Ten drivers head to Pocono still mathematically eligible for the IndyCar title, but only five are realistically still in contention.
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Leaving Mid-Ohio with an 11th place finish in the Honda Indy 200, Team Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya’s points lead that he’s held since the season opener in St. Petersburg went from a 45 point lead down to just nine. Graham Rahal is second with 456 points.
“I think we’re in good shape”, he said during a teleconference involving the top-five drivers.
“I know [Bobby] trusts in us”. “Turn 3 for me is definitely one of the toughest corners on any of these circuits we go to all year. Like everybody else, we’ve had ups and downs, and we’ll see what it brings”. “There isn’t a lot of math to be worked out: We’re all after maximum points”. When Montoya scuffled, Rahal shined. “I don’t know the Rahal dynamic, maybe they were fighting on the radio, but Dad and I, we’ve getting along great”. “If we don’t, then we’ll be OK”.
Rahal also knows that there are many drivers capable of a win this weekend, especially those he is surrounded by in the championship standings and, with double points on offer at Sonoma, the championship is about more than just him and Montoya. His goal is to stay as close to Montoya as possible at Pocono to give himself a shot at Sonoma. The big news is that the series will not return to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California next season.
“They’ve done that so far. Hopefully this will be the next step and we will be able to show that growth this weekend”.
An impressive charge over the last five races has put Rahal in position to challenge for the title. “The last two years, we didn’t do a good job for him”. That is, go out and try to win. Participating Indy Lights drivers included Matthew Brabham (Andretti Autosport), Sean Rayhall (Chip Ganassi Racing), Ryan Phinny (KVSH Racing), Ed Jones (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Jack Harvey (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports), Spencer Pigot and Nelson Piquet Jr.
“We’re in a good place and we’ve got momentum on our side for sure with four top-fives in a row”, added Rahal.
Castroneves has been in the role of the hunted in the past.
Even though he has seen what was a commanding championship lead become tenuous, Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya maintains an unwavering mental approach for the final two races of the Verizon IndyCar Series season.
This time, Castroneves is excited to be the hunter.
“When you [have] a lot of personalities, you’ve got to try to find a way to limit things a little, and it’s worked well”, Rahal said, noting that the communication among team manager Ricardo Nault, engineer Eddie Jones, engineer and others on the team has been good. “But maybe it hasn’t hurt us as much as a start like that normally would have on the championship because nobody has been on a streak”. We need to do everything we can. Paddon has been the standout performer (other than Finland) over the past four rallies, setting faster stage times than his Hyundai Motorsport teammates Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville. “At times, it didn’t get into arguments over the radio, but I might say something Graham wasn’t appreciative of at the moment”. As a matter of fact, as the defending race victor and this year’s Indy 500 victor, I’m betting on Montoya to take the win.
The reason, he said, for his poor finishes during that span is purely circumstantial. “Obviously we would like to be ahead going into Sonoma”, Dixon said.
“This is a big race for us from many different perspectives and starting up front is going to be very important, particularly if Pocono goes at it did past year where it was pretty green the entire race. It’s just one of those years”. Montoya won from the pole and snagged the lead for good when Tony Kanaan was forced to pit for fuel with four laps left.
One thing that could help Power this weekend is qualifying.
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The 34-point gap between first and third in the standings with two races remaining makes this IndyCar’s closest three-way championship battle since 2009.
