The top 10s are getting spread around most of the IZOD IndyCar Series field in the first three races of the year.
Through three races, only five of the 25 drivers who have entered each IndyCar race have yet to score a top 10. Those are: Dragon Racing teammates Sebastian Saavedra and Sebastien Bourdais, Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s James Jakes, Dale Coyne’s Ana Beatriz and Ed Carpenter of his own team. And it’s not like they’ve run poorly – each of the five has had a semi-respectable race in the first three, but has yet to crack the top 10.
Meanwhile there’s been 10 drivers (Bourdais, Jakes, Beatriz, Carpenter, JR Hildebrand, Oriol Servia, Graham Rahal, Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden and Alex Tagliani, pictured right with Rahal) yet to crack the top 10 on the grid. Mere hundredths of seconds have cost them thus far and it wouldn’t surprise to see that number of those outside the mark shrink in the next race.
With the diversity of top 10 finishers, it’s unsurprising that only three drivers – Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti and Justin Wilson – have scored a top 10 in all three races. The latter two are surprises in that department; Andretti had three all of 2012 and Wilson’s Coyne team has made some mistakes that have set him back. But both drivers had stellar runs from penalized grid positions in Long Beach on Sunday.
