Indianapolis Mega-Post

Hey there, Internet!! It's Guido here with another Scoring Indy update. This week, we'll look back at the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis; we'll look forward to the 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500; and we'll have some fun with this year's field for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Let's get to it!

Angie's List GP of Indianapolis Scorecard

Here's how things shook out on one of only two FIA Grade 1 road courses in the USA a couple weeks ago:

Finish	Driver	Grid	Led	Completed	A.R.P	Race Score
1	Power	1	65	82	1.61	92.28
2	Rahal	17	9	82	2.95	86.39
3	Montoya	4	0	82	4.76	60.33
4	Bourdais	7	0	82	4.00	62.67
5	Kimball	14	1	82	10.50	61.07
6	Castroneves	3	0	82	11.56	41.92
7	Kanaan	6	0	82	11.01	43.98
8	Coletti	10	0	82	8.65	49.80
9	Sato	22	0	82	13.11	57.19
10	Dixon	2	1	82	16.87	23.25
11	Hunter-Reay	19	0	82	14.28	46.29
12	Hinchcliffe	13	4	82	10.71	42.02
13	Munoz	21	0	82	13.67	44.44
14	Filippi	9	0	82	14.10	25.20
15	Chaves	16	0	82	11.66	35.12
16	Andretti	24	0	82	18.8	33.59
17	Saavedra	8	0	82	20.10	7.87
18	Jakes	20	2	81	12.57	31.79
19	Huertas	23	0	81	15.84	27.98
20	Newgarden	12	0	81	23.25	1.09
21	Hildebrand	15	0	81	10.56	19.11
22	Dracone	25	0	80	21.71	14.81
23	Hawksworth	11	0	69	23.41	-6.55
24	Wilson	18	0	68	17.68	5.24
25	Pagenaud	5	0	57	4.04	3.15

There are more than a couple interesting things to look at here in the scorecard, while we're still on the road course:

- Both Rahal and Power had transcendent drives. Some races don't have ave single driver weigh in at a Race Score of over 85. This time, we had two.

- You can also see respectable scores scattered throughout the field, with Hunter-Reay, Munoz, and Hinchcliffe (#GetWellSoonHinch) giving us a cluseter of 40+ Race Scores outside the Top 10.

- Also, you can put me down as officially 1 for 2 with my "pet drivers" declaration before the GP. Rahal owned it. Saavedra did not.

- Finally, all hail his Overlordship. I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Will.


RSWC Update

Let's also take a quick look at the table for the Race Score World Championship:

Driver	STP	NOLA	LBH	ALA	IMS	Total
Montoya	8	8	5		4	25
Power	10	2		2	10	24
Rahal		3		8	8	21
Castroneves	4	4	8			16
Dixon			10	4		14
Hinchcliffe		10		3		13
Newgarden		1	2	10		13
Bourdais	1		3	1	6	11
Kanaan	6		4			10
Pagenaud	2		6			8
Hunter-Reay				6	1	7
Jakes		6				6
de Silvestro		5				5
Hawksworth	5					5
Munoz				5		5
Kimball					5	5
Sato					3	3
Coletti					2	2
Andretti			1			1

- The fluky nature of this year's Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis is fully on display here, with the GP of Indy having fully three unique points scorers. That's far more than any other race.

- Only three people have notched points in all but one race this year: Juan Pablo Montoya, Will Power, and Sebastien Bourdais. In my book, that's a testament to Bourdais. He might finally be figuring out this whole unified IndyCar series thing. And, that's a VERY good thing.

- Finally, we're going to clean up the the RSWC Table after the Indy 500. Starting next week, to be classified on the table, a driver will need to have scored points in multiple races in order to be shown on the table. That'll jump up to needing points in three races after Fontana, and four after Pocono: heading into the season finale. Then, after Sonoma, we'll show the whole table again.


