It’s been a couple of days since the Iowa double-header and the fallout from the event is still as raw as most days after such a talked-about event. Once the chequered flags had been waved, there were many talking points concerning multiple teams and multiple drivers with championship implications, season ending momentum and the rookie of the year award.
Race For The Championship
Going into the double-header race at Iowa, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson had a 35 point lead over Team Penske’s Will Power and given that Iowa hasn’t been a friendly track to Chip’s team then it would be a safe bet for Ericsson to lose his championship lead.
After the first race his lead went from 35 points down to just 15 points after Josef Newgarden won the race and Power finished third while Ericsson finished down in 8th place. Ericsson’s championship lead could have been higher than 15 points when Ericsson was locked in battle with Newgarden for the lead of the race. Then Ericsson fell down the order to 8th place and ultimately lost ground in his battle to win the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series title.
With Ericsson having a poor qualifying for race 2 and with Newgarden and Power starting on the front row, it would look as if Ericsson would be set lose that 15 point lead. Things were looking that way with Newgarden in control of the race until lap 236, with Newgarden looking like he was going to inherit the championship lead when suddenly the Hitachi Chevrolet suffered rear right suspension failure and pitched Newgarden into the wall.
At the end of race 2, the championship lead that was 15 points shrunk to 8 points as Power finished in 2nd place with Ericsson finishing in P6. It could have been a worst case scenario for the Swede given how dominant Penske are around Iowa. The question now is will we see a new leader after the Indianapolis Road Course race 2 this coming weekend or will Ericsson extend his points lead?
You have to also take into consideration Scott Dixon and Alex Palou, it was in the last 4 races where Palou truly made his mark for the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series title and with 5 races to go, what's stopping Palou from making the same comeback this year and stealing it from team-mate Ericsson. Palau is 44 points off his Swedish counterpart while Dixon is always the master of stealing big points in races where he doesn’t always have the pace. Dixon is 34 points off Ericsson so I wouldn’t rule out a late Palou/Dixon charge for the title.
Who do I see coming out on top in the title battle? It's a hard one to call. All it takes is for Ericsson to get caught up in an accident or hit a run of poor reliability and it could easily swing the championship into the hands of one of his rivals. Alternatively the same thing could happen to anyone of the other 5 championship contenders. My guess would be Ericsson winning it for the first time.
Newgarden’s confidence following his Iowa crash:
Josef Newgarden looked set to take charge of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series title but with 64 laps left of the second race of the double-header event, Newgarden saw it all come to a heartbreaking abrupt end. A rear right failure caused the car to spin and hit the exit barrier of turn 4 and ruined the rear of the 2 Team Penske car.
After looking so comfortable up-front both in clean air and also in dirty air coming off lapped cars. So when the failure happened it would have knocked some of his confidence given where it left him in a position of needing a couple of poor results for his championship rivals. Newgarden still finds himself 3rd in the points standings and 34 points off leader Marcus Ericsson and 26 points off Penske team-mate Will Power.
So where does this leave Newgarden’s confidence level, with the chance that he may be declared unfit to race in the upcoming Indianapolis Road Course that would leave him not having raced on a street course since Toronto, leaving him even more under pressure at his home event in Nashville, Tennessee. Should Newgarden be declared unfit to race for this weekend's race, then it would leave him with a small shot of winning his 3rd championship, especially if his championship rivals score a top 5 finish.
The next time Newgarden will be oval racing will be for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on August 20th and it remains to see whether the late Iowa crash will still be on his mind and he goes racing at the oval. We will wait and find out how he gets on at the oval but most importantly the main focus is that Josef Newgarden recovers quickly and we see him in his race car again.
Rookie Of The Year Battle:
The Rookie Of The Year battle has been an interesting battle this season, arguably the strongest rookie field IndyCar has seen in years. This rookie battle has all sorts of different levels of experience ranging from Indy Lights progression to Formula 2 experience. There are 6 rookies in the field even though drivers like Brit Callum Ilott did the final three races in the 2021 season with Juncos Hollinger Racing. Christian Lundgaard would do a one off race at the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Road Course. There would in fact be more rookies at certain events given that there are events that IndyCar go to this year that they didn’t go to in the 2020/2021 seasons. Rahal Letterman Lanigans’s Danish driver Christian Lundgaard currently leads the Rookie Of The Year standings on 208 points but in truth the points difference is 80 points going back to Kyle Kirkwood after Tatiana Calderon was forced to pull out of the series.
