IndyCar: 2019 group of winners set a never before seen trend

As the year 2019 nears its end, let’s take a look back at one trend that made the 2019 IndyCar season unique, one that had never happened in the sport’s history.

The 2019 IndyCar season has been over for over three months now, and we are, in fact, closer to the start of the 2020 season that we are to the conclusion of last season.

But with just days to go until the calendar officially flips to 2020, let’s take one last look at 2019, and one aspect of it in particular, a never before seen trend that made the 2019 season unique.

It was Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden who capped off a dominant season with his second career championship, his second in three seasons driving for Roger Penske’s team. He never trailed by more than one point in the championship standings, and if you include points earned in qualifying, he never trailed in the standings entering any race.

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But as dominant as the 29-year-old Hendersonville, Tennessee native was in his championship season, he was one of seven drivers who found victory lane at some point throughout the season.

He was joined by teammate Simon Pagenaud and Will Power along with rivals Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport, Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing, rookie Colton Herta of Harding Steinbrenner Racing and Takuma Sato of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

This group of seven winners made the 2019 season special in a way that no other season had ever been.

And by no other season, I truly mean no other season.

Even if you go all the way back to the 1905 AAA Champ Car Series season, you won’t find anything like it.

Newgarden won four races, just as he did in his championship-winning 2017 season, and he led the series in wins for the third straight season (tied atop the list with three in 2018). Pagenaud finished just behind him with three wins.

Rossi, Dixon, Power, Herta and Sato all won two races, meaning that every driver who won a race in 2019 won multiple races.

It had never happened before.

Yes, you could make a case for the 1980 USAC Championship Car season, but do keep the following in mind: the five races of that season were also included in the 1980 CART season. CART and USAC united in 1980 under the Championship Racing League (CRL) banner and the first five races of the season were run under CRL banner and sanctioned by USAC.

However, this union dissolved after these five races and USAC ended their season, whereas the CART season consisted of seven additional events. Johnny Rutherford won three of these five races while Bobby Unser won the other two.

Moving back to 2019, just how closer were we to not seeing this trend?

With three races to go, Herta, Sato and Power were all still one-race winners after winning at Circuit of the Americas, Barber Motorsports Park and Pocono Raceway, respectively. In fact, Power had just won the most recent race at Pocono Raceway. Going back to before the race before that at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Dixon was still only a one-race winner.

So after Dixon won at Mid-Ohio and Power won at Pocono, Herta, Sato and Power each needed to win one of the final three races.

That’s exactly what happened.

Sato won at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway before Power won at Portland International Raceway and Herta won the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

History had been made.

How many winners will the 2020 IndyCar season feature, and how many of them will win multiple races? The odds of what we saw happening in 2019 happening again are extremely slim. The 2020 campaign is slated to begin in roughly two and a half months on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 15.