His pole yesterday was the 68th of his career, breaking a tie with Mario Andretti for the most ever, and it also gives him a free run from the start while the other contenders are back in the field.

Josef Newgarden (482 points, 21 points behind): I think Power will be the champion, but Newgarden is the Driver of the Year, with five wins, 7 Top 5 and 11 Top 10 finishes. Most seasons would find him running away with the points, but he's had several bogeys as well, finishing P25 at the Indianapolis 500 and crashing out (not his fault) while leading in Race 2 at Iowa and finishing P24. He's got the biggest hill to climb today, as a spin in qualifying relegates him to the 26th starting position.

Scott Dixon (482, -21): Who's surprised to see Dixon still in the hunt and looking for his seventh IndyCar title? I don't see any hands in the air, so let's continue. His season has been crazy consistent as well, as he has only one finish outside of the Top 10 this year. But that one was a biggie, as it was P21 at the Indy 500, which on a double-points day cost him dearly. What's crazy is that he was the car to beat that day until he was penalized with 25 laps to go for a pit speed violation. He actually scored one more point than Power did that day (33-32), but even a Top 5 finish would've garnered him 37 more points, which would have him in the driver's seat today. Like Newgarden, he has some work starting P13, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the podium later this afternoon.

Marcus Ericsson (484, -39): You can argue all you want about double points at the 500, because here's why it matters: in winning his first Indy 500, Ericsson scored a whopping 109 points, which represents 22.5 percent of all the points he scored this year. Other than a P22 finish at Long Beach, his season has been very respectable, but his two podiums and five total Top 5 finishes falls below the marks of the rest of the guys on this list. But hey, when you win the 500, it's been a helluva season.

Scott McLaughlin (482, -41): Amongst the other contenders, McLaughlin has the best look at Power at the start, as he goes off P8 on the grid. He also has the most work to do. In order for McLaughlin to be standing at the final bell, he needs to win the race while the rest of the event goes totally off the rails. Still, what an incredible season: three wins, seven podiums and three pole positions. What cost him was a bad run between the Indy road course and Detroit, where he finished P20, P29 and P19. It was great to see that he was rewarded with a long-term contract from Team Penske as the result of his first two years in the series. Looking at all of the young talent in IndyCar, people have wondered who was going to be the next superstar out of that group. Turns out it's probably going to be a 29-year-old Kiwi who is also the Australian Supercars GOAT. Dude is great, and he's only getting better.

So that's how it lines up today at Laguna Seca. Have a great race everybody!

Winners and Losers -- Gateway Edition

 Wow, was that a weird evening or what?

Saturday night's race at WWT Raceway was like a play with more than a few acts. The first act was a bit boring as the track was still hot and passing was difficult. Then, with rain coming, several drivers went off-sequence, leading to a lot of crazy passes because of different tire degradation due to cars being on different strategies.

Lightning and rain followed with 43 laps to go, which led to some Rain Delay Theater, taking the remainder of the race under the lights were a clean, cool track led to several cars coming alive. And of course, the final 43 laps where while only one pass took place up front, down in the field there was some type of craziness that included one young driver making a charge to the front.

So who were the winners and losers Saturday?

Winners

Josef Newgarden: It was certainly a Penske Party up front as its three drivers led 218 of the 260 laps, with Newgarden leading 78 on his way to a fifth win of the season. He also tightened the championship and is now just three points behind teammate Will Power at the top of the standings with two races left. The win was also the 25th of his career, tying Gordon Johncock on the all-time wins list and putting him within striking distance of Rodger Ward (26), Johnny Rutherford (27) and Rick Mears (29). Pretty impressive when you consider he is in his age 31 season. But how does he compare with the best in IndyCar history after their age 31 seasons? Check this out:

AJ Foyt -- 32 wins

Scott Dixon -- 26

Mario Andretti -- 30

Michael Andretti -- 29

Of course, all of the drivers listed competed under different circumstances. For instance, Mario didn't begin racing in IndyCar until he was 25, and Michael lost a year in Formula 1. But, the numbers are the numbers, and if Newgarden stays with Penske the rest of his career (duh!) he will finish his career in the Top 5 on the wins list. 

David Malukas: No doubt the absolute driver of the day. Malukas won twice last year at Gateway and looked just as comfortable on Saturday night, leading four laps and charging through the field in the final stint, which culminated in a pass on Scott McLaughlin in Turn 2 on the final lap of the race. That pass, using the high line and showing no regard for his own personal safety (kidding, it was an incredible pass) was highlight material. Malukas has certainly raced his way into a better ride next year if he wants it.