Callum Ilott, runner up in the F2 2020 Championship won by Mick Schumacher, has shown a lot of pace this year in the Juncos Hollinger Racing 77 car. Some of the sessions that spring to mind are Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama where qualified P11, GMR Grand Prix where Ilott qualified P7 then finished P8, Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America qualified P12 finished P11, qualifying 7th at Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Honda Indy Toronto qualified P7, double-header at Hy-veedeals.com 250 and the Hy-vee Salute To Farmers 300 where he qualified P22 in both races and finished P12 and P11 in both races. Ilott’s best result on a road course is 8th place at the GMR Grand Prix, his best result on a street course is 14th place at Honda Indy Grand Prix of Toronto and finally his best result on an oval is P11 at the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300. Ilott currently sits in 21st place in the standings with 5 races to go.
Christian Lundgaard, just like Callum Ilott, comes to America with a wealth of European racing experience and by joining the Rahal Letterman Lanigan, he joined a wrath of experience in team-mates Jack Harvey, moving over from Meyer Shank Racing, and Graham Rahal. Lundgaard has had a mixed bunch of results with an 11th place at the season opener in Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg, a top 10 finish at the GMR Grand Prix, an 18th place at the Indy 500 from a starting spot of 31st place, another top 10 at Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America followed by an 11th and an 8th place at Honda Indy 200 Mid-Ohio and Honda Indy Toronto. In the recent set of results, Lundgaard had finished 10th and suffered a mechanical issue in the Iowa double-header. Lundgaard’s best result on a road course is 9th at the GMR Grand Prix, his best result on a street course is 8th place at Honda Indy Grand Prix of Toronto and finally his best result on an oval is 10th place at the Hy-Veedeals.com 250. Lundgaard currently sits in 16th in the standings with 5 races to go.
Tatiana Calderon, who also has some F2 experience just like her fellow rookies, also has Super Formula experience from her Japan racing days. She would do 2 years in the series while also competing in the World Endurance Championship. It’s no secret that Calderon has struggled to adapt to an IndyCar and most of her results reflect that. Calderon has a 16th place finish in Long Beach and a 15th place finish in mixed conditions at the GMR Grand Prix. Other than that it hasn’t been the rookie year that Calderon would have wanted to have and matters got worse for the 11 AJ Foyt Racing car, with their main sponsor ‘Rokit’ after funding issues prevented her from seeing out the championship after the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Up to now, Calderon’s best finish on a road course is 15th place at the GMR Grand Prix and her best finish on a street course is 16th place at Long Beach. It’s not yet decided whether we will see Calderon back in the car for the remaining 5 races of the 2022 season. Calderon currently sits in 29th in the standings with 5 races to go.
Devlin DeFrancesco, the first of the IndyCar rookies who came through the Indy Lights, has had a mixed bag of results both in qualifying and in the races. A career best of 12th place at his home grand prix at Honda Indy Toronto is the best thing to shout about with his qualifying pace but to his credit he has also got several top 20 starting positions in other race events. His race results are somewhat better with more top 20 finishes with a career best coming in the last race at Iowa with a P15 finish. DeFrancesco’s best finish on a road course is 17th place at the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama and Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. His best result on a street course is 18th place at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix and Honda Indy Toronto. DeFrancesco’s best result on an oval is a 15th place finish at the Hy-Vee Salute The Farmers 300. DeFrancesco currently sits in 23rd place with 5 races to go.
Kyle Kirkwood, another graduate from the Indy Lights programme, has had a troublesome time with his qualifying performance, only 3 times has the young American racer actually got into Q2 (Fast 12) which is something that he will need to improve next year when he moves from the AJ Foyt stable and joins the sleeping giant Andretti Autosport squad. Kirkwood’s best qualifying position came at the HYVEEDEALS.com 250. Kirkwood’s best result on a road course is 20th place at the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America. His best result on a street course is 10th place at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Kirkwood’s best result on an oval is HYVEEDEALS.com 250. Kirkwood currently sits in 24th place with 5 races to go.
