Round 19 - Auto Club Speedway Fontana, CA
"Dixon's Delight"
For our last race review of the season, I gave the opportunity to our reviewers from this season to share their thoughts on a few of the topics that arose from the last race weekend. Joining us for this round table looking back at Auto Club Speedway / Fontana are Sandy Lamparello (SL), Johanna Husband (JH), Ben Haddleton (BH), Niko Gouloumis (NG) and Jason McVeigh (JM).
Will Power, a worthy winner of the race? Who else impressed you this race?
SL: Will was definitely a worthy winner. I think anyone whose car was still running at the end of the race would have been a worthy winner, particularly those on the lead lap. That was a gruelling race--the amount of debris falling or being sucked out of cars during pit stops was astonishing. As for who impressed me, Charlie Kimball was having a great night until his engine quit. In addition to Will, Ed, TK, Hinch, and Dixie finished on the lead lap, which is impressive considering all the things each of them battled during the race.
JH: I'm no fan of Power's but I have to say that he was a worthy winner on Saturday, finally clinching his first ‘proper’ oval win as last year's farcical victory at TMS will never quite sit right in my personal stats book. Bet he only wishes he could have produced a drive like that in the ‘10 and ‘12 season finales though, when vying for the championship and not let the pressure force him into silly mistakes...
BH: Great win for Will Power and really happy to see him win this one. Think he hit the nail on the head in Victory Lane saying that he heard people saying about him racing on this track, just made him want to win it more.
NG: Power was definitely a worthy winner, You could see how much it meant to him and how hard he was trying. Every time someone challenged him he sailed right back to the front again.
JM: Will Power was definitely a worthy winner, he was fast all weekend, took the pole and drove away towards the end of the race. Let's not forget it wasn't too long ago that Will was labelled as the guy who couldn't get it done on ovals. A strong night for #12.
The pit call by Roger Penske to bring Helio in when the pits were closed cost Helio a penalty and possibly a shot at the championship. It’s been seven years since Penske's last series title, is this cracking under pressure, poor strategy or some other contributing factor?
SL: That call really shocked me. You just don't expect that kind of slip up by The Captain. I hate to say it because I have a lot of respect for Team Penske, but all evidence points to this team cracking under pressure. How many years now have they had the championship in their hands very, very late in the season, only to see it slip away? I don't have anything against Dixie, but I would really have liked to see Helio win the championship this year, especially after TK finally got his Indy 500 win.
JH: That said the Penske team weren’t totally immune from those silly mistakes with the Captain having a brain fade moment of epic proportions, calling Helio in whilst the pits were still closed. We'll probably never know how much the pressure and burning desire to finally get one over on his great rival Ganassi has played a part in this monumental error. But one can't help but wonder if the very mind games they were widely suspected of instigating during the season came back to bite them royally on the rear wing.
BH: The Penske calls (he nearly did it a second time late on too, only for Helio to bail on it last minute) are crazy. I cannot understand how someone who is there to be the drivers outside eyes on the race can miss something so glaringly obvious twice. Get him his pipe and slippers and keep him off the pit wall in future.
NG: In the last few years it's been down to Power's oval form and this year Helio simply being a little too willing to drop points in order to get a lower, guaranteed haul. He was unlucky in Houston but Dixon had misfortune too. The bad pit call by Penske was symbolic, sometimes it's something you do and sometimes it's something that happens to benefit the other guy and there’s nothing you can do about it. The problem sometimes with Penske however is that when they need to step up and make something happen for themselves like in the middle of last night's race they seem unable to do it.
JM: I'm not sure how to answer this simply because I'm still not sure what The Captain was thinking. I think I'll chalk it up to a rare lapse of judgement but while it was costly, even without the penalty I'm not sure Helio could have won. This definitely put it out of reach though.
For two races running we have seen heavy impacts / accidents that have put the DW12 chassis through the test and it has stood up to it (relative to injuries sustained). Can you give some thoughts on the safety improvements that have been made, also where they could go from here.
