2011 IndyCar fight for the championship and trophies

[NaBUru38]

Hey, folks? How about discussing the championship fight separate from the race threads?

Standings after Edmonton:

1. Dario Franchitti, 388
2. Will Power, 350
3. Scott Dixon, 282
4. Tony Kanaan, 253
5. Oriol ServiÃ*, 244
6. Ryan Briscoe, 239
7. Marco Andretti, 232
8. Graham Rahal, 218
9. Hélio Castroneves, 212
10. J. R. Hildebrand, 212

I don't see Dixon climbing to fight for the championship. I'm very glad that Kanaan and ServÃ*á are running that high. Andretti, Rahal and especially Hildebrand are doing very well too. Hélio has made up a horrible season start. Hopefully he will overtake two or three drivers by Las Vegas.

11. Danica Patrick, 195
12. Vitor Meira, 189
13. Alex Tagliani, 186
14. Justin Wilson, 183
15. Mike Conway, 180
16. Takuma Sato, 180
17. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 176
18. James Hinchcliffe, 173

Meira and Tags are holding uop very well despite lack of fundings. Wilson, Conway and Hunter-Reay being so far behind shows that the drivers in front of them are really good, that their neighbors dont fight very clean, or that they don't (see yesterday). Danica isn't doing too bad her last full season in IndyCar.

19. Simona de Silvestro, 149
20. Ernesto Viso, 147
21. Charlie Kimball, 141
22. Ana Beatriz Figueiredo, 128
23. Sebastián Saavedra, 120
24. James Jakes, 114

If grids were thinner, these kids could pick strong finishes more often. But the 18 drivers in front of them are really competitive.

25. Sébastien Bourdais, 100 (5 starts, 20 pts/start)
26. Ed Carpenter, 72 (5 starts)
27. Paul Tracy, 68 (6 starts)
28. Raphael Matos, 67 (5 starts)
29. Dan Wheldon, 59 (1 start)
30. Alex Lloyd, 58 (5 starts)

If Bourdais repeated the same average points on ovals, he would rank 8th! All these six drivers plus Wheldon and Baguette deserve to run the whole season.

[NaBUru38]

Mario Andretti Trophy standings after Edmonton:

1. Dario Franchitti, 239
2. Will Power, 235
3. Ryan Briscoe, 147
4. Tony Kanaan, 141
5. Oriol Servia, 140
6. Mike Conway, 138
7. Scott Dixon, 136
8. Vitor Meira, 125
9. Helio Castroneves, 121
10. Marco Andretti, 118
11. Justin Wilson, 115
12. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 113
13. JR Hildebrand, 112
14. Alex Tagliani, 110
15. Simona de Silvestro, 110
16. Graham Rahal, 109
17. Takuma Sato, 105
18. Danica Patrick, 103
19. Sebastien Bourdais, 100
20. James Hinchcliffe, 97

The gap between the best two drivers of the series and the rest is outbreathing. Conway scored 77% of his points on tracks with right turns. After the top 7, the points scale is very flat.

[ptclaus98]

If not for three accidents that weren't his fault, Rahal would be top 5 in the Andretti championship.

[NaBUru38]

Overall standings with three races left:

1. Dario Franchitti, 507
2. Will Power, 502
3. Scott Dixon, 430
4. Oriol Serviá, 367
5. Tony Kanaan, 340
6. Ryan Briscoe, 328
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 305
8. Marco Andretti, 292
9. Hélio Castroneves, 290
10. Graham Rahal, 284

Mario Andretti Trophy with one race left:

1. Will Power, 357
2. Dario Franchitti, 343
3. Scott Dixon, 249
4. Oriol Serviá, 223
5. Tony Kanaan, 216
6. Ryan Briscoe, 212

[NaBUru38]

Overall standings after Motegi (according to Wikipedia):

1. Will Power, 542
2. Dario Franchitti, 529
3. Scott Dixon, 483
4. Oriol ServiÃ*, 397
5. Tony Kanaan, 352

Power did mistakes at Iowa and had trouble at Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Indianapolis. Dario didn't do well at Indy either, has an unlucky pick at Texas 2, did a mistake at New Hampshire and now again at Motegi.

Who do you believe deserves more the championship? Can Power make it through the 600 miles flatout and get the crown?

[Razzzor]

I think based on his performances from this year and last, Power definitely deserves it most, just even for the fact that he's absolutely dominated Briscoe and Helio. Perhaps Briscoe isn't that great to begin with (he couldn't keep up with Dixon when they were teammates), but Helio will go down as an Indycar all time great with his Indy 500 wins.

Dario's been fast on both the ovals and road courses, but Dixon has been almost as good as him, but hasn't had anywhere near the same amount of luck this season.

Dario's a great driver, won of the best in the field (maybe the best), but he doesn't deserve four championships especially when the last 3 were so close and could easily have gone to Dixon, Briscoe and Power, respectively, if any of them had some more luck. Power definitely deserved the title last year more than Dario.

On top of that, Dario's had some very favourable decisions on penalties going his way (Motegi and the Power incident this year the most notable that he really got away with).

[NaBUru38]

I'm not sure about the luck factor. In 17 races, random factors even out - unless someone gets crashed by others the whole time (Briscoe 2011?).

[Razzzor]

Well i'm thinking more in terms of luck at the final race, rather than the entire season. All 3 times he came into the final race just slightly behind the championship leader (I think), so at that point it all really comes down to 1 race.

The first time it took Dixon running out of fuel from the lead on the last corner of the last lap. Then since he didn't have the speed of Dixon/Briscoe he took the chance of running the race on 1 less pit stop, in the hopes that the entire race would have no yellow, which is extremely rare for an oval. But it happened. Then last year it took Power hitting the wall in the last race when all he had to do was finish top 10.

[Yannick]

Well, Dario is my favourite driver of IndyCar. After I had lost interest after the demise of CART, his Indy 500 victory won me back as a TV spectator.

Yet, Will Power is so consistent this season he really deserves to win the title.

And that silly collision Dario had with Briscoe and Rahal looks like it could have been a championship decider.

Yet somehow, I hope we can see some teams who are not from the "Big 3" winning again this season. I'm looking forward as to what the oval specialists have to offer for the final 2 rounds.