NTT IndyCar Series

CONSISTENT POWER

VETERAN WINS 2022 NTT INDYCAR TITLE

Story by Mary Bignotti Mendez

Claiming the 2022 NTT IndyCar season title wasn’t possible until the checkered flag at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. For the last 17 consecutive seasons, the series has been so competitive that the championship fight has come down to the final race, this year awarding Will Power his second title and Team Penske’s 17th.

Ironically, Power only won one race this season (Detroit), beating his teammate, Josef Newgarden (with five wins) by 16 points. Scott McLaughlin’s three wins (St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio, and Portland) ranked him fourth, 50 points behind Power, giving Team Penske a combined 9 wins over 17 races. Consistency rather than wins was the key to winning this championship.

“I’ve had an attitude switch where you know the season is long, the races are long, and you've got to make the most of every situation, even if you're fighting for 12th,” explained Power, who last won the title in 2014 but was runner up in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2016. “If that's your day to finish 12th, finish 12th, not 24th. The way the series is, consistency counts big time. I know the game so well being at it for 17 years. It simply feels like the older you get, the more relaxed you get and just understand how life is.

“I know what nervousness you need and what pressure you need to find that sweet spot. I'm loving the racing. It's a privilege to feel nervous before a race because there's going to be a time that you don't get to do that. Some people never get to do that.

“It just shows how competitive the championship is. No one is dominating. Josef (Newgarden) has been probably the fastest guy. It just speaks to the way the IndyCar points system is: it rewards consistency as opposed to wins. Points reward the top four finishes. After that it really drops off. There's no series like it in the world. Just look at the time gap from first to last every week in qualifying. There's not a series as tight as this, as tough as this. It’s impossible to predict; it's always going to go down to the last race. There's just too many fast guys, good teams, and good drivers. Just try to pick a winner and pole sitter each week. Impossible!”

Perhaps Power’s strategist change to Ron Ruzewski, Team Penske’s Managing Director, helped convince Power not to get frustrated when his car had pace but lacked results. Instead, to accept and be satisfied finishing in the top five (he averaged sixth). Power’s mental shift, being more laid back over his results, was clear from the start of this season. But it didn’t slow his performance as he has amassed the most poles with 68, breaking Mario Andretti’s record of 67, held since 1993. Only Power and Scott Dixon completed all 2,268 laps in 2022.

Entering the final race there were still five drivers mathematically possible to win the title: Power (523 points), Newgarden (503), Scott Dixon (503), Marcus Ericsson (484) and McLaughlin (482).

Power, referred to a “Chill Will” due to the dramatic change in his approach, finished third at the season finale to earn his second title in 18 seasons. The Australian proved his was the right strategy.

Just hard to imagine as competitive as Newgarden was, with his killer instinct, that he came up short after winning five races. Newgarden won at Texas, Long Beach, Road America, Iowa 1, and St. Louis. While dominating in the lead at Iowa 2, a suspension part

failure caused Newgarden to spin with heavy wall contact, resulting in a loss of 44 points. His season average finish was 8.2.

“We've come up short in this championship,” stated Newgarden, winner of the 2017 and 2019 titles. “We've got to be in a different position next year and fight a lot harder so that we can hopefully be in a much more favorable position coming into this (final) weekend. I believe we can do that.

“It is very difficult to win these races consistently, difficult to win a pole, and hard just to win a race. Ten years ago, you used to have consistent trends. When a team would find a performance edge, they would typically carry that edge across the entire year. Now, people find these little edges on each other every weekend. It's going up and down all the time. You see a McLaren strong at one track, Andretti strong at another, Ganassi pops up, ECR (Ed Carpenter Racing) pops up, we're in the mix. Then a Shank pops up. It's never ending. We say every year it's the closest competition we’ve ever had. Somehow it keeps getting tighter. It must be the development of this car has really hit a fine point. You're just constantly tuning little things now, millimetres of changes. The driving style is getting tighter, with simulators, all this stuff you can analyze. It's impossible to hide something from the competition.”

Behind Newgarden in third was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dixon, 39 points behind Power with two wins. But the Kiwi’s greatest regret, a driver error, was exceeding the pit speed limit by 1 mph on his final pit stop at the Indianapolis 500 last May while leading the race. The resulting drive-through penalty dropped him from a win to a 21st place finish and a loss of 70 points – at the only race offering double points.

“As a team we didn’t extract enough speed in qualifying,” reflected Dixon, a six-time champion, about his struggles trying to overcome mid-grid results over the season with an average start of 11th (average finish of 6.7). “Definitely an area we need to improve on. We’ll keep after it. We know exactly what we need to do in the off season. We made the most of what we had at every race, and finished every race lap this year, which is definitely a huge milestone. We’ll be fighting for number seven next year.”

At Ganassi, Ericsson earned double points when he won the Indianapolis 500, finishing fourth overall in the points table. Alex Palou, the 2021 Titleist, ranked sixth with one win.

Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward earned two victories (Barber and Iowa 2), placing seventh overall. Andretti Autosport also had two victories accomplished by Colton Herta on the Indianapolis road course in May followed by Alexander Rossi’s win there in July.

The remaining five winless teams were Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Ed Carpenter, Dale Coyne, A.J. Foyt, and Juncos Hollinger Racing. At ECR, Rinus VeeKay had a third and fourth place finish and Conor Daly earned a fifth, but that is only three top-five finishes in 34 races combined. A.J. Foyt’s highest finishing driver in tenth was Kyle Kirkwood, the 2021 Indy Lights champ. Dalton Kellett took 18th at the St. Louis oval as his best result.

“Overall, it’s been an up and down year for us,” said Kellett, a Stouffville native in his third season. “We have improved our street course car and our qualifying performances. But lacking a bit of performance at the permanent road courses. We’ll put our heads down and do a season review to see what we can learn from everything. Then use that information to make improvements for next year.”

Fellow Canadian and rookie, Devlin DeFrancesco, earned his highest finishing position of 12th at the St. Louis oval driving for Andretti Autosport, ranking 23rd overall. Because Jimmy Johnson placed 21st for Ganassi, the Leader’s Circle funding (about U.S. $1.2M appearance money to the top 22 entries) goes to DeFrancesco who

(Opposite page and top) 202 NTT IndyCar Series champion Will Power. Canadians Dalton Kellett (middle) and Devlin DeFrancesco (above)

finished 25th and 23rd in the standings, respectively. Photos by Ed Gatner

returns for his second season at Andretti (only team grandfathered funding for four cars).

There was quite a battle for Rookie of the Year between Christian Lundgaard (323 points) driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan and David Malukas (305) of Dale Coyne Racing. Both had a season high finish of 2nd, with Lundgaard finishing 18 points ahead due to seven top-ten finishes versus Malukas’ two.

The engine manufacturers title was easily captured by Chevy with 11 wins and 1,510 points over Honda’s six wins and 1,299 points, although Honda achieved its goal of winning the Indianapolis 500.

Teams return March 2023 with the same cars and drivers mostly for another highly competitive IndyCar season where any driver can win. IT