SL: I'm in the minority of people who actually like the DW12. I personally believe the true test of a driver is when he/she can drive a virtually identical car better than everyone else, and that car has given us two seasons of amazing racing, with only a very few exceptions. And the fact it's proven itself in the area of safety makes me like it even more. I don't think it's possible to make a perfect car, especially when that car is going to be turning laps at over 200 mph. The injuries sustained by Dario and Justin in the last two races of the season, while definitely serious, could have been much worse in an old IndyCar. As for where they can go from here, I'm not an engineer or mechanic, so I'll leave that up to the experts. I'm just happy to see a car that gives us awesome racing every week while keeping the drivers safe.
JH: For the second race running we saw another driver injured as a result of a high impact, scary looking accident. Thankfully for all involved although the injuries sustained are painful and far from minor, they are survivable and recoverable, which is a huge testament to the DW12 Dallara chassis. And of course the vital work done on developing it by a man who tragically wasn't so fortunate. We paid tribute to the great Dan Wheldon this week, two years after his cruel death at Las Vegas. He'll always be remembered for many reasons, but a huge part of his legacy is that we’re not mourning the loss of another two drivers today.
BH: Safety always has to be high on the list for racing. The fact that the incidents from the past few races haven’t caused larger injuries is testament to the DW12 and honours the man it is named after. Steps have to be made now to make more steps in safety though as with the new body kits coming next year, these cars will no doubt be even faster.
NG: There needs to be a better look at stopping the cars from lifting over each other. Those wheel guards have probably saved quite a few accidents but we don't notice because they never happened, but we do notice the ones that still do. The car itself seems very structurally sound but further improvements can always be made to soaking up the energy of impacts. They need to work on the heavy steering as well, at least something to stop the wheel snapping back so heavily in crashes.
JM: I said on twitter during the race that the toughness of those Dallara chassis cannot be praised enough. I think if there was one improvement that could be worked on, it would be the wheel tethers. We saw wheels come off at Houston and I believe one of Servia's did at Fontana too. Otherwise, those Dallara tubs are ace.
Debris seemed to be an issue with cars collecting it in their radiators, leading to overheating, any thoughts on this to try and reduce in the future?
SL: I think it's just a part of racing and I'm not sure anything can be done about it, or if I want anything to be done about it. It wasn't an instance of fans throwing debris onto the track (though I'm sure there could have been some spectator trash collected throughout the night). Are they going to prevent drivers from tossing their tear-offs aside during the race? Fontana is a dusty place and the track isn't under a dome, so I honestly don't know what could be done.
JH: The debris on track and subsequent overheating problems it caused was a major talking point at Fontana and could easily have played a pivotal role in the Championship, which would have been unfair on both the drivers and the fans. It's obviously an issue that needs addressing but quite how is more a question for people with far bigger brains than mine. I'm not entirely sure there is a simple fix but I do know one thing, a fix really needs to be found.
BH: Debris is something that will always increase through a race meeting. They have tried fan trucks on track in NASCAR, but with Montoya potentially coming back to open wheels next season, that may be a bad idea!
NG: Sometimes that's what happens. Best you can do is deploying the sweepers whenever you can and make sure the tracks up to the job.
JM: I think the debris build up inside the radiators was mostly just a by product of the tyre wear and the track surface but I'm sure the technical teams can look into some method to reduce it from affecting the radiators going forward. As far as picking up visors and other bits of debris like Marco did, not sure how to avoid that.
The seams in the track lead to a number of incidents this weekend (Sato, Wilson and others) highlight the importance of proper track maintenance, again this is the second week in a row track condition has affected the race weekend, your thoughts about how indycar mange this in the future?
SL: Like the debris, I'm not sure what can be done on a permanent track like Fontana. Could they pave over the whole track to get rid of seams? I don't know, but I think the unique features of each track become part of a driver's strategy. There were a number of drivers who didn't have any problems with the seams so I don't know that anything needs to be done about them. As for the issues in Houston and at other street courses, I think the series has to do whatever it can to ensure there is ample time for officials to perform necessary track inspections before practice begins. I thought they did a good job under the circumstances.
