IndyCar points by circuit type: 2017

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:
1 @scottdixon9 (261)
2 @josefnewgarden (259)
3 @simonpagenaud (256)
4 @12WillPower (244)
5 @h3lio (220)

— TrackSideOnline presented by Honda Racing/HPD (@tracksideonline) September 22, 2017

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

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