IndyCar: Josef Newgarden keeping Chevrolet in championship contention

Without the success of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, it would literally be all Honda drivers at the top of the IndyCar championship standings.

Through four races in the 2018 IndyCar season, Josef Newgarden sits atop the championship standings after winning twice in his #1 Chevrolet for Team Penske. He won at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona in the second race of the season, and he won the most recent race of the season at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

But without his success, Chevrolet would be completely out of championship contention at this point in the season. Yes, Chevrolet drivers have won half of the 2018 season’s races so far. But as referenced above, Newgarden has been responsible for both of those wins. Take away those wins and Honda drivers are absolutely dominating the series.

Through four races so far this season, there have been 24 top six finishing positions (six per race). Of those 24 top six finishing positions, Honda drivers have taken 21 of them, while Chevrolet drivers have taken only three of them.

Again, two of those three top six finishes for Chevrolet drivers have been Newgarden’s victories. The only other one was the second place finish of Newgarden’s teammate Will Power at Long Beach. Other than that, there have not been any top six finishes for Chevrolet drivers so far this season.

As a result of this, the championship standings completely favor the Honda drivers…except in the case of Newgarden, who is all the way up in first place. From second place all the way down through ninth, every single driver in the standings is a Honda driver.

Here are the current top nine in the IndyCar championship standings.

Rank	Driver	Car, Team, Engine/Aero Kit	Points	Behind
1	Josef Newgarden	#1, Team Penske, Chevrolet	158	–
2	Alexander Rossi	#27, Andretti Autosport, Honda	145	-13
3	Graham Rahal	#15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda	119	-39
4	Sebastien Bourdais	#18, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda	119	-39
5	James Hinchcliffe	#5, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda	118	-40
6	Ryan Hunter-Reay	#28, Andretti Autosport, Honda	113	-45
7	Scott Dixon	#9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda	107	-51
8	Robert Wickens	#6, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda	97	-61
9	Marco Andretti	#98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda	88	-70

Power is the first Chevrolet driver behind Newgarden in the standings, and he is all the way down in 10th place. In fact, Power is the only driver who has earned more than half of the amount of points that Newgarden has earned so far this season. Newgarden has scored 158 points, while Power has scored 81.

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A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ Tony Kanaan, another Chevrolet driver, is the only other Chevrolet driver who has earned at least half the amount of points that Newgarden has earned so far this season. He sits in an 11th place tie in the standings with 79 points, a total that exactly half of Newgarden’s. The six full-time drivers who sit between 15th and 20th (last) in the standings are all Chevrolet drivers.

If you ignore Newgarden’s success, which also includes two seventh place finishes in addition to his two victories at Phoenix and Barber, you would be left with eight consecutive Honda drivers atop the standings, and that would make complete sense seeing as how only one, and no more than one Chevrolet driver, has finished in the top six in three of the first four races of the 2018 season.

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Will Josef Newgarden’s success continue despite the fact that other Chevrolet drivers have been nowhere near his level so far this season? Will other Chevrolet drivers start to improve? When, if at all, will a Chevrolet driver not named Newgarden win a race this season? When, if at all, will more than one Chevrolet driver finish a race in the top 6? With 13 races left to go, anything is possible. But right now, the only Chevrolet driver that is keeping Chevrolet in championship contention is Newgarden.