2015 Indianapolis 500 Preview

Finish	Driver	Grid	Led	Completed	A.R.P	Race Score
1	Hunter-Reay	19	56	200	4.86	90.29
2	Castroneves	4	38	200	3.41	71.58
3	Andretti	6	20	200	4.06	67.92
4	Munoz	9	0	200	8.37	61.24
5	Montoya	10	16	200	8.48	62.79
6	Busch	12	0	200	14.35	54.19
7	Bourdais	17	0	200	13.74	57.84
8	Power	3	22	200	7.66	51.49
9	Karam	31	0	200	16.15	65.51
10	Hildebrand	9	0	200	9.33	48.16
11	Servia	18	0	200	18.28	46.18
12	Pagenaud	5	0	200	15.1	34.24
13	Tagliani	24	3	200	21.87	45.08
14	Villeneuve	27	0	200	23.71	43.73
15	Saavedra	32	0	200	23.31	47.16
16	Davison	28	0	200	22.94	41.47
17	Huertas	21	0	200	25.12	30.19
18	Briscoe	20	0	200	25.04	27.23
19	Sato	23	0	200	16.01	37.37
20	Hawksworth	13	0	200	21.28	19.92
21	Aleshin	15	1	198	21.81	19.49
22	Wilson	14	0	198	14.15	23.97
23	Plowman	29	0	186	27.94	22.44
24	Mann	22	0	193	27.22	14.76
25	Bell	25	0	190	10.90	31.26
26	Kanaan	16	1	177	23.26	8.89
27	Carpenter	1	26	175	4.77	13.72
28	Hinchcliffe	2	14	175	6.45	9.48
29	Dixon	11	3	167	5.56	14.28
30	Newgarden	8	0	156	15.99	0.90
31	Kimball	26	0	149	21.85	8.41
32	Lazier	33	0	87	30.16	4.15
33	Rahal	20	0	44	30.25	-1.05

Here are my thoughts about the 2014 500 in lists of three things:

- Surprising results: Servia, Karam, and Bourdais

- Saddening results: Rahal, Carpeter, and Dixon

- Better than the car: Busch, Bourdais, Karam

- Even better than the car: Villeneuve, Tagliani, Saavedra


Some Fun with the 2015 Field of 33

So, since this is a Mega-Post I figure I should take a little time to do some more with the 2015 Indy 500 field. So, here it is. I'll take the eleven rows of three, and give each row a nickname, and pick a winner from that row. That way, I get 11 chances to be right.

Row 1: Dixon, Power, Pagenaud
Nickname: The Usual Suspects
Winner: Scott Dixon

Row 2: Kanaan, Castroneves, Wilson
Nickname: The Land of the Unexpected Honda
Winner: Helio Castroneves

Row 3: Bourdais, Andretti, Newgarden
Nickname: The Outsiders
Winner: Marco Andretti

Row 4: Hildebrand, Munoz, Carpenter
Nickname: The Hard Luck Gang
Winner: Ed Carpeter

Row 5: Servia, Kimball, Montoya
Nickname: One of these Things is not Like the Others
Winner: Juan Pablo Montoya

Row 6: Hunter-Reay, Rahal, De Silvestro
Nickname: Where the Hondas Went
Winner: Graham Rahal

Row 7: Jakes, Tagliani, Karam
Nickname: The B Team
Winner: Sage Karam

Row 8: Daly, Bell, Sato
Nickname: The Expected-Betters
Winner: Townsend Bell

Row 9: Mann, Chaves, Saavedra
Nickname: The Hopefuls
Winner: Pippa Mann

Row 10: Hawksworth, Coletti, Clauson
Nickname: The Longshots
Winner: Stefano Coletti

Row 11: Briscoe, Vautier, Davison
Nickname: The Replacements
Winner: Ryan Briscoe


Stay Tuned

Well, there it is. Get excited, the 500 is upon us! Be sure to follow me @ScoringIndy on Twitter. I've already made one "carburetor" joke today! See you next week!

-- Guido