SALINAS, Calif — Agustin Canapino’s ability to hang onto a badly damaged front wing in the final green flag spring to the finish in Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale and Juri Vips’ never give up attitude helped the two score the final two spots into the 22 car leaders circle field for 2024.

Canapino restarted on Lap 78 in fifth. It was challenging to hold on for the final 17 laps with the way that it was.

Canapino entered the day -3 but was solidly in at that moment. 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.”

He was just one story. There was a wild set of circumstances for the other spots.

Vips was part of that first lap melee in Turn 1. Canapino gained nine spots by avoiding that carnage. Vips, went behind the wall for repairs.

He was +3 entering the day but they didn’t give up. They knew what was at stake. Even though he was several laps down, they got him back out to hopefully make up some spots with attrition to others.

Tom Blomqvist, another leaders circle challenger helped. He was near the top 10 before crashing out on Lap 63. He was 21st (+6) entering the day and was in good shape before that incident. Getting 5 points for the final race hurt.

Then, Devlin DeFrancesco was as high as third and in the top five before a mechanical failure towards the end too. He dropped down to 22nd costing him valuable points. Due to being 22nd and only having 8 points scored and 169 points entering, he was left outside with 177 points for the season.

With Kyle Kirkwood limping home in 25th, Vips gained two spots by coming back on track and not giving up. He beat DeFrancesco by one (178-177).

“It was looking like a really good start. I thought I avoided most of the melee and was going to gain probably six or seven positions but just in the middle of Turn 2 I got taken out on the side and that was us done basically,” Vips said. “We carried some damage until the end. The team did a good job getting me out there again. We ended up gaining a spot which was very important. I’m very proud of our effort.”

That’s a massive difference in a payout for him by doing so.

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.

For the 30 and 78 rides, they narrowly get by.

You have to go back to World Wide Technology Raceway and Conor Daly filling into this ride to get this job done too. See, over the last two weeks, Vips scored 18 points. DeFrancesco had 21. It was Daly scoring 14 points compared to DeFrancesco’s 11 to what finished this off because that made it even among the two cars over the final three races.

With the 30 ride leading the 29 ride by 1 points entering Gateway, Daly saved the day in the end.

Even if they didn’t make the top 22 in the leaders circle points, Bobby Rahal said that it will have no effect on whether this entry would have been back in 2024.

“I mean, we’re going racing either way, but it would sure be nice to be part of the Leaders Circle group,” he said a few weeks ago. “And that was an expectation that, frankly, I took for granted going into this year.”

The 29 ride at Andretti may not. There’s word that if the car didn’t get in the top 22 in leaders circle, they may scale back to 3 cars for 2024.

That 1 point could force them to downsize.

For Ryan Hunter-Reay, he did what he was asked to do.

Hunter-Reay knew what was at stake when he was called by good friend Ed Carpenter to help him out. With Conor Daly and Ed Carpenter Racing mutually agreeing to part ways just seven races into the season, if the ride was capable of running up front, Hunter-Reay never would have been called.

Now, 10 races later, Hunter-Reay leaves ECR in a better spot than he first joined. Mission accomplished. Rinus VeeKay learned a thing or two and if not for an opening incident to where he was punted off track by eventual race winner Scott Dixon, a top 10 may have ensued.

Still, 4 top 11 finishes in the final 5 races put the 21 car back on the right path.

For the 20 car, Hunter-Reay gave it a top 10 in his final start. He said he won’t likely be back in this role in 2024 but he did his job in keeping the ride in the leaders circle money.

Hunter-Reay finished 10th in the season finale.

“It was a good day for the No. 20 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet team,” he said. “Mission accomplished is what we see here at the end. It’s always tough when you are trying to points race while also being aggressive and competitive. We tried to balance those two in what was a pretty chaotic race. It was difficult at times to think about points but also wanting to move forward. All in all, we ran in the Top 3, finished in the Top 10 and secured a position in Leaders Circle. Mission accomplished!”

Despite making solid gains throughout each session, Ryan Hunter-Reay had to start today’s season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca from the 25th position. During his qualifying run, the No. 20 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet spun coming out of Turn 11. As his spin caused a red flag, he was penalized by losing his two fastest laps.

When multiple cars made contact and went off-track on the opening lap of Sunday’s race, Hunter-Reay made it through unscathed. By the restart on Lap 6, he was scored in 14th, up 11 positions from his start. He picked up two more positions before the next yellow flag flew just a few laps later, moving him into 12th. 

Hunter-Reay stayed in the Top 10 for the middle portion of the race, cycling as high as 4th. On Lap 67 restart, he passed two more cars to move into 2nd. Hunter-Reay made his final pit stop four laps later, relinquishing the 2nd position. He rejoined the field in 12th, but made up two spots in the closing laps to earn his first Top 10 finish with Ed Carpenter Racing. 

With 2 top 15 finishes in the final 3 races and having 0 in the first 7, the path for ECR is back on the right footing.

Credit Hunter-Reay for that.