IndyCar: Will Andretti-Penske Indy 500-Pocono trend continue?

Going back to 2014, Andretti Autosport or Team Penske have won the Indianapolis 500 each season, and the other team have gone on to win at Pocono Raceway later that season. Will that trend reach its sixth consecutive season this afternoon?

The annual ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway has been the only 500-mile IndyCar race other than the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in each of the last four years going back to the 2016 season.

In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, it was one of three 500-mile races on the schedule after it was a 400-mile race the previous year, the year in which it returned to the schedule after a 24-year hiatus.

Since the race at the three-turn 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Pocono Raceway oval in Long Pond, Pennsylvania became a 500-mile race ahead of the 2014 season, a trend between two of the sport’s top two teams has been ongoing.

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These two teams are Andretti Autosport and Team Penske, the two teams that have combined to win each of the last six Indy 500 races going back to the 2014 season.

Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay won the 98th running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana back in 2014. Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya then won the 99th running of the race in 2015 before Andretti Herta Autosport’s Alexander Rossi won the 100th running as a rookie in 2016.

Andretti Autosport’s Takuma Sato delivered the team their third victory in four seasons by winning the 101st running of the race in 2017 before Team Penske’s Will Power won the 102nd running in 2018. Earlier this year, Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud delivered the team their second consecutive and record 18th Indy 500 victory in the 103rd running.

In each of the last five seasons, the team, out of these two teams, that did not win the Indy 500 went on to win the race at Pocono Raceway. Montoya won the race at Pocono in 2014 before Hunter-Reay won it in 2015 and Power won it in 2016 and 2017. Rossi then won it in 2018.

After Pagenaud won this year’s Indy 500, will an Andretti Autosport driver win this aftenoon’s race at Pocono Raceway to extend this trend to six years running?

Both teams have one driver on the front row for this 200-lap race after the qualifying session was canceled due to rain and the starting lineup was sent based on entry points. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden is set to start from the pole position alongside Rossi in second place.

Given how Rossi dominated this race last year, leading 180 of its 200 laps and lapping all but three other drivers, with two of those three drivers crossing the finish line to take the white flag just moments before he crossed it to take the checkered flag, he has to be considered the favorite to get the job done this year.

Hunter-Reay’s prowess at the track also goes beyond his win there in 2015. He started in last place in the races there in both 2016 and 2017, and he worked his way through the field to lead laps in both. In 2016, a mechanical failure dashed his chances to win, yet he still rallied his way through the field (again) to finish in third place.

Andretti Autosport’s other two drivers are Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta Autosport) and Zach Veach. Andretti has not had much success at his home track with a top finish of seventh place in six starts, but Veach took to the track nicely in his debut there last year with a sixth place finish.

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Will Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti or Zach Veach win this afternoon’s ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway to extend this Andretti Autosport-Team Penske 500-miler trend in the Indianapolis 500 and at Pocono Raceway to six consecutive IndyCar seasons? If so, which one of these four drivers will pull it off? Tune in to NBC Sports Network at 2:00 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of this race.