IndyCar: The decade of dominance that wasn't

The 2010s decade of IndyCar competition could have been established early as one of Will Power and Team Penske dominance. But it wasn’t meant to be.

No driver won more of the 169 races contested from the start of the 2010 IndyCar season to the end of the decade and the conclusion of the 2019 season than Team Penske’s Will Power, and no team won more of these 169 races than Team Penske.

Will Power’s win total this past decade was 33, nine wins clear of second place Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing. In fact, you could take away four of Power’s last five seasons, and his win total would still be tied with Dixon’s for the best of the 2010s.

Team Penske’s win total was 68, 34 clear of second place Chip Ganassi Racing. You could take away six of Team Penske’s seasons throughout this decade, and their win total would still be ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s.

More from IndyCar

Yet when the decade ended, Power had only won one title, tying him for fourth with two other drivers, and Team Penske had only won four championships throughout it, a total that actually trailed that of Chip Ganassi Racing (five).

What went wrong?

Three consecutive season finales at three different tracks: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kentucky Speedway and Auto Club Speedway. It’s really that simple.

If you change the outcomes in the three races that were contested at these tracks in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively, the complexion of the entire decade would look a lot different.

Power entered the 2010 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 12-point lead in the championship standings over Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti, who had only led the standings over Power after just one of the 17-race season’s first 16 races.

But on lap 135 of the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Homestead, Florida, Power hit the turn four wall. He retired from the race after logging just nine more laps and had to settle for a 25th place finish. Franchitti, who was leading the race at the time, now needed to finish in the top 10 to steal the title. He finished in eighth to win by five points.

Power entered the 2011 de facto season finale at Kentucky Speedway with an 11-point lead in the standings over Franchitti, who had been the leader after each of the previous eight races before Power overtook him in the season’s penultimate race in Japan.

Power dominated the race early, leading the first 48 laps of the 200-lap event around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) track in Sparta, Kentucky, but contact in the pits damaged his car and mired him well down the order. He still managed to finish on the lead lap, but he finished in 19th place and was never a contender to finish much higher after the incident.

Franchitti, who led a race-high 143 laps, needed to finish in the top eight to seal the title. He finished in second place to win by 18 points.

It is, however, well worth noting that Franchitti was not crowned champion at the time, as the season finale was scheduled to be held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks later. But that race had only just begun when a 15-car crash killed Dan Wheldon, resulting in the race being canceled.

Finally, Power entered the 2012 season finale at Auto Club Speedway with a 17-point lead in the standings over Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay. On lap 56 of this 250-lap race around the four-turn, 2.0-mile (3.219-kilometer) oval in Fontana, California, they were running side by side.

Then Power spun out in turn two, barely missing Hunter-Reay on the way up the track.

Hunter-Reay now needed to finish in the top six to win the championship. But Power’s team worked hard to get his car back on the track when KV Racing Technology’s E.J. Viso retired 10 laps later with handling issues.

Power did get back out on the track and logged 11 more laps. So instead of finishing in 25th place and scoring 10 points, he finished in 24th and scored 12, meaning that Hunter-Reay needed to finish in the top five to secure the championship.

He finished in fourth to win by three points, and Power, who could have easily been staring at his third consecutive championship, was still not an IndyCar champion.

Let’s put this in perspective here. Power did go on to win the 2014 championship, Team Penske’s first title since Sam Hornish Jr.’s third in the 2006 season, and Team Penske won the 2016 championship with Simon Pagenaud and the 2017 and 2019 titles with Josef Newgarden.

Take away Homestead, Kentucky and Fontana, however, and Power would have won four titles throughout this past decade; Team Penske would have won seven.

Only twice in the history of American open-wheel racing has one driver won four championships in a single decade. Seven-time champion A.J. Foyt won five USAC titles in the 1960s and Sebastien Bourdais won four Champ Car titles in the 2000s. Never before in the history of American open-wheel racing had a single team won seven of 10 championships in a single decade.

dark. Next. Top 10 IndyCar drivers of all-time

Considering that the competition is about as tight as it has even been in IndyCar and it is only getting tighter, such an achievement during this era would have been unbelievable for Will Power and Team Penske.

But as close as it came to happening, it simply wasn’t meant to be.

IndyCar: The decade of dominance that wasn’t

By Asher Fair | Jan 25, 2020

The 2010s decade of IndyCar competition could have been established early as one of Will Power and Team Penske dominance. But it wasn’t meant to be.