David Malukas, the last one of our talented rookie field, in recent races has ramped up his qualifying performances but when comparing his qualifying pace to his race pace then in most races Malukas tends to fall back down in order. A career best of qualifying of 5th place at the Honda Indy Toronto backed up the qualifying pace that Malukas has at his disposal. Malukas has made it into Q2 (Fast 12) four times this season and on three occasions has made it to Q3 (Fast 6). Malukas’s best result on a road course is 9th place at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. He has a best result on a street course being 11th place at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. Malukas has a best finish on an oval of 8th place last time out at hy-vee Salute The Farmers 300. Malukas currently sits in 17th place with 5 races to go.
Who will come out with the Rookie Of The Year Award?
If I was to guess who would come out on top in the Rookie Of The Year battle, I’d have to go with Christian Lundgaard. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver has struggled to some degree in his full rookie season but in recent races the RLL team have made some progress both on the streets of Toronto and on the oval at Iowa and with that recent form, the team should feel rejuvenated after the last few races. With 5 races to go in the 2022 NTT IndyCar series, whoever goes on to win the rookie battle will have earned it.
Is Grosjean now team-leader at Andretti Autosport
It’s been a couple of months since Alexander Rossi was confirmed to be leaving Andretti Autosport, the squad have been looking for someone to step up as a consistent team-leader and the only two candidates for that role are young American Colton Herta and experienced Swiss-Frenchman Romain Grosjean. It says a lot about Grosjean’s rise in the NTT IndyCar series that he might be in the position to become team-leader in the camp. The reasoning behind Grosjean becoming that figure is the experience he has accumulated in his years in Formula 1 with Renault, Lotus and Haas.
Lets dive into Colton Herta, super talented there’s no arguments to be said but at times he has shown his emotion when driving that has cost him a win or a top 5. A perfect example was at the inaugural Music City Grand Prix at Nashville in 2021 when trying to catch Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson with half a dozen laps to go, he got desperate and locked the front left tyre and went into the tyre wall and ended his race. Every driver drives with emotion, it’s what they do in and it can get the better of them at any moment whether they agree or disagree with a strategy call or being told about a penalty they’ve received.
The issue with Colton is that he has the raw speed to be team-leader and season on season is gaining that experience but he needs to calm down with the emotions in under-pressure situations but on the flip side I’d rather have an emotional fast paced driver instead of someone who is calm and slow. Colton is the highest placed Andretti Autosport driver in the standings, sitting in 8th and is the only Andretti driver to have won a race this season.
Let’s go further into Romain Grosjean, he came to America off the back of a terrible season-ending Formula 1 career and also came with a reputation that aggravated some of his fellow racers. At the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Graham Rahal and Grosjean made contact twice in the latter stages of the race. This led to Rahal publicly accusing Grosjean of deliberately crashing into the American racer and stating that the Swiss-French racer had come over the pond with a reputation.
Every racing driver has some sort of a reputation, some racers have a good reputation for example being fast and consistent, some racers have a bad reputation for example crashing or making mistakes every session. Other racing drivers have an ugly reputation both on and off track. The problem for Grosjean is that to some people he falls into a good and bad reputation, in his early start to his F1 career he developed a bad-boy reputation with his on-track behaviour to the point he got a race ban in 2012 and ever since then Grosjean has been trying to work to change people’s perception of him.
Grosjean has shown glimpses of the pace that the 28 DHL Andretti Honda has to offer with a 5th place at the Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg followed by a 2nd place at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. It would take a few races for Grosjean to get a top 5 finish with a 4th place at the Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America. Grosjean sits in 14th place in the standings behind team-mates Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi but the difference between the 3 drivers is 33 points.
Who will become the lead Andretti Autosport driver in 2023
Do I think that Grosjean will become the team-leader at Andretti Autosport in short? No, I don’t think so. Just because Grosjean has the experience in different categories of racing doesn’t mean that he has the right to start demanding changes. If there was to be a replacement team-leader, once Alexander Rossi leaves the team and joins the Arrow McLaren SP team, I’d have a guess at Colton Herta being the team-leader until 2024 when the supposed Andretti-F1 combo is meant to come into effect.
