IndyCar: Way-too-early top 10 drivers for 2020

By Asher Fair | Oct 5, 2019

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - JUNE 08: Takuma Sato of Japan, driver of the #30 ABeam Consulting Honda, races Scott Dixon of New Zealand, driver of the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, at the start of the NTT IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 08, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

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MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 19: Ryan Hunter-Reay of the United States, driver of the #28 DHL Honda (Reiners/Getty Images) /

No. 8 – Ryan Hunter-Reay

Ryan Hunter-Reay, the driver of the #28 Andretti Autosport Honda, is set to return to Andretti Autosport for the 11th consecutive season next year. The 2020 season is set to be a contract season for him after he and primary sponsor DHL signed a contract extension toward the end of the 2016 season.

With Hunter-Reay, you know, in general, what you’re going to get. He has finished between fourth and ninth place in the championship standings in eight of his 10 seasons driving for Andretti Autosport, the exceptions being his championship in 2012 and his 12th place finish in 2016.

In the 2019 season, he finished in a seventh place tie.

What has become a bit of an unknown lately is if he will win races. After winning at least one race in each of his first six seasons driving for Andretti Autosport, he has gone winless in three of the last four seasons. That said, he still recorded eight podium finishes across these three seasons.

Yet when he did win in the 2018 season, he won two races and finished in fourth place in the championship standings with an additional eight top five finishes, including four runner-up finishes. He even finished ahead of the previous/next champion, Josef Newgarden, in fifth.

Eighth in these rankings seems safe for the driver who has spent much of his career hovering right around there.