Silly Season

Ed Carpenter Racing kind of kickstarted the 2023 edition of NTT INDYCAR SERIES silly season off last month with a bombshell that they’ll part ways with Conor Daly effective immediately. That decision was mutual according to both the team and driver.

With that said, it’s not too early to look at where thing stand on the driver/car opening front.

It all starts with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Chip Ganassi Racing has some interesting scenarios ahead. Right now, they have three of the top four in points including 1-2. Among their four-car effort, 3 of the 4 seats have openings for next season.

We know that Scott Dixon isn’t going anywhere. But what do they do with Armstrong who’s been stellar as a rookie this season? I think that they have to wait to see what happens with Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson first.

It was pretty much a done deal that Palou is gone at seasons end. However, noise started growing more recently that he may end up back with Ganassi after all. How true is that?

Word is Palou wants to be an F1 driver. McLaren has an INDYCAR team as well as one in F1. It made sense in Palou’s case to end up in Papaya. However, I even wondered last year, with two young drivers in multi-year deals for McLaren’s pair of F1 seats, where does that leave Palou for his F1 future with them?

He’s a star right now where he currently is. McLaren has two wins in the last 34 INDYCAR races. What if he leaves Ganassi for McLaren’s INDYCAR team for a season or two and looks worse than Pato O’Ward does in a direct comparison and also his Ganassi replacement does just as well as he did in the 10 car?

That could hurt Palou’s stock of moving over to F1.

Palou is also 26 and you don’t get many opportunities in F1 as an older rookie these day, if any. Leaving a championship level ride with Ganassi and going to McLaren in INDYCAR is a massive risk. However, the damage was already done and I feel like the initial reports that I’ve heard of him being in the McLaren camp for 2024 was a foregone conclusion is too strong to be wrong.

What does that mean for Ericsson? He wants to be a pay driver and told Kevin Lee at Road America that he’s frustrated that a deal has yet been done to stay with Ganassi. He feels like he’s done enough to merit being a pay driver over there, not one paying for the seat. As days go by, the more time that also goes by and an offer to make him a pay driver isn’t offered, the more grumbling Ericsson is going to have.

Ganassi is actively searching for funding to make it happen. Ericsson feels like that’s somewhat disrespectful to be put in this position. For someone second in points, do you want to go through this again like they did a year ago with Palou? Do you risk a potential championship run due to contractual issues?

I mean if Palou bolts, you have sponsorship on the 10 car that you could slide Ericsson over into. However, what if those reports of Palou staying are true….

It would cost Ganassi a large sum to keep Palou and could in theory be the primary reason as to why he’s looking for funding to help keep Ericsson.

“I’m not a big guy to be talking about our deals or our contracts or anything, but Marcus has a big future in the sport, and I want it to be on this team, sure, “Ganassi says. “Yeah, we just need to finalize some sponsorship, and away we go.”

Still, if you’re Chip Ganassi, you can’t let literally the top two drivers for their future walk out that door at seasons end. But there’s also a possibility that they can jump ship too.

Deadlines are fast approaching and if you don’t have at least one of these drivers locked up in the next 2-4 weeks, then this could get very interesting.

Ericsson has offers but he can’t do anything with them until later this summer. I know he wants to stay put, but he can’t just devalue himself by doing so. As far as where he could wind up, Zak Brown said that they’d be interested in him if they expand to a four-car operation. That’s a tall ask though to expand that much and to do so twice in the last two years.

“I think he’s probably the top free agent, so I’m a little surprised, given how strong things are commercially that, reading the quotes, that his current team doesn’t have the commercial confidence that they can sell the Indy 500 winner and championship contender and sign him up,” Brown said on Carb Day. “I understand they probably have a little bit of time so I’m sure they’re working at it, but I wouldn’t let him go if he was driving for me, and I would have the commercial confidence that I could get the sponsorship. But that’s not my issue. So, if he does become a free agent and we run a fourth car, he would definitely be heavily under consideration.”

Andretti Autosport would make a ton of sense too and I wonder what the status is for Romain Grosjean next season. The 28 car has funding from DHL. Grosjean and Andretti expected a deal done during the Month of May. That deadline came and went with no news.

