A winner will be celebrated, a champion will be crowned, and a season will come to an end. It’s the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. #TrackTalk previews the IndyCar finale.
The chase for the Astor Cup comes to a close: With double points on the line, Alexander Rossi, Simon Pagenaud, and Scott Dixon are going to have to race hard to stop points leader Josef Newgarden from taking his second IndyCar championship. With a 41-point lead from Rossi, and a 42-point lead over his teammate, Newgarden enjoys a bit of a gap that allows him to conservatively run around in the top-5 and still win. Dixon has the biggest hurdle, and will need to dominate while relying on some bad luck from the competition. Check out this article detailing all the different scenarios that need to play out for each driver to win.
The Rookie-of-the-Year battle: Looking past the championship, we have a strong battle between Colton Herta, Santino Ferrucci, and Felix Rosenqvist for IndyCar ROY honours. Rosenqvist holds a 16-point lead over Ferrucci, with Herta a distant 49 points back. Herta is a long-shot for ROY, but his father, Bryan, is a two-time Laguna Seca IndyCar winner. Is success at Laguna Seca genetic? It might be, but he’ll still need some misfortune from the competition to win.
Silly Season Update: Takuma Sato looks all but set to return to Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing for 2020, but many other seats remain open. Carlin? Arrow McLaren SP? Click here for a full update.
Indy Lights Update: Oliver Askew is in prime position to take the Indy Lights championship and the Road To Indy bonus. The bonus guarantees him funding for 4 IndyCar races, which includes the chance to qualify for the 2020 Indy 500. With that funding in hand, Askew will definitely factor into the silly season.
Aeroscreen Update: With the season coming to an end all eyes will move towards the new aeroscreen, which should begin track testing in the fall.
Victor Genova is the host of the Media People Podcast and a freelance racing writer. You can follow him on Instagram at @VicGenova
