Beyond the Flag
Fansided

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

By Asher Fair

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)
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) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
5 of 11
Next
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 19: Will Power #12 of Australia and Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 19: Will Power #12 of Australia and Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

No. 7 – Will Power

Will Power, the driver of the #12 Team Penske Chevrolet, is set to return to Team Penske for his 11th consecutive full season with the team and his 14th full season in IndyCar next season after signing a multi-year contract extension with the team late in the 2018 season.

Power is undoubtedly better than the seventh best driver in IndyCar. Even in his “rough” 2019 season, he won two races, and his win drought did not quite reach one year.

Many people made a huge deal over the fact that he did not win any of the season’s first 13 races, but there was really never anything to worry about, especially since Power, the winningest driver of the decade, had gone on two win droughts that actually were longer than one year earlier in the decade.

Power hasn’t finished outside of the top five in the championship standings in any of this 10 full seasons driving for Team Penske, and fifth place is where he finished in 2019.

His seventh place ranking stems from his championship upside. Only once since he won the 2014 championship has he finished the season as the highest Team Penske driver in the standings. The team have also now secured three 1-2 finishes in the standings in the last four seasons, and he has only been included in one as the runner-up.

It would be shocking if Power, who has won at least one race in each of the last 13 seasons and at least two races in nine of the last 10, doesn’t find victory lane multiple times in 2020. But his championship days may very well be behind him.