IndyCar: Preseason 2019 Driver Power Rankings

With the 2019 IndyCar season scheduled to get started this weekend, how do the sport’s 20 full-time drivers stack up against one another?

With the nearly six-month offseason coming to a close, IndyCar action is scheduled to return this weekend with the opening race of the 2019 season.

The season is scheduled to get underway with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which is the first of 17 races on the 2019 schedule. The season is scheduled to run through the majority of September, and the season opener is scheduled to take place this Sunday, March 10 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Shortly after the year 2019 officially began, we published our Way-too-early Driver Power Rankings for the 2019 IndyCar season. In this article, we analyzed and ranked all 22 of the sport’s projected full-time drivers.

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Despite the fact that the start of the 2019 season is much closer now than it was more than two months ago when these power rankings were released, these rankings were released in the offseason and the offseason is still in progress.

With this in mind, this edition of Preseason Driver Power Rankings simply contains a list of rankings. It does not contain a full-length slideshow that includes an in-depth analysis for each driver.

Here is a link to the Way-too-early Driver Power Rankings for the 2019 season if you are also interested in reading an in-depth analysis for each of the 22 projected full-time drivers.

There have been three changes in these particular rankings from the time the Way-too-early Driver Power Rankings were released back in January until now.

First of all, Charlie Kimball was projected to be Carlin’s second full-time driver, but he is set to drive part-time for the team instead, so he was removed from these rankings. Secondly, Patricio O’Ward was projected to be Harding Steinbrenner Racing’s second full-time driver, but he is set to drive part-time for Carlin instead, so he, too, was removed from these rankings.

Kimball was ranked at #19 in the Way-too-early Team Power Rankings ahead of Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ Matheus Leist and Carlin’s Max Chilton. O’Ward was ranked at #16 ahead of all of these drivers as well as A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ Tony Kanaan and Harding Steinbrenner Racing’s Colton Herta.

Secondly, Colton Herta moved up to #15 in these rankings as a result of the exceptional pace that he showed in the Spring Training test sessions at Circuit of the Americas. He moved ahead of Kanaan and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Spencer Pigot.

Here are the Preseason IndyCar Driver Power Rankings for the 2019 season. These rankings are the rankings that are set to be in place when the season begins this weekend.

Rank – Driver – Car, Team, Engine
1st – Scott Dixon – #9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda
2nd – Alexander Rossi – #27, Andretti Autosport, Honda
3rd – Josef Newgarden – #2, Team Penske, Chevrolet
4th – Ryan Hunter-Reay – #28, Andretti Autosport, Honda
5th – Will Power – #12, Team Penske, Chevrolet
6th – Simon Pagenaud – #22, Team Penske, Chevrolet
7th – Graham Rahal – #15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda
8th – Sebastien Bourdais – #18, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda
9th – James Hinchcliffe – #5, Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda
10th – Zach Veach – #26, Andretti Autosport, Honda
11th – Marco Andretti – #98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda
12th – Marcus Ericsson – #7, Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda
13th – Felix Rosenqvist – #10, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda
14th – Takuma Sato – #30, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda
15th – Colton Herta – #88, Harding Steinbrenner Racing, Honda
16th – Spencer Pigot – #21, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet
17th – Tony Kanaan – #14, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet
18th – Santino Ferrucci – #19, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda
19th – Matheus Leist – #4, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet
20th – Max Chilton – #59, Carlin, Chevrolet

For a description of how the IndyCar Driver Power Rankings are set to be calculated throughout the 2019 season, click here.

Next. Top 10 IndyCar drivers of all-time. dark

The 2019 IndyCar season is scheduled to get underway this Sunday, March 10 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET. The 2019 schedule, which you can see here, is comprised of 17 races from then until September, so be sure not to miss any of them.