Friday, August 9, 2013

The Team Race Score World Championship

Hello Internet! This week, with no preview til Sonoma, Scoring Indy takes some time off to have fun with spreadsheets (again). We'll start with something familiar then take a look at how the various teams throughout the IndyCar Series have performed over the course of this year's campaign.
2013 Drivers' Race Score World Championship
DriverSTPBARLBHSAOINDYDET1DET2TXSMILIOWAPOCTOR1TOR2MOHTotal
Castroneves2518281025252161810150
Dixon18108121062525254143
Hunter-Reay25181815151815124
Andretti841515156101612496
Pagenaud121121025841890
Franchitti661548181521286
Kanaan10125141815478
Sato252581876
Kimball862121582576
Conway2518101265
Hinchcliffe12864258265
Wison2186152106665
Newgarden15188212156
Bourdais621815142
Viso151241041
Power641108837
Carpenter1121122129
Servia1010626
Rahal12211025
Munoz1212
de Silvestro2428
Jakes88
Tagliani4217
Allmendinger44
Hildebrand44
Briscoe11

- You've seen most of the stuff in this sheet already, but now I've added the Mid-Ohio results for your perusal.

- I think I said this last week, but I'll reiterate that I'm ready to bury Marco Andretti at this point. Unless Andretti Autosport really figures Houston out, I can't imagine him making us enough points on Castroneves, and if AA has the Reliant Park circuit nailed, we can fairly safely assume that Ryan Hunter-Reay won't lose too many points to his teammate.


Team Race Score World Championship

All this talk of teammates leads directly to the main thrust of this week's post: to talk about team performance in the RSWC. Now, not all IndyCar teams are created equal. I get that. So, for the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to chop the IndyCar teams into three groups:

The Big Three -- Chip Ganassi Racing; Andretti Autosport; and Team Penske

Division Two -- Rahal Letterman Lanigan; Dale Coyne Racing; KV Racing Technology; Dragon Racing; and Schmidt (Hamilton/Peterson) Motorsports

One Car Warriors -- AJ Foyt Enterprises; Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing; Panther Racing; Ed Carpenter Racing; Barracuda Racing; and Dryer Reinbold Racing (even if they aren't running right now)

Now, in order to make this a little more apples-to-apples, the procedure will be to only count a team's two best results in any given race. That way multi-car teams are still advantaged (having more chances) but not unreasonably so.

Now, on to the results!


The Big Three

Here's how IndyCar's power teams stack up against each other:

TeamSTPBARLBHSAOINDYDET1DET2TXSMILIOWAPOCTOR1TOR2MOHTotal
Andretti27291523331862527436201417303
Ganassi181814831827414043403337277
Penske2524021214026352961818191

- I guess it does pay to field as many cars as possible. Do you hear that, IndyCar team owners? Spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you too can get meaningless points on this very blog. I fully expect that this mere realization will give us 28-car IndyCar race fields next year. You're welcome, world.

- By the end of the season, we may well see Ganassi sneak into the top spot. Chip's boys' run since Pocono is well documented, but this really throws a spotlight on it. After Iowa, Ganassi trailed Penske by 16 points, 140-124. Now, Ganassi leads Penske by 86. That boarders on astonishing.

- So, to sum each team up as briefly as possible: Andretti has the consistency born of running four cars; Ganassi is riding a hot streak; and Penske has one star and one underachiever in Castroneves and Power.


Division Two

Here's how the multi-car mid-pack teams look:

TeamSTPBARLBHSAOINDYDET1DET2TXSMILIOWAPOCTOR1TOR2MOHTotal
Coyne20180640180001010130117
Schmidt012112100250084001890
KV10124251418015060086
Dragon600000200001815142
RLL001200290010000033

- Ladies and Gentlemen, the fourth-best team in the IndyCar Series: Dale Coyne Racing. Now, there are a couple of things to say about this. First, there is the fact that Coyne has two drivers (despite the revolving door in the #18 car) who have scored big-time points in Wilson and Conway. None of the other teams in this group have a strong second car. The second thing that this brings to light is the importance of double-headers. Coyne has had the setup nailed (or at least had Mike Conway) for both double-header weekends, and 71 of the team's 117 points have been put up on doubleheader weekends.

