Track Walk: Long Beach 2024

The second round of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, IndyCar's first championship race in 42 days. This 42-day break is the longest midseason break in IndyCar since there were 49 days between the Assen and Surfers Paradise rounds in the 2007 Champ Car season. This is the 31st time since the CART-USAC split in 1979 there have been at least 40 days between races midseason. Eighteen of those 31 40-plus-day breaks were between the race before the Indianapolis 500 and the Indianapolis 500. The most recent of those was during the 2004 Indy Racing League season. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 21 with green flag scheduled for 3:45 p.m. ET.
Channel: USA
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 5:50 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 11:25 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:25 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 12:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 3:45 p.m. ET (85 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

Can Penske Keep It Up?

The 2024 season could not have started much better for Team Penske. All three of its cars ended up in the top five at St. Petersburg with Josef Newgarden leading 92 of 100 laps on his way to victory from pole position. Scott McLauglin ended up third, his second St. Petersburg podium in the last three seasons, and Will Power was fourth.

It was the first time Team Penske had three top five finishers in a road/street course race since the July 2022 Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course race, but it was the first time Penske had three top five finishers in a street course race since the second race of the 2017 Belle Isle doubleheader. 

This St. Petersburg race came after Team Penske had only four top five finishes combined on street courses in 2023 with zero victories. 

After dominating the season opening street race, Team Penske has a chance for an encore performance at Long Beach. Last year, all three Penske cars finished in the top ten, but none finished in the top five as Power was the top driver in sixth. Before last year's race, Team Penske had a podium finisher in eight consecutive Long Beach races. Newgarden had been at the front and led 27 laps before he was forced to save fuel over his final stint, dropping him to ninth, a position ahead of McLaughlin. 

Newgarden won at Long Beach in 2022 with 32 laps led after a methodical race with Álex Palou on in- and out-laps, and then ending with holding off a late charge from Romain Grosjean. 

Since reunification, Penske has only three Long Beach victories. Along with Newgarden's victory two years ago, Will Power won in 2012 and Simon Pagenaud won in 2016.

Prior to last year's race, Newgarden had three consecutive podium finishes at Long Beach. He has eight consecutive top ten finishes in this race. Will Power has five consecutive top ten finishes in the Grand Prix of Long Beach, but he hasn't finished on the podium in this race since he was second in 2018. Since his Long Beach victory in 2012, Power has led only 12 laps over the last ten Long Beach races. In three Long Beach start, McLaughlin has finished 14th, 11th and tenth. McLaughlin has five consecutive top ten finishes in street races dating back to last season.

Only four times in Team Penske's history has it opened a season with consecutive victories. It first did it in 1982 when Rick Mears won at Phoenix and Atlanta. Penske would not do it again until 2010 when it won the first three races. Power won the first two races that year at São Paulo and St. Petersburg while Hélio Castroneves won the third race at Barber Motorsports Park. Two years later, Penske won the first four races. Castroneves won the St. Petersburg season opener and Power followed with three consecutive victories. In 2022, Team Penske opened the season with three consecutive victories. McLaughlin won at St. Petersburg and Newgarden followed it with two consecutive victories. 

Penske Shooting For 300

Team Penske hits milestones on a regular basis, but it could hit a spectacular one this weekend at Long Beach. 

The next pole position will be Team Penske's 300th in IndyCar competition. Josef Newgarden put the team within one of the milestone with his pole position at St. Petersburg, Newgarden's 16th pole position with Team Penske, and it broke a tie with Bobby Unser for fifth all-time amongst Team Penske drivers.

To the surprise of no one, Will Power leads Team Penske drivers with 64 pole positions for the organization, 15 more than Hélio Castroneves in second all-time on 49. Power has won a pole position in each of his first 15 seasons with Penske. Power has had multiple pole positions in 14 of those seasons. Rick Mears is third with 39 pole positions, and then there is a gulf of 21 pole positions between Mears and Danny Sullivan in fourth on 18 with Newgarden on 16.

Bobby Unser (15), Gil de Ferran (14), Paul Tracy (12), Ryan Briscoe (12), Simon Pagenaud (12) and Tom Sneva (10) are the other drivers to reach double figures in pole positions driving for Team Penske. Sneva was the first driver to double figures for Penske.

Emerson Fittipaldi won nine pole positions with Penske while Sam Hornish, Jr. won seven. Scott McLaughlin has won five pole positions in the last two seasons. Al Unser, Jr. and Mark Donohue are tied on four pole positions. Al Unser, Kevin Cogan and Mario Andretti each won two pole positions for the organization. Gary Bettenhausen, Johnny Rutherford and Juan Pablo Montoya were each responsible for one Penske pole position. 

Team Penske's first pole position came at what is now Sonoma Raceway on April 4, 1970 with Mark Donohue. The 100th pole position came 22 years later on August 9, 1992 with Emerson Fittipaldi at Cleveland. The 200th pole position occurred on July 10, 2011 with Will Power at Toronto. Since making its IndyCar debut in 1968, Team Penske has won a pole position in 49 seasons. Newgarden's pole position at St. Petersburg made this 25 consecutive seasons with at least one pole position for Team Penske. The team's record for most pole positions in a single season is nine, which Danny Sullivan set in 1988.

At Long Beach, Team Penske has 13 pole positions. Castroneves won four Long Beach pole positions, including three consecutive from 2015 to 2017. Power won three consecutive pole positions at Long Beach from 2009 to 2011. Sullivan won two Long Beach pole positions. Tracy, de Ferran, Briscoe and Newgarden each have one Long Beach pole position. Newgarden is responsible for Penske's pole position here, coming in 2021. While Penske has 13 pole positions in this race, it has only won one of those races. That would be Castroneves' victory in 2001, where he led every lap. 

Team Penske is 190 pole positions clear of Newman-Haas Racing in second all-time. Chip Ganassi Racing is next amongst active teams with 93 pole positions. The only other active team with more than 50 pole positions is Andretti Global with 54.

Can Ganassi Bounce Back?

After St. Petersburg, many were wondering where Chip Ganassi Racing was after it had won the Florida race the year before.

Álex Palou did end up finishing sixth, but it came after spending most of the race outside the top ten and it felt Palou's top ten finish streak would not stretch into 2024. Instead, a late flourish allowed the Catalan driver to extend his streak to 19 consecutive races. 

Besides Palou, Scott Dixon ran a nondescript race and finished ninth. Kyffin Simpson kept his nose clean and finished 14th, but Linus Lundqvist was taken out from contact with Romain Grosjean, and Marcus Armstrong got in an incident all on his own and was the first retirement of the 2024 season. 

St. Petersburg was the first time Ganassi did not have a podium finisher since the first Iowa race in 2023, ending a six-race streak. It was also Ganassi's first race without a top five finisher since the 2022 Gateway race, ending a 19-race streak.

The good news is Ganassi had a bounce back at The Thermal Challenge held at the Thermal Club last month. Palou smoked the field, leading every lap on his way to victory from pole position in his heat race and leading every lap on his way to victory from pole position in the main event. Armstrong and Lundqvist each made the final race as well. Armstrong was second to Palou in his heat race, and the New Zealander ended up fifth in the final. Lundqvist was fourth in his heat and sixth in the final. 

Dixon will be looking for a break out. Contact with Grosjean in his Thermal Club heat race sent him to the back of the field and effectively kept Dixon from ever getting close to transferring to the main event.

It has been nine years since Chip Ganassi Racing's most recent Long Beach victory. That was with Dixon. He led 44 laps from third starting position to get his so far one and only Long Beach triumph. Ganassi has had a podium finisher in six of the seven Long Beach races since Dixon's victory in 2015, and Ganassi has had at least one top five finisher in every Long Beach race since then. 

In three Long Beach starts, Palou has never finished worse than fifth. He was third in 2022. Armstrong was eighth in this race last year, his first visit to the famed street race. Dixon was taken out of last year's Long Beach race after contact with Patricio O'Ward. It was Dixon's only finish outside the top ten in the entire 2023 season. Prior to that result, Dixon had six top ten finishes in the last seven trips to Long Beach, four of which were podium results. 

This will be the Long Beach debuts for Lundqvist and Simpson. 

Chip Ganassi Racing has had five different drivers win at Long Beach. Along with Dixon, Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti are responsible for Ganassi's victories, with Zanardi having won consecutive years in 1997 and 1998.

More Debuts

It might be the second weekend of the season, but that does not mean we do not have some IndyCar debuts... well, we know of at least one, but a second could be on the horizon.

Nolan Siegel will compete in his first official IndyCar race this weekend driving the #51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. Siegel competed in The Thermal Challenge last month at The Thermal Club for Coyne in the #18 Honda. He was seventh in the first heat race, falling one spot short of transferring to the final race.

The California is competing in his second Indy Lights season this year and he won the season opener for the series last month at St. Petersburg. Last year, Siegel won two races and stood on the podium five times as he finished third in the Indy Light championship. After starting the 2023 season with four podium finishes in the first six races, he had only one podium finish in the final eight races. Siegel has also won races in LMP2 competition between IMSA and the Asian Le Mans Series. He won at Petit Le Mans last year driving with George Kurtz and Ben Hanley for CrowdStrike Racing by APR. 

He will become the first driver to start an Indy Lights race and an IndyCar race in the same season since Patricio O'Ward and Colton Herta each made their IndyCar debuts in the 2018 IndyCar season finale at Sonoma. Sonoma occurred after the Indy Lights season had concluded where O'Ward claimed the championship at Portland the week before with Herta finishing second in the championship.

