IndyCar Power Rankings: Takuma Sato gets redemption, Simon Pagenaud rises
By Asher Fair
How did Takuma Sato’s bounce-back victory at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 affect the IndyCar Driver Power Rankings?
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato bounced back from his involvement in an opening-lap crash in last Sunday’s IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway by holding off Ed Carpenter Racing’s Ed Carpenter in thrilling fashion to earn his fifth career victory and his second victory of the 2019 season at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500.
How did Sato’s victory in this 248-lap race around the four-turn, 1.25-mile (2.012-kilometer) World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway oval in Madison, Illinois affect the IndyCar Driver Power Rankings?
These IndyCar Driver Power Rankings were calculated using a formula, which you can see here. But before they are revealed, take a look below at some of the highlights of this edition of these rankings.
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IndyCar Driver Power Rankings Analysis
In the matter of a seven-day span, Takuma Sato defined his entire 10-year IndyCar career with one word: inconsistency.
Last Sunday, he was involved in an opening lap wreck at Pocono Raceway that many people believe he triggered. Six days later, he dropped from fifth place to 22nd (last) before coming back to win at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway with what was his first finish of higher than 10th in nearly three months.
Sato’s third place finish in the first race at the Raceway on Belle Isle back on Saturday, June 1 was his most recent top nine finish prior to this victory.
On the flip side, the consistency that Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud has shown over the last several months has allowed him to stake his claim atop these rankings.
But was this consistency, most recently shown by a fifth place finish in Saturday night’s race, enough to move him to #1?
Pagenaud has finished outside of the top nine in just one race since the season’s second race at Circuit of the Americas all the way back on Sunday, March 24, and he has not finished outside of the top nine since finishing in 17th place after his involvement in a first-lap crash in the second race at the Raceway on Belle Isle on Sunday, June 2.
His average finishes in the last seven, six, five, four, three and two races ranks are all the best among all drivers, although he is tied with Dale Coyne Racing rookie Santino Ferrucci with an average finish of 4.00 in the last two.
Ferrucci also made a notable move up these rankings — in fact, the biggest move, up or down, among all drivers — following his third career-high and second consecutive fourth place finish of the season in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500.