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2018 IndyCar Series: Sonoma notebook

Sebastien Bourdais, of France, drives the #18 Honda IndyCar on the track at Saint Petersburg. (Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
18th September, 2018
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It seems like just yesterday the IndyCar Series started the season on the streets of St Petersburg in Florida, yet six months and 17 races later, we crowned a champion as the series visited Sonoma Raceway in Northern California.

Here are all the talking points from the last race of the year:

Hunter-Reay wins the race
The last race of the season was admittedly short on drama at the front of the pack as Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay dominated, leading all but a handful of the 85 laps run, capping a dominant weekend. He won the pole on Saturday and the race on Sunday – barely challenged all weekend.

Hopefully, the popular Floridian can carry that momentum through into 2019.

Dixon wins the championship
Ladies and gentlemen, Scott Dixon of New Zealand is officially a gold-plated IndyCar legend. The Ice Man won his fifth IndyCar Series title and his first with PNC Bank on the side of his Chip Ganassi Racing car.

American youngster Alexander Rossi was probably only the real challenger to Dixon in the double-points event, and a very early incident involving Rossi and, of all people, his Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti, had the Californian playing catch-up right from the beginning.

Dixon maintained that there wasn’t a moment during the race where he wasn’t worried about the threat from Rossi, but it must’ve been nice knowing almost at the drop of the green flag that his biggest championship rival was well and truly fighting an uphill battle.

It was basically Dixon’s title to lose from there and if there’s one thing we have come to take as gospel where the Queensland-born Kiwi is concerned, it’s that he doesn’t make mistakes. Nor did he on Sunday, closing out the championship with a calm drive, triumphing by 57 points over a valiant Rossi, who carved his way spectacularly through the field, with Australia’s Indianapolis 500 champion Will Power a distant third.

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Dixon’s dominance in an era of reliability and stacked fields as far as driver talent goes is something to behold and we are privileged to be watching a real master of the craft of IndyCar racing season after season. Dixon deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Marco Andretti, AJ Foyt, Rick Mears, Al Unser and other legends.

He doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon, and that’s a scary thought for the rest of the field.

A video message from Robert Wickens
This made everyone feel good. The Canadian who sustained serious injuries – the extent of some are still yet to be determined – filmed a video for social media that was posted shortly before the Sonoma race went green, showing him moving his hands, smiling and stating that his goal was to get back in a race car as soon as possible.

It was a perfect way to start off the final day of the season.

Takuma Sato re-signs with Rahal
The 2017 Indianapolis 500 champion made it a good couple of weeks, recommitting to the Bobby Rahal-run outfit for 2019 after winning last time out at Portland, and will again partner with Graham Rahal. Additionally, there’s some chance that the team will expand to three cars for next season.

Harding Racing’s Sonoma driver line-up is a window into the future
Maybe not for Harding Racing, but certainly for someone. Indy Lights standouts Colton Herta and Patricio ‘Pato’ O’Ward both had their first taste of an IndyCar race weekend at Sonoma and acquitted themselves fantastically.

O’Ward impressed right off the bat, qualifying fifth fastest, with Herta a little further back in 19th. In the race, O’Ward finished a creditable ninth, and Herta came home 20th.

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Next season, both drivers are going to be active in IndyCar. With the backing of the powerful George M. Steinbrenner IV, part of the family that owns baseball’s New York Yankees, it’s almost a certainty we’ll see Herta on the grid next year – the question is, where?

Will they race in conjunction with Andretti Autosport, as they’ve done in Indy Lights competition the last couple of years, or partner with Harding Racing, or go it alone? There’s a lot still to shake out, which will probably happen in the next few weeks.

O’Ward, the 2018 Indy Lights Series champion, is guaranteed at least three races including the 103rd Indianapolis 500. It will be fun to chart the future successes of both these young drivers.

Bourdais back with Coyne
The veteran Frenchman who won the season-opener at St Petersburg will be back with Dale Coyne Racing in 2019. Presumably, engineer Craig Hampson is also coming back. Theirs has been a great combination in recent years, helping to elevate perennial backmarker Coyne into a serious race-winning threat.

Silly season updates
With Fernando Alonso potentially in the wings for a full-time or at least partial IndyCar tilt, an open seat at Ganassi (replacing the said-to-be-departing Ed Jones), the previously-mentioned Herta/Steinbrenner backing, as many as two rides at Harding and a potential new open seat at Carlin Racing, and the road course seat at Ed Carpenter Racing (occupied this year by Jordan King) and a replacement for the injured Robert Wickens at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports there’s plenty of news to come.

I have a feeling the rumoured McLaren/Alonso announcement – either way, whether it happens or doesn’t – will be the first domino to fall, and so much will fall into place once Fernando’s intentions are known.

Josef Newgarden, driver of the #1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars at Texas Motor Speedway

(Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

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Farewell, Sonoma
At least for the foreseeable future, the IndyCar Series won’t be visiting the undulating road course in Napa Valley, instead shifting south of the San Francisco Bay Area to Laguna Seca Raceway as the northern Californian stop from next season, on a three-year deal. Notable for being one of the first road course races in the Indy Racing League, Sonoma has suffered from dwindling attendance in recent years.

Even so, the course’s full layout, including the carousel, has provided some good racing and will be missed by those of us who love seeing IndyCars running full blast on a great natural terrain road course.

Farewell, Verizon
The telecommunications company ended its association with IndyCar as title sponsor of the series following the Sonoma event. An active title sponsor as far as activations and marketplace presence, they will, by all accounts, remain the primary backer for Will Power’s #12 Penske Chevrolet, and the series is on the hunt for a new title sponsor.

Next stop: season 2019
The IndyCar Series kicks off with spring training at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in early February and the first race of the year is, as always, St Petersburg in Florida, on March 10.

A few other schedule notes: the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race is Sunday 26 May; the series will return to the famous Laguna Seca Raceway for the season finale; IndyCars will race at Circuit of the Americas, effectively replacing the oval event at Phoenix, in March and Iowa returns to a Saturday night race in 2019.

All the old favourites are back: Mid-Ohio, Long Beach, Road America and Texas Motor Speedway. I’m still holding out hope for the return of great venues like Cleveland and Mexico City. A guy can dream, right?

I’m already looking forward to the new season, and to making my second visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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