New era of IndyCar hierarchy beginning to emerge?

The 2021 IndyCar season has seen multiple teams other than the “Big 3” consistently running at the front, something the series had lacked in recent years.

Entering the 2021 IndyCar season, three teams had combined to win the last 18 championships going back to 2003: Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Autosport.

Multiple other teams have won races and been competitive over the years, even recently. But not since the 2015 season have these three teams combined to win fewer than 13 races in a single season. Even in last year’s shortened 14-race campaign, they won 13 times.

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But the 2021 season seems to have begun a new era of parity at the highest level of American open-wheel racing.

During any given race weekend, there have been far more than just three contenders able to run at the front, and several of them look to be here to stay.

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While Chip Ganassi Racing sit atop the championship standings with Alex Palou leading, Scott Dixon in third place and Marcus Ericsson in fifth, and Team Penske are in the mix with Josef Newgarden in fourth, there is just a different vibe to this season as far as the hierarchy is concerned.

We have already seen wins from three organizations other than these three. Arrow McLaren SP have won twice, both times with Pato O’Ward, who sits in second place in the championship standings.

Ed Carpenter Racing won with Rinus VeeKay, who sits in eighth place (likely would be inside the top five if not for him missing the race at Road America), and Meyer Shank Racing won the Indy 500 with Helio Castroneves.

Through the season’s first eight races, these other organizations had already collected four wins. Do the math: in a 16-race season, that means the usual “Big 3” were already limited to a maximum of 12 — just halfway through the year.

Really, the only true “Big” in the “Big 3” has been Chip Ganassi Racing so far this year.

It took Team Penske until the 10th race of the year to secure a win, their worst drought to start a season since they went the entire 20-race 1999 CART season without a single victory. Andretti Autosport’s top driver in the championship standings, Colton Herta, only sits in seventh place.

At the end of the day, acknowledging the end of the “Big 3” era is undoubtedly going to take a championship from another team — even if some of those three teams could be argued as not even being top five organizations.

We have seen other teams get hot before — and “Big 3” teams get cold — but nothing comes from it in the long run, and it ends up being the drivers from the same three teams who reign supreme.

But that just might not be the case this time around.

Sure, O’Ward is still the only non-“Big 3” driver inside the top seven in the championship standings, and he may not win the title in 2021, extending the streak to 19 straight championships for the “Big 3”.

But the momentum and growth that Arrow McLaren SP and O’Ward are going to be able to take with them into their third season next year will be paramount.

There are talks of the team expanding to three cars next year, and we already know that Meyer Shank Racing will be expanding to two cars, with Castroneves behind the wheel of one of them in a full-time capacity, as they seek to break into the ranks of the elite.

Ed Carpenter Racing could also move to two full-time entries, with team owner Ed Carpenter continuing to compete in the oval races in a third car as opposed to a second one which is driven by a separate driver in the road and street course races. VeeKay, the team’s best prospect since Newgarden, has shown what they are capable of at all kinds of circuits.

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IndyCar’s powerhouse teams will naturally continue to be Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Autosport until proven otherwise. But at the very least, there are other teams knocking on the door this year that haven’t been before, and they might very well be on their way to breaking into the party for good.

New era of IndyCar beginning to emerge?

By Asher Fair | Jul 28, 2021

The 2021 IndyCar season has seen multiple teams other than the “Big 3” consistently running at the front, something the series had lacked in recent years.

During any given race weekend, there have been far more than just three contenders able to run at the front, and several of them look to be here to stay.