Scott McLaughlin: Remember last year when Scotty was pretty much racing in the midfield, and, by his own admission, having confidence issues? I don't either, because in Year 2 he has shown what made Team Penske sign him in the first place. We all knew he was a successful, smart, and clean racer thanks to his massive success in Supercars, but for a while it was a concern that it might not have transferred to open wheel machines. Forget that, he's the real deal, and the only thing that might keep him from a bunch of wins and a title may be his own teammate, who is just as good.

Scott Dixon: Look who's back...back again. While Dixon finished P8 in Saturday's race, he's still third in points and just 14 in arrears of Newgarden. As usual, he's gained momentum as the season has progressed. In his last eight races since the Indianapolis 500, he has two wins, five total Top 5 finishes and has never finished out of the Top 10. This is just what the guy does.

Losers

Will Power: I'm probably being a bit hard on Will, especially the way he dominated the race by leading 128 laps in the early going. But, with his P6 finish he came back to the championship field a little bit, and while he is still the leader -- and my odds-on pick to win the championship -- things are really, really tight as four drivers are within 17 points and anything can happen in the next two races. Power could make it easy on himself and just win the final two races, which he is capable of doing, but at worst he has to podium in both races to grab the Astor Cup.

Alex Palou: His P9 finish probably closed any chance he had to defend his championship, as he sits in fifth and is 43 points behind Power. That's a workable deficit with a little luck, but to win the championship he would need Power, Newgarden, Dixon and Marcus Ericsson to all falter. That's not gonna happen.

Pato O'Ward: A guy finishes P4 and he makes the losers list? Unfortunately, yeah. He really did drive a great race and was solid all night, but he really needed to either win the race to make up some ground. As it stands, he's now 68 points behind and time has pretty much ran out. After his awesome, P2-P1 weekend at Iowa, his P12 at the IMS road course and P24 in Nashville did a ton of damage.

As the season winds down, who ya got for the championship? Follow me on Twitter @15daysinmay and let me know! 

Will Power's Career Year

Yep, I'm saying it.

You're probably asking, "wait a minute? Will Power? The guy with 41 wins, 66 poles, a championship and an Indy 500 win? That Will Power?".

Yep again.

As we head to the final four races of the IndyCar season, Power sits in a familiar spot -- on top of the points standings. And if he keeps doing what he's been doing, I think he will still be sitting there when the checkered flag falls at Laguna Seca in six weeks.

There's no doubt that Power is one of the best drivers of his generation, in fact, if Scott Dixon weren't around he would arguably be the best. He's been dominant since he began racing full-time with Team Penske in 2010, and in his first five years with Penske, he finished, P2, P2, P2 and P4 before finally winning his first (and only) IndyCar title in 2014. In fact, other than last year, when he finished ninth in points, he had never had a season where he finished lower than fifth.

It's some pretty consistent stuff -- at least in the points standings. But many of his most successful seasons featured some brilliant driving, and some stinkers too. 

Take 2011, when he won six times and notched a total of eight podiums. He lost the title, though, mainly because he had three finishes of P19 or worse, to go along with two P14 finishes. Dario Franchitti, on the other hand, only had four wins, and while he had a P20 finish at New Hampshire, he only finished outside of the Top 10 one other time that year. 

The next season was the same, as he won three times and had six podiums. But he lost the championship to Ryan Hunter-Reay by just three points thanks to three finishes of 23rd or worse, including crashing out of the final race at Fontana and finishing 24th. Hunter-Reay won that race, and the title as a result.

I'm not going to go season-by-season, of course, but you get the idea. He's won a race in every season since 2007, and has scored a ton of points along the way. But whether it was mistakes or just plain bad luck, he's missed the one thing that is important: consistent, race-to-race consistency.

Maybe last year's 9th-place finish in points was a motivator, but at age 41 Power is putting up the consistency that he's lacked in previous seasons.

Though he only has one win (Detroit), he has a total of seven podiums, plus three 4th-place finishes. Sure, he has two P15s at the 500 and Toronto, and a P19 at Road America, but the consistency he's shown in the other 10 races has been outstanding as he heads to Nashville with and average finish of 6.1 on the year.

For reference, in his title year of 2014 he had an average finish of 6.4.

