Yahoo Finance Tomorrow's Race at Laguna Seca Will Set Up IndyCar's Perfect Finale
As the 2021 IndyCar season winds to a close, the sport's most intriguing field in decades is tangled in a narrative-heavy championship fight. Two young drivers known for their aggression narrowly lead two former series champions known for their patience. Meanwhile, a former F1 driver lurks in mathematical contention. Sunday's round at Laguna Seca is the second-to-last of the year, allowing any of the five contenders to better their position before the final round at Long Beach. These are the drivers who can still win it.
In 2020, Alex Palou and Pato O'Ward were two intriguing prospects who represented the future of IndyCar. The pair also combined for 0 career wins. A year later, the two have split five wins and the top two spots in the season standings.
Chip Ganassi Racing's Palou has done it with consistent, exceptional speed. Eight top six qualifying efforts have led Palou to finish on the podium in half of the races this season, including a runner-up finish the Indianapolis 500 that came in the most competitive of finishes. Three of those podiums were wins, all at natural terrain road courses like Laguna Seca. Palou enters the closing rounds of the season with a narrow 25-point lead in the championship.
O'Ward, meanwhile, has dazzled with daring moves on track. While the Arrow McLaren SP driver has a series-high three poles and six top-five qualifying performances, his season highlight was a seven-lap stretch at Detroit where he methodically passed four cars to take the win. It a season highlight for a driver that always shines in on-board footage, like this memorable save at Road America.
O'Ward actually led the championship by ten points after a runner-up finish at Gateway, but a spurt of bad luck led to a disastrous 15th-place finish at Portland last weekend. He now trails by 25 points with two races left to run, and 98 points available over the next two races.
Unlike Palou and O'Ward, the two other major contenders in the field are old hands. Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Penske Racing's Josef Newgarden have accounted for the last four IndyCar championships; Dixon has won six total, including four since the modern IndyCar chassis and engine were introduced in 2012. IndyCar's two most-consistent stars have combined for three wins, four poles, and nine podiums this season, enough to recover from disastrous finishes at the Indianapolis 500. Newgarden is 34 points behind the leader. Dixon trails by 49 points.
Finally, Ganassi's third driver Marcus Ericsson runs a distant fifth on the back of two surprising wins, but most of his season has been spent in the back half of the top ten. He sits 75 points back, meaning he will effectively need to win the next two races, while Palou, O'Ward, and Newgarden would have to struggle.
RACER's Marshall Pruett has a full guide to the possible point scenarios this weekend, but with two races to go, the goals for this weekend are pretty simple: Alex Palou must do everything in his power to finish in the top five. Everyone else must do everything in their power to finish ahead of Alex Palou.
Palou and Newgarden have been the strongest on the series on natural terrain road courses like Laguna Seca all season and should be considered favorites among the contenders. They will need to use that advantage now, because the rough and uneven street circuit at Long Beach plays right into O'Ward and McLaren's hands.
Palou can start building his lead when qualifying airs live on Peacock at 5 p.m. ET today. The race itself airs tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC .
You Might Also Like
