Opinion
The final race of an enthralling 2022 IndyCar Series took place at the iconic Laguna Seca raceway in northern California, with four drivers – Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin – still mathematically in with a chance to claim the championship trophy to end one of the most closely-fought IndyCar championships in recent memory.
Here are all the talking points from the season’s final event:
A remarkably mature, poised, calm, consistent and controversy-free season from Toowoomba’s finest sees Power claim his second IndyCar Series championship and his first since 2014, despite winning only one race. It was Power’s enviable record of nine podiums and twelve top-5 finishes that delivered him the crown. He had three more podiums and three more top-5 finishes than anyone else in the field, finished every lap of the season, and is a deserved champion at age forty-one, delivering Roger Penske his seventeenth IndyCar Series crown.
When you consider the youth movement of IndyCar – drivers like Palou, O’Ward, Herta, Malukas and Lundgaard – Power’s win and Dixon’s strong finish show that there’s plenty of life left in the older generation of IndyCar drivers still.
Newgarden was sixteen points back of Power in the final season tally, with Dixon coming home third, leaving us all to wonder ‘what if’ the speeding penalty at the Indianapolis 500 which snatched a nearly-certain Brickyard win from his grasp, hadn’t happened? Likely, we’d be celebrating another Dixon title.
The defending IndyCar Series champion, driving for a team he doesn’t want to be with in 2023, overcame all of the adversity and legal wrangling pitting his current team, Chip Ganassi Racing against his would-be 2023 destination, Arrow McLaren SP, to absolutely brain his rivals, leading 67 of 95 total laps after getting to the front for the first time on lap 16.
The Spaniard won by 30.812 seconds, which was the largest margin of victory all year for his first victory of the year. It just goes to show that no matter what sort of drama is taking place outside the car, good drivers – especially when they find their groove – can cancel it all out, and destroy their competition.
Josef Newgarden finished second for Team Penske, with Power (who led seventeen laps) on the bottom step of the podium, which was enough for him to win the championship no matter what anyone else did.
Felix Rosenqvist was fourth for McLaren – his own situation for next year is still up in the air – and impressive rookie Christian Lundgaard brought his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda home in fifth, capping off quite a campaign for the Danish driver. Scott McLaughlin was sixth, in his role as a rear gunner for his championship-chasing Penske teammates.
Now, of course, we wait with bated breath to see where Palou will drive next year. There were some rumblings across the weekend that suggest maybe he will return to Ganassi, which would be quite the turnaround from his mid-summer suggestion that he would be racing at McLaren next year. But with the $10 million fee that was being bandied about for McLaren to secure his release from Ganassi, it might be a case of Palou racing for Ganassi or nowhere in 2023.
Quite a weekend for the 2023 IndyCar Series champion, who captured his fifth pole of the 2022 season, bringing him to sixty-eight all time, breaking a tie with the legendary Mario Andretti. Not a bad weekend when you’re besting Mario.
Five victories from fourteen races propelled Andretti Autosport’s Swedish driver to his first Indy Lights Series win, amassing a championship standings margin of ninety-two points over Sting Ray Robb. Australia’s Matthew Brabham, in his return to Lights competition, came home third after taking the checkered flag twice, and New Zealand’s Hunter McElrea finished fourth, and was awarded rookie of the year.
Time will tell as to how many Lights drivers will step up to the IndyCar Series, but Lundqvist’s million dollar scholarship will likely attract some midfield teams. Pardon my parochialism, but it would be fantastic to see Matty Brabham given a proper shot at IndyCar, but there is a dearth of good teams with vacancies on the grid. I suspect another year in Lights. A championship win would give him a huge leg up.
So much to watch next season: Alexander Rossi at Arrow McLaren SP. Kyle Kirkwood back in the Andretti fold. The matured Will Power going for two in a row. Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden nipping at his heels. The continued emergence of Pato O’Ward. David Malukas at Coyne, Lundgaard at Rahal and Callum Ilott at Juncos-Hollinger (with a teammate).
Scott Dixon will be in the hunt. What does Jimmie Johnson’s third year in IndyCar look like? Will it be a young gun or an old stager on the top step of the championship podium? Same question for who drinks the milk at Indianapolis in May. I already can’t wait. Is it time for St Petersburg yet?
Let’s hope for as compelling a year next year as we had this year. IndyCar Series racing is the best on-track product in the world – yes, that’s a hill I’ll happily die on – and it’s future is as bright as it’s been since, arguably, the early 90’s, the disastrous CART/IRL split now well and truly in the rear-view mirror.
Thanks for reading in 2022.
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