Championship is the main storyline
Rossi will try to deny Dixon fifth title while two newcomers will race
INDIANAPOLIS – After 16 races, the Verizon IndyCar Series championship remains unsettled.
A living legend and a young breakout star are the pair of heavyweight contenders still left standing. This weekend, Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi go toe-to-toe in IndyCar’s final round, a double-points finale at Sonoma Raceway, to decide who will wear the 2018 crown.
Coverage of Sunday’s championship race begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN and IndyCar Radio. The biggest storylines to watch as the season comes to its thrilling conclusion.
Championship showdown
For the 13th consecutive season, the IndyCar championship comes down to the final race. And what a showdown it will be.
In one contender, you have 2018’s breakout star and possibly the hottest driver in the series the past six weeks.
Since the haulers left Toronto, Rossi has been darn near unstoppable, rattling off back-to-back wins at Mid-Ohio and Pocono before finishing runner-up at Gateway. He was in line for another podium in Portland, Oregon, but untimely yellows tossed him into salvage mode and he was forced to settle for eighth.
Even after that disappointing day in the Pacific Northwest, Rossi is only 29 points back of Dixon. While that means he’s not in total control of his own destiny, if the Andretti Autosport No. 27 car were to cross the finish line first on Sunday, Rossi wouldn’t need much help from Dixon to secure his first championship.
Still, while no one has been quicker than Rossi lately, no one has been more consistent than Dixon all season. The Chip Ganassi Racing star boasts a series-best 12 top-five finishes, including five in a row beginning in Toronto.
He also brings a wealth of experience to the finale. Not only does his résumé include four championships, but he’s finished in the top three in the final points standings 12 times throughout his career, so he’s well-versed in dealing with the spotlight. He also has three triumphs at Sonoma and has raced there 13 times. Rossi has raced there twice.
Dixon doesn’t need a fifth title to secure his legacy as one of IndyCar’s alltime greats, but to become the only driver not named A.J. Foyt (seven titles) to be able to cover an entire hand in championship rings, well, that would rank among his greatest accomplishments.
Drivers debut
Welcome to the Verizon IndyCar Series Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward.
It would be unfair to expect these two Indy Lights standouts to contend for a win or even top-10 finishes in their IndyCar debuts this weekend — especially for a still-learning Harding Racing team that doesn’t own a top-10 finish this year.
However, these two teenagers are destined to accomplish great things in IndyCar, giving fans a reason to be excited to see them on track this weekend.
O’Ward is an effervescent young speed demon, who is coming off one of the most impressive Indy Lights debuts of all time. In his first season in the Mazda Road to Indy ladder series, O’Ward won nine races and nine poles and finished on the podium 13 times in 17 races en route to the championship.
Herta, meanwhile, is a no-nonsense, hard-nosed racer who clearly has learned a lot from his father — driverturned owner Bryan Herta — and is ready for the biggest challenge of his racing life. Herta finished second to O’Ward, his Andretti-Autosport teammate, in the Indy Lights championship, racking up four victories, three pole positions and 13 podiums while battling through a thumb injury.
Each has tested with Harding this year, Herta at Portland International Raceway and O’Ward in Sonoma. Now they’re ready to get their first real tastes of a series that will happily welcome them both into the fold.
“We think they both have very prom- ising and high potential for long-standing careers,” Harding team president Brian Barnhart said recently. “We are just exceptionally proud that we’re getting the opportunity to provide their debut for them both, so we’re focused 100 percent on this weekend, and we’ll see what we can do from there. We’ll do what we can to try and see how that develops into potential programs for 2019 for Harding Racing.”
Eying the offseason
First and foremost, the racing world will continue to track the recovery of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver and IndyCar rookie of the year Robert Wickens. The team and Wickens’ family released a joint statement recently that outlined the frightening litany of injuries the 29-year-old Canadian suffered in his horrific Pocono Raceway crash, but we still do not know the extent of the damage done to his surgically repaired spine.
Meanwhile, silly season is far from over. McLaren has made sure of that. The historic Formula One team with Indy car roots remains keen on joining North America’s open-wheel series but has yet to announce its intentions. It’s been quiet on the rumor mill for a couple of weeks now, but perhaps that’s because the team is still awaiting word from two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso, who tested an Indy car recently with Andretti Autosport at Barber Motorsports Park. McLaren executives have repeatedly said they are eager to join the IndyCar Series, with or without Alonso, but we all know they’d prefer if the Spanish superstar was along for the ride.
As for teams already established in IndyCar, the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 10 car situation hasn’t been officially resolved. There are rumors swirling around about what Ed Carpenter and Dale Coyne have in store for 2019. Har- ding Racing appears to be on the verge of some major changes. Juncos and Meyer Shank Racing are both eyeing expansions to more comprehensive programs, while Rahal has yet to confirm the return of Takuma Sato.
Off the track, while the schedule has been finalized, IndyCar remains in talks to find a third engine manufacturer as well as a new sponsor(s) to replace the departing Verizon. An international broadcasting package also remains on the horizon.
With all this and more still to come, there will be plenty for IndyCar fans to talk about well after the gates close at Sonoma.
Penske’s silver lining?
All eyes will be on championship battle, but don’t be surprised if a Team Penske car steals some of Sunday’s spotlight.
A win for Penske would likely be bittersweet. While Will Power and Josef Newgarden are both mathematically eligible to win Penske’s third consecutive championship and fourth in five years, they’d need a minor miracle to make it happen.
Still, even if that title is out of sight, that doesn’t mean they can’t cap their season with a champagne bath and some positive momentum for next year. Each of the three Penske drivers makes a compelling case to be considered the favorite heading into IndyCar’s last race.
Power’s begins with the likelihood that he starts on the pole. An all-time great qualifier, Power has started in the top spot twice the past three races. Starting up front could prove critical Sunday. Over the past two years at Sonoma, the pole-sitter has finished first (Simon Pagenaud in 2017) and second (Newgarden in 2018), largely because just one caution flag has flown between those two races.
Considering how few yellows have littered this season, Sunday’s pole-sitter could be sitting pretty.
Newgarden’s case begins with the fact that he’s tied with Power for poles this year (four). Also remember that he’s been a beast on permanent road courses this year with wins at Barber and Road America.
Finally, that leaves the two-time defending race winner, Simon Pagenaud. He’s been on a tear lately, recording nine consecutive top-10 finishes. He doesn’t own a top-five finish at a road course yet this season, but don’t be surprised if he snaps that streak with a win on Sunday.
Dixon gets title No. 5
How can you bet against the Iceman with a 29-point advantage? Knowing his penchant for rising to the occasion and his uncanny ability to turn a bad day into a good one, I can’t see him leaving Sonoma without his fifth championship.
That said, it’s hard to call what Rossi and his team have done “too little, too late.” What they have accomplished since Toronto — chipping away more than 40 points to get Dixon’s lead under 30 — is remarkable. However, I don’t think the late-season surge is going to be enough to overtake him. While Rossi’s team has been phenomenal lately, the hole they dug themselves from June to mid-July will haunt them in the offseason. Four of those five six races resulted in finishes of eighth place or worse with Dual 2 in Detroit (12th place) the one Rossi will most regret, as a rare error late in the race cost him a podium finish.
Still, even if he leaves Sonoma without his first championship, the talented young driver can do so knowing two things: one, this will not be the last time he’s fighting for the title come the finale; and two, he gave one of the best drivers in IndyCar’s history one heck of a fight to the finish.