At 19 years, five months and 12 days old, Siegel would be the 16th youngest driver in IndyCar history if he starts on Sunday. If he wins, Siegel would become the third-youngest winner in IndyCar history, and he would be two days younger than Marco Andretti when Andretti won at Sonoma in 2006.

Siegel's debut was scheduled prior to the start of the season. Théo Pourchaire's debut was unexpected, but with David Malukas remaining sidelined with a wrist injury, and Callum Ilott busy competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Pourchaire will take over the #6 Chevrolet this weekend.

Pourchaire was the 2023 Formula Two champion with only one victory in the Bahrain feature, but ten podium finishes, 14 top five finishes and 19 points finishes over the 26 races. The Frenchman made 81 starts over four seasons in Formula Two. He won six races, five of which were feature races. He was second in the 2022 championship behind Felipe Drugovich. Pourchaire was second in the 2020 Formula Three championship, three points behind Oscar Piastri and one point ahead of Logan Sargeant. 

While still a Sauber F1 test and reserve driver, Pourchaire is competing full-time this year in the Super Formula championship driving for Team Impul. He was 18th in the Suzuka season opener on March 10. 

At 20 years, eight months and one day old, Pourchaire would become the 28th youngest driver in IndyCar history. If he wins, Pourchaire would become the sixth-youngest winner in IndyCar history, and he would be three days younger than Rinus VeeKay when VeeKay won the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

IMSA

Long Beach marks the third round of the IMSA season, and this weekend the GTP and GTD class will contest a 100-minute race along Shoreline Drive. Twenty-seven cars are set to compete on Saturday afternoon. 

Through two rounds, the #7 Porsche of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr and the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura of Louis Delétraz and Jordan Taylor are tied for the GTP championship lead on 706 points. The #7 Porsche went first and third at Daytona and Sebring respectively while the #40 Acura did the inverse, finishing third and first over the first two rounds. 

The #31 Whelen Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani is in third on 600 points while the #01 Cadillac of Sébastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande is on 594 points. 

The BMWs sandwich the #6 Porsche. Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly have the #25 BMW points on 570 points, 25 points ahead of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy in the #6 Porsche. Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn are on 531 points in the #24 BMW. 

Rounding out the top ten in the championship are the #10 WTRAndretti Acura of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor on 525 points, the #5 Proton Competition Porsche, which has Mike Rockenfeller joining Gianmaria Bruni this weekend, is on 514 points, and the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche of Tijmen van der Helm and Richard Westbrook on 497 points. 

Jaminet and Tandy are the defending race winners while there have been five different winners in the last four Long Beach races. Prior to Porsche's overall victory last year, General Motors had won seven consecutive Long Beach races between the Corvette GP and the Cadillac DPi. 

Seventeen cars are in the GTD class, including a few one-off entries. 

Winward Racing has won the first two races with the #57 Mercedes-AMG, and it has Russell Ward and Philip Ellis leading the championship on 725 points. Among the teams entered for this weekend, Wright Motorsports is second in points with the #120 Porsche of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer 155 points behind the Winward Mercedes-AMG. Conquest Racing finds itself in third on 545 points with the Alberto Costa and Manny Franco. 

VasserSullivan Lexus won last year in GTD Pro at Long Beach, and Lexus will enter two cars in GTD this weekend. Lexus is splitting its normal full-time GTD lineup. Frankie Montecalvo remains in the #12 Lexus while Jack Hawksworth joins Montecalvo. Parker Thompson moves to the #89 Lexus alongside Ben Barnicoat. 

This isn't the only driver change this weekend. Heart of Racing Team has drafted in Spencer Pumpelly to pair with Roman De Angelis in the #27 Aston Martin. Pumpelly steps in for Zacharie Robichon, who has FIA World Endurance Championship responsibilities this weekend at Imola. Stevan McAleer will be in the #66 Gradient Racing Acura alongside Sheena Monk, as McAleer will replace Katherine Legge for the rest of the season. 

There is also a returning entry this weekend. Flying Lizard Racing returns to IMSA competition for the first time since 2016. Flying Lizard has entered the #28 Aston Martin for Andy Lee and Elias Sabo.

Paul Miller Racing has won the last three years in GTD, but PMR is not here as it is competing in the GTD Pro class this season. BMW has won the last two years in the class, but the only BMW entered this year is Turner Motorsport's #96 M4 GT3 with Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher. 

The IMSA race will take place at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday April 20 with coverage on USA.

Fast Facts

This will be the seventh IndyCar race to take place on April 21 and first since Takuma Sato won at Long Beach in 2013. That remains A.J. Foyt Racing's most recent race victory. 

Only once has the Grand Prix of Long Beach taken place later in the month of April than the 21st. The 1990 Grand Prix of Long Beach was held on April 22. Al Unser, Jr. won it. It was Unser, Jr.'s third consecutive Long Beach victory. 

American drivers have combined to win five consecutive Grand Prix of Long Beach. This is the longest streak of American winners since Americans won the first nine Long Beach races under CART sanctioning.

Prior to this streak, American drivers had only won one of the previous 15 Long Beach races.

Alexander Rossi is the only repeat winner in the last ten Long Beach races.

Team Penske has the most Long Beach victories with seven. Newman/Haas Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Global are all tied with six.

Only twice in the 15 seasons since reunification has the Long Beach winner gone on to win the championship: Dario Franchitti 2009 and Scott Dixon 2015.

The Long Beach winner won the championship in eight of the 12 seasons preceding reunification. 

The Long Beach winner has won the championship in 13 of its 39 seasons on the IndyCar schedule.

Four drivers have had their first career IndyCar victory come at Long Beach: Paul Tracy 1993, Juan Pablo Montoya 1999, Mike Conway 2011 and Takuma Sato 2013.

Only two drivers have won the Grand Prix of Long Beach and the Indianapolis 500 in the same season (Al Unser, Jr. 1994, Hélio Castroneves 2001).

The average starting position for a Long Beach winner is 4.256 with a median of second. 

Four of the last five Long Beach races have been won from the front row. Sixteen of the last 19 Long Beach races have been won from one of the first two rows. Seventeen of the last 22 Long Beach races have been won from one of the first two rows.

The pole-sitter has won three of the last five Long Beach races. Prior to this streak, the pole-sitter had not won in the previous ten Long Beach races.

The average number of lead changes in a Long Beach race is 5.0769 with a median of six. 

The last nine Long Beach races have had five lead changes or more. 

The most recent Long Beach race with fewer than four lead changes was 2008, which only had three lead changes. 

The most recent Long Beach race with zero changes was 2001. In the IndyCar-era, only two other Long Beach races have had zero lead changes (1984 and 1987).

The average number of cautions in a Long Beach race is 2.846 with a median of three. The average number of caution laps is 11.384 with a median of 12. 

Eight of the last 12 Long Beach races have had three cautions or more. Twenty-two of the last 28 Long Beach races have had three cautions or more.

There has never been rain on race day for the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Predictions

Álex Palou will extend his top ten finish streak to 20 races, and Palou will do it with a victory. Palou's toughest opposition will be a Team Penske driver, but Honda will take majority of the top five finishes, and Honda will have a great command over this race. Felix Rosenqvist will finish at least three spots better than his starting position and he will finish in the top ten. If Théo Pourchaire is in the race, he will be the top finishing rookie. Patricio O'Ward will not take out any cars. Romain Grosjean will not take out any cars. Alexander Rossi will not suffer a suspension failure on the final lap. Sleeper: Jack Harvey.

Musings From the Weekend: What Would 2014 Think of Today?

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Maverick Viñales ended a three-year winless drought with his victory in Austin, and Viñales also won the sprint race as a bonus. Marc Márquez was quick but lost the bike almost immediately after he took the lead. Everyone wants to race with MotoGP. Formula One announced it 2025 calendar, because why wait to get through April? Formula E had some technical infractions that have left the paddock miffed. There is a tie at the top of the Supercross championship with four races remaining. A new team will be entering IndyCar, and that has me thinking about ten years in the past.

What Would 2014 Think of Today

Though there was technically testing for the Indianapolis 500 held this past week, the biggest IndyCar news did not come from a team on track. It came from one that will not be competing until 2025. 

Wednesday afternoon, Prema Racing, a long-time competitor in many European junior series, and current participant in Formula Two and Formula Three, announced it would be entering IndyCar next year with a two-car program with Chevrolet engines. The Italian team will have a shop based out of Indiana, and former Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team president Piers Phillips will lead the operation. 

With Prema's expansion to IndyCar, the IndyCar grid will likely increase to potentially 29 cars, joining the 27 cars already competing full-time in 2024. 

With nearly 30 full-time cars tentatively set for 2025, I must ask, how did we get here? 

A decade ago, two-dozen cars would have been nice. Now, 30 is a conceivable number.

In 2014, the only race outside the Indianapolis 500 that had two-dozen starters or more was the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis with 25 cars. Ten of 18 races that season only had 22 starters. There might have been 11 full-time teams, but three of those teams only fielded one full-time car. 

A year before Prema enters, there are ten multi-car teams on the grid. Every team has at least two cars. Half the teams have at least three entries. The only teams that fielded at least three cars a decade ago where Andretti Autosport, Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske. 

