IndyCar: Crunching the numbers post-Barber - MotorSportsTalk

I crunched some numbers after the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Even though the top few positions are a bit top-heavy, the ridiculously tight and competitive nature of the Verizon IndyCar Series field stretches through all 23 cars.

Qualifying Notes

After there were zero Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing entries in the Firestone Fast Six at Long Beach, they made up half of it at Barber.
Josef Newgarden was the lone non-Penske/Ganassi/Andretti Autosport driver in the Barber Fast Six. This also marked his first time making back-to-back Fast Six appearances, and was also his first career Fast Six on a permanent road course. His previous two came at the Baltimore and Long Beach street courses for the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing team.
Graham Rahal posted his best start of 2014 at Barber, although it was only 18th. Meanwhile Tony Kanaan and rookie Jack Hawksworth have seen some wild swings in qualifying form. Kanaan’s best start of second at St. Pete is balanced by 23rd at Barber; Hawksworth fell from fifth at Long Beach to 22nd at Barber.
Mike Conway and Marco Andretti’s qualifying positions have fallen off in each race, while Newgarden, Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves have improved their grid spot each races. Castroneves, additionally, became the 12th driver to make the Fast Six this season.

Laps Led Notes

Of the 259 race laps in three races, Ryan Hunter-Reay (91) and Will Power (89) have led 180 of them for a grand total of 69.5%!
Sebastian Saavedra has led 14 laps, the first 14 of his career. That, right now, is more than Conway (4), Castroneves (2), Andretti, Newgarden and Justin Wilson (1 each), combined with 9 laps led this season.
No driver has led in all three races; 12 drivers have yet to lead a lap this year.

Post-Race Points Notes

Power (125) and Hunter-Reay (107) are the two drivers over 100 points through three races. Last year, no driver was able to do that.
Wilson is seventh in points (67) and Ryan Briscoe 16th (52), with only 15 points separating 10 positions. Additionally, Sebastien Bourdais in 17th (48) and Oriol Servia in 23rd (36) are only separated by 12 markers. A total of 31 points separate seventh from 23rd; meanwhile 33 separate Power from third-placed Simon Pagenaud.
Here’s a look at the breakdown of where each driver was after three races last year, and where they are now in terms of points position and points:

#	Driver	2013 (Pos., Pts)	2014 (Pos., Pts)	Chg (Pos, Pts)
20	Conway	27, 5 (1 start)	5, 82	+22, +77
12	Power	8, 62	1, 125	+7, +63
28	Hunter-Reay	6, 73	2, 107	+4, +36
77	Pagenaud	13, 58	3, 92	+10, +34
17	Saavedra	25, 25	13, 55	+12, +30
67	Newgarden	19, 46	10, 58	+9, +12
10	Kanaan	12, 59	9, 62	+3, +3
11	Bourdais	18, 48	17, 48	+1, 0
9	Dixon	3, 89	4, 87	-1, -2
19	J. Wilson	5, 81	7, 67	-2, -14
25	Andretti	4, 87	6, 73	-2, -14
27	Hinchcliffe	10, 61	18, 46	-8, -15
15	Rahal	7, 66	20, 46	-13, -20
16	Servia	14, 57	23, 36 (2 starts)	-9, -21
83	Kimball	11, 60	22, 37	-11, -23
3	Castroneves	1, 99	8, 66	-7, -33
14	Sato	2, 93	15, 53	-13, -40

Different Driver, Same Car

#	Driver	2013 (Pos., Pts)	2014 (Pos., Pts)	Chg (Pos, Pts)
2	Montoya	26, 18 (2 starts, Allmendinger)	11, 56	+15, +38
18	Huertas	24, 30 (Beatriz)	19, 46	+5, +16
7	Aleshin	21, 42 (Vautier)	14, 54	+7, +12
34	Munoz	16, 52 (Viso)	12, 55	+4, +3
8	Briscoe	–	16, 52	–
98	Hawksworth	17, 50 (Tagliani)	21, 42	-4, -8

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INDIANAPOLIS — With his first victory in the Indy 500, Josef Newgarden became the first repeat winner through six race results of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season and made a move in the points.

Newgarden, who celebrated with fans in the grandstands, moved from sixth to fourth in the championship standings with his 27th career victory and second this season (he also won at Texas Motor Speedway).

The Team Penske star won his 12th attempt at the Brickyard oval, tying the record for most starts before an Indy 500 victory with Tony Kanaan (2013) and Sam Hanks (1957). Newgarden, whose previous best Indy 500 finish was third with Ed Carpenter Racing in 2016, became the first Tennessee native to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and the first American since Alexander Rossi in 2016.

A man of the people!

Josef Newgarden goes INTO THE CROWD to celebrate his Indy 500 victory! #INDY500 pic.twitter.com/1mBUzoMSfH

— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 28, 2023

He also delivered the record 19th Indy 500 triumph to Roger Penske, whose team ended a four-year drought on the 2.5-mile oval and won for the first time since he became the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar in 2020.

