While many drivers that are currently not full-time IndyCar drivers probably deserve full-time rides, no driver is more deserving than IndyCar’s lone ‘perfect’ driver: Gabby Chaves.
When looking through IndyCar driver records at consistency, there are certain things you would not expect. One such thing is the fact that Gabby Chaves, 24, is towards the top in nearly every category having to do with consistency.
Chaves is set to make his third IndyCar appearance of the 2017 season at the third and final superspeedway of the season, Pocono Raceway. Let’s have a look back at just how “under-the-radar good” Chaves has been in his limited time as a driver in America’s top open-wheel racing series.
In the 2015 season, Chaves’ lone season of full-time competition in IndyCar, no driver finished more races than he did driving for Bryan Herta Autosport. He finished all but one of the 16 races on the schedule. His only DNF came at Pocono, and that was due to an engine issue with four laps to go in the race. Ironically, that race was the first IndyCar race during which he led laps in his career, and he was a serious contender for the win until his engine blew up.
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Only one driver in that 2015 season completed more laps than Chaves did. Of the 2,232 laps run that season, Chaves completed 2,211 (99.1%) of them. Only Ryan Hunter-Reay, a two-time race winner in 2015 who actually won that Pocono race, completed more (2,218 of 2,232 laps — 99.4%) laps than Chaves did.
As mentioned above, Chaves did not finish the first career IndyCar race he led at Pocono. However, in 25 career races, that is the only race he hasn’t finished, and he didn’t finish it due to an engine issue. Never has Chaves actually crashed out of an event, with his only real crash coming during practice for last year’s Texas race when he was driving for Dale Coyne Racing as a part-time driver.
Within the IndyCar paddock, it has become a cliché that there are two types of drivers: those who have crashed, and those who are going to crash. And then there’s Gabby Chaves, who never seems to make critical mistakes in races that cost his team tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars like some drivers are known to make.
And this season, Chaves’ consistency and reliability are starting to pay off. Despite the fact that he has driven in only two races thus far in 2017, this season has arguably been the best of his career. Chaves tied a career-high finish of 9th place at the Indianapolis 500 driving for the newly formed Harding Racing team, and he bettered that with a 5th place finish at Texas with the team. What result can he post at Pocono, and will it be good enough to secure himself another full-time ride next season like he deserves?
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Do you think Gabby Chaves will be in IndyCar as a full-time driver again in the near future? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow 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.