Team Penske sets up shop at top of standings
By the end of last season, Team Penske’s drivers were all over the top of the championship leaderboard, occupying the top three slots.
After the finale at Sonoma Raceway, the standings touted champion Simon Pagenaud, Will Power (second) and Helio Castroneves (third). And tucked just behind Castroneves was a young driver named Josef Newgarden.
Team owner Roger Penske then employed the old if-youcan’t-beat-him-sign-him strategy and brought the budding superstar into the Penske fold for 2017, replacing Juan Pablo Montoya.
Now Penske is at it again, trying to sweep the top four spots of the championship. The newest addition and Mid- Ohio winner, Newgarden, is pacing the series with 453 points, and his teammates aren’t far behind. Castroneves is second (446), Pagenaud fourth (436), and Mid- Ohio runner-up Power fifth (401). The only man standing in their way now is four-time champion Scott Dixon, who’s in third with 445 points for Chip Ganassi Racing.
“Dixon is always there,” said Pagenaud, when asked about sweeping the top four spots. “He’s always there at the end. ... Pocono is probably going to be a good race for him. He’ll have a really strong package there. The other races, I think, are for us, but he’s usually really strong at Watkins Glen, but I think the Chevy aero kit will be stronger there. We’ll see. But that’s five really, really strong guys right now.” Make that six. Graham Rahal, the third-place finisher at Mid- Ohio, shouldn’t be discounted. In sixth place, he’s just six points back of Power and 41 behind Pagenaud. He knows he’ll have his work cut out for him with the Penske cars enjoying a big aero kit advantage at Gateway Motorsports Park’s 1.25-mile oval, but he thinks he still could be in contention come the finale at Sonoma, which awards double points.
“We’re close,” Rahal said. “It could go any way. As I said to our guys before the race, and I’ve said now, for us to win the championship, we’ve got to beat (Penske), and obviously Penske’s on top of their game. Clearly, we are on top of our game. ...
“But when you’ve got to contend with these four, it’s tough stuff. It’s a great operation with great drivers. So we’ve got to beat them to win this thing, and that’s going to be a tough task, but we’re going to put our heads down and keep working hard and try to make it happen.”
COMING SOON: MORE EXCITING ROAD COURSE RACING
If there was one thing missing from Sunday’s race at Mid- Ohio, it was drama. The race got off to a clean start, and while there was aggressive racing, there also were very few passes. The race turned into a runaway for Newgarden. Credit to the young Team Penske star for a dominant run, but some fans — and drivers — wouldn’t mind next year’s event having a little more flavor.
“The problem we have right now is, when you get close behind somebody, you are hanging on to your ( butt) big time,” Rahal said after the race. In other words, the air being created by the cars is so turbulent, it causes the trailing car to shake, making it difficult to pass.
“Every time I went into one (turn) behind (Power) at the end, I was just praying that it would somewhat stick through the corner.”
But Rahal said there’s hope racing won’t be like that much longer. The sleeker, slimmer 2018 Indy car should create less dirty air for drivers to contend with when attempting a pass.
“I think next year, when the car develops the downforce from underneath, it’s going to be way better racing,” Rahal said.
Power agreed with Rahal about the possible benefits of the new car but made another suggestion to enhance road-course racing: a no-reply push-to-pass system. Power has long advocated this system, which would block drivers from using push-to-pass as a defensive tactic. Only drivers trying to make a pass would be allowed to employ the boost.
“That would create a lot more passing at tracks like this, a lot more, because then you don’t have people replying,” Power said. “If they want really good racing, that’s one way to do it.”