JH: Track conditions have been a massive feature of the IndyCar series in general this year, not just at Fontana. The incidents caused by the seams at Auto Speedway just adding to a long list of track related casualties. The poor track condition at Houston in particular were appalling and should never happen in something as high level as America’s premium open wheel series. Indy is in a state of flux right now and really needs to be selling itself to the large global audience it deserves. But the respect and support needed for that growth to come will not happen on the back of shambolic events such a Baltimore, Houston etc. all caused by poor track design and/or maintenance. A definite case of must do better.
BH: Those seams were crazy. Especially when you consider how Ed Carpenter was running towards the end and crossing lanes. They were the cause of at least 3 of the caution periods.
NG: Obviously there needs to be greater care over track conditions. I'm not sure allowing Derrick Walker to continue to be in sports cars part-time was the right thing to do, there seem to be so many things to check on and not enough people to do the checking.
JM: Track maintenance is something I think Indycar should invest more time and money into because it affects everything from the safety of the racing to the quality of the racing. I'm aware that on temporary street circuits, it's going to be hard to fully prepare the racing surface too far in advance but on ovals, there are no excuses. Indycar and the track owners need to work closely on this.
Give a few thoughts on Scott Dixon's championship win, and Helio Castroneves finishing runner up.
SL: I'm not particularly a fan of Scott Dixon's, but I was happy to see him continually fighting back after some really hard luck. He had two championships already, so he could have just called it a season rather than keep trying to win. I'm impressed with his comeback. As for Helio, I was really pulling for him to finally get his championship this year, especially after TK won at Indy. It would have made for a very special year for the two lifelong friends. He was hit with bad luck at the absolute worst times and there was no way to come back from that.
JH: Although Helio is the real showman of IndyCar, I think Scott Dixon was still a very popular champion. People respect and admire the gritty way he and Ganassi fought back from a floundering start to clinch the title. Dixie fought hard for and really earned this third Championship as nothing came easy to him this year, even having to overcome loss and adversity within the team and personally. Not to mention the occasional, erm, questionable decision. As for Helio you can't help but feel sorry for him, having looked so comfortable, dominant and confident mid season, it must have been heart breaking to watch his longed for championship slip between his fingers yet again. That he could still be so upbeat in defeat is a great testament to him, but one has to wonder if he feels this was his best and maybe last chance?
BH: Over the season, Helio has not really wowed anyone with his performances. He won a few early on but then just lucked into decent points a lot of the rest of the season. Scott at least had that mighty string of wins mid-season which put him right back in it. Helio has once again proven he is a quick guy, but is not someone you would expect to win overall championships. This year will be his only sniff of that, I am almost sure of it.
NG: Dixon obviously deserved to win and it was apparent after Toronto that someone would have to stop him. Those bad breaks in Sonoma and Baltimore checked him, but when he wasn't winning it seemed like only Pagenaud was the one ready to step up and take as many points as he could and he was realistically too far back unless Dixon had even worse fortune. Helio being a runner-up is in many ways a lost opportunity; he's a great personality and a very marketable champion whilst Dixon has always been the quiet, understated one. A lot should have been made of Hunter-Reay being an American champion but there was the political shenanigans stopping that; Helio isn't American but he's a lot more well-known in the States than pretty much every other driver and IndyCar could have used that exposure.
JM: Gutted for Helio. I'm not sure there's many people who wouldn't like to see him win a Championship before he retires. Hopefully this wasn't his last, best shot. Full credit to Dixon, he earned this title with strong performances after a very slow start to the year by Ganassi. Considering how relatively young Scott still is, he could have a lot more championships still to come.
Who do you see as the main challengers / race winners for the title next year?
