INDIANAPOLIS – Now that we’ve had a day to digest what we saw for Sunday’s ABC Supply 500, let’s rationally revisit this past weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race.

Power The Oval Master

It wasn’t all that long ago that Will Power dreaded going to ovals. After all, his first 11 Indy Car victories came on either road or street courses including 19 of his first 20 overall. Furthermore, if you go all the way to the middle of the 2016 season, 25 of Power’s 28 wins at that point came on twisty tracks. But, that’s where everything changed.

In fact, that dominating win from the pole at Milwaukee in 2014 was really the turning point of where he became stronger on ovals than road/street courses. It just didn’t really start showing until the 2016 season.

Power, won at Pocono in August 2016. That started a trend to where six of his last eight trips to victory lane have come on ovals.

“There’s a time in everyone’s career where you would have said, He’s just not an oval guy,” Power said this past weekend from the Pocono Raceway.

I can make a case now to where ovals are Power’s playground. Out of his now 36 career Indy Car wins, which breaks a tie with Bobby Unser for seventh all-time, nine of which are now on ovals. His last three series wins though are on ovals, so are five of his last six.

“Now you’d probably go, Yeah, he’s pretty good. He’s pretty good,” Power said about himself as he’s been an oval specialist as of late.

His teammate Josef Newgarden agrees.

“For drivers, it’s different,” Newgarden said of Power. “Sometimes you pick up to that quicker at certain places than others. I think Will (Power) is a very strong 500-mile runner. It’s good to have that, too, because you can kind of look at — for me, I know I look at Will, his style, try to learn a bit from him, what makes him good at these types of tracks.”

So, what is his secret? What makes him so good in 500 mile races?

“I mean, you’ve got a bit more time, you got a bit more time to not take a risk and kind of sit back, plenty of stops for it to unfold, get the car right,” Power said. “You don’t need to get too desperate at the beginning.

“I was a lap down, I came back and won (in 2017). Actually, as I was sitting a lap down, I was thinking, If I get our lap back, I can have a top five because the whole field is actually bunched up. I actually won the race.

“Take your time, as we saw last year.”

Power The Penske Leader Again?

Roger Penske’s first Indy Car win came at Pocono. His latest does too. Between that are 208 other victories in the series. But, the leader out of all the driver to have ever drove for the Captain?

Will Power.

Power’s win in Sunday’s rain delayed ABC Supply 500 was his 33rd for Team Penske. That’s three more than the next best (Helio Castroneves) and four more than Rick Mears. From there’s it’s a staunch drop off with Danny Sullivan and Al Unser Jr. each being tied with 12 a piece for fourth.

Power’s nine oval wins for Penske also rank him in a tie for third too with Bobby Unser as the duo trails Mears (22) and Castroneves (17) for that honor.

That’s why I never really bought into Power’s on a hot seat again theory. Penske has made it perfectly clear, if you can win for him, you’ll always have a ride.

Last year, Power swept the Month of May and earned him a contract extension. The exact same situation happened this year with Simon Pagenaud. Now that Power has earned a 13th straight season with at least one victory, Penske isn’t letting him get away anytime soon.

Why would he fire or not renew a contract of his all-time winningest driver in Indy Car?

Penske The Oval Master

We knew entering this past weekend’s ABC Supply 500 at the Pocono Raceway that Team Penske would likely be the ones to beat. 2019 has been a great season for them. All three of their drivers sit in the top five of the NTT IndyCar Series points standings. In the oval standings, they were 1-2-4.

That’s why it shouldn’t be too surprising that they finished 1-3-5 in Sunday’s rain shortened race.

Will Power passed Scott Dixon 13 laps prior to the red flag being displayed for lightening which was the start of the track and series officials to have to end the race 72 laps early. That netted him his third Pocono win in the last four years. His worst finish in that time frame is second.

The reason you could question it is because Penske seemed to struggle in Saturday’s lone practice session of the weekend. Or did they?

“We weren’t struggling at all” Power said. “Just some people run light fuel. We were straight into heavy fuel running, really understanding the car. I think we just tried a lot of things to get an understanding of what we needed for the race, particularly the downforce level we need to run, which everyone in the field ended up on anyway.
As soon as the race started, I knew we had a good car. I knew we had a good car going in. Yeah, we just made some adjustments, kind of had a lot of push. Obviously back in traffic there, I ended up trimming out a little bit at the end there. All the right moves.”

