SALINAS, Calif — Agustin Canapino selfishly wanted to come out of Laguna Seca with some hardware. He was 26 points down to Marcus Armstrong for Rookie of the Year honors but came just short in the end for the distinction.

However, the Argentinean driver is also a team player and did what he had to do to secure the No. 78 Dallara-Chevrolet a spot in the leaders circle program for the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

At one point, Canapino was looking like he would legitimately challenge Armstrong. He qualified 13th but due to an engine change came a six-spot grid penalty. That dropped him to 19th at the start.

However, he didn’t stay there long.

He lined up beside his JHR teammate, Callum Ilott at the drop of the green flag and both men made clever maneuvers to avoid an early pile-up at the Andretti Hairpin and moved up 16 positions collectively on lap one.

Canapino advanced into P10, while Ilott was unable to hold onto P13 as he made an early visit to the pit road. The Briton used that stop to switch onto the alternate tire.

JHR’s drivers were determined to show the ‘Power of Possibility’ for the final time in 2023, and they both impressively ran inside the top-10 for most of the race – despite the interruption of eight caution periods across the afternoon.

Laguna Seca’s tricky 11-turn layout posed one of the toughest physical battles of the season, but Callum and Agustín looked invigorated by their strong Chevrolet pace. Their highest positions in today’s 212-mile battle were P3 and P2 respectively and they came late in the race.

Canapino unfortunately had front wing damage late and despite restarting fifth on the final restart, he was likely to drop. In any other scenario, the team would have called him down pit lane. But, while Armstrong was now climbing forward, the leaders circle payout became more clear.

Canapino entered the day -3 but was solidly in. While he was falling backwards down the running order, if he could just nurse the car home to the checkered, the unlikely story of the first year car driven by the first year driver would get into the top 22 in the entrant points for leaders circle.

He’d do just that limping home 14th in the end.

“We’ve had a really strong weekend at Laguna Seca,” Canapino boasted. “We did a really good job in qualifying, finishing in P13. Although we started in P19 after the penalty, we were soon battling at the front and I was battling for the lead with [Alex] Palou at the end of the second stint.”

While he was bummed to lose out on a top five, he was happy for the team with the season result in points.

“It was unfortunate that my front wing was broken close to the end because we were in a really good position to earn a top-five, maybe a podium,” he continued. “But we showed really strong pace today and I would like to thank everybody in the team for their hard work. I’m really happy that we finished my first season in INDYCAR within the Leaders Circle.”

The top 22 in the entrant points receive a bonus the following year for the Indy 500 payouts. Think of it somewhat like a charter is to NASCAR. It’s massive.

You can tell the base for an Indy only entry is $102k. That’s why Katherine Legge got that for last place. 32nd place as a part-time Indy only entrant was $103k for RC Enerson. That also explains the bump to $462-$465k for 28th-31st placed finishers because they’re full-time entries in the leaders circle money.

Canapino is full-time but not in the leaders circle this year and that’s why he got $156 but not a lot payout like $102k.

Where this matters the most is, third place finisher at Indy, Santino Ferrucci only received $481,800 but fifth place finisher, Alexander Rossi, got $574k. Ferrucci’s car wasn’t in the leaders circle but Rossi’s was.

The two drivers in front of Ferrucci topped out over $1-million.

“Agustín was also fighting for a podium throughout the race. We are very happy with his finish within the Leaders Circle,” said team owner, Ricardo Juncos. “It has been a great effort from the whole team this weekend and you can see our improvements in the last four or five races. We are getting better and better, so I’m really looking forward to 2024. I’d also like to say thank you to the fans of Juncos Hollinger Racing for their amazing support this season.”