IndyCar: Will Marco Andretti finally win a race in 2019?

Marco Andretti has not won an IndyCar race since the 2011 season. Will the 2019 season be the season during which he finally ends his win drought?

It’s that time of year again — the time of year when motorsports news outlets, particularly IndyCar news outlets, everywhere start publishing articles about one particular question.

And — just as a fair warning — this time of the year typically lasts until the upcoming season begins — sometimes even after it has started.

This one question is a question that has been asked every year since 2012. It is a question that writers try have on many different occasions tried to predict the answer to in “Bold Predictions” articles for the upcoming season.

I know. In fact, I’ve done it before — more than once.

But it is also a question that ends up being answered the same exact way every single season — with a resounding NO.

Here’s the question: Will Marco Andretti end his seemingly endless win drought?

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The last time Andretti won a race was in the 2011 season. He doubled his career win total from one to two by winning the race at Iowa Speedway. In doing so, he ended a career-long 77-race win drought that began after he won the race at Sonoma Raceway in the 2006 season, his rookie season.

This 77-race win drought is now the second longest (and, in fact, second shortest) win drought of his career. He is currently riding a 126-race win drought heading into the 2019 season.

The 31-year-old Nazareth drives for Andretti Herta Autosport, one of the most competitive teams in the sport. He has driven for Andretti Autosport, the team owned by his father Michael, who won 42 IndyCar races in his career, since he began competing in IndyCar in the 2006 season.

In fact, Andretti just became a partner in his own #98 Honda entry for the 2019 season. It’s not like he doesn’t have a chance to win races. It really would not, or at least should not, be surprising to see him finally get back to victory lane given the fact that he drives for the team he drives for.

But after 13 seasons during which he has earned just two victories, Andretti’s odds of winning seem to revolve primarily around two questions:

With typically around two dozen drivers competing in the average race, he is bound to come out on top at some point, right?
If not, strategy is bound to go his way at some point then, right?

However, it’s not that simple — even though he drives for the team that are arguably currently the sport’s top team, meaning he should have a far better chance than the average driver to win at least one race over the course of the season.

Andretti not only hasn’t won a race since the 2011 season; he hasn’t finished a race on the podium since he finished in third place in the race at Auto Club Speedway in the 2015 season. His podium drought is currently at 55 races.

Only two other win droughts — not podium droughts, win droughts — aside of his win drought are even this long.

Also notable is the fact that Andretti has only recorded three top five finishes in the 55 races that have been contested since he recorded his most recent podium finish. He also failed to finish any of the next 32 races in the top five after he recorded this podium finish.

That said, Andretti could certainly end his win drought in 2019. Every season, he seems to have a “better chance” to do so than he did in the previous season, and that looks like it will be the case once again. The new UAK18 aero kit has seemed to suit him quite well compared to past aero kits.

However, this will be no small task for him, as it is clear that there are a plethora of drivers who are better than he is and who can beat him on a fairly regular basis even though he drives for a top-tier team. As far as the actual likelihood of Andretti finally earning his third career IndyCar victory this season, it isn’t that high.

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Do you believe that Marco Andretti will earn his third career IndyCar victory in the 17-race 2019 season? If so, which race do you believe that he will win to finally end what will be a nearly eight-year win drought to start the season? How many races do you believe he will win in 2019?

The season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 10, 2019, with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This race is set to take place on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. Andretti’s career-high finish in this race is his third place finish in the 2013 season.