Five drivers have a chance to win the 2022 IndyCar championship in this Sunday afternoon’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Even without a playoff format or a double points-paying championship race, five drivers have a chance to win the 2022 IndyCar title in Sunday afternoon’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the 17th of 17 races on this year’s schedule.
Team Penske’s Will Power holds a 20-point lead over teammate Josef Newgarden and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in the championship standings, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson and Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin sit 39 and 41 points behind, respectively.
There are 54 points up for grabs in Sunday afternoon’s 95-lap race around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile (3.602-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Monterey, California: 50 for the race winner, one for the polesitter, one for any driver who leads at least one lap, and two for the driver who leads the most laps.
With all entrants guaranteed to score five points, any given contender is capable of making up 49 points on another contender.
So Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou and Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward, who sit 66 and 67 points behind Power, respectively, are no longer eligible.
Here is one question that each of the five contenders will have answered by the time Sunday’s race comes to an end, beginning with the points leader:
IndyCar contenders: Will Power – Can he complete his resurgence?
If you would have asked in the summer of 2010 when Will Power was going to be going for his second championship, 99% of IndyCar fans would have said 2011.
But Power went on to blow championship leads in the season finales — all single points-paying season finales, no less — in 2010, 2011, and 2012. He finally secured his first title in 2014, but he hasn’t won the Astor Cup since, nor has he truly come close.
And after finishing in ninth place in last year’s championship standings, ending a perfect run of top five finishes as a Team Penske driver, he was effectively written off.
But Power changed his approach heading into 2022, and his consistency has paid off. Unlike the last few years, third place cars result in third place days, not 16th place days, and the points have added up.
Despite accounting for just one of Team Penske’s series-best nine wins, he has put himself in position to win a second title he should have earned a decade ago.
If not for Scott Dixon, Power would be considered this generation’s greatest driver by a mile, and despite what has been billed as the most competitive championship battle ever, he owns a lead bigger than any lead he blew in the 2010, 2011, or 2012 season finales.
IndyCar contenders: Josef Newgarden – Is he the next all-time great?
It’s crazy to think that Josef Newgarden could be in the top 10 in the all-time IndyCar wins list by the end of next season, which is only set to be his age 32 season.
Newgarden has won multiple races each year since joining Team Penske in 2017, and his five wins this season are the most since Simon Pagenaud became the most recent non-Newgarden champion for Roger Penske’s organization back in 2016.
If Newgarden can already win a third championship in his age 31 season, there is no reason to believe he will stop there.
To put that into perspective, Scott Dixon won his third title in his age 33 season. And at the age of 31, Dixon owned 26 victories when the 2011 season ended. Newgarden sits at 25. If not for the fluke crash at Iowa Speedway, he’d be there already.
But there is something more to consider here that could fuel him to that third title: since joining Team Penske in 2017, he has never been beaten by a teammate in a championship battle, and he sits 20 points behind teammate Will Power.
In 2018, he did finish behind Power in the standings, but neither one was a truly contender heading into the season finale (mathematically alive because of double points, but that’s about it).
He won it in his first season with the team in 2017, won it again in 2019, finished behind Dixon in 2020, and finished behind Alex Palou in 2021.
Which leads me to my next point…
Dixon gets tons of praise for the fact that his “bad years” still produce fourth place points finishes. Newgarden’s bad years produce runner-up finishes. He doesn’t want 2022 to be another “bad year”.
IndyCar contenders: Scott Dixon – Can he cement GOAT status?
It’s crazy to think how similar IndyCar and the NFL are. Both tout parity, and rightfully so, yet you have the same guys — Scott Dixon and Tom Brady — winning championship after championship over the course of three different decades, with no signs of slowing down.
Dixon has a chance to match the legendary A.J. Foyt with a seventh title, and it’s safe to say he has been crowned champion six times in a more competitive era.
While it will be tough to unseat Super Tex as IndyCar’s greatest ever driver, the legend of Scott Dixon would reach new heights with yet another championship — and another comeback championship, no less.
Dixon, the lone championship contender who has not led the standings at all in 2022, would effectively have a seventh title locked up by now if not for his late Indy 500 speeding penalty — even had he not won the race like he was slated to.
It’s a case of what could’ve been, but also what might still be.
It would be the perfect addition to a season that has already seen him surpass Mario Andretti for second place on the all-time wins list — behind Foyt.
No driver has won the championship without leading the standings heading into the finale since 2015, when Dixon pulled it off. But even though he did it in a double points-paying race, the deficit he overcame was 47 points (23.5 points). He is well within range of making it happen again.
IndyCar contenders: Marcus Ericsson – Can he end a bizarre Indy 500 trend?
Aside from the obvious question of whether or not he can overcome a massive 39-point deficit (even Scott Dixon’s 47-point comeback in 2015 was via a double points finale), Marcus Ericsson is vying to become the driver to win both the Indy 500 and the championship in the same season since 2010.
Not since four-time series champion and three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti, who was Chip Ganassi Racing’s most recent Indy 500 winner (2012) prior to Ericsson’s Memorial Day Weekend triumph this past May, has a driver won both in the same year.
The winners of the 11 Indy 500 races from 2011 to 2021 have accounted for just four championships during that span.
All things considered, it’s a bit of a strange trend, when you consider the fact that the Indy 500 is a double points-paying race and has been one since 2014. Four former series champions have won it since then.
Ericsson appeared poised to end that drought, having led the standings after six races in a seven-race span, including five in a row, following the Indy 500.
But without a top five finish in his last six starts, things may very well be just out of reach for the Indy 500 winner, who lacks a win outside Indianapolis Motor Speedway since the start of the season.
IndyCar contenders: Scott McLaughlin – Can he replicate Alex Palou?
Scott McLaughlin has said throughout the year that he wanted to follow the lead of reigning series champion Alex Palou in terms of becoming a championship contender in his second year.
He has done that, winning three races — three times as many as the points leader — and keeping himself in the fight until the season finale.
Unfortunately for him, a 41-point deficit is probably a bit too much to overcome, even if he dominates the weekend like he did last weekend at Portland International Raceway.
If you take away his rough late spring stretch — or even just his Indy 500 crash — we’re having a much different discussion right now.
But he has come quite a long way since barely beating a part-time Dale Coyne Racing driver to the 2021 Rookie of the Year Award.
Fresh off a contract extension with Team Penske that is said to keep him with the organization long into the future, McLaughlin is poised to enter the offseason as the early 2023 title favorite, and justifiably so. A fourth win in 2022 would further back that up.
The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey is set to be broadcast live on NBC from WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, September 11. If you haven’t yet started a free trial of FuboTV, now would be a great time to do so!