Are they waiting on Ericsson?

Devlin DeFrancesco brings a ton of money and has improved drastically this season. While it was once a foregone conclusion that he was going to be out of the 29 car, maybe that tide has turned to him possibly coming back.

Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood we know will be there, but the jury is still out on who joins them. A Swedish combination of Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist make a ton of sense to land there in 1 of both of those seats.

The Swedish duo also have to both be on the shortlist for RLL as it seems like Jack Harvey won’t be renewed for 2024. Christian Lundgaard is operating on a multi-year deal and while Graham Rahal wanted to get through the Month of May before figuring out his future. I don’t see him leaving RLL. They do have a seat that likely is opening and Juri Vips could play into that equation if they don’t go after Rosenqvist and/or Ericsson.

Honda has both Meyer Shank Racing cars open right now as well. Tom Blomqvist is rumored to be possibly making a switch. Rosenqvist makes sense to head there too and so does keeping Simon Pagenaud.

Then you have Callum Ilott who’s got options to get out of his multi-year deal with Juncos Hollinger Racing. Ganassi would make a ton of sense there as long as Ilott has a budget. Or does Ganassi elect for Ilott to take over the funded 10 ride and pay him less than Ericsson would command for it?

Ilott is an interesting one to watch.

What about Ed Carpenter Racing. Rinus VeeKay is on a multi-year deal but what do they do with the No. 20 entry? Does BitNile come back or reunite with Conor Daly somewhere?

We do know that both Foyt cars should remain the same and all three Penske drivers are back. The rest is up in the air.

Confirmed

Chevrolet (8):

Team Penske (3): Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Will Power

Arrow McLaren Racing (2): Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi

AJ Foyt Racing (2): Santino Ferrucci, Benjamin Pedersen

Ed Carpenter Racing (1): Rinus VeeKay

Honda (4):

Andretti Autosport (2): Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood

Chip Ganassi Racing (1): Scott Dixon

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1): Christian Lundgaard

Open Rides

Chip Ganassi Racing (3): No. 8, No. 10, No. 11

Arrow McLaren Racing (1): No. 6

Andretti Autosport (2): No. 28, No. 29

Meyer Shank Racing (2): No. 06, No. 69

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (2): No. 15, No. 30

Ed Carpenter Racing (1): No. 20

Dale Coyne Racing (2): No. 18, No. 51

Juncos Hollinger Racing (2): No. 77, No. 78

Free Agents

Alex Palou

Marcus Ericsson

Felix Rosenqvist

Callum Ilott

Graham Rahal

Marcus Armstrong

Simon Pagenaud

Romain Grosjean

Takuma Sato

Helio Castroneves

Ryan Hunter-Reay

Conor Daly

David Malukas

Jack Harvey

Devlin DeFrancesco

Sting Ray Robb

Agustin Canapino

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Can Herta/O’Ward Reemerge?

Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward will always have their stats compared against one another. That’s because they’re both as equal as they come in a race car and also have similar paths behind them and similar potential futures ahead.

Each were teammates in 2018 at Andretti Autosport in Indy Lights. O’Ward won 9 times that season. Herta won 4. Herta also had 7 runner-up finishes in that year, 5 of which he had a front row seat to O’Ward’s wins. O’Ward had three runner-up’s himself, two of which were in races that Herta won.

Combined, they had won 13 of the 17 races. They finished 1-2 in 7 of the 17. That allowed them to both graduate to the NTT INDYCAR Series for the 2019 season. Before that, they both made their INDYCAR debuts in the same race in the season finale of the 2018 season in Sonoma. They’d do so as teammates.

However, plans changed in the offseason. Harding didn’t have the funding anymore to run two full-time cars. Even though O’Ward had the scholarship money from his Indy Lights championship, Harding went forward with Herta. O’Ward went overseas but made it back in 2020 to drive for Arrow McLaren.

Now, four years later, Herta is in the midst of his fifth full-time season and O’Ward his fourth. Herta has 7 wins, O’Ward with four. Herta leads in the poles category too (11-5). O’Ward leads in podiums (17-11) and Top-5 finishes (28-24) but Herta has him back in Top-10’s (40-38).

Their stats are eerily similar with Herta eclipsing O’Ward in career starts by 10, 74-64.

