IndyCar: Championship-clinching scenarios at Sonoma

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SONOMA, CA – SEPTEMBER 18: Simon Pagenaud of France driver of the #22 Team Penske Hewlett Packard Chevrolet (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) /

How can each of the seven championship-eligible IndyCar drivers win the 2017 title? Here are all of the championship-clinching scenarios.

The GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma is all set to decide who the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series champion will be. The race will take place at the 12-turn, 2.385-mile Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California on Sunday, September 17th, 2017. Here is how each driver who is mathematically eligible to win the title can do so.

NOTE: Double points are awarded for the championship race. Bonus points are not factored into this list, which may affect the accuracy of some of the scenarios. One bonus point is given to the race polesitter, while one more is given to any driver who leads at least one lap of the race. Two bonus points are given to the driver who leads the most laps of the race. This article also assumes that there will be 22 drivers racing at Sonoma at most.

Remaining in this year’s championship hunt are seven drivers. Here is a list of those drivers as well as where they currently stand from a championship standings perspective.

Rank	Driver	Car, Team, Engine/Aero Kit	Points	Behind
1	Josef Newgarden	#2, Team Penske, Chevrolet	560	–
2	Scott Dixon	#9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda	557	-3
3	Helio Castroneves	#3, Team Penske, Chevrolet	528	-32
4	Simon Pagenaud	#1, Team Penske, Chevrolet	526	-34
5	Will Power	#12, Team Penske, Chevrolet	492	-68
6	Alexander Rossi	#98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda	476	-84
7	Graham Rahal	#15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda	466	-94

Given the fact that double points are on offer at Sonoma, here is what the standings really look like based on the regular system.

Rank	Driver	Car, Team, Engine/Aero Kit	Behind
1	Josef Newgarden	#2, Team Penske, Chevrolet	–
2	Scott Dixon	#9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda	-1.5
3	Helio Castroneves	#3, Team Penske, Chevrolet	-16
4	Simon Pagenaud	#1, Team Penske, Chevrolet	-17
5	Will Power	#12, Team Penske, Chevrolet	-34
6	Alexander Rossi	#98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda	-42
7	Graham Rahal	#15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda	-47

Let’s get started with how each of the seven championship-eligible drivers can still win this season’s IndyCar title. We’ll start off with points leader Josef Newgarden.