It hasn't been easy at times, either. While he is no doubt the greatest qualifier in history, and and three poles this year to give him 66 on his career -- one short of Mario Andretti -- he's also had weekends where things didn't go so well.

At Mid-Ohio, Power started 21st and still came back to finish third. In his win at Detroit he started 16th, and at Barber he started 19th and finished fourth. In all three of those races he passed cars and methodically moved his way up the field.

And, despite only leading 188 laps, which without doing the research I'm guessing is a career low, he's completed all 1,723 laps of competition this year. Power has been smooth and he's been fast, and he's putting together the types of seasons Franchitti did when he was winning four championships in a five-year span.

With four races to go on the schedule, if Power wants to win the title, he has to keep up this kind of consistency, because there is really no room for error. He's just nine points ahead of Marcus Ericsson, and 32 in front of Josef Newgarden, with four other drivers within 81 points.

Power has talked a lot about thinking about the "big picture", and how that has helped him be more patient. If he wants to win his second championship, that and his super consistency is what is going to take him there.

Say it isn't so, Alex. Say it isn't so!

I'm going to start this off by saying that Alex Palou is my favorite IndyCar driver. I'll expound on more about that in a minute.

I wanted to get that bias out of the way first, because I want you to know where I'm coming from. Because I'm going to say some nice and some not-so-nice things in the coming paragraphs and full disclosure is only the right thing to do.

Despite still writing an 11-year-old blog on an even older platform, I'm still a professional.

So we all know what is going on, and if you don't, I'll give a nod to the boys at the Indy Star, who are all over this mess. Nathan Brown is doing stellar work and Gregg Doyel has even weighed in.

In fact, Gregg inspired this post, so check his column here.

Quick recap: on July 12, Chip Ganassi Racing announced on his socials that they had picked up the option on Palou's contract for 2023. Hours later, Palou fired back with his statement, saying that due to "personal reasons", he would not be back in the No. 10 car next season.

Hours after THAT, McLaren Racing (not the IndyCar team, the umbrella organization) announced that Palou had signed a contract with them for 2023 and beyond. This whole fiasco reached its peak yesterday when Chip Ganassi Racing v. Alex Palou became an entry on a court docket.

It's all just a crapshow by now, and yet, somehow, Palou and CGR will have to soldier on this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and, according to a CGR release, the rest of the season. Which, in my opinion, for Palou, the season is already over. If what we saw at Iowa over the weekend was any indication, the 2021 IndyCar champ has no chance in hell to repeat.

I wasn't in Iowa but from what I watched during the races, I came to the conclusion that his team is going through the motions for him, and that's it. 

I'm not going to comment on contracts, who's right or wrong, or the fact that my reading the tea leaves makes me think this is about his management team trying to strike when the iron is hot and getting him to McLaren so he can replace Daniel Ricciardo on its Formula 1 team next year. What I will say is that Palou has more than outperformed his contract and deserves more money, and if he wants to spend more time in Spain, that should be accommodated.

There.

What I'm going to comment on is about Alex Palou himself, and the underbelly of the racing world.

First about Alex. During the pandemic in 2020, it was a podcaster's dream. Nothing was going on and IndyCar PR people were lining up their drivers for exposure in any way they could. I couldn't believe the interviews that I was scoring, even after the season started back up. 

Now, those same PR people won't even reply to emails. Que sera, sera, though, I'm not bitter because it was a great run. As my therapist reminds me about things I've experineced: even if it never happens again, it was pretty freaking cool that it did.

(Editor's note: The two exceptions to this are Brie Rentz, PR person for Ed Carpenter Racing, and Tom Blattler, PR guy for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. Both are awesome people and always accommodate me as best they can.)

But anyway, I was given access to Alex, and he quickly became a favorite subject of mine. Sweet, kind, positive, funny and unassuming, he was so much fun to talk to, so much so that I featured him several times on my pod.

Now, the way these interviews worked was the PR reps would set up a call, and the drivers would call me. That meant I had their phone numbers. After I got off the phone I would create a contact in my phone and everything, because, really, how cool is it to have IndyCar drivers in your contacts?

Ultimately, I would delete them, because I respected their privacy. I wasn't on any sort of a beat, it was something fun and was a great distraction during the pandemic. If I needed anything else I'd just go back to the reps, because that's what they do.

I kept one number in my contacts, though: Alex Palou's. During our second conversation Alex told me that I could call or text him anytime.

