SALINAS, Calif — Honda dominated the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. 12 wins in 17 races including Sunday’s season finale at Laguna Seca should have easily netted them the engine championship. However, Chevy’s reliability allowed them to score their second straight instead.

Sunday’s race was a prime example. Scott Dixon won. Alex Palou was 3rd. That’s 2 of the top 3 finishers for a manufacturer that held a 16 point lead entering. However, if you take an engine change, your points don’t count.

Once you reach 5 engines, you’re also ineligible for points too.

The points are awarded to the top two finishers among those that have used 4 or fewer engines.

For Chevy, it was Will Power and Callum Ilott. For Honda, their top two were Christian Lundgaard and Romain Grosjean.

As a result, Chevy scored 91 points compared to Honda’s 63 on Sunday. That allowed them to despite 5 wins overall, to take home the crown.

When Chevy came back into the series in 2012, they were the top dog in the series. Prior to 2012 however, Honda could quite easily be regarded as the engine that saved INDYCAR though too. When no one else wanted to jump in, it was Honda who provided engines to literally every team. They were at the time, the sole engine provider of INDYCAR. That takes a lot of time, money and commitment in doing so for as long as they did.

In 2012, they got relief. Chevrolet would be coming back. A new car was coming out as well. While they welcomed the competition, the bow ties just flat out dominated.

They won every manufacturer title in that span.

Chevy won 67 times compared to just 33 triumphs for Honda.

But, once the new car came out in 2018, it was now all Honda. They took the manufacturers crown in 2018, 2019, 2020 and again in 2021.

Also, for the first time since Chevy came back in for 2012 and beyond, Honda in 2018 eclipsed Chevy for most wins in a single season (11-6). A year later, Chevy then won the advantage 9-8, but Honda still won the manufacturer’s championship.

2020 was the debut of the Aeroscreen. It’s flip flopped for wins each season since.

The two were evenly split 7-7 for race wins in 2020.

For 2021, it was 10-6 in favor of Honda.

Last year, it was 11-6 in favor of Chevy.

Now, it’s swung back to Honda, 12-5.

But, reliability was a thing too and Chevy beat Honda in that category despite the deficit in race wins.

Honda won 6 off the 7 natural road course races in 2023 but Chevy won 4 of the 5 ovals including the Indy 500.

If you take a step back and look at the grander picture of things, since 2018 the scoreboard for race wins reads: Honda 54, Chevrolet 44. In the three-year span of the Aerokits from 2015 through 2017, it was Chevy 34, Honda 15.

From 2018-2019 with the new car but without the Aeroscreen, it was Honda 19-15.

With the Aeroscreen it’s 29-24, advantage Honda.