CASTRONEVES, KANAAN OVERDUE FOR WIN
Pair will have to beat Power, who is rolling after Fort Worth race
The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Elkhart Lake, Wis., this weekend to race at Road America in the 10th event of the 2017 season. The Kohler Grand Prix begins at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday and will air live on NBC Sports Network.
Five biggest story lines heading into Road America. STREAKS WILL END SOON The winless streaks of longtime friends and Brazilian natives Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan have grown to a combined 93 races (52 for Castroneves and 41 for Kanaan). For each veteran of the series, these are the longest droughts of their esteemed IndyCar careers.
But it’s not as though either has aged out of contending for race wins. Both have come close to victory lane in recent weeks, with Castroneves finishing just behind Takuma Sato in the Indianapolis 500 and Kanaan scoring a runner-up finish at Texas Motor Speedway ( behind Will Power). And among series regulars, only defending series champion Simon Pagenaud (5.9) and points leader Scott Dixon (7.2) have recorded a better average finish than Castroneves (7.3). Kanaan is not too far behind (10.2).
Because of their consistent finishes among the race leaders, both veterans remain in the thick of the championship hunt, with Castroneves trailing Dixon by 21 points and Kanaan by 62.
So a win would not just mean putting an end to a streak they are surely tired of thinking about, but it also would put Castroneves a step closer to winning his first series championship and Kanaan his second. RACING AT A HISTORIC VENUE IndyCar is returning to Road America with little recent experience or history. This will be just the second time the series has run at the historic track that once was home to the race immediately after the Indy 500.
The CART series raced at Road America for decades, and many current drivers have driven at the track in one series or another, including last season. Pagenaud told The Indianapo
lis Star this week that his favorite part about returning to Wisconsin is the warm welcome the series receives by fans eager to watch quality racing.
“It’s an awesome track, and the really cool thing is the fans are always super excited to see racing going on, especially at this level,” Pagenaud said. “It’s a classic.
“This track hasn’t really evolved compared to how it was years ago. It’s safe, but it hasn’t evolved. It’s kept its character. It’s a lot of fun to drive. It’s one of the longest tracks in the U.S., and for us in Indy cars, it’s a track we can really push it to the absolute limits. It’s cool to see how fast these cars can go around this track.” ANOTHER NEW WINNER? Heading into Texas, IndyCar had seen seven different winners on seven tracks, but Will Power put an end to that streak by surviving the Fort Worth melee and leading the small pack of remaining cars as they crossed the finish line. Did Power’s triumph start a new streak of repeat winners or will this season of parity continue?
After all, there are still a handful of established IndyCar stars and youngsters on the rise who have yet to hit victory lane. Leading the pack of winless drivers is the points leader Scott Dixon, who has four podiums, including three runner-up finishes. It seems inevitable he’ll find the winner’s circle at some point this season.
Fourth in the championship, Castroneves doesn’t have a victory despite a series-best eight top-10 finishes. Among the other veterans hunting for their first wins are Ryan Hunter-Reay and Charlie Kimball, who have been the two unluckiest drivers in the paddock. Mechanical issues have forced each driver to retire from three races this season.
Meanwhile, rising star Alexander Rossi seems poised to score his first win since the 2016 Indianapolis 500 after he had his two best shots at victory so far (Long Beach, Indianapolis) taken away from him because of an engine failure and rotten luck in pit lane.
And don’t count out Ed Jones. The rookie driver has only one podium, but he’s talented enough to find his first win in his first season. DRIVERS IN HUNT SHRINK Kanaan, Rossi, James Hinchcliffe, Max Chilton and Jones sit eighth through 12th in the standings and are all within 100 points of topranked Dixon. However, with only eight races left and more than a half-dozen drivers in front of them, the time to make a move to the front has come.
If any one of these five hopes to get out of the fringe and into championship contention, they will need to start rattling off topfives, beginning at Road America. With the quality of talent that occupies the spots ahead of them (former champs in Dixon, Pagenaud and Power, along with Takuma Sato, Castroneves, Graham Rahal and Josef Newgarden) there will be little margin for error ahead. A win for any of these would thrust them into immediate contention. However, a result outside the top 15 could be catastrophic to their title hopes. WILL POWER REPEAT? One of these weekends, a Dixon bet is going to come through. It just has to. The Chip Ganassi Racing star is simply too good and has been too consistent to go the whole year without winning.
But I don’t think Dixon ends his 2017 drought Sunday. Instead, look for Power to become the first driver to win three times. Not only is the Team Penske driver the defending race winner, but he has been rolling lately, scoring back-to-back podiums, including his win at Texas.
Power demonstrated last season that qualifying is crucial at Milwaukee; he started on the pole and led 46 of 50 laps to earn the win. Power already has three poles this year, and only Dixon (4.1) has averaged a better starting spot for the season than Power’s 5.6.
Look for Dixon, along with Pagenaud, Rahal and Kanaan — who finished runner-up to Power last year — to battle Power for the win.