Does IndyCar have a problem on its hands in road and street course races?

While the first four IndyCar races of the season have featured four different winners from four different teams, they have been relatively dull by the series usual standards.

The first four races of the 17-race 2019 IndyCar season have featured four different winners from four different teams, something that had not previously happened in the first four races of a season since the 2015 season.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden opened up the 2019 season by winning the race on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida before Harding Steinbrenner Racing rookie Colton Herta earned his first career victory by winning the season’s second race at Circuit of the Americas.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato then went on to win the season’s third race at Barber Motorsports Park before Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi won the season’s fourth and most recent race on the streets of Long Beach, California.

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This illustrates a level of parity that exists within IndyCar that is rare in other motorsports series (aside of Formula E). But does it really paint an accurate picture of how competitive the series has been so far this season?

The 2018 season was the first season during which the new UAK18 aero kit was utilized by teams, and one of the highlights of this aero kit was the fact that the racing in road and street course races was vastly improved, especially compared to where it had been from the 2015 season through the 2017 season when engine manufacturers Chevrolet and Honda also manufactured their own aero kits for their teams. Yes, there were still some lackluster races, but there pretty much always are, and in the 2018 season, they were fortunately few and far between.

But aside of the parity in the 2019 season’s first four races, which were the first four road or street course races of the 12 road or street course races on this year’s schedule, the racing has not reflected the racing we saw throughout the 11 road and street course races on the 2018 schedule.

Several facts and figures, as well as what college sports rankings analysts refer to as the “eye test”, point to this.

First off, Rossi’s margin of victory of 20.236 in the most recent race is the largest margin of victory since Scott Dixon won the race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the 2009 season by a whopping 29.780 seconds.

There is nothing wrong with a dominant victory by the driver who was clearly the class of the field, but this kind of margin of victory was simply unheard of since the introduction of the DW12 chassis in the 2012 season. This kind of margin of victory is massive even for a Formula 1 race.

Speaking of Formula 1, the first three races of the 2019 Formula 1 season have each featured at least one on-track lead change. IndyCar hasn’t seen an on-track lead change in any of the last three races.

Team Penske’s Will Power led the first 45 laps of the race at Circuit of the Americas before a mechanical issue discovered during his final pit stop prevented him from continuing. Herta inherited the lead and led the race’s final 15 laps.

Sato led 74 laps of the 90-lap race at Barber Motorsports Park before taking the checkered flag, and he only ever relinquished the lead during his pit stops. Rossi took the pole position for the 85-lap race on the streets of Long Beach, California and led 80 of its 85 laps en route to taking the victory. He, too, only ever relinquished his lead during his pit stops.

Even the result of the season opener, the only race of the season that has featured an on-track lead change, was never really in doubt once Newgarden took the lead, which he did not do via an on-track pass for the lead. He led 60 of the race’s 110 laps, including 59 of the final 60.

The next race on the schedule is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 11, at which point it will have been more than two months since a driver actually passed someone for the lead of a race. A driver has not won a race after making a pass for the lead at all yet this season.

Has the IndyCar racing on display through the first four races of the 2019 season been terrible? Absolutely not, not by any stretch of the imagination. There have been bold moves, close racing and exciting moments in each of the first four races, and that cannot possibly be overstated.

However, at the very least, the racing, especially at the front of the field, has been alarming on many levels, especially when compared to the racing that has taken place in recent seasons. This is magnified by the fact that road and street course races make up an overwhelming majority of the series schedule.

IndyCar is in the midst of an upswing that simply cannot be ignored nor taken for granted, because if it is, it will turn into a rapid decline. The series certainly isn’t at risk of becoming as pass-deprived as Formula 1 is as a whole, but even certain recent Formula 1 races have provided more action that what recent IndyCar races have provided.

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The last thing I want to do is turn away a casual IndyCar fan from continuing to or perhaps starting to watch races on a regular or even a semi-regular basis. My goal is the exact opposite. But if the racing does not improve, it unfortunately very well may take care of that. Just look at the comments on IndyCar’s social media pages after this past Sunday’s race.

Let’s all hope and make sure that this doesn’t happen.