With three races to go, the NTT IndyCar Series championship comes into full focus, and it’s anyone’s guess who will hoist the Astor Cup at the conclusion of the season.
Currently, Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP leads the championship standings with 435 points, but his rearview mirror is full of drivers chasing him, including Alex Palou (425), Josef Newgarden (413), Scott Dixon (392), and Marcus Ericsson (375).
The NTT IndyCar Series heads to Portland International Raceway September 10th – 12th and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca September 17th – 19th for races on purpose-built road courses. The season finale is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach September 24th – 26th, a street circuit in Southern California.
Scott Dixon is the defending champion and has won the IndyCar Series championship five times since 2008, including two of the past four seasons, 2018 and 2020. Newgarden won the title the other two seasons, 2017 and 2019.
The IndyCars last raced at Portland in 2019, with Newgarden finishing fifth and Scott Dixon finishing a disappointing sixteenth. At that time, Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou were both driving in the Japanese Super Formula Championship. Ericsson missed the last Portland race as he was on standby for injured Kimi Raikkonen at the F1 Belgian Grand Prix.
That same year, the IndyCars visited Laguna Seca, and it was Dixon scoring a podium third and Josef Newgarden finishing a respectable eighth.
The championship will likely come down to the crown jewel of street circuits, Long Beach, where Dixon and Newgarden finished second and fourth respectively in 2020 and O’Ward finished ninth. Ericsson finished 19th.
In 2021, Palou has been strong on road courses with wins at Alabama and Road America. Ericsson has been strong on street circuits with wins at Detroit and Nashville. Advantage Palou at Portland and Laguna Seca. Advantage Ericsson at Long Beach. However, one can never count out Newgarden or Dixon, two of the top drivers in the sport and both with multiple championships under their belts.
Since the devastating split in 1996 and reunification years later, the goal has always been to grow the sport of IndyCar racing, increase international interest, attract more sponsors, and create great competition.
It’s safe to say that 2021 has been one of the most competitive in the past two decades. Nine winners over 13 races with three to go. Powerhouse team Andretti Autosport has only one lone victory, Colton Herta, on the streets of St. Petersburg early in the season.
The sport seems to be on stable ground, and the future of IndyCar racing is bright. The fight for the championship over the next three weekends should be exciting.