It was Penske’s fourth win in the last six years on the Tricky Triangle. But, it’s not just Pocono to where they’ve been strong at – it’s all ovals.

On superspeedway’s this season, they finished 3-for-3. On superspeedway’s the last couple of years, they’re 6-for-8. In fact, since the start of the 2016 season, Penske has won seven of the 12 races contested on superspeedway’s.

Josef Newgarden has finished fourth, first and fifth respectively in 2019 on them. Simon Pagenaud has finished first, sixth and third respectively himself.

Pagenaud won Indy. Newgarden won Texas. Now Power wins Pocono. Three superspeedways run, three different winners, same team.

In fact, in Pocono, Newgarden, has six top five finishes in seven tries with his worst finish being eighth. Pagenaud, has six top eight finishes in seven tries himself.

From here, it’s to Gateway where Penske is riding a four race win streak including both since the series’ return in 2017.

Newgarden, has finished first and seventh respectively in Gateway. Pagenaud, has finished third and fourth respectively. Power, has finished 20th and first respectively on the 1.25-mile St. Louis area oval.

On short ovals, Penske has won three of the four under this current aero package with the new car and six of the last seven overall.

Also, on ovals in general, Penske has won five straight and 13 of the last 18 overall.

Dixon Keeps Coming

Following a rough Indy 500, and an uncharacteristic error in back-to-back-to-back weeks at Belle Isle, Texas and Road America, Scott Dixon looked down and out for this year’s Indy Car championship. He so desperately wanted to win back-to-back titles for the first time of his storied career but something was a miss.

Dixon crashed out of both Belle Isle 1 and Texas. He spun on the opening lap of the June 23 race in Road America. All three were rare mistakes for the Iceman. But, he’s since showed why he’s the Iceman again.

Dixon, rebounded from that spin in Road America to still finish fifth despite falling to last and having no cautions to bunch up the field. That’s where this stuff all changed for the good again.

Dixon, started a four race string in Toronto by finishing second, just behind Simon Pagenaud for the win. A week later, he stole a second place run in Iowa when he went from racing for most of the night a lap down to running his second to last pit sequence long which got him a lucky yellow and his lap back. With so few cars on the lead lap, he finally did pit under caution and also had fresh tires as well. That allowed him to run through the field to finish second again.

At Mid-Ohio, he led 38 of 90 laps and won. Now, he ran well all day on Sunday and came home second again at Pocono.

Dixon, is being vintage Dixon. It was his second straight podium in Pocono as he went from 99 points behind to 52.

Coming up is Gateway where Dixon finished second and third respectively at followed by two natural road courses in which Dixon leads the points standings on those tracks in.

Rossi Feels Sato Potentially Cost Him The Championship While Newgarden Stays Conservative Which Allows Pagenaud And Dixon To Close Again

Josef Newgarden had one of those days that are what some call “championship winning races.” He didn’t do anything too spectacular but still finished in the top five in his No. 2 Chevrolet.

That’s how titles are won. But, they can also be lost this way too.

Newgarden, came home fifth in Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 at the Pocono Raceway for his fifth consecutive top five finish at the Tricky Triangle and sixth in seven career tries. In fact, he finished fifth in last year’s race too.

His car just didn’t have enough to win though but he did just enough to stay up front to bank more points in his account.

“It was kind of an interesting day, but it could have been worse,” recounted Newgarden. “It was sort of like qualifying yesterday where qualifying got rained out but we started on the pole. We didn’t finish this race but we finished fifth. We’ll take it.

“I wish we could have been a little bit higher, but I think Will (Power) was going to be tough to beat today. He looked very strong. Certainly towards the middle of the race I thought he was looking very good. We fought with what we had today and I thought the Hitachi Chevy was pretty good. Coming out of here with a decent finish allows us to now focus on the last three events. We just need to set our sights on Gateway next weekend and execute. I think we will have a good car. I always feel confident with Team Penske, and Team Chevy has been pushing hard, so I’m looking forward to it.”