But isn't just the teams and their size, it is who is in the series. 

McLaren is in the series. Ten years ago, that wasn't even thinkable. Juncos Hollinger Racing has expanded from its Road to Indy roots and has funding from Argentina. Again, unlikely in 2014. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is now running three cars and has a sponsor that has committed to sponsoring two races. In 2014, the only companies sponsoring multiple race weekends were Firestone and Honda, two long-time series sponsors. HyVee entered the fold within the last three years. 

But it isn't just the teams, their size, and who is supporting these teams, it is who is driving as well. 

A decade ago, we were excited about Kurt Busch running The Double, and Jacques Villeneuve's unexpected return to the Indianapolis 500, but consider since then we have had Fernando Alonso choose the Indianapolis 500 over the Monaco Grand Prix and Jimmie Johnson ran the Indianapolis 500 not in a Double attempt but as a full-time IndyCar driver. 

Now, we have Kyle Larson, less than three years removed from his first NASCAR Cup Series championship, attempting The Double, and Larson will be doing it against a multi-time Supercars champion in Scott McLaughlin, who has since made the full-time switch to IndyCar, and a host Formula One veterans like Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean while also running against some promising international talent that could not quite find a place in the world championship. 

We don't even need to go back to 2014 to see how stark the change has been. Go back to 2017. 

There were only 21 cars for the season opener seven years ago. Nine of 17 races had only 21 cars. There were only eight teams on the grid. In less than a decade, the grid has grown by 28.57%. By next year, that growth will be up to 38.09% compared to 2017. 

Less than two weeks prior to Fernando Alonso's shocking announcement of his entry into the 2017 Indianapolis 500, I lamented the lack of big names at Indianapolis, and the series not being the draw it thought it was. Alonso flipped that notion upside down quite quickly, and it hasn't changed much since that day. IndyCar might not be the first choice series to every driver in the world, but it is attracting better talent. 

Looking at the IndyCar entry list now, and especially this year's Indianapolis 500, the grid turns some heads. Someone good might miss the race, and someone will miss the race. Bumping has been regular of late. This year will likely be no different. We know at least one car will miss, but there is a good chance it will be two. Seven years ago, a decade ago, we were hopefully there might be a 34th entry just so qualifying could have meaning at the back of the grid. Now, we know there will be bumping, it is a matter of is it two cars or maybe three cars going home. 

And we haven't gotten into the drivers' salaries yet. Colton Herta is making north of $7 million per season. Patricio O'Ward could earn about $4.2 million per season based on incentives. Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson are each reportedly making over $3 million a year. It wasn't that long ago where the best drivers weren't making more than $2 million or so a year. I am not sure how long teams can afford those salaries, but they are here now and they were complete lunacy not long ago.

If you were told ten years ago today, IndyCar would be pushing 30 full-time cars with McLaren on the grid and another European based team on the verge of joining while drivers were making over $5 million a year, and during that decade Fernando Alonso and Kyle Larson would each attempt the Indianapolis 500 while full-time drivers in Formula One and NASCAR respectively, and Jimmie Johnson would make a full-time switch to IndyCar, you would have thought IndyCar had reach the mountaintop and returned to the promised land of the pre-split, early 1990s. 

It isn't the case that IndyCar has seen a popularity boom. Coincidentally, that is Formula One, but IndyCar has come a long way in a decade. There are still concerns, some we wish did not exist. People are still unhappy about something (long gap in the schedule, exhibition race at Thermal Club, Honda wishy-washy about continued participation in the series and the only answer likely being a spec engine package) but steps have been made. The level feels considerably higher in IndyCar than it was ten years ago. 

On the surface, our past selves could not have fathomed some of the highlights of IndyCar's last decade, and we must acknowledge how far things have come. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Maverick Viñales, but did you know...

Sergio García won the Moto2 race from Austin ahead of American Joe Roberts. David Alonso won the Moto3 race, his second victory of the season.

Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Texas. Sam Mayer won the Grand National Series race. Kyle Busch won the Truck race.

Oliver Rowland and Pascal Wehrlein split the Misano ePrix. Rowland was awarded victory in race one after António Félix da Costa was disqualified for using an ineligible throttle damper setting.

The #37 COOL Racing Oreca-Gibson of Ritomo Miyata, Malthe Jakobsen and Lorenzo Fluxá won the 4 Hours of Barcelona. The #8 Team Virage Ligier-Nissan of Julien Gerbi, Gillian Henrion and Bernardo Pinheiro won the LMP3 class. The #50 Formula Racing Ferrari of Conrad Laursen, Johnny Laursen and Nicklas Nielson won the GT3 class.

The #36 TGR Team au TOM’S Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita won the Super GT race from Okayama. The #2 muta Racing INGING Toyota of Yuui Tsutsumi and Hibiki Tariq won in GT300.

Cooper Webb won the Supercross race from Foxborough, his fourth victory of the season. Haiden Deegan won the 250cc race, his second victory of the season.

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar finally returns with Long Beach. IMSA will tag along as well.

Formula One returns to China for the first time in five years.

NASCAR is at Talladega.

The FIA World Endurance Championship has its first race ever at Imola.

Supercars has its first race ever at Taupō.

World Superbike visits Assen.

The World Rally Championship makes a stop in Croatia. 

Supercross has a round in Nashville.

What Did We Learn From Testing?

What was supposed to be two days of testing ahead of next month’s 108th Indianapolis 500 turned out to be less than six hours of track time despite all efforts IndyCar made to maximize whatever clear weather could be found at the corner of 16th and Georgetown. Undoubtedly, nobody is leaving Speedway, Indiana satisfied with the amount of track time over these two days, but this is all they will get until the middle of May. 

With the cars packed away and teams turning their attention to Long Beach, this is a chance to pick apart what little we saw from the rain-shortened test.

What did we learn?

Honestly, nothing!

We confirmed Katherine Legge will be in the #51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, and she is bringing a notable sponsor.

Conor Daly has a sponsor that could end up being at the center of lawsuit within the next decade. 

Christian Rasmussen will use #33. 

David Malukas is still hurt. 

Théo Pourchaire was still in Indianapolis.

Everyone is frustrated that there are about 18 pink cars. There was not much we could learn from such little track time, and almost half of it was dedicated to Rookie Orientation and refresher programs. 

If you look at the time sheet, there were no surprises from the limited track time. Josef Newgarden was fastest, the fourth consecutive year Newgarden was fastest at the April test. Scott Dixon and Álex Palou were both in the top five. Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood each were in the top ten, as was Scott McLaughlin. The big names are all there. 

Who does the rain hurt the most?

When you are one of two Indianapolis 500-only teams, you were probably hoping to complete more than 29 combined laps over your two cars, but 29 laps is all Dreyer & Reinbold Racing got between Ryan Hunter-Reay and Conor Daly. Hunter-Reay's seven laps were the fewest any driver completed and Arrow McLaren’s Callum Ilott was the only other driver to compete under ten laps. 

Considering D&R regularly is respectable when it comes to speed, there is not too much concern with D&R. Juncos Hollinger Racing only completed 44 laps and A.J. Foyt Racing only completed 50 laps. The Dale Coyne Racing drivers of Legge and Nolan Siegel were 29th and 31st respectively. 

I would say this hurt Coyne's drivers the most because both Legge and Siegel could have used the time. They both ran more laps than most, Siegel completed 63 laps and Legge ran 59, but they likely don't have many more answers than when they started Tuesday. Two full days would have done wonders for that group.

Will Kyle Larson win the Indianapolis 500?

Two years ago, after the April test, I wrote overreactions to the test days. Here is one for 2024. 

Larson was second in the test, his fastest lap at 226.384 mph. Larson is going to win this race by nine laps. Larson is going to lead 202 of 200 laps this year. Larson's victory will unite the world and he will be carried out of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and on the backs of the people he will be brought to Charlotte Motor Speedway where the Coca-Cola 600 will be postponed for four days to allow the millions of people between the two tracks to come out on their own and offer up adoration as Larson passes. 

Alright, now with that out of the way, no one should be surprised Larson, arguably the best driver in the world, became comfortable in an IndyCar almost immediately. Has there been any race car that has befuddled Larson in his career? He slides behind the wheel and gets it quickly. Larson was suspended for practically an entire NASCAR Cup season, and he won in his fourth race back on his way to his first Cup championship that season. 

A lot of things will happen between now and the checkered flag for the 108th Indianapolis 500. Scott Dixon lost the Indianapolis 500 speeding entering the pit lane for this final pit stop. Engine fails. Unsafe releases happen. Drivers can stall the car. This is not set in stone. No one anticipated a one-lap sprint immediately after a red flag deciding last year's race. 

For anyone to think this race is clearly Larson's to lose is kidding themselves, but Larson is set up to succeed. He is driving for McLaren and has two stout teammates in the same stable. This has been far from a half-assed effort. Whether it ends in victory or not will require the same million things falling just right as with anyone else entered in this race. 

Is there anyone who should at least be happy?

I hinted at it in the testing primer, I think Felix Rosenqvist and Meyer Shank Racing should feel good even on the abbreviated day. After starting on the front row and finishing seventh at St. Petersburg and winning a heat race and finishing third overall at Thermal Club, Rosenqvist was tenth in the test with 49 laps completed. 

It isn't an exact indication where this team is because no one ran a full program and got close to going as far as they felt comfortable for an April test, but Rosenqvist ended up in the top ten should boost MSR's confidence. It is another case of the team being in a competition position a season after the team never was in that spot. 

