Two for the Price of One (Sonoma & Baltimore)

Hello Internet! Guido here. I'm back after a whirlwind week that included my sister's wedding as well as my birthday. And, this is good news for all of you. It means that I'll be giving you double the good stuff this week with full recaps of exciting races in Sonoma and Baltimore. So, without any more flowery stuff (don't worry, I'll get plenty flowery later), let's get to the numbers!


2013 Sonoma Race Scores

Race Finish	Driver	Qualifying	Grid	Laps Led	Completed	A.R.S	RSWC Points
1	Power	3	3	16	85	71.18	25
2	Wilson	7	7	10	85	66.78	18
3	Franchitti	1	1	17	85	63.42	15
4	Andretti	11	11	0	85	62.64	12
5	Pagenaud	10	10	0	85	58.29	10
6	Hunter-Reay	4	4	6	85	45.68	2
7	Castroneves	5	5	0	85	47.45	4
8	Hinchcliffe	9	9	4	85	48.78	6
9	de Silvestro	23	22	0	85	56.31	8
10	Bourdais	12	12	0	85	35.11
11	Rahal	8	8	0	85	29.49
12	Vautier	14	14	0	85	37.15
13	Kanaan	16	16	5	85	42.23	1
14	Viso	15	15	0	85	25.96
15	Dixon	2	2	27	85	34.51
16	Hildebrand	18	18	0	85	28.28
17	Briscoe	22	21	0	85	34.67
18	Davison	21	25	0	85	30.84
19	Carpenter	24	23	0	84	25.10
20	Kimball	6	6	0	83	-0.66
21	Saavedra	20	20	0	81	18.32
22	Luhr	25	24	0	81	15.33
23	Sato	13	13	0	67	-1.32
24	Newgarden	17	17	0	56	-2.46
25	Jakes	19	19	0	28	3.51

Observations

- Sonoma was mostly an audio experience for me, since I was driving down from Wisconsin to Indiana for the aforementioned wedding festivities. And, I must confess myself to have been extraordinarily entertained. The DW-12 is an extraordinary road racer (beats the IR-05, by a long road), and Sonoma showcased that again.

- By and large, Sonoma was a track where the best cars did the best. The Top 8 finishers all had Top 10 Average Running Positions. The exception to this, of course, was Scott Dixon. I said last week that I agreed that you have to call the penalty that was called on Dixon. You just can't hit crew members. It's just plain unfortunate.

- Finally, I want to highlight the performance of Simona de Silvestro. While her Average Running Possition might not have been quite as good as other members of the Top 10, she started farther back on the grid. And, after her first stint, she was consistently hanging around the tenth spot. After a really rough series of races for the Swiss Missile, it's good to see solid performance from Simona. And, we'll see another shortly.

Sonoma RSWC Update

Here's how the Race Score World Championship Points looked after Sonoma:

Driver	RCWC Points	Points Back
Castroneves	154	0
Dixon	143	-11
Hunter-Reay	126	-28
Andretti	108	-46
Franchitti	101	-53
Pagenaud	100	-54
Wilson	83	-71
Kanaan	79	-75
Sato	76	-78
Kimball	76	-78
Hinchcliffe	71	-83
Conway	65	-89
Power	62	-92
Newgarden	56	-98
Bourdais	42	-112
Viso	41	-113
Carpenter	29	-125
Rahal	23	-131
Servia	18	-136
de Silvestro	16	-138
Munoz	12	-142
Jakes	8	-146
Tagliani	7	-147
Hildebrand	4	-150
Allmendinger	4	-150
Briscoe	1	-153

Observations

- Castroneves puts a little distance between himself and Dixon.

- Franchitti continues his run of "Really Pretty Good Lately."

- Interestingly, this was Ryan Hunter-Reay's first points finish that did not net him at least 15. In a land of feast or famine, RHR get's his first snack.

- Andretti scores again. So consistent. I mean, not Helio consistent, but solid. I'd say Marco is having the best season that no one (including me, for the most part) is talking about.