Silly Season Rumours
Since doing my predictions for the 2023 NTT IndyCar series line-ups, a lot more has happened in the past couple of weeks. First the big news that broke on Wednesday was that Chip Ganassi Racing has started legal proceedings against reigning series champion Alex Palou. There is a chance that after one season Devlin DeFrancesco could lose his drive in the 29 Andretti Autosport car. Rumours in recent days have seen Formula 2 championship leader Felipe Drugovich and Marcus Armstrong being linked with seats in the IndyCar series.
Chip Ganassi Racing sues Alex Palou:
As if the Alex Palou saga couldn’t get anymore fiery, it got even more intense after Chip Ganassi Racing filed a lawsuit against its number 10 driver Alex Palou. In an email sent to the IndyStar, Chip Ganassi Racing stated that “Alex Palou is under contract with Chip Ganassi Racing through the end of the 2023 season, he is a valued member of our team and we will continue to support him in chasing wins, podiums, and IndyCar championships. As the result of a competing racing team improperly attempting to contract with him notwithstanding the clear terms of our contract, we are proceeding to legal process pursuant to the contract.”
According to court documents Chip Ganassi has filed an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction hearing. CGR has requested that the defendants and third parties involved in the contract dispute, both McLaren Racing Group and Arrow McLaren SP, to respond to the given requests within a two week period. Chip Ganassi has requested for the hearing to be at the end of August just before the conclusion of the championship where Palou has the chance to become back-to-back champion for the first time since when Dario Franchitti when he won it 3-times in a row from 2009-2011 with Chip Ganassi Racing.
There was always a possibility that a lawsuit could come up but the question was would Chip Ganassi actually go through with said lawsuit and it is clear that is the route that Chip is going to go down to secure the Spaniards services for 2023 and it is something that all parties involved would have wanted to avoid given all the possible outcomes that could arise from any outcome.
It is no secret that Chip Ganassi and Zak Brown aren’t friends in the paddock and with everything that has happened in recent weeks, it’s safe to say that they won’t be on each other's Christmas card list this and the next few years. It isn’t official as to what series Palou would be racing in with McLaren, the ideal place would be to remain in IndyCar but that would imply that Felix Rosenqvist would move to the McLaren Formula E team. But it will be interesting to see what happens in this drama.
Could we see a new face at Andretti Autosport?
In the last few days, paddock whispers have indicated that Michael Andretti is open to having a new driver in the 29 Andretti Autosport car. It would sound as if Andretti has had enough already with Canadian driver Devlin DeFrancesco. DeFrancesco has struggled with adapting to the heavier cars but that seems to be the same across the other rookies competing this season.
DeFrancesco currently sits 23rd in the championship and has struggled to get consistently near his team-mates, granted his team-mates are talented driver Colton Herta, the winner of the 100th Running of the Indy 500 Alexander Rossi and 181 Grand Prix starter in Romain Grosjean. Trying to get anywhere near their pace in the first season in the big league is always a big ask so DeFrancesco can have that go in his favour.
If I was Michael Andretti I would personally give DeFrancesco a 2nd year in the seat as DeFrancesco could be one of those drivers that take a year to adapt to the cars and then show their true pace. A prime example is Mick Schumacher in Formula 1, he has typically had a steady first year and then exploded out of the box in the second season and this could be the same case with DeFrancesco.
More European racers joining the series
When doing the predictions for the 2023 IndyCar series, there were some names that may have been strong contenders to race in IndyCar. In the past week a couple of names from Formula 2 have been mentioned as potential 2023 drivers, F2 championship leader Felipe Drugovich has been one name that has been going around the paddock. One thing that makes Drugovich a sensible option is that he isn’t affiliated to an F1 academy so negotiating a contract will be made easier, which is the opposite of what Callum Ilott had to do when he came into the IndyCar paddock. Ilott had to leave the Ferrari Driver Academy to make a move over to the United States as their academy only covered drivers in Europe.
Another name that has been brought to the attention of a few team owners is Marcus Armstrong. Just like Drugovich, he too isn’t affiliated to a driver academy after leaving the Ferrari Driver Academy back in 2021. Armstrong has raced alongside Ilott, Christian Lundgaard and Drugovich which if he gets a seat in IndyCar means that should an on-track battle occur, they will know how they race. Armstrong would also be another Kiwi on the grid with his countryman Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin.
Comments