St. Pete 2015: The Scorecard

Hey there, Internet! It's Guido, back with another Scoring Indy update. This week: the Race Scores from St. Pete; a word on how to use them; and my three-years running pet project. Let's get to it!


The Scorecard

Here's how things shook out at the 2015 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg:

Finish	Driver	Grid	Led	Completed	A.R.P.	Race Score
1	Montoya	4	27	110	2.83	76.63
2	Power	1	75	110	1.44	85.70
3	Kanaan	7	0	110	5.02	63.61
4	Castroneves	3	1	110	3.38	57.30
5	Pagenaud	2	2	110	5.05	50.52
6	Bourdais	6	0	110	6.87	50.19
7	Hunter-Reay	8	0	110	11.55	43.11
8	Hawksworth	21	5	110	10.47	62.92
9	Filippi	19	0	110	12.38	52.45
10	Andretti	12	0	110	12.05	39.31
11	Rahal	15	0	110	11.59	41.53
12	Newgarden	10	0	110	10.43	32.69
13	Sato	5	0	110	12.57	18.83
14	Munoz	14	0	110	15.55	24.93
15	Dixon	9	0	110	15.89	13.80
16	Hinchcliffe	16	0	110	16.74	20.10
17	Chaves	22	0	110	17.95	24.33
18	de Silvestro	11	0	110	17.95	4.61
19	Karam	18	0	109	16.92	13.69
20	Coletti	17	0	109	13.06	14.96
21	Kimball	13	0	109	15.07	2.92
22	Jakes	20	0	100	20.15	2.69
23	Dracone	23	0	70	19.74	3.14
24	Huertas	24	0	19	23.16	-1.56

Now that you've seen all these numbers, you're probably wondering...


How to Use Race Scores

This is really the crux of things. We have a tool: in this case a Race Score. How do we use it? Well, I've found in the three or four (depends on how you count) years that I've been messing around with these, that the best use is to compare drivers, both within a given race and across races.

Comparing drivers within a given race is easy. Let's look at what the Race Scores tell us about some of the performances at St. Pete:

- Power v. Montoya -- Here we have a Scoring Indy classic example. Sometimes, the dominant driver doesn't win the race. Race Score, as a tool, is meant to measure dominance. We already have a stat (finishing position) to determine position at the end of the race. So, you have Power and Montoya with the following particulars:

Driver	Grid	Led	A.R.P.	Race Score
Power	1	75	1.44	85.70
Montoya	4	27	2.83	76.63

I think by most people's (except for Eric "Year of Montoya" Hall's) eyeball test, His Overlordship easily had the more dominant day. That's reflected in his Race Score surpassing Montoya's 85.70 to 76.63.

- Coletti v. Dixon -- You can also use a Race Score to compare drivers with less-than-dominant days. This is certainly the case with Stefano Coletti and Scott Dixon. Let's break it down by the particulars again:

Driver	Grid	Finish	A.R.P.	Race Score
Coletti	17	20	13.06	14.96
Dixon	9	15	15.89	13.80

This time, both drivers finished worse than they started, but Coletti ran better than Dixon did. And, his finish wasn't "as bad" compared to his start. We can likely say that he had the better day, as reflected in his Race Score.

- Graham Rahal -- Here, we will continue with my perpetual curiosity. Rahal finished P11, with a top-10 level score of 41.53. Given that 45.00 is my vague standard for "Race Score of a Contender," I wonder how things would have shaken out without the penalty. Of course, in order to find something like that out, Graham would have to not get himself penalized. You've earned me another race's worth of paying attention to you, Rahal. Well played.

- Jack Hawksworth -- This is probably the most intriguing Race Score of the day. Hawksworth's stat line really tells a story. And, the story that it tells is one of taking lemons and making lemonade. Hawksworth suffered damage early, and thus had to stop under yellow at lap 35. This meant that he was able to stay out during long yellow from laps 47 to 57 (be honest, it was one yellow for all intents and purposes), which gave him the track position to finish P8, resulting in this stat line:

Driver	Grid	Finish	A.R.P.	Laps Led	Race Score
Hawksworth	21	8	10.47	5	62.92

Comparing drivers across races is a little trickier, however. There are a couple of ways that you can do it. First, you can compare Race Scores from different races. That works pretty well. You can also look at average Race Scores to examine a driver's performance across a series of events. But, my favorite way to track Race Score performance throughout the year is:


The Race Score World Championship

The RSWC, as I like to call it, is my pet project. I award points to drivers based on their Race Scores, and I keep track of those points throughout the year. The best Race Score gets 10 points, followed by 8, then 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Here's the table after this week:

Driver	STP	Total
Power	10	10
Montoya	8	8
Kanaan	6	6
Hawksworth	5	5
Castroneves	4	4
Filippi	3	3
Pagenaud	2	2
Bourdais	1	1

It doesn't tell us much yet. But, it will. Oh, it will.


Stay Tuned

That's all for this week here on Scoring Indy. I'll be back next Friday to preview the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana. In the meantime, a blessed Good Friday to you all (if that's you're thing) and a lovely April afternoon to you (if it's not).

See you next week!!

-- Guido