IndyCar: Simon Pagenaud’s season highlighted by incredible statistic
By Asher Fair
No driver has started races in a worse average position than Simon Pagenaud throughout the 2020 IndyCar season. Yet he is a winner and sits second in points.
Through six races in the 2020 IndyCar season, the championship is already shaping up to be a classic battle between Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske.
These two powerhouse teams occupy four of the top five positions in the championship standings, including the top three, and have combined to win the last seven titles and 11 of the last 12.
The former won the season’s first four races, while the latter have won the most recent two events and have arguably shown more pace as a whole than any other team as the 14-race campaign nears its halfway mark.
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The one driver who has particularly stood out among the Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske drivers is Simon Pagenaud, the 2016 champion and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner who trails only Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in the championship standings. Dixon won the season’s first three races.
One shocking statistic about the driver of the #22 Team Penske Chevrolet stands out as the series prepares to begin qualifying for the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 prior to a stretch of three races in eight days which is scheduled to begin next Sunday, August 23 with the Indy 500 itself.
No full-time driver has an average starting position that is worse than Pagenaud’s so far this season. He and Andretti Autosport’s Zach Veach are tied for the lowest among the group of 21 full-timers at 18.00.
Pagenaud has started higher than 17th place just one time this season, yet he has managed to record four top four finishes, one in each of the top four positions.
His season was highlighted by his last-to-first victory at Iowa Speedway last month, which made him just the sixth driver ever to start from the back and find victory lane and the first since fellow Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais did so on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida back in March of 2017.
Pagenaud’s average finish is 5.83, which is the second best in the series behind Dixon’s at 3.67. The difference between his average starting position and his average finishing position, 12.17 positions per race, is the best among all drivers, and it is not even close.
Of the 21 full-time drivers, 11 have average finishing positions that are better than their average starting positions.
The average difference in these two positions among these 11 drivers is 3.42. Pagenaud alone accounts for more than one quarter of that 3.42, as among the 10 drivers not including him, it is down by nearly a full position to just 2.54.
At 12.17 positions per race, it is nearly twice as high as the next highest at six positions higher. The next highest belongs to Dixon at 6.17, as his average starting position is 9.83.
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Will the 36-year-old Frenchman’s trend of qualifying poorly, or not qualifying at all like at Iowa Speedway, continue at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where his average starting position is 10.75 and includes one pole position (2019)? Based on practice speeds, don’t be surprised.