As they each entered the 2023 season, both have had talks and discussions of a Formula One future. O’Ward drives for a team that has an F1 operation and has gotten some tests in the process. Herta, also has tested for O’Ward’s team, but his current team also has an aspiration to be their own standalone F1 organization too.

The thing is, as things sit at the moment, each needed to have a breakout season in 2023 in order for those F1 dreams to remain alive. Herta lacked the Superlicense points to make a jump in 2023. Andretti lacked the success. For each to be more attractive, they need to be more successful on a consistent basis.

Similar for O’Ward. If he wants to become a future F1 driver, he needs to show Zak Brown that he can win more often here.

Herta had 10 Top-5 finishes in his first 32 starts to his career. The problem was, he only had four podiums among those 10 Top-5 finishes.

2021 was supposed to be that breakout though with 7 Top-5 finishes and 5 of which being on the podium. That gave him more podiums in 16 races that season than in the 32 starts prior. Last year he took a step back in scoring just 4 Top-5 finishes, all podiums. However, he failed to score a single one though in the final seven events.

“Yeah, it’s no secret that last year was not a good one for us,” said Herta during this preseason. “We need to do better on all fronts. That’s what the main part of the off-season has been. It’s been looking at everything and just trying to improve everything.

“We just need mistake-free weekends, and that’s the goal, one by one.”

While the mistakes have been limited, the results have been more to be desired.

He has just five Top-10 finishes, but only two top fives among them with no podiums. He’s not really been a factor outside of Road America. He has seven Top-4 finishes including three wins in a 14-race span between 2021 and early 2022. In the last 21 races, he’s had just one top four and no wins. He’s finished outside the top 10 in 11 of those starts.

I’m waiting for him to become Colton Herta again.

Similar for O’Ward. He’s had two wins in each of the last two seasons but winless in 2023. The Mexican star also has had 9 podiums in that same two-year span (5 in 2021, 4 in 2022). Out of his 8 Top-5 finishes a year ago, only four of them landed on the podium.

This year, he has just six top 10 finishes, all but one in the top five and four of which on the podium. He’s turning top 10’s into podiums, but he’s not only not winning, but he’s not finishing well overall either. He has 3 finishes of 17th or worse.

See a theme among these two?

They’re emerging stars, but we need them to be just that, stars. They come and go far too often. If O’Ward’s engine doesn’t malfunction at the end of St. Pete, or the caution comes out a bit earlier in Texas, or he doesn’t push too hard on a late race restart in Indy, he could have three wins already.

For Herta, if the final pit call is a better one in Road America, then he wins.

That’s the minor differential keeping them from winning 4 of the first 9 races. Instead, they’re 0-for-9.

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Can Anyone Catch Palou?

Everyone is pretty much handing Alex Palou the championship. With a points lead of over 100 and in a zone that the 2021 series champion is currently in, it’s worth the tools getting ready to put Palou’s name on the Astor Cup.

The 26-year-old is on a string of races to where he’s started 3rd, 1st, 1st, 3rd and 4th and finished 1st, 4th, 1st, 1st and 1st. He’s led 220 of the 520 laps (42.3%) in the process. Mid-Ohio was his 8th straight top five finish on the season and 9th top 10 in as many races run this year.

He’s also scored an astounding 24 top five finishes in the last 42 races.

With knowing that and knowing their capabilities, it’s forcing others to step over the line of aggression in trying to catch him.

Palou made mention lasts week that he doesn’t feel like he’s doing anything differently now than he was at the beginning of the season. It’s just that he’s having better fortunes compared to everyone else’s their mistakes.

“At the same time I just think that everything is working really good for us now,” Palou said. “I feel like we were as strong as we are now at the beginning of the season, but we had some ups and downs during the races. Long Beach was a clear example where we were running in the top four, got caught up on an accident, dropped back to 15th and still finished P5.

“Our performance is there. It’s just we’re able to get the results and get clean weekends, which is not real easy to do very often in INDYCAR.

“I feel like we have momentum. Momentum in motorsports matters a lot for driver confidence, team confidence, mechanic confidence. Everybody want to get the win, just like you are asking for more and more. It just gets better and better.

