IndyCar: Romain Grosjean can pull off an incredible feat

Romain Grosjean shouldn’t even be in the IndyCar Rookie of the Year discussion. Yet he has established himself as the favorite.

Heading into the 2021 IndyCar season, there was plenty of hype around the “veteran” rookie class, which included three drivers who had switched from different racing disciplines to compete in the highest level of American open-wheel racing.

Jimmie Johnson made the move from the NASCAR Cup Series, Romain Grosjean made the move from Formula 1, and Scott McLaughlin made the move from Supercars.

But only one of these three drivers actually signed a full-time deal, with that being McLaughlin, who signed with Team Penske.

Johnson and Grosjean signed road and street course deals with their respective teams, Chip Ganassi Racing and Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing.

While the schedule only features four oval races, missing four out of 17 races compared to a driver competing full-time for Roger Penske’s team effectively made the Rookie of the Year battle a foregone conclusion, especially when one of those four races is the double points-paying Indy 500.

But thanks to Grosjean, this hasn’t been the case.

McLaughlin has had a respectable year, finishing in second and eighth place in the two races at Texas Motor Speedway, two races Grosjean missed, and adding an eighth place finish in the first race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He sits in a 13th place tie in the championship standings with four races remaining on the schedule.

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But even with only nine starts through 12 races this season, Grosjean sits just seven points behind McLaughlin in 15th place in the standings. And without double points in the Indy 500, Grosjean would actually be three points ahead, as McLaughlin’s 20th place finish paid 20 points as opposed to the usual 10.

Grosjean, who sits ahead of seven full-time drivers in the standings, has five top 10 finishes, including three top five finishes, so far this season, and he has finished in second place twice, both times at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

If you remove double points from the equation, Grosjean has averaged 22.89 points per race. McLaughlin has averaged 16.92.

And while the schedule features one more oval race, he and McLaughlin will be on even ground moving forward, as the 35-year-old Swiss-born Frenchman is set to make his oval debut in this Saturday night’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

So both he and McLaughlin are set to compete in each of the 2021 season’s final four races, with just seven points separating them entering this stretch.

The final three races of the season are all road or street course races at tracks where neither driver has competed before.

• Portland International Raceway – Sunday, September 12
• WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca – Sunday, September 19
• Streets of Long Beach, California – Sunday, September 26

So can Grosjean take over and beat McLaughlin to become the 2021 Rookie of the Year as a part-time driver? Based on how things are trending, it would not be a surprise.