If you’ve been able to ignore or get past all the negative distractions around the 2015 IndyCar series, there have been plenty of great stories to get excited about. With two races left this season, we’ve got a great championship battle that should go right down to the final laps of the last race in Sonoma California.
In the latest round over the weekend at Mid-Ohio, fans were treated to another dramatic race that featured great driving skill, good strategy calls and the second win of the season by Graham Rahal. The driver for the one-car Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing outfit has been showing all the big teams how to get the job done in recent weeks.
The race win at Mid-Ohio is extra special for Rahal, having grown up in the suburbs around Columbus only a short distance from the track. Rahal stated after the race that other than the Indy 500, this is biggest race of the year for him.
With the victory, Rahal also moved to within nine points of the overall championship lead behind Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya, who has led the title race since winning the opening round at St. Petersburg.
The second-half success of Rahal and company has been nothing short of David slaying Goliath. Penske Racing, with four top drivers and significantly more resources than Rahal, seems to once again be fading as we arrive at the late stages of the championship. We’ve seen it before with Helio Castroneves and Will Power before he broke through last year. Is it happening again with Montoya? You can bet the pressure will continue to mount through the final two races of the year.
All is not lost, however. Montoya was the winner a year ago at the next track on the schedule, Pocono Raceway. He also collected a top-five finish one year ago at Sonoma, the final race site that also features double championship points.
Ganassi’s Scott Dixon also recovered from an untimely early caution to finish fourth in this past Sunday’s race. He remains in championship contention as well just 25 points behind Rahal.
Unfortunately, in recent weeks, the focus for IndyCar has been on off-track issues. There’s the resignation of president Derek Walker, which takes effect after the season. Stories about competitor conduct rules and questionable officiating calls, the poor introduction and implementation of new aero body kits, the race schedule and a few others have all been chewed up and dominated headlines this year instead of more favourable stories.
I’m not trying to ignore some of that negativity, as there are legitimate issues and questions that do need to be addressed. It’s just unfortunate that, at times, the salacious quote or sound bite is what gets reported and dominates the news cycle for a while. That’s happened much too often for IndyCar.
In the meantime, the competition has been very good and it’s been reflected in the improved TV ratings. As we head into the final races of the year, we have a championship battle that pits big teams vs. little teams, former champions vs. a first-time contender and foreign drivers vs. American.
All this should give IndyCar plenty of good stories to push forward for the remainder of the season.