SL: This will surprise absolutely nobody who follows me on Twitter or has read my blog. I think 2014 is going to be Marco Andretti's year. He put a lot of work in over the last offseason, and although he didn't win any races this season, he had an incredible season. He finished every race but one, and if I'm not mistaken he failed to complete all laps of the races he did finish only twice. He finished in the top 10 in 15 out of 19 races (top 5 in 6 of them), earned two podium finishes and doubled his career poles. I think a lot of people expected Marco to collect a win this season. I know I did. He didn't, but we saw a different Marco on the track than we have in past seasons. I'm looking forward to an even greater season in 2014.
As for other drivers, after collecting two wins this season, I think Simon Pagenaud will continue to be a major threat in 2014. Charlie Kimball, Justin Wilson, and Sebastian Bourdais should also be drivers to watch in 2014.
JH: Looking forward to next year, it will be interesting to see how the silly season fully pans out over coming weeks and of course what impact the switch around in engine suppliers with Ganassi and Andretti has long term too. I fully expect to see the usual suspects vying for the title again, but would love to see some of the young guns get involved as well. That said, I'd personally like to see Dario Franchitti have a good year following his big smash and heading towards the latter part of career now too. Beyond that it would be great to see the mayor, James Hinchcliffe string a title challenge together. This goofball Canadian is a huge asset to IndyCar and I feel he could play an important role in the series’ success and growth over coming years.
The best part about IndyCar though is that right now the direction of next years Championship is anybody's guess and will likely remain so throughout the new season - just how we like it!
BH: Challengers? Maybe TK now he is moving up. It would be good to see. Otherwise, can’t really go further than Power (who I think has his mojo back now - took long enough) or Dixon again, or DARIO FRANCHITTI providing he is OK and comes back on form next year. As for race winners, we had our fair share from this year to expect a win from and can’t help but think Munoz will at least get close.
NG: I see more of the same. Hinchcliffe and Pagenaud are going to be there for years to come, Dixon and Helio are always contenders, and I think Power will be back on top form. I can see JPM getting a return victory, TK will be a contender in many races and there's going to be a few surprises too. I think Dario's day is gone though, he's struggled with the new chassis, isn't getting any younger and who knows what his injuries will do to his speed.
JM: There are so many cool storylines already in place for next year, Ganassi switching to Chevy, Andretti returning to Honda, 4 time champ Bourdais stepping up to a better car, former Champ Montoya returning.. My guess, I'm thinking RHR will bounce back strong and Helio may have a point to prove but Ganassi will be the team to beat. Can't wait for 2014.
SL: Will was definitely a worthy winner. I think anyone whose car was still running at the end of the race would have been a worthy winner, particularly those on the lead lap. That was a gruelling race--the amount of debris falling or being sucked out of cars during pit stops was astonishing. As for who impressed me, Charlie Kimball was having a great night until his engine quit. In addition to Will, Ed, TK, Hinch, and Dixie finished on the lead lap, which is impressive considering all the things each of them battled during the race.
JH: I'm no fan of Power's but I have to say that he was a worthy winner on Saturday, finally clinching his first ‘proper’ oval win as last year's farcical victory at TMS will never quite sit right in my personal stats book. Bet he only wishes he could have produced a drive like that in the ‘10 and ‘12 season finales though, when vying for the championship and not let the pressure force him into silly mistakes...
BH: Great win for Will Power and really happy to see him win this one. Think he hit the nail on the head in Victory Lane saying that he heard people saying about him racing on this track, just made him want to win it more.
NG: Power was definitely a worthy winner, You could see how much it meant to him and how hard he was trying. Every time someone challenged him he sailed right back to the front again.
JM: Will Power was definitely a worthy winner, he was fast all weekend, took the pole and drove away towards the end of the race. Let's not forget it wasn't too long ago that Will was labelled as the guy who couldn't get it done on ovals. A strong night for #12.
The pit call by Roger Penske to bring Helio in when the pits were closed cost Helio a penalty and possibly a shot at the championship. It’s been seven years since Penske's last series title, is this cracking under pressure, poor strategy or some other contributing factor?
SL: That call really shocked me. You just don't expect that kind of slip up by The Captain. I hate to say it because I have a lot of respect for Team Penske, but all evidence points to this team cracking under pressure. How many years now have they had the championship in their hands very, very late in the season, only to see it slip away? I don't have anything against Dixie, but I would really have liked to see Helio win the championship this year, especially after TK finally got his Indy 500 win.