So I did. I started texting him on race weekends, wishing him luck before the weekend started and congratulating him on a great run -- or condolences on a bad weekend. No big deal, I still respected his privacy, and it was fun to have an IndyCar driver as a "text friend".

His replies were never all that detailed, usually a thumbs-up emoji, or a thank you, or if things went great I got a "Yeah!!!!". That was the reply I got after he clinched his title at Long Beach. It was also the last reply I ever received from him.

I reached out a few more times, but in the end I figured that he belonged to the world now, and that was OK. (I think that was in a movie somewhere) It was a lot of fun while it lasted, but I figured he either had a new phone or CGR PR or his management team told him to narrow himself down a bit. 

(Editor's note No. 2: If I were still with a popular podcast or on the IndyCar beat in some form or function, I would never have done this. That would be a compromise and a no-no in my book.)

I settled into the season, bought some merch, and then rooted for him all season long. In fact, I still do, and I'll tell you why.

Whatever is going on, this isn't Palou. Somewhere along the line he got some bad advice and is struggling to tread water. 

Am I covering for someone I like and respect? Probably. Am I also speaking from experience?

Absolutely.

Here's my story. Well, the short version:

Back in 2016, bored and frustrated by my IT job, I made the decision to work in racing. In whatever capacity, I didn't care. 

What you can probably guess is that I'm not the only one. There are thousands of peeps like me who have the same dream, which was certainly a wake-up call for me. After tons of no's or no answers I got my first hit, from John Cummiskey, owner of John Cummiskey Racing in the USF2000 series.

After a conversation with him, he invited me to come up to the Road America weekend, and I worked for the team all the way through to May, 2017, when JCR was unable to continue due to funding issues.

In hindsight, maybe I should've stopped there. John Cummiskey is everything that is right with racing. Like many he started at the bottom, but eventually spent the 1990s with Team Penske and enjoyed all of the successes that went with that team. Later, he spent time with other teams in different capacities. While JCR had limited success in the USF2000 series, John had the reputation of always putting together well-prepared cars and putting his drivers in the best positions to succeed.

What I liked about John -- and still do -- is that he is someone of honesty and integrity. I won't gush much more about John because he'd hate it, but he's just at his core a very good man.

Moving on from John, I discovered that not everyone in the racing world is the same. There are a lot of smarmy people who promise you tons of things that they can't deliver.

In a two-year span, here's what I was promised or told: I was going to be given charge of sponsorship for a team for the next year's Indy 500, I was going to be made rich, I was the new PR guy for a junior formula team. That one was fun, I even set up accounts for them and everything, then come to find out the person who told me I had the gig had never actually talked about it with the team.

I was once promised a role with someone, a person I really trusted, and when I couldn't make it to a race weekend because of a previous commitment, they handed the job to someone else. I remember once being told that a driver was confirmed for a ride in a couple of IndyCar races, and I was going to be the one presenting the press conference. I could go on.

I spent thousand of dollars of my own money going all over the country chasing dreams and promises, and they all came up empty. People I thought were my friends -- people I had worked with and formed incredible relationships with -- dropped me for no reason, or tried to tell me what to do, despite never paying me a dime. Too bad for them, I've won awards since then.

It goes on and on. I knew what was going on, but I went with it, because I figured once completed my Andy Dufresne-like gauntlet run through a quarter-mile of crap, I'd have a career. 

Back when I graduated high school, I got a job with a consumer loan company. I was the trainee and I got the crappy stuff to do, like calling people on the phone for late payments, knocking on their doors demanding money, and even once repossessing a car. (It was a 1977 Firebird, it was kind of fun to drive away.)

I figured I'd do the crappy stuff for a couple of years, then move into management and have other people do that stuff. I'm old school, that's how it used to work.

It doesn't work that way any longer.

I know some might say I'm bitter, because things in the end didn't work out. I'm frustrated, sure, because I feel I have a lot to offer, but not bitter. After all, for each one of those things that happened, I had a hundred great experiences that cancelled each of them out.

This also isn't an indictment of racing, either. People like that exist in every industry in the world. Just the same, for every smarmy person there are tons of great people that have an immense passion for the sport and for competition. I love the IndyCar paddock and hope it might still work out for me someday.

But back to Palou. With all of that in mind, I did shoot my shot with Alex, in fact, probably around a year ago today. After finally finishing my degree -- what I had hoped was the final piece of the puzzle to find a job -- I had put out a bunch of emails and LinkedIn connects but had come out dry.

