IndyCar: Can Harding Steinbrenner Racing end the 16-year run of the ‘Big 3’?

By Asher Fair | Mar 30, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 25: Gabby Chaves, driver of the #88 Salesforce DDR Chevrolet (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Autosport have combined to win each of the last 16 IndyCar championships. Can Harding Steinbrenner Racing prevent that 16 from becoming a 17?

The last time a driver won an IndyCar championship (not including Champ Car championships) driving for a team other than Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske or Andretti Autosport was all the way back in the 2002 season.

Sam Hornish Jr., who was driving for Panther Racing at the time, won the second of two consecutive championships in the 2002 season.

Since then, a total of nine different drivers have combined to win the next 16 IndyCar championships. Chip Ganassi Racing have won eight of them with two different drivers while Team Penske have won four of them with four different drivers and Andretti Autosport have won four of them with four different drivers.

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One of these nine drivers, Dario Franchitti, who won championships driving for more than one of these teams. He won one championship driving for Andretti Autosport (then Andretti Green Racing) in the 2007 season and three championships driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons.

Harding Steinbrenner Racing rookie Colton Herta was only two years old when Hornish Jr. won the 2002 championship. But could he be the driver who makes his team the team that can end this 16-year run of IndyCar’s “Big Three”?

Harding Steinbrenner Racing, which were formed when Harding Racing formed a partnership with Steinbrenner Racing shortly after the conclusion of the 2018 season, were set to have two full-time drivers this season, Herta and 2018 Indy Lights champion Patricio O’Ward.

But less than one month before the start of the 2019 season, O’Ward and the team parted ways, leaving Herta as their only driver. The start of Herta’s rookie season could not have possibly gone better.

After a penalty kept him from advancing to the Firestone Fast Six in qualifying for the season opener, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, Herta started the race in 11th place and went on to finish it in eighth. He then qualified in a fourth for the season’s second race, the IndyCar Classic, at Circuit of the Americas before leading its final 15 laps and winning it.

At the age of only 18 years and 359 days old, the Valencia, California native became the youngest driver to ever win an IndyCar race, and he now sits in second place in the championship standings. He trails only Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden by 18 points (93 to 75), and he is 18 points ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi in third.

As far as Herta winning the championship in his rookie season, it is certainly a longshot at this point no matter how you slice it, especially with only two of the race’s on the season’s 17-race schedule having been completed.

In fact, five of the nine drivers who currently drive for Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske or Andretti Autosport have combined to win nine championships, including each of the last seven, and Rossi, who is considered by many people to be a championship favorite this season after finishing in second place in the 2018 championship standings, is not even included in this group of five champions.

But given the speed that Herta has shown to open up the 2019 season in the first two starts of his career as a full-time driver, it is a serious possibility.

Of course, Harding Steinbrenner Racing did form a technical alliance with Andretti Autosport ahead of the 2019 season, so there would certainly be those who resist the idea of them truly ending the 16-year championship streak of Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Autosport if Herta does manage to win this year’s championship.

Nevertheless, they are still their own team and thus have a chance to end this 16-year championship streak.

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Will Colton Herta win the 2019 IndyCar championship in his rookie season, thus causing Harding Steinbrenner Racing to end the 16-year championship streak of Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Autosport? If not, will the team end up being the team that end this lengthy championship streak of IndyCar’s “Big Three”? If they do end this streak, when will they end it?