2013 Baltimore Race Scores

Now, on to the land of birds, whose names sound like race car drivers:

Race Finish	Driver	Qualifying	Grid	Laps Led	Completed	A.R.S	RSWC Points
1	Pagenaud	3	3	7	75	65.06	18
2	Newgarden	5	5	0	75	56.81	10
3	Bourdais	24	22	19	75	90.87	25
4	J. Wilson	4	4	0	75	47.22	2
5	de Silvestro	19	17	0	75	63.85	15
6	Kimball	9	9	0	75	53.07	6
7	Hinchcliffe	11	11	0	75	49.09	4
8	Saavedra	21	19	0	75	59.61	12
9	Castroneves	7	7	0	75	35.37
10	Andretti	18	16	12	75	55.19	8
11	Vautier	6	6	1	74	33.07
12	Servia	17	15	0	74	42.89
13	Viso	22	20	0	74	43.07	1
14	Carpenter	20	18	0	74	30.74
15	Kanaan	16	14	0	73	33.09
16	S. Wilson	23	21	0	72	27.54
17	Rahal	12	12	5	68	29.20
18	Power	2	2	31	67	24.85
19	Dixon	1	1	0	52	10.69
20	Hunter-Reay	8	8	0	42	5.70
21	Franchitti	15	24	0	22	6.11
22	Filippi	14	13	0	12	3.94
23	Jakes	13	23	0	5	2.44
24	Sato	10	10	0	4	1.35

Observations

- Sebastien Bourdais with another GREAT street course run. It seems that he's up-er (Is that a word? It's a word now.) to speed on the flat-and-twisties than he does anywhere else. (NB Using the Old Formula, Bourdais very nearly cracks 100 finishing third.)

- De Silvestro does it again. I told you we'd be talking more about her, and here we go. I remember having a discussion on Twitter about a month ago about how Tony Kanaan leaving KV (as many assume he will, for Stock Cars or another IndyCar ride) would impact Simona. The final verdict seemed to be that it wouldn't matter a ton, since Simona hadn't really been performing in '13. These last two races have shown otherwise. The doubleheader in Houston will go a LONG way toward determining Simona's future.

- Welcome to the party, Sebastian Saavedra. This is certainly the best overall showing for Dragon Racing this season, and it's good to see Team Sebastie(a)n get some results.

- Best Average Running Position of the day, by far, goes to Scott Dixon. The Iceman finished the 52 laps that he completed with an average position of 3.56, almost two full spots ahead of the next best: Pagenaud, with his 5.40. (Power would have been better than Dixon, however, if he hadn't run the extra 15 laps...)

- If Sonoma, by and large, was a case of better cars doing better, Baltimore was a case of attrition warfare at its finest. The best cars were certainly Dixon and Power. Rahal also had a stellar day, but was out of the race seven laps early.

RSWC Current Update

Here's how they run through Baltimore, with three rounds remaining:

Driver	RCWC Points	Points Back
Castroneves	154	0
Dixon	143	-11
Hunter-Reay	126	-28
Pagenaud	118	-36
Andretti	116	-38
Franchitti	101	-53
Wilson	85	-69
Kimball	82	-72
Kanaan	79	-75
Sato	76	-78
Hinchcliffe	75	-79
Bourdais	67	-87
Newgarden	66	-88
Conway	65	-89
Power	62	-92
Viso	42	-112
de Silvestro	31	-123
Carpenter	29	-125
Rahal	23	-131
Servia	18	-136
Munoz	12	-142
Saavedra	12	-142
Jakes	8	-146
Tagliani	7	-147
Hildebrand	4	-150
Allmendinger	4	-150
Briscoe	1	-153

- Just one observation here. Simon Pagenaud is making a case for himself as legitimate contender. A contender in any race he runs; a contender for our little fake championship; an Astor Cup contender. He's just a contender.

- Ok, I lied, two observations. RHR is 32. Marco is 26. Simon is 29. Dixon is 33. Settle in and just watch these gentlemen contend for titles for at minimum 5 more years. This is practically a golden age. I'm not kidding.

Stay Tuned

Well, that's a lot. I've thoroughly enjoyed the last few weeks of racing. Now, of course, we have to wait for a good long while for more on-track action. Here at Scoring Indy we'll endure the drought with another in-depth examination of the RSWC Standings (looking at clinching scenarios). We'll also probably fire up the Silly-Season express. I've got some ideas brewing...

Oh yeah, I also went 0.5 for 4 on my Sonoma predictions. We'll see if I can right the ship in Houston...

As always, you can follow me @ScoringIndy on Twitter. Until next time!

-- Guido