So with the encouragement of my amazing wife Darcy, who is beside me in everything I do, I asked Alex if I could help him with his social media. I thought his could use some more magic, which I will provide someone someday, and I offered to pay my own way and do the August races for free. After that, we could talk.

Because he is one of the sweetest people alive, he very politely declined, saying he had someone doing it for him. Cool, I wasn't offended. I mean, doesn't Michael Scott have a quote about shooting shots?

So I moved on. But in the time I've been familiar with Alex Palou, one thing is certain, he is a super kind person who it seems can easily be taken advantage of by others. Gregg Doyel called him naïve, and I agree. He wants to drive the car and everything involved in it and let everyone else take care of the details.

There's nothing wrong with that. Imagine being in his shoes: one year you are driving in near worldwide obscurity in Japan, and two years later you are an IndyCar champion and superstar. That happened quickly, and remember, Palou is a first-generation racer, and at 24 years old, did he really have the life experience for this?

Which leads me to my dénouement: this isn't Alex, this is poor management and poor advice heaped on someone who wasn't ready for it. And sadly, as we get into the race weekend at IMS, it's continuing. 

It's sad that he's in the middle of this, but I truly believe that he was promised a lot by his new management agency, Monaco Increase Management, who shot their shot with him, and they drilled it from downtown.

I'm only speculating, like you and everyone else. But if you go to their website, they manage just three drivers. It seems like they have a competent group of people working in their firm, many with impressive racing credentials. They say that their goal is quality over quantity, and to treat drivers as if they are their own start-up company.

It sounds good, right? But what have they really done for Alex? His social media is still just average, his race coverage on the website is sub-par, and now he is embroiled in this.

I feel like there is a "kill 'em all and let the lawyers sort it out" mentality at work on all sides, but for my money, I'm with Chip Ganassi. Love him or hate him personally, he has run a solid shop for more than 30 years and that longevity puts me on his side.

As far as Zak Brown goes, I think he was just an innocent bystander in this. (Editor's note: He wasn't. In fact he seems like kind of a snake.) Team Principals, especially one who runs an iconic brand like McLaren, have a lot on their shoulders. They delegate lots of things, and people like Brown and Ganassi are smart enough to know what they don't know. 

Ganassi has a degree in finance, and by my best research I'm not sure Brown even has one at all. Which also means, they may be the best in the world at what they do, but they aren't lawyers, and lawyers are the people who handle this kind of stuff.

So when Brown says he didn't know about Palou's option year, I believe him. The rivalry between Brown and Ganassi aside, I see both of their points of view: they have a contract with Alex Palou for 2023 and expect him to honor that agreement.

I'm not a lawyer either, but unless Alex's option was mutual, Ganassi holds the upper hand here. He had the first right of refusal for a driver who he currently has under contract. That's just common sense.

It's only going to get darker from here, but what happens next? It's hard to say. It looks like this case is going to arbitration, so it will be hashed out by a third party. In my personal opinion, it's either Palou drives for Ganassi next year or he doesn't drive at all, and in the latter case, he will probably be on the hook for damages.

And if you want to take it all the way to the Seventh Circle of Hell, he drives for neither team and eventually becomes a free agent, going onto the market as damaged product. Or as they say in TV and movies: "back to one".

I think the worst thing that will happen, though, is the hit to Palou's reputation. For everything going on here, he's the one taking the hit, to his reputation and his integrity. It may not be his fault, but he's the face of this -- the face of, shall we say, the "start-up company" -- and he will be the one taking the grenades.

Whether any of this involved any input from him personally or not, how in the world does he rebuild any sort of trust when the IndyCar paddock is laughing at him? Can he even come back from this?

That's up to him. He needs to begin rebuilding those relationships himself, and he is the one that fixes it, because at the end of the day it's his reputation that is on the line.

Have you ever seen the movie The Fighter? I'm reminded of a scene in there where Micky Ward's camp is arguing heatedly during a training session. Finally, Micky, played by Mark Wahlberg, looks at them and says, "I'm the one who is fighting. Not you, not you, and not you."

If Alex Palou wants to fix this, he needs to be the fighter. Once the lawyers have their pound of flesh and billable hours, he needs to step up like a man and fix what's fixable by himself. Not his management, not his team owner, his PR, his family, or Zak Brown.

This is certainly a teachable moment in the life of Alex Palou, and I hope he's going to school, not only for himself, but the people who care about him.