“Hopefully we can, as I said, keep the wave big or even bigger. Hopefully we can continue having some success.”

Pato O’Ward spun in qualifying in Mid-Ohio. Marcus Ericsson was overly aggressive on the opening lap and crashed. Colton Herta was on the wrong pit call in Road America and had a speeding penalty in Mid-Ohio.

All these mistakes and Palou being phenomenal in all facets, has handed him a ton of success over the last couple of months.

“Yeah, obviously everyone needs to beat Palou, but I don’t think — that’s going to be a very tough challenge to beat him in a championship this year. He is so on point in every respect, in every respect,” said third place finisher on Sunday, Will Power.

“He is not missing a thing, which is very difficult in this series to be extremely fast, which there are a lot of guys that are, but then being able to do all the disciplines as well plus the intricacies of fuel save, tire conservation, in-and-out laps, the qualifying.

“Just from a strategy standpoint as well, which I know it’s the first time he won a championship. That group on that car is very smart. Like, they’re putting it all together. Yeah, it’s an absolute team effort, but he is also nailing it.

“It’s bloody hard to have that all nailed, and he is doing it.”

Scott Dixon agreed. He’s seen Palou go opposite as the front starters on tire strategy at Indy and Mid-Ohio and as a result, he put on a whooping on the field. With that and others mistakes, Palou is thriving.

“Yeah, it does make it tough,” he said. “As Will commented, and it’s not just Alex, but Julian, the whole 10 car group are just doing a phenomenal job. Even with Barry as well.

“It’s never a single person. The effort is big I think on all the cars in Chip Ganassi right now, but they’re firing on all cylinders.

“The qualifying is solid, the race pace is solid, strategy is solid. It’s just a really good all-around package right now.

“It’s never always one thing, but having quick paces is something that is huge obviously with how tight the competition is now, but even today we didn’t qualify on the front. We were fourth and sixth, but he was still able to overcome the three possibly quicker cars in qualifying.

“Some others may have had some problems on pit road or just whatever it was. He has done a hell of a job to cover all bases.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be tough to beat.”

Palou opened up an even larger lead now in entering Mid-Ohio 74 points up to leaving 110 ahead. For a driver that said that it’s far too early to points race and that he feels the target on his back is no different now than it was if he had a 10 point advantage, has a two-race gap with eight races remaining.

“It’s kind of out of our control,” said Newgarden. “They’ve had a good run up to this point, right? They’ve not had a bad race. I think that’s to be expected.”

O’Ward was more blunt about it.

“I think we all need to be better if we want to catch the 10 car,” O’Ward lambasted.

Now, can anyone catch him?

This has essentially become his championship to lose.

Palou, even with such a large lead, well he’s not points racing yet. Newgarden nearly overcame a 117 point deficit just three years ago to take the title away from Scott Dixon. Palou knows in this series, anyone can get just as hot as he has.

“If it was another series, maybe yeah, you could try and just finish where you need to finish. In INDYCAR you really can’t,” he notes.

He said that he did points race at the end of the 2021 season, but that was due to trying to secure his championship. He drove under the limit in doing so. This time, it’s far too early to be doing that and he feels like he should try and score more points to get an even bigger gap.

The only real way to catch Palou now though is if he makes some uncharacteristically bad mistakes and I use that in plural since he has such a big cushion.

So far? Palou hasn’t really had that many races that didn’t go well.

What’s even scarier for the field is, he’s just getting started.

“I would say I have more confidence with the car,” says Palou as to why he’s clicking so well now. “I know a little bit more what I need from the car. The same for the team. They know what I need. They know what works for me, what doesn’t.

“In 2021 we were just guessing and trying stuff. Sometimes works, sometimes it didn’t. ’22 we understood a little bit more. This year I just have more confidence with myself, with the car, obviously with the team.

“So yeah, it’s tough to say. I don’t think it’s one thing. I would say it’s a little bit of a lot of things that are helping us be more consistent.”

That’s led to a wave of confidence out of Palou. He feels better now than at any point of his entire racing career thus far.

“I would say it’s getting bigger,” Palou said of this momentum.

“Our performance is there.”

