Parity appears to be out of gas
Power players crowd podium at Road America
Parity has been a popular term in the first half of the Verizon IndyCar Series season, and it’s easy to understand why. Scott Dixon’s victory Sunday at Road America made him the eighth different winner in the first 10 races.
Combined with Honda’s resurgence this season — six victories vs. just two last year — there’s a clear and compelling case to be made that this season has been more balanced. And that makes this season more unpredictable than any in recent years.
A new winner emerging every week gives the impression that maybe the championship won’t inevitably come down to IndyCar’s traditional powers, that a few underdogs have a real shot at a title.
But after Sunday, that’s looking less likely. After Sunday, parity and unpredictability aren’t words that will be tossed about as often in the coming weeks. Certainly they can’t be used to describe the Kohler Grand Prix, which saw the series’ traditional powers dominate the race weekend from beginning to end.
The Team Penske crew flourished in practice, then swept qualifying, putting all four of its cars in the first two rows, while Dixon claimed the inside spot on the third.
Then, predictably, the traditional powers claimed the top five spots in the race. Following Dixon across the finish line were Josef Newgarden, Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power.
So it was Dixon, then Penske, Penske, Penske, Penske.
The result is a near perfect match of the new championship standings, which goes Dixon (379 points), Penske, Penske, Takuma Sato, Penske, Penske.
Sato, who finished 19th Sunday after a mid-race crash, breaks up the pack largely due to his double points victory in the Indianapolis 500. Without that win, the result at Road America would have perfectly mirrored the championship.
But with the way those power five drove Sunday, it seems almost inevitable that Sato will be squeezed out soon, maybe as soon as the next race, at Iowa Speedway on July 9.
Maybe Sato can hang on. Maybe the 40-year-old Japanese driver can propel into sustained championship contention for the first time in his IndyCar career. Or maybe seventh-place Graham Rahal — just 72 points back of Dixon — can crash the party. Maybe the Detroit doubleheader winner can overcome the inherent disadvantages of running on a one-car team and take down the power five. After all, he’s done it before, finishing fifth last year, one spot ahead of Dixon.
But if Sato and Rahal ultimately can’t slay the Penske/Dixon dragon, it’s likely no one will. No other drivers are within 100 points of Dixon, and even eighthplace Tony Kanaan (273) is 45 points back of fifth-place Newgarden (318).
Of course, maybe Road America isn’t predictive of what’s to come. It’s possible that the traditional powers will struggle at the races ahead, but how realistic does that seem?
After Sunday’s race, Newgarden wouldn’t tip his team’s hand, saying he wasn’t 100% sure if Penske would be as dominant at future tracks as they were at Road America, but Pagenaud, in his third season at Penske, made no bones about his confidence going forward.
“We’re going to Iowa next, and (Penske) should have an advantage there, too,” said the Frenchman, who finished fourth last year at Iowa behind future Penske teammate Newgarden, Power and Dixon. “I see in the future some good tracks for us, maybe even better than we’ve had up until now. So our confidence is actually rising throughout the season.”
Pagenaud or one of his Penske teammates is the reigning champion at six of the final seven tracks IndyCar visits. Granted, Castroneves’ win at Gateway Motorsports Park came in 2003, the last time IndyCar visited the venue until this year. And the nonPenske winner? Dixon, of course, at Watkins Glen.
“Every year we talk about it, Dixon is the biggest threat,” Pagenaud said. “No matter what car or what team you’re going to put him in, he’s always going to be running for the championship. He’s been around forever, and he’s obviously super good.
“It’s interesting. It should be fun for the fans at the end. I could see four drivers competing for the championship in Sonoma.”
Pagenaud didn’t elaborate on which four drivers that would be, but it’s a safe bet he was talking about Dixon and three others wearing Penske colors.
It’s hard to imagine he’s wrong. As for parity, well, it was fun while it lasted.