Add in Herta and Kirkwood being in the top ten, and the Andretti Global/MSR alliance had three in the top ten. That was more than Team Penske, more than Chip Ganassi Racing and more than McLaren. I think this is a good place to start for the Andretti/MSR alliance and something to build from in a month's time. 

Do we have any answers about Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing?

Not really.

If you go based on the combined results from Wednesday, the RLLR cars were 19th (Graham Rahal), 21st (Christian Lundgaard), 23rd (Takuma Sato) and 30th (Pietro Fittipaldi), and Fittipaldi did little more than complete the refresher program. Fittipaldi completed 63 laps while the other three RLLR drivers completed a combined 63 laps.

Last year, RLLR's cars were 23rd, 26th, 28th and 33rd at the April test, and that was a full day where the three full-time RLLR cars all ran over 100 laps. 

It could be worse. That is probably the best way to look at it, but we really don't have enough to be certain. If anything, it is kind of the same scenario we saw last year with RLLR. All the cars are together. There is consistency. The problem was the consistency had three of its cars in the last chance qualifying session last year, and the fourth car was starting 30th. 

It also could have been better. I am sure one of the RLLR cars could have put up a good number and had everyone in the team confident it made a jump forward.

The questions will remain.

Can Ed Carpenter Racing get some love?

Sure! 

Ed Carpenter was seventh while Christian Rasmussen was tenth despite having to complete ROP. Rinus VeeKay was 12th. The speed the last few years at ECR has been with VeeKay in qualifying. The Dutchman has never started worse than fourth in four Indianapolis 500 appearances. Carpenter has started fourth or better in seven of the last 11 years. 

The qualifying speed will likely be there. It is the race where we need to see it. Carpenter is remembered for his runner-up finish in 2018, but his average finish in the Indianapolis 500 since running for his own team starting in 2012 is 17.25, and he has finished in the back half of the field of 33 in three of the last four years. For comparison, in Carpenter's eight "500s" not with his own team his average finish was 13.875 and he finished in the back half of the field of 33 only once. 

ECR has had 30 starters in the Indianapolis 500 since establishing in 2012 and including the 2015 season as CFH Racing. The team has three top five finishes and 13 top ten finishes. It has had at least one top ten finisher in each of the last three years and in five of the last six. 

All signs point to at least one ECR car being toward the front. Can it have a car in the lead group coming to the checkered flag? 

Is there anything else we should know?

I think that covers it. Last year, 3,108 total laps were completed in the one April test day. This year, only 1,327 laps were complete. We basically got half a test. With half a test comes half the answers. It only makes the dwindling days until IndyCar's biggest race that more tense. We will find out more in a month. Let the waiting begin!

108th Indianapolis 500 Testing Primer

We are still in the middle of IndyCar's extended spring break, and the solar eclipse is behind us, but IndyCar is starting to get busy. April begins with a pivotal two-day test session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of next month's Indianapolis 500. 

Over 12 hours of track time has been set aside for the teams in preparation for IndyCar's biggest race. These two days will take care of Rookie Orientation and refresher requirements for returning drivers while everyone hopes to use these two days to set themselves up for a successful May.

There are many questions ahead of this testing session. We hope to address those, both procedural and quizzical questions, before any cars roll out of Gasoline Alley.  

Schedule

The test session begins at 11:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday May 10 with a two-hour session for veterans. This would be for the 27 drivers who have raced an oval race since last year's Indianapolis 500. At 1:00 p.m., the two-hour Rookie Orientation/refresher session will begin. At 3:00 p.m. ET, a three-hour all-skate session will take place.

Thursday May 11 will have a six-hour all-skate session scheduled to take place from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

There are contingency plans in place for bad weather, as rain looks ominous for Thursday. There is a chance Wednesday running could go later in the day, and Friday is available as a possible rain date if IndyCar deems it necessary.

Forecast calls for an 88% chance of rain on Wednesday with showers throughout the day. Rain remains in the forecast for through Thursday. On Friday, rain may continue into the morning but pass come the afternoon. Winds could be between 20-30 mph on Friday. 

Peacock will have coverage of the test.

Update: Wednesday’s on-track session will begin at 9:00 a.m. with the two-hour veterans’ session. The ROP/refresher portion will be at 11:00 a.m. and last for two hours. The all-skate will begin at 1:00 p.m. and run through 6:30 p.m. 

Thursday’s schedule remains unchanged. 

Who must run Rookie Orientation and the refresher program?

At the moment, there will be three drivers completing Rookie Orientation and two drivers completing the fresher program. 

Kyffin Simpson, Christian Rasmussen and Nolan Siegel will be completing ROP. None of these three drivers participated in the test held at the Speedway last October when other rookies completed the required orientation. 

Marco Andretti and Pietro Fittipaldi are the two drivers required to complete the refresher. Andretti's only IndyCar race was last year's Indianapolis 500. Fittipaldi's only Indianapolis 500 appearance was three years ago in 2021.

Rookie Orientation remains three phases. The first phase requires ten laps between 205-210 mph. Phase two is 15 laps between 210-215 mph. The final phase is 15 laps at 215 mph or faster. For the refresher program, a driver must complete the final two phases or Rookie Orientation, 15 laps between 210-215 mph and 15 laps at 215 ph or faster. 

What should we expect for Kyle Larson?

The long-anticipated Indianapolis 500 appearance of Larson is happening this year, and the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion will get back in the car after having tested and completed Rookie Orientation last October. Larson also had another test at Phoenix International Raceway this past February where he spent about three hours on track. 

These will be Larson's first official timed sessions in an IndyCar. The American drew praise from Arrow McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan after the test in October, where Larson completed 72 laps. At the Phoenix test, Larson had a notable moment where got sideways but was able to correct the car. He ran about 200 miles at Phoenix. 

Larson is driving for an Arrow McLaren team that has its wits about it at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This isn't the same McLaren that missed track time due to the car being painted the wrong shade of orange and ended up failing to qualify for the race. This isn't the same organization that missed the race and had a few years in the last chance qualifying session when known as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. McLaren has produced race-winning caliber cars the last two years and that should likely remain the same this year. 

It is still a new experience for Larson and he will continue to learn over this session and every session, including the race, should he qualify. 

This is also a NASCAR Cup Series champion that has won the top dirt races in the United States from the Knoxville Nationals to the Chili Bowl and took no time getting up to a competitive speed in a dirt late model. He has a 24 Hours of Daytona overall victory as well. 

There is a fine line between being the fastest man on track and being in danger of being bumped. Larson will not do anything risky during this test. The team will amp up as the two days go along, but he will not be attempting mock qualifying runs with the car fully trimmed out. The goal will be to get Larson comfortable. If he is comfortable, the speed will show and he should be in a respectable position after these two days are over.

Has Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing found speed?

It was a May of horrors for RLLR last year. Three of its four cars were in the last chance qualifying session to fill the final row, all four cars were in the bottom five, and Graham Rahal, the team's most senior driver, ended up bumped from the race. 

After the nightmare of 2023, RLLR cannot afford to be close to the same position in 2024. With a lack of high-speed ovals on the IndyCar calendar, we have not great measuring stick for where RLLR stands from Indianapolis last year. In 2023, we knew at Texas the team was struggling for speed and its was unsurprising when the team found itself in the cellar when the teams showed up to 16th & Georgetown. 

We don't know where RLLR stands, and perhaps RLLR doesn't know either. 

It has made a few changes. Fittipaldi is in for Jack Harvey. Takuma Sato returns to the organization in a fourth entry. RLLR doubled it engineering department during the offseason, a pricey investment with David Cripps leading the oval R&D. Cripps was a key engineer at Panther Racing during its span when Panther had four consecutive runner-up finishes in the Indianapolis 500.

The goal should be the middle to start for RLLR. If it has multiple cars in the bottom ten times after these two days, it could signal another long May ahead.

Is Team Penske better than it was last year?

Josef Newgarden might have won the Indianapolis 500 last year, but let's not act like it was a brilliant month of May for the Team Penske organization. 

For the fourth consecutive year, none of the Penske entries started on one of the first three rows. Prior to this stretch, the last time Penske did not have a car start in the first three rows was 2002, the team's second year back at Indianapolis after The Split. Prior to this four-year stretch, the only other year in which Team Penske participated in the Indianapolis 500 and did not have a starter in the first three rows was 1995 when both cars failed to make the race. This four-year stretch without a front row starter is the longest Team Penske has gone without a car on the front row since its first Indianapolis appearance in 1969.

Despite Penske's shortcomings last year, Newgarden ended up at the front late and led five laps on his way to winning the race. The victory makes up for Scott McLaughlin finishing 14th and Will Power finishing five laps down in 23rd after brushing the barrier with the only lap Power having led been during a pit cycle.

Team Penske has failed to have multiple top ten finishers in the Indianapolis 500 in the last four years. It was shutout of a top ten spot in 2022. Though the defending race winners, Penske has an abundant room for growth from 2023 to 2024 in this race. It cuts both ways though. Based on the last few years, we should not be surprised if Penske isn't not leading the way and setting the pace, but it is Team Penske. No one can be surprised if it has all three of its entries right at the front either.

Does inexperience hurt Chip Ganassi Racing?