Still, even with performance, I’m watching Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon to try and catch him over the next six races. Nothing against Marcus Ericsson (-122) or Pato O’Ward (-127), but I feel like that deficit is too far out to catch Palou and in order to do so, they’d have to win at least 3-4 races and finish on the podium in the others. I don’t feel like they’re consistent enough to do so yet.

But, Dixon and Newgarden? Absolutely.

In a six-race span to end the 2020 season, Newgarden nearly erased that 117 gap by having five top four finishes — four of those in the top two. Dixon, only had one podium and two top fives.

So, even if Palou cools some, these two can get hot.

We have Toronto, Iowa (doubleheader), Nashville, Indy Road Course, World Wide Technology Raceway, Portland and Laguna Seca left.

The potential is still there for a comeback.

Dixon and Newgarden combined to have won 6 of the last 10 Honda Indy Toronto’s including 4 of the last 6 and 3 of the last 4 at that.

Dixon is coming off of a runner-up finish in Mid-Ohio and has three straight top two finishes here including a win just last season. Newgarden is a two-time winner.

Then it’s a doubleheader at Iowa.

Newgarden has won 6 of the last 8 oval races including being 2-for-2 this season. He’s absolutely a threat at both Iowa and Gateway which make up 3 races in a 5 race stretch.

Newgarden has led 111 or more laps in 7 of his last 9 Iowa starts including four wins, a pair of runner-ups, a fourth, fifth and sixth place result in the last 10 tries. He’s won 3 of the last 5 there as well as having scored 5 wins in the last 7 short oval races in general.

Dixon may be 0-for-17 at Iowa, but he’s also had five straight top five finishes there too including a pair of runner-ups at that.

Then it’s to Nashville. Dixon won last year and was runner-up in 2022. After is to the Indy road course to where both Dixon and Newgarden have won at. So has Palou, most recently. Then it’s to Gateway where Newgarden has won three straight at.

By comparison, over this stretch, Palou was sixth as a rookie a year ago in Toronto. He was 11th, 14th, 6th and 13th in Iowa, third last year in Nashville and 15th, 12th, 20th and 9th in Gateway.

That could have the trio (Palou, Dixon, Newgarden) fighting for a title come the final month at Portland and Laguna Seca. Palou won in Portland in 2021 and Laguna Seca last year.

The thing is, podiums are no longer going to cut it for Palou’s competitors. O’Ward has squandered finishes of 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 2nd, 3rd and 8th respectively when he’s finished on the lead lap. It’s those finishes of 17th (Long Beach), 24th (Indy 500) and 26th (Detroit) as to why he’s where he’s at today.

Same for Newgarden. He’s won twice (Texas, Indy 500). He’s finished second once (Road America). It’s 17th in St. Pete. It’s 15th in Barber. It’s 10th in Detroit. It’s 12th here. That’s why podiums no longer cut it.

Can Dixon and Newgarden win in bunches over the final eight races or does Andretti Autosport get their act together and steal some wins away too.

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Can Andretti Autosport Get The Finishes To Match The Speed

The 2023 season started off with a ton of promise for the Andretti Autosport camp. They looked strong in both the Thermal and Sebring tests, then they won 3 of the first 4 poles to the season and ushered Kyle Kirkwood to a Long Beach win.

However, despite fast race cars, that’s their only bright spot.

Despite 3 cars in the Fast 6 in St. Pete, all 4 were collected in crashes in the race itself. Texas saw 3 of the 4 crash, Indy was a disaster, Detroit saw more carnage, Road America they had a pole and should have been a win while Mid-Ohio they had another pole and 2 of the top 3 starters. They didn’t win there either.

Andretti has had a front row starter in 6 of 9 races run this season but has just one win to show for it.

Not only that, they’ve been dismal at Indy too.

They qualified 6-14-15-18- for the GMR Grand Prix and 15-19-21-25 for the Indy 500. They’d finish 9-11-14-17 on the road course and 9-13-28-30. The last two Indy 500’s, they’ve led a combined three laps.

Can they finally get the results to match the speed?

If they leave 2023 with just one lone trip to victory lane, this season will be classified as a major disappointment.

