As IndyCar begins its brutal run of six races in four weekends, the fluctuating weather and form of the field meant there weren’t too many changes from pre-Houston to post-Houston.
Points leader Will Power had one of his worst ever weekends in IndyCar, yet retained the points lead and same gap (39 points) to Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves.
All told, only one driver, Sebastien Bourdais, made a massive leap in the standings. The driver of the No. 11 Mistic KVSH Racing Chevrolet began the weekend 12th in points and ended eighth, after he was the only driver to score top-five finishes in both races.
There weren’t really any big losers, either, with several drivers dropping two positions from beginning to end of the weekend.
Anyway, here’s a breakdown of the 21 full-time drivers sit now leaving Houston, the second of three doubleheader weekends this season:
Driver TMS HOU Change
12 Will Power 1 1
3 Helio Castroneves 2 2
28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 3 3
77 Simon Pagenaud 4 4
2 Juan Pablo Montoya 7 5 +2
25 Marco Andretti 5 6 -1
34 Carlos Munoz 6 7 -1
11 Sebastien Bourdais 12 8 +4
9 Scott Dixon 8 9 -1
27 James Hinchcliffe 11 10 +1
10 Tony Kanaan 9 11 -2
19 Justin Wilson 10 12 -2
8 Ryan Briscoe 13 13
98 Jack Hawksworth 16 14 +2
83 Charlie Kimball 14 15 -1
7 Mikhail Aleshin 15 16 -1
18 Carlos Huertas 20 17 +3
15 Graham Rahal 19 18 +1
14 Takuma Sato 17 19 -2
67 Josef Newgarden 18 20 -2
17 Sebastian Saavedra 21 21
Eli Tomac led all 23 laps of the Monster Energy Supercross race at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas and the results show he now has three wins in the season and is one shy of tying Ricky Carmichael’s 48 for third on the all-time list. With this win, he takes a seven point lead in the standings with 12 rounds remaining.
For Tomac at Houston, it was literally a tale of two races. Both his heat and the main started the same with Tomac grabbing the holeshot, but he was passed quickly by Chase Sexton in the heat. Tomac faded quickly after getting passed and was trailing by almost eight seconds at the checkered flag, which caused him to retreat to the hauler and reassess his lines. Without making any adjustments to the bike, Tomac entered the Main with a new attitude, and simply rode better.
Chase Sexton played it safe in the sand, but he was aggressive in every other turn. – Feld Motor Sports
Sexton had so great a lead in his heat that one could not even use the cliche that he left Tomac in his dust. By the time the rider with the No. 1 plate crossed the same real estate as the No. 23, the dust was well settled. Sexton had a modest start on the initial gate drop and ended Lap 1 in fourth. He worked his way past Aaron Plessinger on Lap 3 and got around Jason Anderson three laps later. Sexton was able to catch Tomac and pressure him, but he picked a safe, i.e. slow line through the sand section and could never get alongside his rival.
After starting the season with back-to-back seventh-place finishes, Anderson now has a pair of podiums. He won his heat and was easily one of the top three riders in the field, ultimately finishing behind the riders who finished 1-2 in the other preliminary. Anderson was subdued on the podium – happy he was there, but disappointed he has not yet found a way around the riders he is chasing in the points.
In the early stages of the race, Plessinger appeared to have a bike capable of winning. He pressured Tomac on the first two laps and was setting up the pass just as a red flag waved for an injury to Dylan Ferrandis that brought out a red flag. He lost second to Anderson on the restart and eventually slipped to fourth to score his first top-five of the season.
Cooper Webb rounded out the top five. Along with Sexton, he is now one of just two riders with a sweep of that mark in 2023, but with Tomac’s three wins, he is beginning to slip in the points. Webb sits third in the standings, 12 points behind the leader.
Ken Roczen entered the race as the third rider with a sweep of the top five and progressively better results in the first three races of 2023. Had the pattern held, he would have finished at least second, but he struggled for most of the night, finishing fifth in his heat and eighth in the Main. There may have been extenuating circumstances, however. Ferrandis’ injury was suffered when he landed on the back of Roczen’s bike and potentially damaged the No. 94 Suzuki.
The 250 East division made their 2023 debut in Houston, but the name atop the board was familiar. Hunter Lawrence joined his brother Jett Lawrence as the early points’ leader in their respective divisions, but it didn’t come without a little anxiety.
Riding behind Supercross newbie Tom Vialle on the second lap, Lawrence was forced to take evasive action when the leader pitched his bike sideways to scrub speed over a jump. Lawrence veered left and landed off course, but he cleared the Tuff Blox and kept his bike straight. Lawrence made the pass for the lead on Lap 18 and never relinquished it.
In his first attempt on a 250, Max Anstie ascended to the podium. – Feld Motor Sports
England’s Max Anstie made the move from 450s to 250s this year after scoring a best result of 11th on the big bike at Anaheim 2 last year. It didn’t take anytime at all to find the front for Anstie, who finished second in both his heat and main.
It has been a while since Jordon Smith stood on the podium: February 23, 2019 to be exact when he finished that well in Detroit. A series of injuries kept him off the bike for much of 2020 and 2021, but he’s proving to be a factor when he’s healthy.
There was a lot of hype surrounding the debut of Haiden Deegan in the 250 class and he proved it was merited. He finished fourth in his heat and main. He was as far down as ninth at one point in the feature before slowly picking off riders on his way to the front.
Jeremy Martin finished fifth and now has a streak of three consecutive top-fives to his credit stretching back to last year. Unfortunately, his pair of strong runs in 2022 were interrupted by injury.
Making impressive debuts in the 250 division, Vialle recovered from a fall to finish seventh, Chance Hymas finished eighth, and Talon Hawkins just missed the top 10 with an 11th.