Last year, Chip Ganassi Racing had three past Indianapolis 500 winners and a past runner-up finisher in the "500" in its lineup. This year, Chip Ganassi racing has three Indianapolis 500 debutants, one past Indianapolis 500 winner and a past runner-up finisher in the "500" in its lineup. 

Not many teams see a wholesale change like that from one year to the next but it is what is awaiting the Ganassi organization this May. Marcus Ericsson and Takuma Sato are out. Marcus Armstrong, Linus Lundqvist and Kyffin Simpson are in. 

Last year, all four Ganassi cars finished in the top ten, including Ericsson finishing second, falling 0.0974 seconds shy of becoming the first back-to-back winner since 2002, and Álex Palou overcame contact in the pit lane mid-race with Rinus VeeKay to finish fourth. 

Palou and Scott Dixon are as good as any duo you could want driving for your team at Indianapolis, but there is no reason to be certain any of the Ganassi rookies will be able to match what the team did last year. None of these rookies have raced on a large oval before. The largest oval Lundqvist and Simpson have raced on is the 1.25-mile oval at Gateway Motorsports Park in Indy Lights. Armstrong has never raced on an oval before. 

This team will be reliant on its top two drivers. There will not be Marcus Ericsson waiting in the wings to step up should Scott Dixon speed entering the pit lane on his final stop this year, but that aside, does Ganassi take a dip across the board because of the inexperience imbalance? Palou was on pole position last year with all four cars starting in the top ten. If the wrong car is struggling, will it drag the entire team down?

Can Andretti Global find itself back at the front?

From 2014 to 2017, the team formerly known as Andretti Autosport won the Indianapolis 500 three times. From 2018 to 2023, the team formerly known as Andretti Autosport had four combined top five finishes in the Indianapolis 500. Last year was the third time in the last four years Andretti Global did not have a top five finisher on Memorial Day weekend. Three years ago, the team didn't even place a car in the top fifteen. 

Maybe a rebranded team name will help, but the Andretti Global group is taking more steps than changing some wording. With only three full-time cars, it is only entering four cars for Indianapolis. Along with full-timers Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood and the driver who has finished first and second the last two years in the "500," Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global brings back Marco Andretti as a one-off entry. 

Last year wasn't that bad for Andretti Autosport. Kirkwood was running in a top five position when he was collateral damage after Felix Rosenqvist spun. Colton Herta had a promising race going until friendly fire in the pit lane when then-teammate Romain Grosjean collided as Herta was exiting his pit box. Despite this set back, Herta still finished ninth. Even Devlin DeFrancesco had a respectable day for the team, finishing 13th. 

Andretti Global still has work to do. It has not had a top five finish on an oval since Alexander Rossi was fifth in the 2022 Indianapolis 500. It hasn't had a top three finish on an oval since Rossi was second at Texas in 2019. The team's most recent oval victory was Rossi at Pocono in 2018. The last time an Andretti driver not named Alexander Rossi finished in the top five on an oval was Colton Herta in the first Gateway race in 2020. The last time an Andretti driver not named Rossi won an oval race was Takuma Sato's 2017 Indianapolis 500 victory.

From 2014 to 2017, Andretti cars led a combined 278 of 800 laps at Indianapolis. Since 2018, the team has led only 81 of 1,200 laps run. 

Was last year a fluke for A.J. Foyt Racing?

Along with Team Penske's Josef Newgarden and Chip Ganassi Racing's Marcus Ericsson, the third driver in the fight to the checkered flag in the closing laps last year was A.J. Foyt Racing's Santino Ferrucci, in what was a standout year for the Connecticut-native. 

Ferrucci led 11 laps and his average running position was 5.72 after qualifying fourth. It wasn't just Ferrucci. Foyt had Benjamin Pedersen qualify 11th as both cars made it to the Fast 12. This was before the technical alliance with Team Penske as well.

It was only one race though. For all the good we saw at Indianapolis, Foyt did not replicate that pace and performance any other time in 2023. The team had no other top ten finishes during the season. 

Dropping from two cars making the Fast 12 to both cars being toward the bottom of the timesheet is difficult to imagine, but there is still a chance Foyt takes a step back. That doesn't mean it cannot be competitive though. 

In five years, Ferrucci has five top ten finishes. Only two other drivers have started an Indianapolis 500 career with five consecutive top ten finishes (Harry Hartz and Hélio Castroneves). Ferrucci has also done it with smaller teams, Dale Coyne Racing, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and now Foyt. Ferrucci could still be a contender for the Fast 12 and at least put his car in the top half of the field.

Sting Ray Robb, on the other hand, must convince us. Robb has never started in the top twenty of a race in his IndyCar career. His best starting position on an oval last year was 23rd at Texas. If Benjamin Pedersen can qualify 11th, one must think Robb could at least repeat that performance, but I don't think anyone should be counting on Robb putting the second Foyt car in the top 12 until we see him on track. 

Will Meyer Shank Racing and Felix Rosenqvist keep up its strong start?

There has only been one championship race so far, and it is unclear how much should be drawn from the Thermal Club exhibition race, but it is a good sign that Rosenqvist and MSR were competitive in both weekends. 

Rosenqvist might have struggled on tires at St. Petersburg, but he still finished seventh after qualifying on the front row and being toward the top of every practice session. At Thermal Club, Rosenqvist won his heat race and spent the entire final race running in third position. There wasn't a drop-off at Thermal Club and that should at least be an encouragement for this group.

What also should be encouraging is Rosenqvist has run particularly well at Indianapolis the last two years. If it wasn't for a bobble in turn one last year, he could have had consecutive top five finishes. Meyer Shank Racing has not been competitive at Indianapolis since it won in 2021 with Hélio Castroneves. It is not certain MSR and Rosenqvist can keep it up at Indianapolis, but it has the partnership with Andretti Global, and Castroneves is back as a one-off driver. 

Things should be better than last year, but we could leave this two-day test believing MSR is the sleeper.

Who fills the remaining seats?

At time of posting, there are two open seats on the entry list for the test, the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and the #51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. 

Arrow McLaren has Callum Ilott on standby. Ilott has run the first two events in the #6 Chevrolet, as David Malukas remains out with a wrist injury. Ilott has driven the past two years in the Indianapolis 500, and he would be included in the veterans' session to kick off Wednesday. 

There is not a clear favorite to end up in the #51 Honda for DCR, but Katherine Legge is the name most associated with that seat. Legge returned to the Indianapolis 500 last year for the first time in ten years and she drove for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. If Legge is the #51 Honda's driver, she will need to participate in the refresher program Wednesday afternoon.

Why haven't you mentioned Ed Carpenter Racing yet?

Geez... I don't know. The team has Rinus VeeKay, who has never started worse than fourth in four Indianapolis 500 appearances. Ed Carpenter is there, attempting to win the Indianapolis 500 for the 21st time. Christian Rasmussen will be in a third entry, which number we don't know yet. Ed Carpenter Racing will be fine. The cars will be somewhere between third and 25th once the test is complete.

Who could be in the most trouble?

It has been forgotten how much trouble Juncos Hollinger Racing was in last year. Agustín Canapino did well avoiding ever being in the bumping conversation, but Callum Ilott was in the thick of it until the team decided to switch to the backup car at the end of practice week. That switch paid off as Ilott ran his fastest all May once in the backup car and he went from almost a certain last chance qualifying participant to locked in come Saturday evening. 

Even with the improvement from Ilott, JHR still had its cars qualify 27th and 28th. There is minuscule margin for error in that position. Ilott was in that spot because the team could not figure out what was wrong with its Indianapolis-prepared chassis. The car that was dedicated for this track to be running at its highest potential was in significant danger of the missing the race. The car they thrashed together and going into qualifying blind with was immediately quicker with nothing special being done. 

That should not fill anyone with confidence. That should be kept in mind this year even with Romain Grosjean in the #77 Chevrolet. Grosjean has not had great outings at Indianapolis. He has done respectable in qualifying, but has yet to go the distance in the race. If the car is scary again, I don't know if JHR can pull off another magic trick. 

JHR aside, the team in the most trouble is likely the team that isn't here. 

Abel Motorsports has reportedly been on the verge of confirming its Indianapolis 500 program, only it hasn't yet, and it will not be competing in this week's test. Last year, Abel was not at the test and it was able to have R.C. Enerson regularly inside the top 30 during practice and did enough to have Enerson lock himself in with the 29th fastest time in Saturday qualifying. 

I don't know if Abel Motorsports can pull that off a second time. Every other team is here. It is unlikely RLLR is going to go one-for-four with its cars making the top 30 for a second consecutive year. There is an extra Ganassi car and an extra McLaren. Even worse is, though it appeared Abel and the Enerson family was set to continue for a second year at Indianapolis, we still have no clear picture on what the Abel program will look like. It appears the Enerson is struggling to find sponsorship to complete the funding. 

There is a chance Abel could field another driver if Enerson cannot secure the funding needed, but that only puts the team further in a corner. Whomever Abel signs would likely need to go through Rookie Orientation or the refresher program, and the team would already be two days behind on the field with a new car that has never been on the racetrack before. 

We already have 34 cars set to attempt this year's Indianapolis 500. It will not be as easy as last year where Abel must beat one car to make the field. It will require beating two. This team cannot afford to lose the time it has already lost.

We should keep an eye on Tom Blomqvist as this will be his first oval race ever, and he is still adjusting to a single-seater car after spending most of the last decade in sports cars or touring cars. Indianapolis will be an eye-opener for him. 