JH: That said the Penske team weren’t totally immune from those silly mistakes with the Captain having a brain fade moment of epic proportions, calling Helio in whilst the pits were still closed. We'll probably never know how much the pressure and burning desire to finally get one over on his great rival Ganassi has played a part in this monumental error. But one can't help but wonder if the very mind games they were widely suspected of instigating during the season came back to bite them royally on the rear wing.
BH: The Penske calls (he nearly did it a second time late on too, only for Helio to bail on it last minute) are crazy. I cannot understand how someone who is there to be the drivers outside eyes on the race can miss something so glaringly obvious twice. Get him his pipe and slippers and keep him off the pit wall in future.
NG: In the last few years it's been down to Power's oval form and this year Helio simply being a little too willing to drop points in order to get a lower, guaranteed haul. He was unlucky in Houston but Dixon had misfortune too. The bad pit call by Penske was symbolic, sometimes it's something you do and sometimes it's something that happens to benefit the other guy and there’s nothing you can do about it. The problem sometimes with Penske however is that when they need to step up and make something happen for themselves like in the middle of last night's race they seem unable to do it.
JM: I'm not sure how to answer this simply because I'm still not sure what The Captain was thinking. I think I'll chalk it up to a rare lapse of judgement but while it was costly, even without the penalty I'm not sure Helio could have won. This definitely put it out of reach though.
For two races running we have seen heavy impacts / accidents that have put the DW12 chassis through the test and it has stood up to it (relative to injuries sustained). Can you give some thoughts on the safety improvements that have been made, also where they could go from here.
SL: I'm in the minority of people who actually like the DW12. I personally believe the true test of a driver is when he/she can drive a virtually identical car better than everyone else, and that car has given us two seasons of amazing racing, with only a very few exceptions. And the fact it's proven itself in the area of safety makes me like it even more. I don't think it's possible to make a perfect car, especially when that car is going to be turning laps at over 200 mph. The injuries sustained by Dario and Justin in the last two races of the season, while definitely serious, could have been much worse in an old IndyCar. As for where they can go from here, I'm not an engineer or mechanic, so I'll leave that up to the experts. I'm just happy to see a car that gives us awesome racing every week while keeping the drivers safe.
JH: For the second race running we saw another driver injured as a result of a high impact, scary looking accident. Thankfully for all involved although the injuries sustained are painful and far from minor, they are survivable and recoverable, which is a huge testament to the DW12 Dallara chassis. And of course the vital work done on developing it by a man who tragically wasn't so fortunate. We paid tribute to the great Dan Wheldon this week, two years after his cruel death at Las Vegas. He'll always be remembered for many reasons, but a huge part of his legacy is that we’re not mourning the loss of another two drivers today.
BH: Safety always has to be high on the list for racing. The fact that the incidents from the past few races haven’t caused larger injuries is testament to the DW12 and honours the man it is named after. Steps have to be made now to make more steps in safety though as with the new body kits coming next year, these cars will no doubt be even faster.
NG: There needs to be a better look at stopping the cars from lifting over each other. Those wheel guards have probably saved quite a few accidents but we don't notice because they never happened, but we do notice the ones that still do. The car itself seems very structurally sound but further improvements can always be made to soaking up the energy of impacts. They need to work on the heavy steering as well, at least something to stop the wheel snapping back so heavily in crashes.
JM: I said on twitter during the race that the toughness of those Dallara chassis cannot be praised enough. I think if there was one improvement that could be worked on, it would be the wheel tethers. We saw wheels come off at Houston and I believe one of Servia's did at Fontana too. Otherwise, those Dallara tubs are ace.
Debris seemed to be an issue with cars collecting it in their radiators, leading to overheating, any thoughts on this to try and reduce in the future?
