IndyCar: Notable omission from St. Petersburg entry list

By Asher Fair | Oct 24, 2020

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, IndyCar (Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images) /

The absence of a 25th car in the 2020 IndyCar season finale at St. Petersburg could play a role in how the championship is decided.

All drivers who compete in a regular points-paying IndyCar race, as this year’s season finale is slated to be for the first time since 2013, are guaranteed to score at least five points, while race winners can score as many as 54 points, meaning that no driver can make up more than 49 points on a given competitor in one race.

Drivers can max out at 54 points by taking the pole position (one point), winning the race (50 points), leading at least one lap (one point, which is a given with a win) and leading the most laps (two points).

Drivers who finished in 25th place or lower score just five points.

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And that’s why the entry list for the season finale on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida this Sunday, October 25 is significant in the championship battle between Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, which Dixon currently leads by 32 points.

Because Dixon has clinched the tiebreaker (Dixon leads with four wins to three, and even if Newgarden wins the season finale, Dixon leads with two runner-up finishes to one), Newgarden must outscore him by 33 points in the season finale to win his third championship.

But only 24 cars are entered for this 100-lap race around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile (2.897-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

This hurts two-time champion Newgarden while playing to the advantage of five-time champion Dixon, as it means that Dixon’s lowest possible point total is six, not five.

When considering all possible scenarios that this race has, the change is minimal. Newgarden’s percent chance to win the title drops by less than one-fifth of a single percent as a result of this change.

However, the absence of a 25th car could still play a role in determining the champion because of this slight drop, considering Dixon’s floor is slightly raised.

24 cars on the entry list, so Dixon cannot score fewer than 6 points. pic.twitter.com/1KuAQibTh9
— Beyond the Flag (@Beyond_The_Flag) October 22, 2020

Newgarden cannot win the championship with 38 points (third place finish after leading the most laps) like he would have been able to had Dixon finished in last place in a 25-car field to score just five points.

The lowest points haul he can have on Sunday and possibly win the title is now 39 (third place finish after leading the most laps from the pole position). This assumes Dixon finishes in last place in the 24-car field to score just six points.

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More than likely, this won’t make a difference, but if Dixon struggles, it will be something to keep an eye on as the race progresses. Tune in to NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, October 25 for the live broadcast of the 2020 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.