Alonso grabs buzz in IndyCar; Honda, Rahal pick up steam
Parity. Engine failure. Bad luck. Alonso.
The first half of the Verizon IndyCar Series season has been chock-full of interesting story lines, good, bad and otherwise. The following is an outline of what has gone right and wrong and what is to come in a wild and unpredictable 2017.
The revival of Honda and parity: After Chevrolet ruled the points standings last season, Honda has bounced back with a more powerful, albeit less reliable, car, winning five of nine races, including Andretti Autosport driver Takuma Sato’s monumental victory in the Indianapolis 500. Meanwhile, Honda driver and Chip Ganassi Racing star Scott Dixon, despite not being one of the seven drivers to score a win this season, is leading the championship.
That’s not to say Chevrolet has been overrun. Without the threat of engine failure, its drivers have been remarkably consistent. Team Penske’s Will Power is the only driver to have won on two different tracks. Defending series champion Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden, who has not shied from the spotlight that has come with his high-profile move to Team Penske, also scored victories. And Helio Castroneves is one of only two drivers — Dixon is the other — to produce eight top-10s this season.
Suffice it to say, the battle between Honda and Chevy, though in its final year before the series switches to universal body kits, has been a story worth watching.
As has been the relevance of smaller teams.
IndyCar is no longer a Penske-dominated production. A one-car team (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) has two wins.
Dale Coyne Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports won the first two races.
Ed Carpenter’s cars put on a show during Indy 500 qualifying.
Graham Rahal’s resurgence: Even when Rahal isn’t running well, he often appears in the spotlight. But his influence and popularity expands when he’s running well, and that’s exactly what he has been doing since the series returned to Indianapolis. In a race in which almost no one was able to make up ground, Rahal jumped from 15th to sixth in the IndyCar Grand Prix. He followed that with an impressive run in the Indy 500, where only a late tire puncture kept him from securing a top-10 finish.
Then he swept the Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader, which lifted him from 15th in the standings to sixth ahead of the race at Texas Motor Speedway, where he avoided getting caught up in the wreck-fest and finished fourth. Now, he finds himself the hottest driver in the series and in the thick of the title chase. Rahal’s resurgence is good for the sport and also could prove pivotal for a team that has long tried to lock down a second full-time driver.
Young blood: While no one is pushing established stars Tony Kanaan, Castroneves or Dixon out the door, the series’ future is in good hands — and not just because familiar faces and certified stars such as Rahal, Newgarden and James Hinchcliffe could be around for at least another decade. Strong runs from Carpenter’s street and road-course driver Spencer Pigot (22nd in points) and CGR sophomore Max Chilton (11th) are encouraging, while Coyne rookie Ed Jones continues to show improvement.
Most impressive about 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi has been his ability to pose a threat everywhere he goes. You’d never know he was new to the circuit last season, as he has qualified or finished inside the top five on street circuits (Long Beach Street Circuit and the Raceway at Belle Isle), a road course (Barber Motorsports Park) and ovals (Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Texas) this year. If not for tough luck at Long Beach (engine failure), the Indy 500 ( bad late pit stop) and Texas (victim of a “Ganassi sandwich”), he’d likely be much closer than 72 points back and ninth in the points race.
Jones had climbed as high as seventh in the championship before enduring hard luck.
International notoriety: For a series bent on extending its reach beyond the USA, it could not have asked for bigger boosts than Spanish Formula One star Fernando Alonso’s decision to compete in the Indy 500 and Japanese driver Sato’s historic victory in it. The eyes of the world fell upon Indianapolis for two weeks in May, as Alonso geared up to add the second jewel to his Triple Crown bid. IndyCar’s website and Facebook page were flooded with visitors from across the globe. Alonso ultimately returned to Europe unsuccessful — he blew a Honda engine with 20 laps left, but not before flashing his world-class skill and genuine smile throughout the month.
After the Indy 500, he said he’d consider racing in the Memorial Day weekend event again. He has teased coming to the series full time if his F1 team can’t provide a winning engine combination before the end of the season.