Beyond the Flag
Fansided

Why Takuma Sato Could Be A Legitimate Championship Contender

By Asher Fair

May 29, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Verizon IndyCar Series driver Takuma Sato holds up a Japanese flag after winning the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
May 29, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Verizon IndyCar Series driver Takuma Sato holds up a Japanese flag after winning the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Indianapolis 500 champion Takuma Sato shot up to a 2nd place tie in the championship standings with his Indy 500 victory. He may very well be a legitimate championship contender.

When Takuma Sato, 40, won his first IndyCar race in the 2013 season at Long Beach, he shot up from an 11th place tie to 2nd place in the championship standings at the time. After that race, he went on to lead a race-high 22 laps at the next race at Sao Paulo and led the race up until the final turn, where he was passed by James Hinchcliffe to create an epic finish. Sato finished in 2nd place.

After that last-lap pass by James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato’s career has gone downhill. While he did jump to the lead of the championship standings after that race, that pass took away the momentum he had as he went into that year’s Indy 500 looking for redemption after his last-lap crash in 2012.

In the 2013 Indy 500, Sato spun out before the halfway point of the race, but did rebound to finish in 13th, which was his career-high finish at the Indy 500 at the time. That 13th place finish was actually tied for his career-high Indy 500 finish in seven attempts before he won this year’s race.

More from IndyCar

In the four races that followed the 2013 Indy 500, Sato finished in the top 10 just once. He then went on a terrible stint of nine DNFs over the course of the final 10 races of the season before finishing the season in 17th place in the championship standings.

When Takuma Sato finally won his first race since 2013 with his win at the Indianapolis 500, he shot up from a 10th place tie to a 2nd place tie in the championship standings, which is where he now sits. As a driver who has finished no higher than 13th place in the championship standings in seven full-time IndyCar seasons, Sato is probably not deemed as a true championship contender by a lot of people yet.

But he is just that. Now driving for Andretti Autosport, the strongest team that he has ever driven for, Sato is not going to fade away like he did in 2013. The only thing that you should expect to be similar to 2013 is how he responds to his Indy 500 win in the races at Belle Isle.

Sato wasn’t super strong at Sao Paulo in 2013, but he still ended up one turn away and just 0.346 seconds from winning the race and becoming the first driver to win his first two IndyCar races in back-to-back races since AJ Allmendinger in 2006. At Belle Isle, where he has finished in 2nd place before, Sato should back up his Indy 500 win and prove he belongs towards the top of the championship standings.

He had never finished higher than 13th place at the Indy 500 before this year, yet he won this year’s race. Don’t let the fact that he has never finished higher than 13th place in the final IndyCar championship standings steer you away from the fact that he very well could be a true championship contender this season. Here’s why.

More from IndyCar

Sato is well-known for wrecking. In fact, over the course of his career, he has gone on stretches of six DNFs in eight races (2012), nine DNFs in 10 races (2013), as referenced above, and six DNFs in a row (2014). But Sato is a much different driver now. Over the course of the past 24 races, he has had two DNFs in a row just once and has finished 19 of those 24 races.

And he is now an Indy 500 champion. After years and years of frustration, Sato is a winner again, and he is back in the mix for the championship.

In addition to all of the reasoning above regarding what makes Sato a championship contender this year despite his collapse from the lead of the championship standings in 2013, there is one key thing that he has to his advantage that just one other IndyCar driver does.

Sato is one of only two drivers who have driven Honda-powered cars full-time in every season since the adoption of the DW12 chassis. The other? Graham Rahal, who had multiple abysmal seasons before he established himself as a true contender over the past few seasons.

In 2013 and 2014, Rahal finished in 18th and 19th in the championship standings, respectively. In both seasons, he was one position behind Sato.

In 2015, Rahal had a breakout season, winning his first two races since 2008 and finishing in a career-high 4th place in the championship standings as the highest finishing Honda driver.  In 2016, he was once again the highest finishing Honda driver in 5th place. He added another victory to his IndyCar resume as well over the course of that season.

In both of those seasons, Sato continued to struggled. But Rahal emerged as a legitimate contender. Sato is looking to do the same, and winning the Indy 500 is certainly a huge step in the right direction.

Sato’s long-term experience in the DW12 era with Honda, which is emerging as a true overall threat to Chevrolet despite only having won 30 of the 90 races since Chevrolet re-entered the series in 2012, could play to his advantage like it has to Rahal’s over the past few seasons.

Next: IndyCar Driver Power Rankings

Do you think that Takuma Sato is a legitimate championship contender? Be sure to follow me on Instagram as well as Beyond the Flag on both Instagram and Twitter. Finally, don’t forget to follow along with Beyond the Flag for the latest news, opinions, and analysis stemming from a number of different motorsports series. You don’t want to miss any of it.