Pagenaud will be tough to catch
Record for IndyCar points could fall
Verizon IndyCar FORT WORTH Series points leader Simon Pagenaud has reached the season’s halfway point on a record-setting pace but has no plans to slow down.
“There’s no point being protective when the car is so good and I feel so good in it,” Pagenaud said in preparation for this weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway. “Like (Gil) de Ferran says, ‘ The best defense is attack,’ and I believe in that.
“As long as I’m comfortable in a situation and as long as the car gives me what I need, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, which is to keep pushing.”
That could mean another pole when qualifying is held Friday at this 1.5-mile, high-banked oval track. Pagenaud has been IndyCar’s pole winner in four of the past five events, part of the reason he’s on pace for 714 points, which would be the most in history.
Will Power holds the record for points in an IndyCar season with 671, and Scott Dixon needed only 556 to win last season’s title.
Pagenaud was second in qualifying for last year’s Firestone 600, and five different Team Penske drivers have won the pole for this event, including Power in each of the past three years. Pagenaud likes his odds of winning this pole, too. “I think it’s probably the safest place to be on the racetrack,” he said.
Pagenaud has won three of this season’s eight races and has three runner-up finishes.
Further proof that this stands to be his first championship season is in this fact: Pagenaud has increased his points lead — from 76 to 80 — over the past three races while having finishes of 19th and 13th.
No one seems to want the lead Pagenaud has. The title defense of Dixon has been mired in recent mediocrity — an average finish of 9.8 over the past five races — and he has led one lap in that stretch. Helio Castroneves, who stands third, has been only marginally better: finishes of 11th, fifth and 14th in the past three races.
Dixon and Castroneves are 80 and 86 points out of the lead, respectively, and neither has shown a sign of making a charge. Dixon has one win, at Phoenix International Raceway on April 2, and has finished no better than fifth in the past five races. Castroneves hasn’t won in 35 starts — since the second Detroit race in 2014 — and this is his third trip to Texas since he last won anywhere.
Here’s another statistic that speaks to Pagenaud’s dominance: There are 80 points between first and second in the standings, and positions second through 14th are separated by about the same number.
Pagenaud’s lead is effectively two full races.
Pagenaud has never won at this track, or any oval track for that matter, but he’s been better than perception would have it for a road racing star of his caliber. In four Texas starts he has finished sixth, 13th, fourth and 11th, and he led 59 laps last year. He calls it one of his favorite ovals.
“The first year (2012) was difficult, because we had a lot of tire (wear) with very little downforce, but I liked it ( because) it was one of the most challenging tracks,” he said.
Drivers who like Texas generally do well in its races.
That doesn’t bode well for those still harboring a shot at Pagenaud’s perch.