The Barber Scorecard

Hey there Internet! It's Guido with another Scoring Indy update. This week, we have the scores from Barber, emerging trends, and questions that need answers. Let's get to it!


The Scorecard (#HIGPA)

Finish	Driver	Grid	Led	Completed	A.R.P	Race Score
1	Newgarden	5	46	90	2.60	92.37
2	Rahal	8	17	90	5.26	75.96
3	Dixon	4	2	90	5.52	59.63
4	Power	2	0	90	9.78	46.70
5	Hunter-Reay	18	0	90	9.61	67.23
6	Munoz	22	0	90	12.48	65.97
7	Hinchcliffe	10	1	90	7.21	53.80
8	Bourdais	7	2	90	7.74	46.26
9	Pagenaud	3	3	90	9.21	35.93
10	Andretti	13	0	90	10.70	43.91
11	Filippi	9	0	90	10.13	36.04
12	Kimball	11	0	90	12.87	32.08
13	Kanaan	6	0	90	11.38	24.09
14	Montoya	15	1	90	14.13	30.72
15	Castroneves	1	18	90	4.29	30.02
16	Chaves	17	0	90	14.73	26.47
17	Sato	20	0	90	16.79	24.94
18	Karam	12	0	90	18.08	8.58
19	Coletti	16	0	90	18.11	11.43
20	Gonzalez	21	0	90	16.81	17.67
21	Hawksworth	19	0	90	16.27	12.66
22	Jakes	14	0	89	20.96	-4.20
23	Dracone	23	0	89	21.29	5.33

Observations

- As it was a big day for young Americans, so for this week's observations, we'll do a "Stock up / Stock down" on the five young Americans in the field. (You could almost say there are six young Americans, as Gaby Chaves is basically Floridian, but I don't have much to say about Chaves, so this week he's Colombian.)

- Josef Newgarden -- Stock up. Stock way up. This win legitimizes Newgarden the same way that Charlie Kimball's (we'll get to him soon) win last year at Mid-Ohio legitimized him. No longer do we have to wait for Newgarden to finally "get one." He's a winner, and a clean winner at that. It's a deserved feather in the cap. The question is now, can he sustain this momentum?

- Graham Rahal -- Stock up. I am unabashedly happy to write this. As you probably know by now, Rahal fascinates me. I want him to succeed. I'm not sure if I want to love him or shake my fist at him, but I desperately want him to be relevant. BIG step in the right direction with the excellent qualifying effort, strategy, and late race charge.

- Marco Andretti -- Stock up. I'm not sure if this is so much a "Stock Up" for Marco himself, although a 43.91 is a Race Score pointing in the right direction for him, as much as it is a sign of life for Andretti Autosport on the whole. Qualifying went terribly for them, with none of the three cars advancing out of Q1, but Marco had the best qualifying effort, starting thirteenth. He had the "worst" race, however, only coming home in P10. Like I said, overall "Stock Up" for AA putting three cars in the top 10.

- Charlie Kimball -- Stock Down. Josef Newgarden, let this be your cautionary tale. This is what un-capitalized upon momentum looks like. Not that Kimball isn't working his backside off. I'm sure he is. But, the team just hasn't been able to produce consistently competitive results.

- Sage Karam -- Stock Down. It's a good car. I know it is. I know it is because Sebastian Saavedra got the result of his life in it. Sage needs more seat time. Drivers today don't have the test time that drivers in previous eras did. There are a couple of ways to deal with this, but I'll have to just log that in the "Ideas for an open week" file. In the meantime, I'll just treat this like a redshirt year for Karam.


The Race Score World Championship

Here's where things stand in the RSWC

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

Emerging Trends

- So, the two most similar races, in terms of the same drivers doing well, seem to be the two street races: St. Petersburg and Long Beach.

- Hondas have also performed markedly better at the two purpose built racetracks (although, I'm still not sure how much stock I put in the NOLA results, due to the rain). Is it possible that the way the downforce is configured by all those billion wing-parts on the Honda aero package doesn't translate to street racing?

- The only driver to score RSWC points in all three non-rain races is Sebastien Bourdais. Could this be the start of a big year for the four-time Champ Car Champ?


Questions that Need Answers

I realize that I was getting into questions up there in "Emerging Trends," but here are the questions that I have heading into the Month of May:

- How great of aero disparity will we see in the speedway aero kits?

- How will the Hondas perform at the flat (bad sign) purpose-built road course (good sign) of the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis?

- Will Bourdais get a win this year?

- Will Newgarden get another win this year?

- Will Conor Daly get a full-time ride?

- Will Andretti Autosport turn the corner?


Stay Tuned

We'll only find out these answers as the season continues. I'm excited to see what happens. You can follow me on Twitter (@ScoringIndy) for the occasional comment, and blog updates. Those blog updates are increasingly important, because my home computer and internet seem to hate me. You'll hear about that on Twitter too.

See you guys soon!

-- Guido