SL: I think it's just a part of racing and I'm not sure anything can be done about it, or if I want anything to be done about it. It wasn't an instance of fans throwing debris onto the track (though I'm sure there could have been some spectator trash collected throughout the night). Are they going to prevent drivers from tossing their tear-offs aside during the race? Fontana is a dusty place and the track isn't under a dome, so I honestly don't know what could be done.
JH: The debris on track and subsequent overheating problems it caused was a major talking point at Fontana and could easily have played a pivotal role in the Championship, which would have been unfair on both the drivers and the fans. It's obviously an issue that needs addressing but quite how is more a question for people with far bigger brains than mine. I'm not entirely sure there is a simple fix but I do know one thing, a fix really needs to be found.
BH: Debris is something that will always increase through a race meeting. They have tried fan trucks on track in NASCAR, but with Montoya potentially coming back to open wheels next season, that may be a bad idea!
NG: Sometimes that's what happens. Best you can do is deploying the sweepers whenever you can and make sure the tracks up to the job.
JM: I think the debris build up inside the radiators was mostly just a by product of the tyre wear and the track surface but I'm sure the technical teams can look into some method to reduce it from affecting the radiators going forward. As far as picking up visors and other bits of debris like Marco did, not sure how to avoid that.
The seams in the track lead to a number of incidents this weekend (Sato, Wilson and others) highlight the importance of proper track maintenance, again this is the second week in a row track condition has affected the race weekend, your thoughts about how indycar mange this in the future?
SL: Like the debris, I'm not sure what can be done on a permanent track like Fontana. Could they pave over the whole track to get rid of seams? I don't know, but I think the unique features of each track become part of a driver's strategy. There were a number of drivers who didn't have any problems with the seams so I don't know that anything needs to be done about them. As for the issues in Houston and at other street courses, I think the series has to do whatever it can to ensure there is ample time for officials to perform necessary track inspections before practice begins. I thought they did a good job under the circumstances.
JH: Track conditions have been a massive feature of the IndyCar series in general this year, not just at Fontana. The incidents caused by the seams at Auto Speedway just adding to a long list of track related casualties. The poor track condition at Houston in particular were appalling and should never happen in something as high level as America’s premium open wheel series. Indy is in a state of flux right now and really needs to be selling itself to the large global audience it deserves. But the respect and support needed for that growth to come will not happen on the back of shambolic events such a Baltimore, Houston etc. all caused by poor track design and/or maintenance. A definite case of must do better.
BH: Those seams were crazy. Especially when you consider how Ed Carpenter was running towards the end and crossing lanes. They were the cause of at least 3 of the caution periods.
NG: Obviously there needs to be greater care over track conditions. I'm not sure allowing Derrick Walker to continue to be in sports cars part-time was the right thing to do, there seem to be so many things to check on and not enough people to do the checking.
JM: Track maintenance is something I think Indycar should invest more time and money into because it affects everything from the safety of the racing to the quality of the racing. I'm aware that on temporary street circuits, it's going to be hard to fully prepare the racing surface too far in advance but on ovals, there are no excuses. Indycar and the track owners need to work closely on this.
Give a few thoughts on Scott Dixon's championship win, and Helio Castroneves finishing runner up.
SL: I'm not particularly a fan of Scott Dixon's, but I was happy to see him continually fighting back after some really hard luck. He had two championships already, so he could have just called it a season rather than keep trying to win. I'm impressed with his comeback. As for Helio, I was really pulling for him to finally get his championship this year, especially after TK won at Indy. It would have made for a very special year for the two lifelong friends. He was hit with bad luck at the absolute worst times and there was no way to come back from that.
JH: Although Helio is the real showman of IndyCar, I think Scott Dixon was still a very popular champion. People respect and admire the gritty way he and Ganassi fought back from a floundering start to clinch the title. Dixie fought hard for and really earned this third Championship as nothing came easy to him this year, even having to overcome loss and adversity within the team and personally. Not to mention the occasional, erm, questionable decision. As for Helio you can't help but feel sorry for him, having looked so comfortable, dominant and confident mid season, it must have been heart breaking to watch his longed for championship slip between his fingers yet again. That he could still be so upbeat in defeat is a great testament to him, but one has to wonder if he feels this was his best and maybe last chance?