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Bus Bros 2nd Half

Scott McLaughlin felt the pressure of Year 3. Josef Newgarden felt like he should have the championship wrapped up by time we get to Laguna Seca this September. At the moment, the have won 3 of the 9 races but sit 3rd (Newgarden) and 6th (McLaughlin) in points.

That’s why I’m watching them in the final 8 races. Can they live up to those expectations.

The training wheels are now off for McLaughlin. Championships and Indy 500 wins are expected. Can he live up to this pressure?

That’s something he’s not had since really 2019. Yes, he felt pressure internally since then, but not from the outside. Now, he has both factors weighing on him entering this season. Can he produce?

“I think now you just know, like, the learning is over now,” he told me. “Team Penske, you got a car that you know can win races. You’re expected to compete for championships. That’s just an expectation that I have, that I had in Australia for five, six years. I understand the mentality and understand what it’s like to have that pressure.

“I feel like it’s not an unknown for me. I’m not really stressed about it. I sort of know my ability, what I can do. If it’s good enough, it’s good enough. Yeah, it’s not an unknown and I’m not too worried about it at all.

“I put more pressure on myself than anyone can put on me. I just focus on that myself.”

The Kiwi came over here to the United States in the middle of a global pandemic and expected to win right away. In fact, at this time a year ago, he was questioning himself on if he even made the right decision in his career trajectory.

He had won three straight Australian V8 Supercars championships and a total of 56 victories over there. However, he was wanting more. McLaughlin, a Team Penske driver overseas, knew that Penske had a lot more to offer.

A move to NASCAR? He was willing. A move to INDYCAR? That was also in the cards. They settled on the open wheel series and did so in the midst of a global pandemic, McLaughlin packed up and moved to the United States with hopes of showing what he’s done in Australia and replicating that in North America.

Easier said than done.

The first race was the 2020 season finale on the streets of St. Pete. That was a learning experience. 2021 was a full slate and one that he expected to be more competitive. 16 races run. 1 podium, 2 top 5 finishes, 5 top 10’s and 5 laps led. That relegated him to a 14th place finish in the final standings.

More times than not, he was left questioning on what he was doing. Why did he come over here? This wasn’t what he envisioned.

McLaughlin is close with his parents but we’re in a pandemic and they couldn’t come over here to be with him. The only support system he had was his wife and Team Penske who kept assuring him that he’d be fine. This was part of the learning curve. The NTT INDYCAR Series is no joke. McLaughlin was just in Year 1 and quickly finding out that this isn’t an easy task at hand.

In late February of 2022, McLaughlin hopped into his No. 3 Dallara-Chevrolet with the same desire to compete but he felt like he needed to prove himself. The opening day of practice went well. So did Day 2. He was quickest on the speed charts. The juices were flowing and he came into qualifying with a shot at a pole. It was a feeling he hadn’t had in nearly 2 years.

McLaughlin prevailed. He set a track record in topping teammate Will Power for his first career INDYCAR pole. Now the thoughts overnight was, I can do this. I now have to prove myself and take his pole to a win.

He did just that in leading 49 of 100 laps en route to his first career victory.

“I feel like today, this weekend, we proved that hard work, perseverance, you can get there, and I felt very proud of that,” he said following his St. Pete win.

The next race, he led 186 of 248 laps but was passed by his other teammate Josef Newgarden for the win at Texas on the last lap. He’d finish 2nd after starting there. Instead of relief, he was disappointed.

That’s the moment that he knew he was ready for shine. Last year he would have been happy with a runner-up. This year he’s down.

A rough weekend in Long Beach saw him finish 14th but in Barber, he came home 6th for his 3rd top 6 result in the opening four races to 2022. That had him sitting 2nd in points coming to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The GMR Grand Prix was tough. 11th place start, 20th place finish. That dropped him to 3rd in points. The next weekend was bad luck for Indy 500 qualifying. He had a shot for a top 15 starting spot. They pulled his time. He went slower. Rain came. Fin.

He’d start 26th and crash in Turn 3 in finishing 29th in the double points race. That dropped him to 7th in points. Belle Isle he qualified 10th, make a mistake and finished 19th. He was now back down to 10th in the standings.

This time however, McLaughlin wasn’t panicking. He knew the talent he had and the speed the car he was driving could produce. It was just a rough stretch that he just needed a solid weekend to climb out of.