Dale Coyne Racing is another question mark. It will have Nolan Siegel in the #18 Honda, and for how good Siegel has been in Indy Lights, he has never been in an IndyCar on an oval let alone Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he is 19 years old. Siegel likely will not even have a veteran driver to lean on. If it is Katherine Legge in the #51 Honda, the team will be pinning its Indianapolis hopes on a teenager and a driver that has one IndyCar start in the last decade. 

DCR was in the last chance qualifying session last year with Sting Ray Robb. If the team cannot find pace, it might never find it this year and the team could be in massive trouble if there are 35 entries as there is a chance both cars could miss the race.

Does this test really tell us anything for May?

Well, last year Josef Newgarden topped the April test and then he won the Indianapolis 500, so whichever driver is the fastest from these test days will be your Indianapolis 500 winner. There really isn't a point in running the race. If it was only that simple. Newgarden has been the fastest car at the end of the April test the last three years, and he is only one-for-three in "500" race victories over that time. 

Of last year's Fast 12 participants, only four were in the top 12 from the April test. Of the top ten finishers in last year's race, only five were in the top ten of the April test. However, in 2022, seven of the top ten from the April test made the Fast 12, and ten of the top 16 made the Fast 12. But only four of the fastest ten from the 2022 April test finished in the top ten of the 2022 race.

Marcus Ericsson and Santino Ferrucci were 18th and 25th fastest respectively in the test last year and they finished second and third. Stefan Wilson was sixth fastest in the test and he qualified 25th. In 2022, the top three finishers were eighth (Ericsson), 21st (Patricio O'Ward) and third (Tony Kanaan) in the April test. Scott Dixon, who led 95 laps from pole position, was fourth in the April test. 

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was toward the bottom last year in the April test, but the speeds did not suggest it would have three of its four cars in the last chance qualifying session. Graham Rahal was the fastest in 23rd. Katherine Legge was the slowest of the RLLR cars at the test in 33rd and she ended up being the one RLLR car to lock in the race from Saturday qualifying. 

Benjamin Pedersen was the slowest in last April’s test and he wound up making the Fast 12. 

This test will not provide us with definitive answers for May, but we will have an a clear idea about a few teams and be leaning one way with no hard evidence as why we feel that way for the rest of them. 

Musings From the Weekend: Let's Talk Television... Again!

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking. 

Sonoma had a weekend, and it got people arguing on Twitter. Notable people too! Not just some rum-dums. Williams still doesn't have a spare, and both drivers had an accident this weekend. Max Verstappen and Red Bull bounced back from Australian misfortune to dominate the Japanese Grand Prix. Team Penske reached 6,000 races started in the organization's history. Hendrick Motorsports celebrated its 40th anniversary. The bottom two-thirds of the Road to Indy raced in Louisiana. Maybe IndyCar should have tagged along? No... no... too soon? Would people have liked a return to NOLA Motorsports Park nine years after the nightmare that was IndyCar's lone visit? How desperate are people for an IndyCar race? None of these questions will be answer, but we will be exploring IndyCar's soon-to-be determined broadcasting future. 

Let's Talk Television... Again!

I was going to use this space to do some more deep diving into the month-by-month IndyCar race winners over the history of the series that was posted last week, but there was an actual report that came out Friday that warrants discussion. 

Two months after we first explored IndyCar's future television deal, it appears we are on the doorstep of that deal being finalized, and it appears to be closer than we first thought. 

The Indianapolis Star's Nathan Brown reported last week the next IndyCar television contract was down to Fox or NBC, and in the last few weeks, NBC has been rising after it appeared the series was firmly set on moving to Fox. Brown did say it was still leaning in Fox's favor, but remaining with NBC was much closer than it was earlier during the preseason. 

When it comes to the finances, Brown reported NBC was looking to pay a slight increase from its current deal, willing to spend $25 million a year while Fox was in the $30-35 million ballpark. However, the big difference is NBC is pushing a network television heavy package with some cable races and the streaming component of Peacock while Fox would have fewer races on network television while most of the races taking place on cable between Fox Sports 1 and possibly even Fox Sports 2. 

While the belief is IndyCar will make a decision sometime before the end of May, Brown said there is a chance we could know as soon as Long Beach weekend, as Fox is based out of Southern California. 

With it pared down to two options, real figures being thrown about and a rough idea of how coverage will be broken down, it is a good time to weigh where we stand and what will happen next. 

There is a chance IndyCar feels it has gone as far as it can with NBC, and while viewership is up marginally, it is time to look elsewhere to try and make that next leap up. That is understandable, and Fox is reportedly offering more money anyway. However, considering IndyCar's philosophy over the last six years, it would be a sharp change to go back to cable-heavy coverage. 

The availability of network television windows put IndyCar in front of more people and naturally boosted ratings without having to do anything seismic. Consider that from 2009 to 2018, IndyCar above 500,000 viewers for cable races only twice over the span. In the last three seasons, when the number of network races have been nine, 14 and 13, the average overall viewership has been over 1.24 million per race. Last year's 1.32 average was IndyCar's best since 2011. 

It is more than network vs. cable though, and it is more than just races. However you may feel about streaming and the abundance of platforms, we aren't going to see a cable television renaissance either. If you have cut the cord, there is an option where you can pay and get every IndyCar race, every IndyCar practice session, every IndyCar qualifying session, and you get the Indy Lights race as well. Not to forget mentioning those practice sessions, qualifying sessions and Indy Lights races are all commercial-free. 

That is Peacock. Fox does not have that over-the-top streaming platform at this time, and that should raise questions of where all that auxiliary coverage will go. Fox plans to be a part of an overarching sports streaming platform with ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery, but that does not exist yet and could face legal pushback. Where you can watch practice and qualifying is as important as the races, and in the year 2025 when this contract will begin you cannot have practice sessions and qualifying sessions not be available to watch somewhere.

Let's also not forget that you will be able to watch two days of Indianapolis 500 testing this week on Peacock, and come May you will get all-day coverage of both qualifying days on Peacock. IndyCar fans love their six-hour mid-week test days. Don't take that away from them!

It is unclear how much Fox values IndyCar practice, but comparing it to NASCAR, it is going to be difficult for IndyCar to break through and bump the FS1 studio shows off the air on Friday. Like any sports network, there are multiple properties and everyone must get along. The Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs game this past Saturday bumped NASCAR practice and qualifying to FS2. If IndyCar is going to be on FS2, it mind as well stay on Peacock. That goes for races as well. If you think Peacock is difficult, wait until you search for FS2.

If there is anything we have learned over the last few months, it is the ceiling is much higher on Peacock. The NFL Wild Card round game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs drew 23 million viewers on Peacock in January, firmly in the ballpark for a typical NFL game on terrestrial television. If Peacock and streaming platforms aren't holding back the NFL, it shouldn't hold back IndyCar either. There might need to be some work to be done to get more viewers on Peacock, but IndyCar is probably more likely going to match average race viewership on Peacock than Fox Sports 2, where the highest rated program ever on the channel is 582,000 viewers. The average viewership for FS2 in 2023 was 20,000 viewers. 

IndyCar must recognize the world in 2024, and see the value in being accessible through a streaming platform while also having races on network and occasionally on cable. Taking the money and tying itself to cable is not a great long-term strategy, especially when it could only be about $5-10 million more in the series' wallet. It would be a limitation to the series if the only way you could view it is requiring people to subscribe for a cable package, something fewer people are subscribing to and those numbers are continuing to go down. It is one thing if Fox was offering more than double the other offer, but that isn't the case. It isn't a transformational amount of money for IndyCar to decide to make a transformational step backward in media distribution. 

We are entering an unknown period for motorsports broadcasting in the United States. NASCAR is going to have five races exclusively on Amazon Prime. All of NASCAR's practice and qualifying sessions outside of the Daytona 500, the Busch Clash and All-Star Race will only be available via Amazon Prime or Warner Bros. Discovery's B/R Sports Add-On on the Max platform. 

Fox and NBC will remain as NASCAR partners, but only 12 championship Cup races will be on Fox next year, down from 16, in addition to the Clash and All-Star Race. NBC will have only 14 Cup races, down from 20. Any opportunity for IndyCar having synergy with NASCAR coverage on Fox or NBC will decrease next year regardless which is IndyCar's partner. There would only be about four IndyCar races taking place during the Fox portion of the NASCAR season next year, and the Indianapolis 500 would not be one of those. Fox isn't going to have an Indianapolis 500 into Coca-Cola 600 full day of racing. The Charlotte race will be on Amazon Prime. 

Even with NBC, it will not be picking up NASCAR until August next year instead of in June like it has. By the time NASCAR starts on NBC, IndyCar will only have about four weekends left in its season. While there are more cable races this year for IndyCar, those have been strategically placed to be either lead-in programming to a Cup race on USA or following a Cup race on USA. There will be fewer opportunities to do such things next year. If there is any saving grace, IMSA will also be on NBC next year, and there are already two weekends that IMSA and IndyCar share a venue, and there will be at least other weekend where an IMSA race leads into an IndyCar race. That isn't a bad thing. 

This next television contract isn't just about 2025. It is going to be for the next three or five seasons, and things change quick. That deal will set off the dominoes for the future. IndyCar cannot afford to limit its exposure. It is important it has a contract that has the races be available whether you have digital rabbit ears or are exclusively streaming. This is a crucial time where it all comes down to where 87-year-old Roger Penske decides what is best for the future.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Max Verstappen, but did you know...

