IndyCar: The distinct advantage for 2020’s rookie class

The postponement of the 2020 IndyCar season may carry a distinct advantage for this year’s rookie class, thanks to the IndyCar iRacing Challenge.

When it comes to real racing or virtual racing, there is no doubt what we’d all like to be watching on weekends right now, and there’s no doubt what all the drivers would like to be doing right now.

Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the IndyCar season, which was scheduled to start more than a month ago on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, still hasn’t gotten underway.

But on the plus side, while the season now isn’t scheduled to kick off until Saturday, June 6 at Texas Motor Speedway, the drivers are still able to compete against each other in a virtual setting, driving cars as if they were driving in real-life, thanks to the introduction of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge.

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For the rookie class of 2020 especially, this has brought with it a distinct advantage, highlighted by Saturday’s race at virtual Twin Ring Motegi, the fourth race overall and the second oval race on what is currently a six-race schedule.

Throughout the 113-lap race around the four-turn 1.549-mile (2.493-kilometer) egg-shaped oval in Motegi, Japan, Arrow McLaren SP rookie and 2019 Indy Lights champion Oliver Askew was involved in multiple incidents with veteran drivers.

Most notably, he tried racing leaders Will Power and Scott McLaughlin while running a full lap off the lead lap with just 10 laps remaining, and he caused a wreck which not only damaged Power’s car and relegated him to third place but completely knocked McLaughlin out of contention, sending him into the wall en route to a 24th place result in a race he likely would have won.

Despite being in a virtual setting, Askew’s move justifiably garnered tons of criticism. In the post-race Zoom video conference, Power shared the message he texted the 23-year-old Jupiter, Florida native.

“I had three of the clapping signs with a little sign like this [sarcastic OK sign]: ’Took out the two leaders with a few laps to go. Huge lack of respect for the drivers who worked hard to be there racing for the win at the end, which you will be at some point.’ That’s what I sent to Askew.”

Askew apologized.

But fortunately for Askew, as a rookie, he gets to learn the relatively easy way, as he noted, and this is an advantage unlike anything past rookies have ever had.

While there is plenty of constructive criticism, there are no crash bills and no injury risks to worry about when slamming into other drivers or the wall at over 200 miles per hour.

Power shared the same sentiment.

“It is a great tool for those young guys to understand how you should race a superspeedway, sort of respect, you’re supposed to hold your lane, not weaving around,” he stated. “The fact that came to me is you do get called out if you’re driving like an idiot and other people comment on it. You get pulled back straight into line. I thought that was a really good thing.

“What I think is great about this is I just noticed when we’re racing in Michigan last weekend, which is kind of a pack race, if you were driving like an idiot, you would be called out. Like we all hear each other’s radios. You can talk to each other. It actually brought people into line. People slowly gained more respect. I thought that was really interesting.”

Scott Dixon, the race runner-up, agreed with Power’s assessment of the situation.

“If Texas is the first race, you hope we don’t get there and people start to race like they do on iRacing because the consequences are going to be pretty bad,” he said. “I agree with Will. There’s plenty of people that get called out. I think in oval racing especially, a lot of the time you have to learn the hard way. It’s one of those things you can take a lot of risks, but eventually it’s going to catch up with you. Hopefully this maybe does lend a little bit in that direction that it will help you down the road.”

Simon Pagenaud, the race winner, also agreed.

“I totally agree with them. We haven’t raced on an oval yet,” he stated. “I don’t think some of the drivers, the new drivers especially, know how to behave yet. Some of them, like [rookie] Felipe Nasr is a great driver but never had a chance to be on the track with others.

“It’s actually interesting what Will said. I agree with him. We [sic] all talking to each other during the race. It helps, calms the emotions down sometimes. There might be something to learn from that. Like Scott said, I hope some of the behavior we see won’t happen in real life because it’s way different of a consequence. So far so good.”

It remains to be seen how, exactly, the IndyCar iRacing Challenge will translate as a tool for real-life competition when real-life action eventually rolls around, especially for the rookies. But they have clearly been able to learn several valuable lessons the easy way through it thus far. With the season opener now scheduled to take place on an oval for the first time since 2008, that could be extra important.