Newgarden, 32, led five laps, the third-lowest total for an Indy 500 winner behind Joe Dawson (two in 1912) and Dan Wheldon (one in 2011).

The race featured 52 lead changes, the third most behind 68 in 2013 and 54 in ’16, among 14 drivers (tied with ’13 for the second highest behind 15 leaders in ’17 and ’18). Newgarden’s 0.0974-second victory over Marcus Ericsson was the fourth-closest in Indy 500 history behind 1992 (0.043 of a second for Al Unser Jr. over Scott Goodyear), 2014 (0.0600 of a second for Ryan Hunter-Reay over Helio Castroneves) and 2006 (0.0635 of a second Sam Hornish Jr. over Marco Andretti.).

It also marked only the third last-lap pass in Indy 500 history — all within the past 17 years (Hornish over Andretti in 2006; Wheldon over J.R. Hildebrand in 2011).

Ericsson’s runner-up finish was the ninth time the defending Indy 500 finished second the next year (most recently four-time winner Helio Castroneves in 2003).

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the 107th Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 200-lap race on a 2.5-mile oval in Indianapolis.

Here is the finishing order in the Indy 500 with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (17) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 200, Running
2. (10) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 200, Running
3. (4) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 200, Running
4. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 200, Running
5. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 200, Running
6. (6) Scott Dixon, Honda, 200, Running
7. (8) Takuma Sato, Honda, 200, Running
8. (16) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 200, Running
9. (21) Colton Herta, Honda, 200, Running
10. (2) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 200, Running
11. (18) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 200, Running
12. (27) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 200, Running
13. (25) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 200, Running
14. (14) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 200, Running
15. (20) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 200, Running
16. (9) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 200, Running
17. (24) Marco Andretti, Honda, 200, Running
18. (32) Jack Harvey, Honda, 199, Running
19. (30) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 198, Running
20. (13) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 197, Contact
21. (11) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 196, Contact
22. (33) Graham Rahal, Chevrolet, 195, Running
23. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 195, Running
24. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 192, Contact
25. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 192, Contact
26. (26) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 192, Contact
27. (3) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 183, Contact
28. (15) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 183, Contact
29. (23) David Malukas, Honda, 160, Contact
30. (19) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 149, Contact
31. (31) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 90, Contact
32. (28) RC Enerson, Chevrolet, 75, Mechanical
33. (29) Katherine Legge, Honda, 41, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 168.193 mph; Time of Race: 2:58:21.9611; Margin of victory: 0.0974 of a second; Cautions: 5 for 27 laps; Lead changes: 52 among 14 drivers. Lap leaders: Palou 1-2; VeeKay 3; Palou 4-9; VeeKay 10-14; Palou 15-22; VeeKay 23-27; Palou 28-29; VeeKay 30-31; Rosenqvist 32; Rossi 33-34; Palou 35-39; VeeKay 40-47; Palou 48-60; VeeKay 61-63; Rosenqvist 64-65; O’Ward 66; Power 67; Herta 68; Rosenqvist 69; O’Ward 70-78; Rosenqvist 79-81; O’Ward 82-89; Rosenqvist 90-94; Ilott 95-99; Rosenqvist 100-101; O’Ward 102; Rosenqvist 103-107; O’Ward 108-109; Rosenqvist 110-113; O’Ward 114-115; Rosenqvist 116-119; O’Ward 120-122; Rosenqvist 123-124; O’Ward 125-128; Rosenqvist 129-131; Ferrucci 132; Ericsson 133-134; Castroneves 135; Rosenqvist 136; Ericsson 137-156; Newgarden 157; Ericsson 158; Ferrucci 159-168; Ericsson 169-170; Rossi 171-172; Sato 173-174; O’Ward 175-179; Hunter-Reay 180-187;
O’Ward 188-191; Ericsson 192; Newgarden 193-195; Ericsson 196-199; Newgarden 200.

POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the GMR Grand Prix:

Top 10 in points: Palou 219, Ericsson 199, O’Ward 185, Newgarden 182, Dixon 162, McLaughlin 149, Rossi 145, Grosjean 139, Power 131, Herta 130.

Rest of the standings: Lundgaard 122, Kirkwood 113, Rosenqvist 113, Ilott 111, Ferrucci 96, VeeKay 96, Rahal 94, Malukas 84, Armstrong 77, Daly 73, Castroneves 69, Harvey 65, DeFrancesco 63, Canapino 61, Pagenaud 55, Pedersen 51, Robb 47, Sato 37, Carpenter 27, Hunter-Reay 20, Kanaan 18, Andretti 13, Enerson 5, Legge 5.

Next race: The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, which has moved from Belle Isle to the streets of downtown, will take place June 4 with coverage starting on Peacock at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.