William Byron won the NASCAR Cup race at Martinsville, his third victory of the season. Aric Almirola won the Grand National Series race. Christian Eckes won the Truck race, his second victory of the season.

Hunter Yeany (race one) and Nikita Johnson (races two and three) split the USF Pro 2000 races from NOLA Motorsports Park. Max Gracia, Sam Corry and Nico Christodoulou split the U.S. F2000 races. 

The #998 ROWE Racing BMW of Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper and Max Hesse won the 3 Hours of Paul Ricard. 

The #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer swept the GT World Challenge America races from Sonoma. The #68 Smooge Racing Toyota of John Geesbreght and Tyler Gonzalez and the #51 AutoTechnic Racing BMW of Colin Garrett and Zac Anderson split the GT4 America. Jason Daskalos and Johnny O'Connell split the GT America.

Coming Up This Weekend

Austin hosts MotoGP.

Texas is busy with NASCAR north up the road in Fort Worth.

Super GT opens at Okayama.

European Le Mans Series opens at Barcelona. 

Supercross is back in Foxborough. 

Formula E makes its first visit to Misano for a doubleheader.

IndyCar Month-By-Month Winners

Since we are in a bit of a lull during the IndyCar season, it was best to use this time to complete some projects. This one was started about five years ago but was put on the backburner shearly because how time consuming it would be. After a few times updating it, over the last few weeks it was finally completed and it fully has an answer.

Who has the most IndyCar race victories per month? 

A completely excessive exercise, but something we cannot readily find an answer for in the history book. It is more done out of pure fascination than anything else. A season generally runs from spring through summer and maybe into autumn. There could even be that sneaky race run in winter just prior to the vernal equinox. Out of 12 months, about six regularly have races, but spring is different than summer, and summer is different than autumn. Different race conditions can produce different results. 

The main level of interest was seeing if certain drivers do better during certain points of the year. Are there drivers that always start hot and then burn out when summer begins? Are there drivers that take a few months to get up to speed and then go on a tear during the hottest time of the year? Or are the best the best and consistently win no matter the time of the year?

That is what is hopefully answered after this exercise? 

Where do we begin? 

We are going over each month and recognizing the top winner for each month before delving into some of the other top performers and then anything else interesting to note from this research. 

January

Most Victories: Eddie Cheever - 2

You might not be surprised to learn it only takes two victories to have the most January victories in IndyCar history. Well, there have only been seven January races ever, five of which occurred from 1996 to 2000 at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Florida. 

Eddie Cheever won the second of those races in 1997, a rain-shortened race where Cheever inherited the lead after Tony Stewart spun out of first position due to an oil leak from his own car, and Cheever won the fourth of those races in 1999. Cheever's victory in 1997 was his first career IndyCar victory in his 87th career start.

Other Top Drivers: There are five other drivers to have won in January. George Hill, Earl Cooper, Buzz Calkins, Tony Stewart and Robbie Buhl.

Hill and Cooper each won in San Diego on January 1, 1913 and January 9, 1915 respectively, but on two entirely different courses. 

Interesting Notes: For Hill and Calkins, it was the only career victory for each driver and both drivers won on their debuts. For Buhl, it was his final of two career victories, but it came in the very first race for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and it remains Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's only IndyCar victory to this day.

It should come as no surprise that with seven total races, January is the least raced in month in IndyCar history.

February

Most Victories: Ralph DePalma & Jimmy Murphy - 3

There are a healthy number more February races than January, but the all-time leaders are two drivers who last won in February over a century ago. 

DePalma was the first to three. He won in Santa Monica on February 26, 1914. Seven years and one day later, he won twice on the Los Angeles Motor Speedway, a 1.25-mile board oval located in Beverly Hills. 

On the day DePalma won those two races in Beverly Hills, Jimmy Murphy also won that day on the same circuit, a little over a year after Murphy won in Beverly Hills for the first time. Murphy's third February victory came on February 25, 1923 at Beverly Hills. 

Other Top Drivers: Only two other drivers have won multiple times in February.

Eddie O'Donnell won twice in a five-day period between February 3 and February 7, 1915. O'Donnell won in Glendale California on Tropico Road, a 1.9-mile street course and then won at Ascot Speedway, a one-mile dirt oval. 

Al Unser swept the Rafaela, Argentina doubleheader held on February 27, 1971. Lloyd Ruby finished second in both of those races in two events that were absent of A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti, but did feature Cale Yarborough. Bobby Unser burned a piston after three laps in the first race and was unable to participate in the second event. 

Interesting Notes: There have been 22 February races in IndyCar history, but only three have taken place in the 21st century, one of which was on Leap Day 2004 (Sam Hornish, Jr. won at Homestead), but 17 of those races took place between 1911 and 1926.

March

Most Victories: A.J. Foyt - 6

Things pick up as we get into March, and it was inevitable the all-time leader in IndyCar victories would be the all-time leader in victories for at least one month, but here is the catch for A.J. Foyt...

Five of his six March victories were at Ontario Speedway, two of those were 100-heat races ahead of the California 500, and one of those was a 200-mile race. His other victory, his first March victory at that was the inaugural race at Phoenix International Raceway. It was the 1964 season opener and it was the first of Foyt's seven consecutive victories to open that season, a season where Foyt's ten victories remains a single-season record.

Other Top Drivers: Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford and Sam Hornish, Jr. each won four times in March. Tommy Milton, Gordon Johncock, Michael Andretti, Dan Wheldon, Will Power and Josef Newgarden have each won three times.

Interesting Notes: Mario Andretti never won a race in the month of March. However, of Andretti's record 407 starts, only 19 came in the month of March. He had three runner-up finishes, six top five finishes, ten top ten finishes and his career average finish in March was 11.157.

April

Most Victories: Mario Andretti - 8

For his lack of victories in March, Andretti made up for it in April. Eight victories is the most with Andretti having won at Trenton twice, Hanford once, Long Beach thrice and Phoenix twice, including his 52nd and final victory on April 4, 1993.

Other Top Drivers: Al Unser, Jr. is second all-time in April victories. When you win six times at Long Beach, it will put you at the top. Along with Unser, Jr.'s six Long Beach triumphs, his seventh April victory was April 22, 2000 at Las Vegas, his third career start in the Indy Racing League, and it was his first victory in over four years. 

A.J. Foyt, Will Power and Josef Newgarden have each won six times in April. Jimmy Murphy, Paul Tracy, Dan Wheldon and Hélio Castroneves each won five times during the month of April.

Interesting Notes: Of the 13 drivers that won at least 30 IndyCar races, which one do you think won the fewest races within the first four months of the year?

The answer is Dario Franchitti with only two victories. Franchitti won on March 27, 2011 at St. Petersburg and he won on April 19, 2009 at Long Beach. Franchitti is the only driver with at least 30 career victories to have fewer than five victories from the first four months of the year.

May

Most Victories: Sébastien Bourdais & Will Power - 6

I must admit it was glorious to see that the all-time leaders in May victories weren't one of the names you associate the most with the month of May. 

God Bless The Split!

Bourdais won six times in his career during the month of May, including his first career victory on Monday May 5, 2003 at Brands Hatch. Bourdais won six days later at the Lausitzring. He won twice at Monterrey, Mexico's Parque Fundidora and he won in Houston in 2006. Add in a May 31, 2015 victory at Belle Isle and that is how Bourdais is at six.

Power has benefitted from the introduction of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Before that, Power won on Monday May 1, 2011 in São Paulo. This was a race that was delayed a day due to rain. Without the rain, Power would likely have one fewer May victory! Power then won on May 31, 2014 at Belle Isle. Power won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis three times and his sixth and most recent May victory was his 2018 Indianapolis 500 victory. 

Other Top Drivers: Rick Mears and Scott Dixon each won five times in the month of May. 

We know four of Mears' victories. What was the fifth? May 1, 1982 at Atlanta. 

Dixon, however, has won on five different circuits in the month of May! His first career victory was on May 6, 2001 at Nazareth. Dixon has won twice on May 1, and he won on that date 11 years apart, first in 2010 at Kansas then at Texas in 2021. He won the 2008 Indianapolis 500, and he won on May 31, 2009 at Milwaukee. 

There are eight drivers with four May victories. 

There are the usual suspects: A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Hélio Castroneves. Those three all won the Indianapolis 500 four times. 

Ray Harroun and Tommy Milton each won four times in May. Three of Harroun's victories were before the Indianapolis 500 existed.

Johnny Rutherford has three Indianapolis 500 victories plus a May 2, 1976 victory in Trenton. 

Along with two Indianapolis 500 victories, Juan Pablo Montoya won twice in May 1999 in two different countries (Nazareth and Rio de Janeiro). 

Simon Pagenaud has three Grand Prix of Indianapolis victories plus the 2019 Indianapolis 500.

Interesting Notes: Though he never won the Indianapolis 500, Michael Andretti did win three times in the month of May, just at Milwaukee, Gateway and Motegi. His Gateway victory did come on Memorial Day weekend in 1999, but it was the day prior to the 1999 Indianapolis 500. 

Bourdais and Andretti are the only drivers with at least three May victories to have never won the Indianapolis 500.

