Last week, Alex Palou became the first driver to win the IndyCar championship – in its current guise – before the season finale.
Scott Dixon, the closest man in the championship table behind Palou, is also guaranteed to finish second in the standings. Dixon is 56 points ahead of his nearest rival in the table with a maximum of 54 points available this weekend (50 for the race winner, plus bonus points for laps led and pole position).
But while this may be a rare ‘dead rubber’ race for IndyCar, there are plenty of drivers and teams with much to gain this weekend.
The battle for third
Indianapolis 500 winner and two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden was at one point the biggest threat to Palou’s chances of becoming champion. Now at least the American’s run of three straight championship runner-up finishes will end – just not in the way that he’d hoped.
Should both drivers falter, Newgarden’s team mate Scott McLaughlin is poised to pick up the pieces. He’s only 22 points behind Newgarden and is Penske’s only winner on a permanent road course this year, having triumphed at Barber Motorsports Park ahead of O’Ward.
Between all three drivers, Newgarden is the only driver that’s finished on the podium at Laguna Seca in an IndyCar. He finished second last year after starting 25th. McLaughlin finished sixth last year, and O’Ward was fifth two years ago.
Rookie of the Year
Fast forward to 2023 and Marcus Armstrong, recently secured on a multi-year, full-season deal at Ganassi for 2024 and beyond, should be able to win Rookie of the Year honours with ease despite a similar road-and-street-only programme to Grosjean in 2021.
In fairness, this year’s full-season rookie crop may sadly go down as one of the weakest. Only Agustin Canapino has any chance of catching Armstrong, but the four-time Turismo Carretera champion turned IndyCar driver has a 26-point deficit and hasn’t finished higher than 12th all season – a result that only pays 18 points on its own.
Plus, Canapino may be racing for his future in the sport as part of the last big championship sub-plot of 2023…
The last places in the Leaders Circle
Every car that finishes in the top 22 in the entrant’s championship will qualify for the IndyCar Leaders Circle in 2024. This perk comes with a $910,000 (£729,000) bonus prize, a six-figure sum that could make the difference between a team cutting entries next season or not, a team requiring a paying driver or not, or between drivers racing next year or not.
Five cars will battle for the final two positions in the 2024 Leaders Circle at Laguna Seca. Ed Carpenter Racing’s number 20 car is seven points above safety but hasn’t finished in the top 10 since Conor Daly was dropped for Ryan Hunter-Reay after Detroit. The number 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, originally driven by Jack Harvey, car is ‘on the bubble’ in 22nd. RLL also changed drivers late this season and Juri Vips will make his second start this weekend.
Andretti’s number 29 car, co-owned by George Steinbrenner IV, is three points back. If the outgoing Devlin DeFrancesco can’t get this car into the top 22, Andretti may downsize to just three full-time cars in 2024, unless they bring in another paying driver.
The number 60 Meyer Shank Racing car is another three points behind. IMSA premier class champion Tom Blomqvist is signed and secured for next season so this car will be here no matter what – for Blomqvist, this is a matter of ensuring his transition to IndyCar in 2024 starts on the right foot.
And then there’s the number 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing car of Canapino, eight points away from the cut line. His IndyCar future may be riding on the result of this race.
Drivers – and teams – who need a win
But Power isn’t the only driver that could really use a win. All three full-time McLaren drivers – O’Ward, Alexander Rossi and MSR-bound Felix Rosenqvist – haven’t won a race this year. It would be a stunning result for the mightiest and most ambitious disruptor in IndyCar to finish the season without a single race victory to its name.
Colton Herta, meanwhile, has not won an IndyCar race since last May at the Indianapolis Grand Prix – and not since he was heavily rumoured to transfer to F1 this year in an arrangement that fell through. The good news for Herta is that he has two pole-to-win victories at Laguna Seca (2019, 2021), and he’ll be extra-motivated to win in a special livery resembling the one his father Bryan sported when he won his first CART race at this track 25 years ago.
Then there’s the case of Romain Grosjean. Brilliant at times, baffling at others, his three years in IndyCar have served as a microcosm of his decade in F1. He’s already announced his departure from Andretti after two frustrating seasons, and the difference between him staying in the series in 2024 or choosing to call time on his single-seater career could be a win in his last start in the number 28 car.
IndyCar
- Winning top rookie despite missing five races was a “tough ask” – Armstrong
- Dixon emerges through carnage to win Laguna Seca finale
- IndyCar to hold $1million pre-season exhibition race at Thermal Club
- Rosenqvist takes last-second pole in final IndyCar start for McLaren
- Malukas takes the McLaren seat Palou turned down in multi-year deal
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th September 2023, 13:52
Go check out the video of Colton Herta’s laps in his dad Bryan’s old Reynard-Ford Cosworth from 1998. The helmet cam footage is absolutely brilliant to watch.
asd
8th September 2023, 14:24
Just wanted to say that. The footage is magnificent. Well, it’s because the car is magnificent.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th September 2023, 14:13
Go Canapino!
Mariano (@mariano)
10th September 2023, 4:41
Lo mismo digo Fer… Vamos Canapino!
Don
8th September 2023, 14:55
Grosjean needs a win.
Leroy (@g-funk)
8th September 2023, 15:36
Grosjean’s reputation in open-wheel cars is well-established at this point. He can be very quick on a good day. On a bad day, he can be an absolute menace of a driver to the entire field (including himself and his teammates). But there aren’t enough good days to offset the bad days. A win won’t change that reputation.
sam
8th September 2023, 17:09
Grosjean needs to go do his test lap for Mercedes that Toto promised him and move on from open wheel sports.
asd
9th September 2023, 9:43
What Colton Herta needs are great performances delivered consistently. One race won’t change that.
But a race win would mean a lot for Grosjean as he still doesn’t have a win under his belt.
SierraS
9th September 2023, 19:42
If you’d have told me three years ago that Romain Grosjean would go to IndyCar, crash a lot, not win anything and be left with a do-or-die final race to save his career…
…I would absolutely believe you.