After separate reviews of the street and oval portions of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season - led by Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves, respectively - the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma season finale was of course, the final road course race of the year as well.
And a third different driver topped the charts in those six permanent road course races this year, in the form of Scott Dixon.
Dixon had one win (Road America) and three runners-up finishes in the six races, with other finishes of fourth (Sonoma) and ninth (Mid-Ohio) which brought him 261 points in these races. That was two points clear of Newgarden, who won at Barber and Mid-Ohio and finished second at both Road America and Sonoma, while losing points at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Watkins Glen.
The top six drivers in permanent road course points - Dixon, Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Castroneves and Graham Rahal - were also the top six drivers in the overall points, albeit not in that order.
Top 5 points #IndyCar road courses:
— TrackSideOnline presented by Honda Racing/HPD (@tracksideonline) September 22, 2017
1 @scottdixon9 (261)
2 @josefnewgarden (259)
3 @simonpagenaud (256)
4 @12WillPower (244)
5 @h3lio (220)
For the year, it was interesting to note how being consistent across all three phases of circuit netted the best results.
The two biggest outliers were Power - who was only 14th in street course points but second in oval and fourth in road course points - who ended fifth in points overall and Kanaan, who overcame 16th (street course) and 18th (road course) points positions with third place in oval points, trailing only Castroneves and Power.
That oval haul brought Kanaan up to 10th in points in a year where several others - notably James Hinchcliffe, Max Chilton and Ed Jones - all occasionally staked their claim to the final spot in the top-10.
Otherwise, consistency across all circuits was key to securing your overall points position for the year.
The breakdown of points per driver by circuit type is below.
P | # | Driver | Street | Road | Oval | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 185 | 259 | 198 | 642 |
2 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | 147 | 256 | 226 | 629 |
3 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 159 | 261 | 201 | 621 |
4 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 126 | 220 | 252 | 598 |
5 | 12 | Will Power | 86 | 244 | 232 | 562 |
6 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 162 | 191 | 169 | 522 |
7 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | 126 | 171 | 197 | 494 |
8 | 26 | Takuma Sato | 115 | 112 | 214 | 441 |
9 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 105 | 178 | 138 | 421 |
10 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | 79 | 97 | 227 | 403 |
11 | 8 | Max Chilton | 91 | 141 | 164 | 396 |
12 | 27 | Marco Andretti | 103 | 119 | 166 | 388 |
13 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 155 | 99 | 122 | 376 |
14 | 19 | Ed Jones | 88 | 99 | 167 | 354 |
15 | 21 | JR Hildebrand | 78 | 90 | 179 | 347 |
16 | 14 | Carlos Munoz | 85 | 109 | 134 | 328 |
17 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 72 | 135 | 120 | 327 |
18 | 4 | Conor Daly | 68 | 120 | 117 | 305 |
19 | 7 | Mikhail Aleshin | 77 | 68 | 92 | 237 |
20 | 20 | Spencer Pigot | 75 | 114 | 29 | 218 |
21 | 18 | Sebastien Bourdais | 93 | 89 | 32 | 214 |
22 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 169 | 169 | ||
23 | 88 | Gabby Chaves | 98 | 98 | ||
24 | 22 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 20 | 73 | 93 | |
25 | 18 | Esteban Gutierrez | 43 | 23 | 25 | 91 |
26 | 7 | Sebastian Saavedra | 19 | 61 | 80 | |
27 | 16 | Oriol Servia | 21 | 40 | 61 | |
28 | 7 | Jack Harvey | 40 | 17 | 57 | |
29 | 29 | Fernando Alonso | 47 | 47 | ||
30 | 63 | Pippa Mann | 32 | 32 | ||
31 | 13 | Zachary Claman DeMelo | 26 | 26 | ||
32 | 77 | Jay Howard | 24 | 24 | ||
33 | 24 | Sage Karam | 23 | 23 | ||
34 | 40 | Zach Veach | 11 | 12 | 23 | |
35 | 18 | James Davison | 21 | 21 | ||
36 | 18 | Tristan Vautier | 15 | 15 | ||
37 | 44 | Buddy Lazier | 14 | 14 | ||
38 | 7 | Robert Wickens | 0 | 0 |