Road America was it. 9th place start and 7th place finish isn’t sexy. But it was enough to get the tide turned back the other direction.

“I think it just — I went through so much adversity last year that this was nothing,” he said on the 3 race struggles and how he turned it back around. “This is water off a duck’s back in some ways to what was going on. We were still — the last few races unfortunately haven’t gone great for us. We were competing potentially to be in top 5s and whatnot. It’s not like the pace wasn’t there.

“I think it’s hard going from my mentality of in Australia where I was winning a lot and I think the last — last year in Australia we won 14 races or something. It’s hard to go from a mentality of just cutthroat, you have to win every weekend, if you don’t it’s a bad race, to just coping with top 10s, top 15s. Regardless of what situation you are, you’re a competitive beast, you built yourself out to be. Every person in here, every driver is a competitive individual.

“It’s very hard to sort of get out of that and just go, okay, well, I’ve got to learn. I’ve got to just build with this. I’ve got to build with the team. I’ve got to build with the car. It does take some time, and it definitely took me more time than I thought. I think Tim and Roger knew exactly how long it was going to take. That’s why they’re the experts.

“I just had to trust the process, trust them and trust what we had going on here, and I think, yeah, we are in the right spot. I’m competing for top 5s every week, top 8s every week. I think we’re right where we want to be, but we’ve got a long which to go before we’re where Josef is right now, and I’ve got certainly a nice person to groove myself on.

“Last year we lost ourselves a little bit because the pace wasn’t there. That’s sort of — that was what was the tough pill to swallow. But yeah, certainly last year shaped me to be — trust the process, trust what I’m doing is right.”

The next race at Mid-Ohio, he qualified on the front row again. He turned that into his 2nd win of the season. This time, his parents were here to witness it.

That propelled him back up to 7th in points. Toronto he’d only finish 9th. Iowa 1 a bad pit stop dropped him to 22nd. He still sat 7th. He’d make up for it a day later in another podium (3rd). Then came the return trip to the IMS road course. He finished 4th. He’d not finish worse since.

2nd, 3rd and now 1st were his next 3 results which took him from 93 points out in late July to just 41 back heading to the season finale a year ago. While the odds were long of making up that much ground in 1 race, he knew that he was building for 2023.

McLaughlin finished sixth that day. Six straight top sixes to close out his second full-time season in the series.

“I think what we’re doing right now is building for a massive year next year. I haven’t finished out of the top five or top four for the last six events or something. I’m feeling really strong. There’s no reason why this can’t be great momentum for next year, and yeah, I feel like I’m driving the best I ever have in my whole career right now.

“I feel really comfortable and comfortable with the team. That’s what you need to tackle championships, especially in the series.”

Prior to last season, he made 17 starts with 0 wins, 1 podium, 2 top 5 finishes, 5 top 10’s, 1 race led for 5 laps and 16 times he was running at the finish.

Last season: 17 races, 3 wins, 7 podiums, 8 top 5 finishes, 12 top 10’s, 8 races led for 433 laps and 16 races he was running at the finish.

2023…

“Look, absolutely. I know that we made a massive step personally for me last year,” McLaughlin said during Media Day content before the season started. “That was due to a number of things, things clicking, working out really good.

“But now what we know of INDYCAR racing, you just need to continue stepping up a little. McLaren is going to be fast, Andretti, Ganassi as we know is unreal. We need to continue to build as a team, myself. I’ve certainly looked at negatives that I can improve on. Hopefully that bodes me well for the rest of the season.”

He’s been just okay this year. Two top fives, Six top 10’s, 62 laps led. Last season he ended on a terror. Can he do so again this year?

What about Newgarden?

Newgarden and McLaughlin’s Team Penske teammate (Will Power) hoisted the Astor Cup championship trophy in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES a year ago. Newgarden, while happy for Will Power, was also seething mad at himself for what was an all too inconsistent season.

This was the third straight year he finished a bridesmaid in the championship standings and coming into the 2023 season, he felt, no more.

