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IndyCar: Has Honda Finally Ended Chevrolet’s Reign of Supremacy?

By Asher Fair

Jun 4, 2016; Detroit, MI, USA; The first place trophy rests on the winning car of KVSH Racing driver Sebastien Bourdais (not pictured) of France after the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit Race 1 at The Raceway at Belle Isle Park. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 4, 2016; Detroit, MI, USA; The first place trophy rests on the winning car of KVSH Racing driver Sebastien Bourdais (not pictured) of France after the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit Race 1 at The Raceway at Belle Isle Park. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /
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Since re-entering the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2012, the Chevrolet cars have been dominant. Has Honda finally ended Chevrolet’s reign of supremacy?

That question is one that we have asked many times before when things seem to be going well for Honda. In fact, let’s start off by talking about all of the times that Honda appeared to be on Chevrolet’s level since Chevrolet re-entered the series in 2012.

2012

After Chevrolet started off with four straight victories and looked unstoppable, Honda took three straight wins, including their win at the Indy 500. There was hope, but then that hope was lost. Chevrolet ended up winning seven of the next eight races, giving them an 11-4 advantage over Honda for the season.

2013

Honda had a four-race winning streak right around the 2/3-mark of the season. They ended up having more victories than Chevrolet through 17 races (9-8). However, Chevrolet won the last two races to end up on top, 10-9. Scott Dixon, however, was the IndyCar champion in his Honda, so it truly looked like Chevrolet’s supremacy was no more.

2014

Honda kept it close with Chevrolet for much of the season. The Honda drivers put together a three-race winning streak towards the beginning of the season, including an Indy 500 victory. After the 12th race of the season, Chevrolet and Honda were tied with six victories, and the parity we saw in 2013 looked to be continuing. But it wasn’t, as Chevrolet ended the season with six consecutive wins, giving them a 12-6 advantage for the season.

2015

Chevrolet dominated throughout the entire season. Honda had some bright spots, but winning just six of 16 races gave Honda no real reason to be hopeful, especially since two of their victories were in rain-shortened races.

2016

There was never hope for Honda, period. Honda won two races out of the 16 races that were contested. They won the Indy 500 as well a close race at Texas (see video).

2017

After the most one-sided season in favor of Chevrolet, there is hope right now.

Honda won the first two races of the season and claimed a total of four of the six podium spots in those races. This gives them their best start to a season since Chevrolet re-entered the series. However, the question remains: has Honda really ended Chevrolet’s reign of supremacy?

As referenced above, Honda has had hope before on numerous occasions. But Chevrolet came into this season with a 57-27 win advantage over Honda since Chevrolet rejoined the series in 2012. Short spurts of hope for Honda just won’t cut it anymore. Two races in the 2017 season is simply too small of a sample size to tell if Honda has really ended Chevrolet’s supremacy.

Or is it?

A total of 21 cars race in the full-time field this season. Of those, 13 are Honda-powered, and eight are Chevrolet-powered. The 61.9% of the full-time field that Honda makes up is its largest percentage since it last powered the whole field, which was in 2011.

This alone should give Honda a boost in the win category, especially since the only real “powerhouse” Chevrolet team is Team Penske, a team that has not yet won this season through two races, both races that were actually won by Team Penske drivers last season.

But…

Both of the first two races of this season were won partially due to strategy. At St. Petersburg, Sebastien Bourdais went from last place to first place thanks to a caution flag period to win the race. At Long Beach, James Hinchcliffe didn’t have to save nearly the amount of fuel that he would have had to save to win the race had it not been for a couple of late caution flag periods.

Also, Honda still doesn’t have Chevrolet-caliber speed in qualifying. Honda has been better in practices this season that they have been over the past couple of seasons, but they are still without a pole position start through two races in 2017.

Key Facts To Note

Honda cars have been on pole just three times over the past 44 races since Simon Pagenaud’s pole at Houston in 2014. That pole is Honda’s latest on a street course.

As far as road courses go, Honda hasn’t taken a pole position since Dario Franchitti was on pole at Sonoma in 2013. A Honda driver has not won on a road course since Graham Rahal won at Mid-Ohio in 2015.

Honda’s first pole on an oval since Dario Franchitti took pole at Iowa in 2012 came last year when James Hinchcliffe took the pole for the Indy 500. That pole was Honda’s lone pole on an oval track since Chevrolet re-entered the series. All three of Honda’s poles last season, their only three since Houston in 2014 (see above), were on ovals (Indy, Texas, Pocono), however, and more particularly, superspeedways.

Luckily for Honda, at the end of the day, wins matter, not poles. Even still, Honda’s 29 wins in 86 races since 2012 is not an impressive statistic. But after a strong start to this season, it would certainly appear that Honda is at least closing the gap to Chevrolet en route to ending Chevrolet’s reign of supremacy.

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Tune in this Sunday, April 23rd, 2017 as Honda looks to earn their third consecutive victory to open up the 2017 season. The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama is set to begin at 3:30 PM ET. NBC Sports Network will broadcast it live starting at 3:00 PM ET.