IndyCar: After several seasons without one, the series needs a high-level rivalry

By Asher Fair | Jun 16, 2019

EDMONTON, AB - JULY 24: (L-R) Race winner Will Power of Australia driver of the #12 Team Penske Dallara Honda and and third place, Dario Franchitti of Scotland driver of the #12 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara Honda, celebrate on the podium following the IZOD IndyCar Series Indy Edmonton at Edmonton City Centre Airport on July 24, 2011 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images) /

After almost a decade without a true rivalry among two of IndyCar’s top championship contenders, the series needs a high-level rivalry.

Over the last several IndyCar seasons, certain head-to-head driver matchups have been perceived as having the potential to blossom into long-term rivalries among two of the top drivers in the series, but these rivalries simply haven’t happened for one reason or another.

When Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal entered IndyCar, they were thought to have this potential given the history of their families in the series, but after more than a decade, this hasn’t panned out. They have combined to make 429 starts in IndyCar, and only once have they both finished on the podium in the same race.

In the 2015 season, Rahal and Josef Newgarden appeared to have this potential. This was the breakout season for both young Americans, as Rahal earned his first victory in more than seven years en route to staying in the championship fight until the season finale while Newgarden earned the first two victories of of his IndyCar career driving for CFH Racing to solidify himself on Team Penske’s radar.

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But that hasn’t panned out either. While Newgarden has since signed with Team Penske and won the 2017 championship, Rahal has not been a championship contender since the 2015 season. Additionally, it has been more than two years since he has won a race once again.

Really not since the days of Dario Franchitti and Will Power battling for supremacy back in the early part of this decade has the sport had a true rivalry among its top drivers. In fact, not since the 2010 and 2011 seasons have the top two in the championship standings featured the same two drivers, in any order, in consecutive seasons.

The 2010 and 2011 seasons are also the last two seasons to feature a driver (Franchitti) winning consecutive championships. In fact, he also won the 2009 championship, and before he skipped the 2008 season to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series, he also won the 2007 championship.

Parity, which there wasn’t a whole lot of in these few seasons, is certainly not a bad thing. But parity doesn’t mean there can’t be rivalries among some of the sport’s premier championship contenders.

Take NASCAR, for instance. There is a lot of parity in the Cup Series; in fact, five different drivers have won the last five championships, and seven different drivers have won the last eight championships. Not even IndyCar can make either of those claims.

Yet there are still several rivalries in NASCAR, and there are several rivalries among top-tier drivers. Of course, IndyCar doesn’t need rivalries to the point where drivers are brawling after every race that involves a bold pass or defensive maneuver among rivals, which we have seen fairly often in NASCAR over the years, but there needs to be a specific battle on the track that fans are going to want to pay to see week in and week out, even if it involves more than two drivers.

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Despite several close IndyCar championship battles over the last several seasons, of which every single one has come down to the season finale, that feeling simply hasn’t existed since the 2011 season. Fortunately, it may very well be on the verge of changing.