“How are we going to build a bigger gap where that’s not even possible? I don’t even want to be messing with it at the end of the year,” said the two-time series champion at Media Day back in February. “In an ideal world, if we get to the end of a season where we don’t have to mess with the gap, if we can just get that out of the way, that would be ideal. That’s where my mindset is at, how do we get to that place where it’s not even on the table, it’s just done.

“I think I’m not arrogant enough to believe that that’s easy. It seems near impossible these days to do that. I think that’s valid. It’s very difficult to do that. I understand that. But I still want to find a way where we can get to a place where we don’t have to mess with it.”

When pressed about if he truly meant that, he doubled down on his remark.

“It’s not easy. It’s possible. I do not think that will be easy whatsoever, but we need to figure out how to do that,” he said.

The reason for that feeling is that Newgarden is sick and tired of coming away runner-up in points.

“Yeah, I mean, it gnaws at me for sure,” he said. “It’s annoying, there’s no doubt. How could you not be frustrated by it, right? I think it’s normal, very frustrating. I try and take the frustration and just put it into motivation.”

That frustration has been weighing on Newgarden since he left Monterey last September. He was coming into 2023 with a vengeance. Even though the championship came down to the final race for 17 consecutive years now, Newgarden was aiming to put that streak to an end this season.

The 32-year-old is as competitive as they come and he’s pissed to be so close yet so far away from a dynasty here.

Last season was his 7th straight top 5 finish in the NTT INDYCAR Series final standings. 5 of which have now been in the top 2 including an astounding four straight years. However, only twice has he won a championship in this span and over the last four years, three straight have seen him come home bridesmaid at seasons end.

Last year was even more difficult to grasp.

While he had the most wins during the course of the 17-race season, he struggled to put a complete season together. Newgarden had as many wins (5) as he had finishes of 13th or worse (5). That’s where this title was lost.

“You know, for sure we just needed to have a more consistent season,” Newgarden noted that day. “There’s no doubt. I think that the peak performance was there all year. We just didn’t have the consistency. That ultimately is what put us in an unfavorable position when we came here.

“If we can clean that up, I have no doubt we can challenge for the championship again next year.”

We’re at next year and so far, 2023 looks a lot like 2022. He won at Texas again. He did win the Indy 500. However, those wins and a runner-up in Road America are his only three top five finishes in nine starts. He had smoke billowing from his No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet at the end of the season opener in St. Pete. He’d finish 17th as a result. In Barber, he had damage from early race contact and tried to push through it. He’d fade to 15th. In Long Beach, the second caution of the race ruined his strategy. He went from second early to fuel saving late and had to settle for ninth.

“You know, I think it’s hard to grade it,” Newgarden told me on how he’d grade his season so far before the Indy 500. “I think the potential is enormous. I’d say that I think our team’s potential has never been better. We’ve not realized the potential, that’s for sure. You know, we’ve, we’ve realized that one out of five races when I think we could have you know, been in the fight for the win. Three out of five, if we would have done three out of the five and we’d been a more representative position. But I think the potential is, is massive. That gives me a ton of confidence.”

After his Indy win, he was 10th in Detroit then in 2nd Road America and 12th in Mid-Ohio.

If he wants to have this season wrapped up before the finale, he has to win in bunches. Palou has been just so strong and consistent to not only catch, but to pass. In order for Newgarden to do so, he has to go on a massive run.

He’s certainly capable.

In 2020, Scott Dixon won each of the first three races run and had a top two result in four of the first five overall. In fact, once Dixon won the Aug. 29 race at the World Wide Technology Raceway that year, it was his sixth top two in the opening eight races of the season. With a race on that same track a day later and six overall races left, he appeared to be untouchable.

Newgarden, found himself over 117 points down, going into Race 2 of the St. Louis race weekend. He stormed all the way back and nearly won the title.

How? How does one make up 117 points in six races?

Speed and talent is how and it left Newgarden wondering if he had started better, what if?

In a six race span to end that season, Newgarden had five top four finishes — four of those in the top two. Dixon, only had one podium and two top fives.

We have 3 races on short ovals (Iowa doubleheader, Gateway). Newgarden has won 6 of the last 8 short ovals and both ovals in 2023.

He’s a two-time Toronto winner. If he can find success on the three natural road courses left (Indianapolis, Portland, Laguna Seca) watch out.