What can I say? I'm selfish. When it all comes down to it, I love the guy and don't want him to go away.

Winners and Losers: Toronto

It was so great to finally see cars on track (or the streets) in Toronto for the first time since 2019. I'd love to rehash some of my posts from them, but alas, they are in an internet void somewhere, never to be seen again.

Advice to young writers: always keep backup copies, you never know when your stuff will be wiped from existence because...well, I won't go there. But I am kind of bitter.

Anyway, I was in Toronto back in 2019 and loved the way the community supported the race, and it was good to see that the fans were back in earnest. Toronto has been and IndyCar staple for a long, long time, and hopefully it stays that way for years to come.

Last week sure as hell was dramatic, wasn't it? Silly Season spiraled out of control, some championship contenders are just happy to be getting out of town, and Scott Dixon once again showed he is the best IndyCar driver of all time.

I present to you, winners and losers from Up North:

Winners

Scott Dixon: His dominant performance proved two things, 1) he is still the best driver in the sport and 2) don't count him out of the championship just yet. Sunday's win was No. 52 for the Kiwi, tying him with Mario Andretti for second in all-time IndyCar wins, and while I still consider Mario the best all-around driver who has ever lived, if you go just by IndyCar, how can you argue against Scott Dixon? He's got it all: wins, championships, an Indy 500...it goes on and on. Dixon has always said that he doesn't worry about the championship until he is 100 points behind, so a deficit of 44 points to teammate Marcus Ericsson heading into a doubleheader weekend is nothing to stress about.

Colton Herta: Herta definitely had a big week, testing a McLaren F1 car early, then coming to Canada and winning the pole and finishing just behind Dixon on track. Despite the dysfunction that is Andretti Autosport right now, I still think Herta is still in championship contention, despite being in eighth place and 97 points in arrears of Ericsson. Momentum is always important, and to get this kind of result heading into five races in five weeks is a good thing.

Marcus Ericcson: The Indy 500 champ just keeps chugging along. He gained points on some of his closest competitors this past weekend, and is doing what he needs to do to win a championship. I didn't have "Ericcson will be leading the points as we head into late July", on my pre-season IndyCar bingo card, but I kind of like it. 

Graham Rahal: There has been a ton of talk about what's wrong with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing lately, and it's pretty valid given the lack of results for anyone on the team. Rahal finally put it together and picked up a season-best P4. Qualifying has been an effort for RLL all season, so if he brings it all together one weekend we may see his first win since 2017 in the cards.

Losers

Alex Palou: I hate having to put my favorite driver in this category, but a great drive on Sunday, where he went from P22 to finish sixth, doesn't really cover up the shitshow that had accompanied his week. He really killed a lot of goodwill he's tried to establish over the last three years in the span of a couple of days, and has set up an uncertain future for himself. I think in the end Zak Brown will write a check and he will be in a McLaren car next year, but he and his team could've handled all of this a lot better. 

Pato O'Ward: Speaking of McLaren, Pato was out of the loop from the jump this weekend, failing to get out of the first round of qualifying and eventually finishing P11. Since finishing second in the 500 and fifth at Detroit, he's gone P26, P24 and P11 in his last three events. It's possible to have a mulligan, and maybe even two, during the season and still win the championship, but he's out of mulligans and will really have to push hard the rest of the season to even think about getting seriously back into the hunt.

Romain Grosjean: A year ago, he was the most popular driver in the series. Now? Are you kidding me? I think it's safe to say the honeymoon is over. Not only is he hitting everything but the pace car, but his ranting over the radio adds to his legend, but not in a good way. He's 15th in points and has finished P16 or worse in five of his last six races. I wonder if Michael Andretti misses Ryan Hunter-Reay yet.

To paraphrase Future in the movie 8 Mile: I can't stress how important this coming weekend at Iowa is for many of the drivers. Two races, both during the day, both during extreme heat, it could be crazy times the power of 10. I expect some fireworks and a lot of changes in the championship standings.

Can I digress for a second? Why is it that the races are in the heat of the day and the concerts aren't? I'm excited to see what this weekend holds in store as far as fan activation, and it's exciting to be back at the bullring in Newton, but is this weekend about racing or about concerts? 

Personally, I think it's about racing, and I think the schedule of events are horribly screwed up. Fortunately Iowa always puts on a great show, but next year, let's think of the drivers and teams first.

Have a great week! I won't be at Iowa this weekend -- bummer -- but I hope to see a great show!