DRIVERS JOCKEYING FOR POSITION
Championship likely to come down to last race
There are three axioms drivers try to adhere to when racing for a championship: 1) Focus on your performance. 2) Attain the best possible finish in each race.
3) Do not concern yourself with other championship contenders.
It’s wonderful advice — until the final two races of the season. That’s when all philosophies and strategies get mashed together into a manic chase to score points and claim the prize. Nobody knows that better than Helio Castroneves, who is fourth in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings heading into the penultimate race of the season Aug. 23 at Pocono Raceway.
“You have to play according to the scenario,” Helio Castroneves told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. “In my case, obviously, I don’t have much to think about in terms of strategy. There are five guys in a range that’s super close for the championship. I’m not leading; I’m the guy who’s hunting. We’ve got to do anything we can at this point, even if that means taking a chance, to get to that last race in a position to contend.”
Every championship since 2006 has come down to the final race of the season — sometimes down to the final lap of the final race — and it appears as if this season is on the same path. Castroneves’ Team Penske teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya, holds a nine-point lead over Graham Rahal heading into Pocono. So the season finale Aug. 30 at Sonoma Raceway, which awards double points, is bound to carry championship drama.
Ten drivers remain mathematically eligible for the championship going into the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono, where Montoya won last year. Five of those 10 — Montoya, Rahal, Scott Dixon, Castroneves and Will Power — are within 59 points.
Castroneves has been involved in three of those last nine final-race championship battles, including the last two. In all three, he was the one doing the chasing in the final race. He knows well that strategies vary — and often change mid-race — when competing for a championship as the laps run out.
“When you start focusing on one guy, all of a sudden — boom — three other guys come into the picture,” Castroneves said. “It’s a big deal. We still have a lot of points out there with only two races to go. We’re going to do everything we can.”
Here’s a closer look at the previous nine IndyCar season finales:
2006: Sam Hornish Jr. and Dan Wheldon tied for the cham- pionship when Wheldon won the season finale at Chicagoland Speedway, but Hornish, who finished third in the race, won the title based on the tiebreaker of most race wins during the season.
2007: Dario Franchitti claimed the championship at Chicagoland when Scott Dixon ran out of fuel while leading the race with less than one-third of a lap to go.
2008: Castroneves drove from 28th place to victory in the finale at Chicagoland — the farthest back a winner had come from in IndyCar history — but Dixon’s second-place finish was enough
to win his second title by 17 points.
2009: Franchitti trailed Dixon coming into the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, then clinched the championship by winning the race for his second title.
2010: Franchitti won the championship for the third time in four seasons when he erased Will Power’s 12-point lead in the Homestead finale. Power hit the wall early in the race while Franchitti finished eighth to win the title by five points.
2011: The death of 2005 champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Wheldon cut short the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The final standings reverted to the previous race; Franchitti won the championship by 18 points over Power.
2012: The finale moved to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., where Power led Ryan Hunter-Reay by 17 points coming into the race. However, Power crashed and Hunter-Reay finished fourth to win the title by three points.
2013: Dixon came into the Fontana finale with a 25-point lead over Castroneves. Only nine drivers finished the race, and Dixon’s fifth-place finish was good for the third championship of his career as Castroneves finished sixth.
2014: Power clinched the first championship for Team Penske since 2006 when he held off another Penske driver, Castroneves, for his first title.
This time, as in his previous three attempts to win the title, Castroneves will have his foot on the floor and his eyes on the prize.
“The way I see it, there isn’t much to lose,” Castroneves said. “Fifth through second is pretty much the same. We’ve just got to go for it.”