INDIANAPOLIS – The 10th round of the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season is behind us. Sunday’s REV Group Grand Prix at Road America was dominated by one of the championship favorites in Alexander Rossi.

The Andretti Autosport driver led 54 of the 55 lap en route to the dominating victory. That is a storyline in itself.

Here’s my final thoughts for this past weekend’s race.

When Rossi Wins, He Does So In Dominating Fashion On Historical Tracks

Poll the Indy Car paddock and have them rank the top historical tracks that the series has ever visited. The drivers would say that they’d want to win at Indy, Long Beach and Road America as the top three choices.

Well, one driver in the series has won on all the historic tracks.

Rossi’s win at Road America on Sunday was the seventh of his Indy Car career. But, just look at where he’s won all seven of his races at and how he’s done so too.

Rossi, has won the Indy 500. He’s won the Long Beach Grand Prix in each of the last two years. He’s won at Watkins Glen. He’s won at Pocono and Mid-Ohio. Now, he’s won at Road America.

Not many drivers can say that they have won on all these historic tracks.

Rossi, has.

Not only has he celebrated victory in them, he’s done so in dominating fashion. He led 71 of 85 laps in the 2018 Long Beach Grand Prix and 80 of 85 this past year. He led 180 of 200 laps at Pocono last August. He led 66 of 90 laps at Mid-Ohio last July. He also led 32 of 55 laps in his win at Watkins Glen too.

On Sunday, he led all but one lap in Elkhart Lake.

It used to be when Rossi starts on the pole, the race is over. Now, lets just make it on the front row. Three of his first four wins came from the pole. So did four of his first six. But, if you want to include the front row in this, it’s 5-for-7.

Rossi’s Win Has Penske Drivers Scratching Their Heads

Rossi’s win was dominating. No one was around him all day. Once he got passed pole sitter Colton Herta on the opening lap, he checked out. Rossi beat second place Will Power by 28.4391-seconds. Third place Josef Newgarden was 31.8443-seconds.

See, Rossi was sick of coming home runner-up to Penske drivers. He finished second in the Indianapolis 500 to Simon Pagenaud. He then finished second to Newgarden at Belle Isle 1 and Texas.

Three runner-ups in his last four starts on the season. Rossi, even started the day in second too.

But, he took his frustrations out of the field. Rossi’s win was never in doubt. So much so, it left the Penske duo of Power and Newgarden scratching their heads to figure out how they got beat so badly.

“Yeah, I actually never saw (Alexander Rossi),” said Power after his first top two finish in 10 months. “Felt like I was in my own race with Josef (Newgarden). Yeah, that’s all we had. It was a very clean day for us. Good start, no mistakes, reasonable car. Yeah, we simply did not have the pace to run with Alex. I’ve rarely said that in my career.

“Let’s say if Alex (Rossi) wasn’t in the race, I would have said I had a good car. But he’s in the race. You can’t look at that pace and go, ‘What are we missing?’ It’s kind of tough to pinpoint that because the car did not feel bad. It was a reasonable balance. Tires kind of went off a bit at the end.

“Yeah, hard for me to understand how he can be so fast over a whole stint.”

Newgarden, who lost 18 points to Rossi on Sunday but still remains in the championship lead by seven points was just as baffled himself.

“We obviously didn’t have enough today,” said Newgarden. “We were a little shy. Probably a lot shy actually. But we were trying to do what we could to catch back up, hold our ground.

“I think even guys behind us were very quick towards the end. Trying to hold our ground was tough in a lot of ways. Alex and Andretti, they were too good for us today. We’ve got to come back to the drawing board, try to figure out what we’re missing.

“I have confidence we’ll do that. I think Chevy still gave us a great package today. We have to keep tweaking on everything, find out what we need from the car, the engine, make it a bit stronger.

“We did what we could today with the REV Group Chevy. I think Will (Power) and I were just trying to hold down the fort in second or third, but you know, there’s still good effort from everyone. We, obviously, had a little bit of a gap there and Andretti Autosport and Alex (Rossi) did a great job today, so we’ll go back to the drawing board. I think we need to work on our road course (performance), but good effort. Chevy still gave us a great package and having REV Group on this weekend was really nice, so we’ll take a third for today.”