- Quickly, I am a doubleheader fan. Not all sports schedules are created equal. Doubleheaders are exciting. Doubleheaders give us more racing to enjoy. Doubleheaders are a good thing for promoters. Teams are just going to have to be cognizant of how important it is to nail doubleheader weekends for as long as they stay on the schedule.

- Back to the numbers, I had really hoped for more from Simona de Silvestro. the KV points total is mostly  Tony Kanaan's 78. And, since it's quite possible that Kanaan is out the door at KV next year, that team may be in full-on driver development mode for the 2014 IndyCar Series.

- Dragon is the Ganassi of the mid-pack, with a bit of a recent hot streak for Sebastien Bourdais. We'll see if there's any sustained momentum there.

- Disappointing year from RLL. Rahal has had a couple of good in-race runs (most notably at Iowa). Jakes has looked promising more than once. But, nothing seems to materialize for these guys. I'd stand pat with driver talent come Silly Season if I'm Bobby Rahal, though. The talent's there, they just need to figure out how to make the machinery work with it.

- Not much to say about Schmidt. I thought Vautier would do more (he doesn't have a single RSWC point), but the development from Pagenaud is excellent. He might be a title contender soon if things go right for him.


One Car Warriors

These teams are at a disadvantage, having only one car, but let's see how they stack up:

TeamSTPBARLBHSAOINDYDET1DET2TXSMILIOWAPOCTOR1TOR2MOHTotal
Foyt0025250008180000076
SFHR0150180802001201056
ECR100000012112210029
DRR001010000000000020
Panther0040000006000010
Barracuda420100000000007

- AJ Foyt Enterprises is obviously punching above their one-car weight because of the utter dominance of Takuma Sato in winning Long Beach, almost winning Sao Paulo, and leading a billion laps at Milwaukee. The fact that Sato could have taken every other weekend (except Texas) off and scored just as many RSWC points is a concern, but after the last few years, I'm sure the Foyt team will take flashes of brilliance. Hopefully consistency is on the 2014 To-Do list.

- I did not expect Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing to be this high. Newgarden (at this point in the season) strikes me as being where Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal were last year. I would not be surprised at a breakthrough or a drop-off. I hope for the former, for Josef's sake.

- Ed Carpenter is Ed Carpenter. some good oval points. Some stolen-through-attrition points when turning right. Not much to say.

- It's a shame that Dryer Reinbold isn't racing right now. They had good results early with Servia, but disapointment at Indianapolis left them without a funding miracle. It's a team I think many of us want to see back.

- Panther and Barracuda are having bad years. They're looking at driver changes. Panther is probably looking to hire a vet (probably one whose name rhymes with Byan Riscoe). And, I'm unsure of Barracuda's direction, but after Mid-Ohio Luca Filippi looks like an excellent choice. Of course, Pather's former driver, JR Hildebrand is a free agent...


The Full Table

So, here is how the whole Team Race Score World Championship looks:

TeamSTPBARLBHSAOINDYDET1DET2TXSMILIOWAPOCTOR1TOR2MOHTotal
Andretti27291523331862527436201417303
Ganassi181814831827414043403337277
Penske2524021214026352961818191
Coyne20180640180001010130117
Schmidt012112100250084001890
KV10124251418015060086
Foyt0025250008180000076
SFHR0150180802001201056
Dragon600000200001815142
RLL001200290010000033
ECR100000012112210029
DRR001010000000000020
Panther0040000006000010
Barracuda420100000000007


Stay Tuned

So there it is. A picture of the season so far through the lens of race teams. Next week, I'll pull some names out of a hat and do a season so far recap for 4 or 5 drivers. Also, be sure to follow me @ScoringIndy on Twitter. You'll get blog updates, my fairly worthless opinions, and an overuse of the phrase "Destroyer of Worlds." You know you want to. See you next Friday.

-- Guido
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