June

Most Victories: Scott Dixon - 12

This is where the numbers start to get big. Dixon has won a dozen times in June. Seven of those victories have occurred between Texas and Belle Isle. Dixon won twice at Richmond, once at Pikes Peak International Raceway, once at Watkins Glen and once at Road America. 

In five of Dixon's six championship seasons, he won at least one race in the month of June. The exception was 2013.

Other Top Drivers: A.J. Foyt won ten times in June, five times at Milwaukee, three times at Pocono and twice at Langhorne.

Bobby Unser and Michael Andretti each won nine times in June. Mario Andretti won eight times. Al Unser, Jr., Paul Tracy and Hélio Castroneves each won seven times and Ryan Hunter-Reay won six times.

Interesting Notes: Of the 13 drivers with at least 30 career victories, all 13 have at least three June victories, 11 of which have at least five victories. 

The two with fewer than five June victories are Sébastien Bourdais on four and Al Unser on three.

July

Most Victories: Scott Dixon - 15

Dixon goes bigger in July. Not only does he have 15 victories, but this is one of two months where the difference between the all-time leader for a month and second is greater than two victories. We will get to the other one in a second. 

As for Dixon, his 15 July victories have come on eight different circuits. He has won three times in a single July twice in his career (2007 and 2013), and he has won multiple times in July four times total (add in 2008 and 2020).

Over a third of his July victories have come in Canada (six total, four times in Toronto and twice in Edmonton). A fifth of his July victories have come at Nashville Superspeedway, a track that last hosted a race almost 16 years ago! Dixon has been the all-time leader for July since his July 15, 2018 victory at Toronto.

Other Top Drivers: Mario Andretti is second with ten July victories, which includes his first career victory on July 25, 1965 at Indianapolis Raceway Park's 1.875-mile road course. 

There are four drivers tied with nine July victories: A.J. Foyt, Michael Andretti, Sébastien Bourdais and Josef Newgarden. Newgarden has won at least one July race in each of the last five seasons. 

Interesting Notes: What do Robert Doornbos, Buddy Lazier, Bryan Herta and Alex Barron each have in common? 

They all have more July victories than Rick Mears. All four of those drivers each won twice in July. Mears' only July victory was July 23, 1978 at Atlanta, his second career victory in his 17th career start. It was only the fourth July start of Mears' career. Heck, even Scott Sharp won twice in July.

August

Most Victories: Scott Dixon - 12

It is easy to say the season of summer is the season of Scott Dixon. Between June, July and August, Dixon has won a combined 39 of his 56 career victories. That is 69.642% of his career total.

Most of Dixon's career has come during a time of a condensed season. The season does not go much later than mid-September. More times than not the season is over before the first day of autumn. 

Dixon has made 211 starts between June, July and August, meaning he has made 175 starts outside of those three months.

With 39 victories from 211 starts, that is a winning percentage of 18.483%. That means with 17 victories from 175 starts, Dixon's winning percentage in the other nine months of the year is 9.714%! 

As for the specifics of Dixon's August victories, four came at Mid-Ohio, three were at Sonoma, two were at Gateway with one victory at Kentucky, the Nashville street course and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course respectively.

Other Top Drivers: Like July, Mario Andretti is second with ten victories. Unlike July, Andretti is tied for second with Ralph DePalma! Ten of DePalma's 24 career victories came during the month of August. DePalma only made 18 career starts during the month of August. He won in 55.555% of his August starts.

Will Power has nine career victories in August, Al Unser, Jr. has eight, and Dario Franchitti and Rick Mears are level with seven.

Interesting Notes: Bruno Junqueira won eight times in his IndyCar career. Four of those came in August. How many drivers have at least eight career victories but at least half of those coming in one month?

The answer would be just Bruno Junqueira.

September

Most Victories: A.J. Foyt - 18

This is where it gets eye-popping. Over a quarter of Foyt's victories came in the month of September, 26.865% to be accurate. 

Twelve of Foyt's September victories came between the Indiana State Fairgrounds and DuQuoin. He also won four times at Trenton in September. His other two September victories were at Sacramento and Michigan.

Foyt made 78 starts in the month of September. He won 23.076% of them.

Other Top Drivers: Foyt has seven more victories than the next closest driver in the month of September. That would be Mario Andretti, who for the third consecutive month has at least a share of second most. 

Tony Bettenhausen is third with nine September victories. Bettenhausen had 40.909% of his victories come during the month of September. Al Unser and Michael Andretti round out the top five with eight and seven victories respectively. Rodger Ward is alone in sixth with six September victories. 

Interesting Notes: Did you know September is the month with the most IndyCar races? It is true! I was as surprised as you when I found that out. 

September has had 287 races. Here is the rankings from most to least:

September - 287

July - 272

August - 263

June - 259

May - 174

April - 146

October - 144

March - 91

November - 70

February - 22

December - 8

January - 7

I would have guessed either July or August when I was first going over the results. Even with the seasons ending earlier than usual, I would guess September will hold onto the all-time lead for quite some time. There are going to be at least two September races this year. July will chip away if it keeps having at least one or two races more a season, but with 15 races to overcome, it could be close to a decade before July takes the top spot. 

October

Most Victories: A.J. Foyt & Bobby Rahal - 6

Again, Foyt is on top, but this time he has company. 

Foyt won four times at Sacramento and he won a Phoenix race in October 1971. Where did Foyt's sixth and final October victory come? Silverstone! October 1, 1978! One of three road course victories in Foyt's career. 

As for Rahal, he won four times at Laguna Seca, a Phoenix race in October 1984, and his final career victory was October 4, 1992 at Nazareth. 

Talk about symmetry between these two.

Other Top Drivers: While Foyt and Rahal are tied on six, Al Unser and Rick Mears are tied on five October victories. Tony Bettenhausen and Dario Franchitti each won four times in September. 

Interesting Notes: It wasn't until last year at Long Beach that April surpassed October in number of IndyCar races.

Consider that since reunification, only nine times has IndyCar raced in the month of October. Three of those were in 2020 when the pandemic delayed the start of the season by three months and IndyCar raced into October just to have a sufficient calendar. 

Prior to reunification, October had held 135 races while April had held 108. It took about 16 years for April to make up that 27-race gap.

November

Most Victories: Jimmy Bryan & A.J. Foyt - 4

We have another tie for an all-time lead. This time it is between Bryan, famous for his 1958 Indianapolis 500 victory, and Foyt, who made his Indianapolis 500 debut in the 1958 race. 

All four Bryan's November victories came before he won the Indianapolis 500.

November 7, 1954 at the Arizona State Fairgrounds

November 14, 1954 at Las Vegas Park

November 6, 1955 at the Arizona State Fairgrounds

November 11, 1957 at the Arizona State Fairgrounds

Foyt's November victories are spread about.

November 20, 1960 at the Arizona State Fairgrounds

November 25, 1965 at Phoenix International Raceway

November 3, 1968 at Hanford Motor Speedway

November 9, 1975 at Phoenix International Raceway

Other Top Drivers: Johnnie Parsons, Tom Sneva and Sébastien Bourdais each won three times in November. 

Parsons won twice in November 1951, once at the Arizona State Fairgrounds and then at Bay Meadows. Parsons would win again at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in November 1952. 

Sneva won at Phoenix in November 1980 and 1982 and then he won the final race on the Caesars Palace parking lot circuit on November 11, 1984. 

All three of Bourdais' victories came in Mexico City.

Interesting Notes: IndyCar has not raced in November since reunification. Bourdais' Mexico City victory on November 11, 2007 is the most recent November race.

December

Most Victories: Jimmy Murphy - 2

Like January, not many races have occurred in December either, only one more to be exact. 

Like January, only one driver has won multiple times in December.

Jimmy Murphy, famous for his 1922 Indianapolis 500 victory, won on December 21, 1921 on the 1.25-mile board oval known as San Francisco Speedway. On December 3, 1922, Murphy capped off a stellar season with a victory in a 250-mile race in Beverly Hills.

Those were actually the first two December races in IndyCar history.

Other Top Drivers: The other December winners are Bennett Hill, Kelly Petillo, Johnnie Parsons, Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti and Keith Kauffman.

Interesting Notes: December is the only month yet to have an IndyCar race in the 21st century. The most recent December race was December 4, 1982, which Kauffman won at Nazareth, which was apart of the USAC Gold Crown Championship while USAC and CART were in the midst of its split and USAC was attempting to have a championship with the Indianapolis 500 surrounded by a few 100-mile dirt track events. 

Just to round up, here are the all-time leaders for each month with their victory totals:

January: Eddie Cheever (2)

February: Ralph DePalma & Jimmy Murphy (3)

March: A.J. Foyt (6)

April: Mario Andretti (8)

May: Sébastien Bourdais & Will Power (6)

June: Scott Dixon (12)

July: Scott Dixon (15)

August: Scott Dixon (12)

September: A.J. Foyt (18)

October: A.J. Foyt & Bobby Rahal (6)

November: Jimmy Bryan & A.J. Foyt (4)

December: Jimmy Murphy (2)

Dixon has the most months with the outright leads with three, but Foyt leads two months outright and a share in another two. Murphy is the only other driver with at least a share of multiple months. If you win a lot, you are bound to top a few months and the top two drivers in IndyCar victories have their fingerprints on over half the calendar year. 

We can dive deeper into some of these numbers and compare drivers later, but you at least know what the top looks like as we are still over two weeks away from the first April race of 2024.