With two races remaining in the NTT IndyCar Series season, Scott Dixon’s once-commanding lead is seeming a little shakier after Josef Newgarden’s victory in Friday’s opener of the Harvest GP at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Dixon, who is seeking his sixth title, still leads defending series champ Josef Newgarden by 40 points after starting the weekend with a 72-point bulge.
Since 2014, the points leader with three races left has won the championship in five of the past six years, including Dixon in ’18.
INDYCAR AT IMS THIS WEEKEND: Harvest GP schedule, entry lists
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver has led the championship standings following every round after opening 2020 with three consecutive victories.
Anyone outside 108 points of the lead after Indy will be eliminated heading into the Oct. 25 season finale at St. Petersburg, Florida.
Here is the IndyCar Harvest GP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course schedule for Saturday (all times are ET), including details and start times:
Indianapolis Motor Speedway TV schedule for Saturday
—IndyCar Harvest GP Race 2: 2:30 p.m., NBC, NBC Sports Gold and streaming on the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com); Leigh Diffey is the lead announcer for IndyCar on NBCSN this weekend with analysts Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy.
IndyCar Harvest GP, Race 2 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway start times, information
COMMAND TO START ENGINES: 2:24 p.m.
GREEN FLAG: 2:31 p.m.
DISTANCE: The race is 75 laps (182.925 miles) around Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course in Indianapolis.
TIRE ALLOTMENT: Nine sets primary, five sets alternate for the weekend (a 10th set of primary tires is available to any car fielding a rookie.) Teams must use one set of primary and one set of alternate tires in the race.
PUSH TO PASS: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation.
FORECAST: According to Wunderground.com, it’s expected to be 60 degrees with a 0% chance of rain at the green flag.
QUALIFYING: 10:20 a.m. ET Saturday (NBC Sports Gold)
RACE 1: Newgarden broke through to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
RACE 1 RESULTS: Full stats package from Race 1 of the Harvest GP
ENTRY LIST: Click here for the 25 drivers racing this weekend at Indianapolis