When asked about his comment on working on road courses, the current series points leader said, “I don’t know. We have to go back and dissect it. I wish I had the answer.”

Road America Has Featured Great Racing But Lacks Lead Changes

The last two years at Road America, we’ve seen a ton of passing throughout the field in the Indy Car races. The only problem is, the winners have been the ones who weren’t passed.

In 2018, Josef Newgarden led 53 of 55 laps at Road America. On Sunday, a year later, Rossi led 54 of 55 laps.

Neither race featured a caution as all three races at Road America since Indy Car’s return have seen two or fewer cautions. In fact, we’ve had three total cautions across four years.

Despite that, the drivers put on a show from second on back each year. It’s just that we’ve seen two drivers dominate the show up front.

Championship Likely Down To A 2 Driver Race Now

We’re 10 races into the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season. Despite having seven races remaining still, it’s clear that this has become a two horse race for the season championship.

As we leave Road America on Sunday, the top two drivers are separated by seven points. But, third place is a wide 61 points back. Fourth place if 94 points out. Those are the only ones within 100 points.

Will Power and Takuma Sato are 108 and 110 points out respectively. Ryan Hunter-Reay is now 131 points back.

So, barring some unforeseen disasters, the 2019 championship will be Penske vs. Andretti. Josef Newgarden vs. Alexander Rossi.

While the series normally prides itself in 4+ drivers being in the hunt for the title towards the end of the season, it doesn’t necessarily mean only having two drivers will be any less thrilling. In fact, it could be more thrilling.

This is American vs. American. It’s two of the top teams in the sport with two of the best drivers. They’ll be racing around each other a lot.

Just look at their stats. Since 2017, Newgarden has 10 wins compared to Rossi’s six. Newgarden leads the podiums but only by two 18-16. In top fives, it’s 24-23 advantage going to Newgarden. Top 10’s? 35-33.

The only driver with as many wins in this time frame is Will Power is six himself. But, he’s 108 points out remember.

Rossi, has four top two finishes in the last five races of the season. He’s had a top five in eight of the 10 races run in 2019.

Newgarden, has four top four finishes in the last five races. He has eight top fours in 10 races run in 2019 too.

Then, when you look at what’s ahead, I don’t see either driver dropping off enough to allow the door to open to let anyone else in. I mean, who can make up 60+ points on BOTH drivers in seven races?

That’s why this is going to be between Newgarden and Rossi for the championship. Buckle up too. It’s going to be fun.

Time For Dixon To Start Stacking Wins

Scott Dixon has never been known to really go on a terror and stack win after win. It’s not his style. Dixon, sprinkles important wins when he needs them, but what he does best is rattles off top five after top five finish and forces his peers to make mistakes. When they crumble under pressure, Dixon just stays his course.

I mean think about it, Dixon won the 2018 series championship but didn’t reach victory lane in any of the final five races. But, as we sit here today, other than a win in Belle Isle 2, that’s the last time he’s reached victory lane.

Dixon, has 44 wins to his credit over the course of his storied career, but with the next race being in two weeks in Toronto, he’s reached victory lane just once since. At the time, it was his third win in seven races. Other than winning three races in-a-row in 2013, that’s the best stretch of race wins for Dixon since 2008.

Since the start of the 2017 season, Dixon has just five victories. By comparison, Newgarden has doubled that with 10 trips to victory lane. Rossi, has won six times himself, four of which coming since the start of last season.

Dixon, has to change his driving style and aggression now. No longer can he afford to finish with just a solid top five. He has to win and has to do so in bunches.

If he wants to make up a 90+ point gap in seven races on drivers who rarely make mistakes, he has to win.

The stats are above for Newgarden and Rossi. They each have eight top five finishes this season. That’s 80-percent. If they continue that trend, they’ll finish in the top five in six of the last seven races. That means Dixon has to win at least four of these races in order to be in the hunt.

Penske, Andretti, Ganassi Dominating Wins

Between the “Big 3” they’ve won eight of the 10 races run in 2019 including seven straight. Since the start of last season, they’ve won 22 of the last 27 races. If you go back to 2017, they’ve won 31 of the last 36.

With what’s left of 2019, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the “Big 3” win out.