Beyond the Flag
Fansided

IndyCar: Pocono begins crucial three-week pre-championship stretch

By Asher Fair

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - JUNE 08: Josef Newgarden of the United States, driver of the #2 Fitzgerald USA Team Penske Chevrolet, leads Scott Dixon of New Zealand, driver of the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)
FORT WORTH, TEXAS - JUNE 08: Josef Newgarden of the United States, driver of the #2 Fitzgerald USA Team Penske Chevrolet, leads Scott Dixon of New Zealand, driver of the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway is set to kick off a crucial three-week stretch of races, the final stretch of any kind before the 2019 IndyCar season finale.

Just four races remain on the 17-race 2019 IndyCar schedule before the champion will be crowned at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca next month. Three of these races are scheduled to take place over the course of 15 days spanning the next three weekends before a three-week break leads into the season finale.

For the championship contenders, every point is crucial over the course of this final three-week pre-championship stretch.

Here is the schedule over the course of the next three weeks.

Date – Track
Sunday, August 18 – Pocono Raceway
Saturday, August 24 – World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway
Sunday, September 1 – Portland International Raceway

There are still four serious championship contenders with a maximum of 54 points on the table in each race for each driver and the season finale being a double points-paying race in which a maximum of 104 points will be on the table for each driver (bonus points aren’t doubled).

Here is how these four drivers stack up against one another in the championship standings through the season’s first 13 races.

Rank – Driver, Car, Team, Engine: Points (Behind)
1st – Josef Newgarden, #2, Team Penske, Chevrolet: 504 (0)
2nd – Alexander Rossi, #27, Andretti Autosport, Honda: 488 (-16)
3rd – Simon Pagenaud, #22, Team Penske, Chevrolet: 457 (-47)
4th – Scott Dixon, #9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda: 442 (-62)

The next closest driver to any of these four drivers in the championship standings is Team Penske’s Will Power, and he has scored just 356 points so far this season. As a result, he trails Newgarden by a whopping 148 points, and he trails Dixon alone by 86 points.

Dixon himself was just able to stay in serious championship contention with his victory in the most recent race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and he was helped by the fact that Newgarden spun out of fourth place on the race’s final lap in an attempt to pass Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay for third.

More from IndyCar

Instead of leaving the race 78 points behind the 28-year-old Hendersonville, Tennessee native, Dixon left it just 62 points behind after Newgarden fell from fourth to 14th place with what seemed like just one small mistake.

Rossi and Pagenaud actually gained more than Dixon did because of Newgarden’s spin. Dixon was already ahead of Newgarden, but Rossi and Pagenaud were not. As a result, they each gained one position and thus two additional points when Newgarden spun out, so they each gained 18 points relative to Newgarden as opposed to 16 like Dixon did.

Beyond these next three races, there is nothing left before the double points-paying season finale, which will effectively halve each driver’s deficit to whoever enters it as the points leader, so this is a crucial stretch in which none of these four drivers can afford to make even the smallest of errors. While they may seem minuscule, each one has the potential to have a huge impact on the championship.

This three-week stretch of races is also crucial for the engine manufacturers. Seven races have been won by Chevrolet so far this season while six have been won by Honda. If Chevrolet can win at least two of these three races, they will secure more victories than Honda for the seventh time in eight seasons since reentering IndyCar after Honda won that battle one season ago.

But if Honda can win all three of them, they will win this battle for two consecutive seasons. Last season, Honda won two of these three races. If they do that again, the battle will come down to the season finale.

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

Which of the four 2019 IndyCar championship contenders will enter the three-week break before the season finale with the most momentum from this upcoming three-week stretch of races, and who will ultimately be crowned champion when the season finale rolls around on Sunday, September 22?

Tune in to NBC Sports Network this Sunday, August 18 for the live broadcast of the first race of this three-week stretch, the ABC Supply 500. This race is set to be broadcast live from Pocono Raceway beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET, and it is scheduled to begin shortly thereafter at 2:45 p.m. ET.

For a full TV schedule for the remainder of the season, click here.