BH: Over the season, Helio has not really wowed anyone with his performances. He won a few early on but then just lucked into decent points a lot of the rest of the season. Scott at least had that mighty string of wins mid-season which put him right back in it. Helio has once again proven he is a quick guy, but is not someone you would expect to win overall championships. This year will be his only sniff of that, I am almost sure of it.
NG: Dixon obviously deserved to win and it was apparent after Toronto that someone would have to stop him. Those bad breaks in Sonoma and Baltimore checked him, but when he wasn't winning it seemed like only Pagenaud was the one ready to step up and take as many points as he could and he was realistically too far back unless Dixon had even worse fortune. Helio being a runner-up is in many ways a lost opportunity; he's a great personality and a very marketable champion whilst Dixon has always been the quiet, understated one. A lot should have been made of Hunter-Reay being an American champion but there was the political shenanigans stopping that; Helio isn't American but he's a lot more well-known in the States than pretty much every other driver and IndyCar could have used that exposure.
JM: Gutted for Helio. I'm not sure there's many people who wouldn't like to see him win a Championship before he retires. Hopefully this wasn't his last, best shot. Full credit to Dixon, he earned this title with strong performances after a very slow start to the year by Ganassi. Considering how relatively young Scott still is, he could have a lot more championships still to come.
Who do you see as the main challengers / race winners for the title next year?
SL: This will surprise absolutely nobody who follows me on Twitter or has read my blog. I think 2014 is going to be Marco Andretti's year. He put a lot of work in over the last offseason, and although he didn't win any races this season, he had an incredible season. He finished every race but one, and if I'm not mistaken he failed to complete all laps of the races he did finish only twice. He finished in the top 10 in 15 out of 19 races (top 5 in 6 of them), earned two podium finishes and doubled his career poles. I think a lot of people expected Marco to collect a win this season. I know I did. He didn't, but we saw a different Marco on the track than we have in past seasons. I'm looking forward to an even greater season in 2014.
As for other drivers, after collecting two wins this season, I think Simon Pagenaud will continue to be a major threat in 2014. Charlie Kimball, Justin Wilson, and Sebastian Bourdais should also be drivers to watch in 2014.
JH: Looking forward to next year, it will be interesting to see how the silly season fully pans out over coming weeks and of course what impact the switch around in engine suppliers with Ganassi and Andretti has long term too. I fully expect to see the usual suspects vying for the title again, but would love to see some of the young guns get involved as well. That said, I'd personally like to see Dario Franchitti have a good year following his big smash and heading towards the latter part of career now too. Beyond that it would be great to see the mayor, James Hinchcliffe string a title challenge together. This goofball Canadian is a huge asset to IndyCar and I feel he could play an important role in the series’ success and growth over coming years.
The best part about IndyCar though is that right now the direction of next years Championship is anybody's guess and will likely remain so throughout the new season - just how we like it!
BH: Challengers? Maybe TK now he is moving up. It would be good to see. Otherwise, can’t really go further than Power (who I think has his mojo back now - took long enough) or Dixon again, or DARIO FRANCHITTI providing he is OK and comes back on form next year. As for race winners, we had our fair share from this year to expect a win from and can’t help but think Munoz will at least get close.
NG: I see more of the same. Hinchcliffe and Pagenaud are going to be there for years to come, Dixon and Helio are always contenders, and I think Power will be back on top form. I can see JPM getting a return victory, TK will be a contender in many races and there's going to be a few surprises too. I think Dario's day is gone though, he's struggled with the new chassis, isn't getting any younger and who knows what his injuries will do to his speed.
JM: There are so many cool storylines already in place for next year, Ganassi switching to Chevy, Andretti returning to Honda, 4 time champ Bourdais stepping up to a better car, former Champ Montoya returning.. My guess, I'm thinking RHR will bounce back strong and Helio may have a point to prove but Ganassi will be the team to beat. Can't wait for 2014.