While a fifth place run isn’t anything necessarily spectacular for the championship leader, to come away with his 11th of the season is one that goes a long way. See, his main rival in this year’s championship was involved in a frightening opening lap crash. Takuma Sato came down on Alexander Rossi which prompted a scary five car accident which left Sato upside, Rosenqvist scrapping the catch fence and Rossi’s championship hopes potentially dashed.

“I can’t even believe to understand after last year how Takuma (Sato) thinks any sort of driving like that is acceptable,” said Rossi of the opening lap crash. “To turn across two cars at that speed at that corner in a 500-mile race is disgraceful and upsetting. It might have cost me this championship.”

Rossi, trailed Newgarden by 16 points heading into last weekend’s race. He’s now 35 points out leaving Pocono as Newgarden a little more than doubled his points lead. That’s why a top five is exactly where he needed to be and why Rossi is fuming.

Rossi, hasn’t led a lap in the last four races. He heads to a track at Gateway where Andretti has admitted that short ovals aren’t their strongsuit. Penske has won every oval raced this season and five straight.

Meanwhile, two other drivers are closing gaps though and making this interesting.

Simon Pagenaud finished third in his No. 22 Chevrolet as he’s now 40 points arrears. Scott Dixon had a second place result and is now 52 points back himself. Both have finished ahead of Newgarden and Rossi in three of the last four races. If that trend can continue, this championship is far from over.

Ferrucci’s A Bright Surprise This Season

A lot of people wondered why Dale Coyne Racing and even IndyCar would allow Santino Ferrucci into the series. Now that we’re nearing seasons end, I’m thinking Ferrucci is IndyCar’s gain and Formula One’s potential loss.

See, this kid is brave. He’s fast. He’s skilled. He’s charismatic. He’s great with fans, media and other drivers. He’s everything this series needs. He’s proving that and more.

Ferrucci thought that street course races would be his strongsuit in his rookie season in the NTT IndyCar Series. Ferrucci, had always said that street courses are his favorites. He’s scored 82 points on them in 2019 which ranks only 16th best. On natural road courses, he’s scored another 74 points which is ranked 18th.

But, where he’s excelling at is on ovals. For a driver with no past oval experience, Ferrucci has scored 135 points on them which ranks fifth best.

The only drivers that have as many or more points than him are the three Penske’s and Alexander Rossi. That’s how remarkable he’s been.

In Iowa, he put on a show. In Indy, he made daring passes and maneuvers through places no one dared go. He looked a lot like Rossi in fact. On Sunday at the Pocono Raceway, he put on a show again.

Ferrucci, charged from his 13th starting spot to bring his No. 19 Honda home fourth in the rain shortened race at the Tricky Triangle. It was his third top four finish in as many starts on superspeedway’s in 2019 as he improved from 13th to 12th in the points standings with only three races remaining.

“This weekend has been pretty amazing to have over 120 people here, from family and friends to sponsors and to race in front of such a large crowd,” said the impressive rookie driver. “Hats off to the whole team, we rolled the car off the trailer and it was fast. I’d say that’s a job well-done and homework well-researched. The No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda was on rails. I think we definitely had a top three in us and we were fighting for a chance to win the race at one point. Obviously with the conditions and everything, I’m still happy to bring home a top-five. It makes a huge difference in the rookie championship and moves us up to 12th overall. With three races to go and one more oval, we’ll see how much further we can move up.”

Ferrucci, ran extremely well on the last superspeedway at Texas in finishing fourth. He was seventh in Indy.

Kanaan Still At His Best On Ovals – Why Rest Of Season Cost Him Even Better Results Though

Tony Kanaan knew on Saturday that he may have something for the field in Sunday’s ABC Supply 500. The only problem is, if he can have a better season overall, he could have turned these top 10 finishes into top fives. Here’s why.

See, last month at Iowa, Kanaan had a bad qualifying draw as the qualifying order was in reverse order of the entrant points. Despite having a very fast race car that weekend, he’d have to go out among one of the first drivers since he sat near the bottom of the NTT IndyCar Series points standings.

That cost him a good starting spot as the later you went that day, the better you would have started.

A similar situation happened this weekend at the Pocono Raceway. Kanaan, was 19th in the series standings and with rain washing out qualifying on Saturday, he’d have to start 19th too.

Later on in the day, Kanaan was the quickest in the lone practice session around the Tricky Triangle in practice. He knew he had the speed but he had to be methodical on his approach to the front.

It worked too. Kanaan, brought his No. 14 Chevrolet home eighth in Sunday’s race. It was his third top 10 finish of the season – coincidentally enough, all have come on ovals.

“Good day for us, another top 10,” the popular Brazilian said. “We have a few things to improve still but we’ll take it from where we started. We had a competitive car all weekend. The goal was to finish in the top 10 and we finished eighth, which is my best result of the year. It’s a good energy boost for the boys.”

Kanaan, went from 13th at Iowa to finish 10th. He went from 16th to finish ninth in the Indy 500 too.

Now, if he can get a better draw in qualifying, watch out.

Rahal’s Been A Top 10 Machine, Just Lacks Pace To Fight With “Big 3”

The day started off a little hairy for Graham Rahal and his Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing team. His teammate Takuma Sato was involved in that scary opening lap crash in Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 when he and Alexander Rossi made contact heading into the Tunnel Turn at the Pocono Raceway. Rahal, was literally running right behind them when the incident was sparked.

The Ohio native narrowly skated by which landed him with excellent track position as a result. Unfortunately for him, his No. 15 Honda just didn’t have enough speed to hang around the front runners in this weekend’s race as Rahal had to settle for a ninth place finish in the rain shortened event.

“We need a little more pace,” Rahal said. “We were a little slow on the straights for some reason, but we’ll keep digging into it. I had a bad restart (went from fifth to ninth), but it wasn’t that bad actually. I was pulling up on the guys in front of me, but I just got driven around and was in a position where I was a little bit of a sitting duck and lost a bunch of spots and that killed our race from then-on, frankly. We were scrambling just to get ourselves back in position. I had another good restart later and went from 13th to ninth and made some of those spots back up.”

It was Rahal’s second straight ninth place finish on the season and third in the last four races. The other finish in the last four?

Eighth.

Rahal, leaves Pocono and heads to the next race at Gateway with eight straight top 10 finishes on the season. The last time he wasn’t in the top 10 was in the May 26 Indianapolis 500 when he was invovled in a Lap 176 crash while battling for position inside of the top 10 with Sebastien Bourdais.

If you go back to Long Beach on April 14, Rahal has finished in the top 10 in every race with the exception of the Indy 500. He’s scored 11 top 10 finishes already this season and is one shy of equaling the mark that he had in both last year as well as 2017 too. Those are career highs for top 10’s in a single season for him.

If he can get a top 10 in two of the last three races this year, Rahal would set a personal record for top 10’s in a single season.

Pocono’s Future

Alright, enough of the stalling, lets address the elephant in the room – Pocono’s future. The knee jerk feelings are to just not renew a contract and walk away before we kill someone else. The race seems jinxed. A lot of people felt that way on social media too. But, there are also some very loud supporters of this race as well. I mean loud.

The crowd keeps going up an estimated 15-percent year over year. Yesterday’s attendance was bar none the best yet since the series started going back to the Tricky Triangle in 2013. Fans are embracing the racing.

But, when is the danger factor addressed?

I get the argument that danger is a factor whenever a race car driver hops into his or her car on any given day at any given track, but for whatever reason, the danger is in my opinion amplified at Pocono.

Maybe it’s because old wounds are opened each year we go back as we can’t put the thought of the image of Justin Wilson sitting silent in his car following a piece of debris hitting his helmet in a freak incident late in the 2015 race.

Maybe it’s the freak qualifying crashes of Charlie Kimball and Ryan Hunter-Reay where Kimball got into the fence in Turn 3 all by himself and Hunter-Reay being hospitalized following an impact of over 100 g’s.

Maybe it’s the image of Robert Wickens going into the catch fencing in Turn 2 last year leaving him a paraplegic. Now, it’s the image of Takuma Sato getting upside down and Felix Rosenqvist skating against the top of the wall and briefly into the fencing yesterday.

Yesterday’s crash was too soon, too freakish, too untimely. We were already anxious. Tensions were high. We just wanted to get through the first few laps. Then, Sato makes a move on a place of the track he should have never even tried to have been on and you get a second straight year of an early race frightening incident.

All those images alone cause fear, panic and anxiety. I get the argument of the latter two accidents being driver errors. I really do. I get the argument that bad incidents can happen anywhere. I really do again. I get that Scott Dixon crashed hard in a freak accident in the 2017 Indy 500. I get it all.

But, Pocono is different than Indy in many ways. Only one corner of Pocono is like Indy and even that turn is slightly different too. Pocono is a triangle. The other tracks that Pocono is being compared to are ovals. My oldest kid is in kindergarten right now and he’s learning that an oval is a different shape than a triangle. That theory of Indy is the same as Pocono is an invalid one. You can say they’re both 2.5-miles in length but that’s where the comparison has to stop.

The way Pocono is shaped is different. The space to race on is wider. The risk vs. reward is higher. The new car holds blame too because you just can’t pass as well as you could in 2017 and prior. Takuma Sato made a move because he was trying to follow in Scott Dixon’s wake. He knew that even though it was the opening lap, that moment was the best to make up positions.

If you just funnel out single file and play it safe, you risk not having any time to really move forward. Let me ask you this, following both scary accidents the last two years, how much passing through the field did you really see?

Is it fair to watch 15 cars circle a 2.5-mile track for 3 hours and see very few passes?

Some drivers don’t think it’s worth the risk.

“It’s such a waste of time and money for everyone to come out here and we tear up the cars in the fence in Turn 2,” said one driver.

To be fair, the top three finishers in Sunday’s race, well they all want the series to return.

“Honestly I feel bad for Pocono,” the second place finisher Scott Dixon said.” The group of people here that work, they work extremely hard. I felt the crowd today at the start of the race was fantastic. It was gaining some really good momentum. Hopefully it does continue.

“But down to weather, some mistakes that have happened on track, honestly they could happen anywhere, if you look at Justin or Robby, those can happen anywhere. I feel bad that it gets a bit of a bad taste in that scenario. I think the drivers in a lot of situations can do a better job to help that situation.

“Honestly, I hope we come back. I just want to say a big thank you to everybody here at Pocono, the fans and everybody that come out, because it’s definitely a tough place. Will can tell you how rewarding it is to win here just because it is so difficult to get it right.

Power, agree with Dixon’s sentiments.

“It’s a great oval for us,” Power said after winning on the Tricky Triangle for the third time in four years. “Obviously some unfortunate accidents here, like Scott said, that could happen anywhere. Kind of got a bad rap for that.

“The crowd is up 15% every year we come back. It’s getting better. Like Scott said, the crowd was great today. It’s a good racetrack, man. A good track for racing. I really hope we come back, I do. I think the guys do a great job. A cool track for us. It’s hard for us to find good ovals these days that suit our cars.”

Indy 500 champion Simon Pagenaud added to that that he feels it’s real unfortunate to see these incidents and to have a track that may not be back in 2019 due to its proximity to major cities.

“It is a fun track to drive on,” the third place finisher said. “Real unfortunate, close to New York, a great market for INDYCAR. It’s an opportunity to bring people from New York to the Indy car races. Really enjoy that.

“I love personally superspeedways. I think it’s been the best, like they said. Obviously when you’re traveling at such high speed, you know a crash is going to be a big crash.
Hopefully we can come back and hopefully we can keep working with people at Pocono because it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been racing here since 2012 in the series. I’ve enjoyed it more and more every year. So we’ll see what happens next.

“As a driver, I really enjoy coming here.”

It’s a tough situation for the series to be in. If you don’t come back, a lot of people are going to be pissed out. If you do come back, a lot of people are going to be pissed off. If you come back and we see another incident like the ones we’ve seen in each of the last two years, I don’t even want to go down the road just how bad that would look.

If the drivers all take care of one another and respect the track, it could work. But, who wants to watch even 22 cars for 3 hours spaced out and not passing? Is that fair to ask fans to come watch? that

Is it fair to tell drivers to not be aggressive or you may risk losing your or one of your peers’ lives?

The reason this is even being brought up further is because the series’ contract with Pocono ran out at seasons end. Plus, the entitlement sponsorship deal with ABC Supply has ran out too. With so many freak incidents over the year, is the risk vs. reward enough to come back?