Pocono & Iowa Mega-Post

Hello Internet! Guido here with a Scoring Indy Mega-Post. This week: I've got Pocono scores; I've got an Iowa preview; I've got numbers; I've got opinions. Should be fun! Let's hop to it!


2014 Pocono 500 Scores

Here are the scores for the Pocono 500 (feels good to say the words "Pocono 500"):

Finish	Driver	Grid	Led	Completed	A.R.P.	Race Score	RSWC Points
1	Montoya	1	45	200	2.10	72.43	10
2	Castroneves	7	0	200	4.55	67.02	8
3	Munoz	3	0	200	4.54	57.88	4
4	Briscoe	10	0	200	6.96	61.54	5
5	Dixon	15	0	200	8.72	63.22	6
6	Pagenaud	11	0	200	10.18	51.73
7	Aleshin	12	0	200	7.25	54.81	2
8	Newgarden	21	7	200	12.70	57.85	3
9	Andretti	5	0	200	11.71	30.91
10	Power	2	69	200	2.70	49.07
11	Kanaan	8	78	200	3.98	54.53	1
12	Hinchcliffe	6	0	199	13.11	20.87
13	Carpenter	13	0	199	10.36	32.67
14	Wilson	16	0	199	15.61	25.81
15	Saavedra	19	0	199	16.68	25.55
16	Bourdais	18	1	199	12.32	27.99
17	Kimball	17	0	198	15.05	18.86
18	Hunter-Reay	9	0	181	17.23	0.86
19	Rahal	14	0	157	15.22	7.26
20	Huertas	20	0	89	19.43	4.99
21	Sato	4	0	25	9.24	0.90

Observations

- Now, I'm a weird person, but I'm just going to come out and say it. I love fuel mileage racing. And, I don't mean that in the sense of "every race is a fuel mileage race." I mean that I love it (love, love, LOVE it) when strategy decides a race. I understand that expressing my opinions this way makes me a minority, but I'm not a gear-head. I don't know the first thing about cars (maybe the first, but by the eleventh thing, I'm probably toast). What I am, is a gamer. I love playing games. I have an undergraduate minor in Economics, which I got accidentally because I wanted to take a course in Game Theory. And strategy: that's gaming, that's my bag.

- Ok, for those of you that are still here, you might imagine that I loved the Pocono 500. With only the one caution period, strategy was at a premium, and for the love of Pete, it was a 500-miler with an average speed of 202.402. That's incredible!

- But, none of you are here to read me waxing poetic about fuel mileage racing. Let's look at the nuts and bolts of last weekend's race: First, it is slightly incredible that the eighth-best drive of the day: that of Tony Kanaan, comes from outside the top half of the field. Kanaan's P11 score of 54.53 is a testament to a strategy that put him out front with a chance to win in the last stint if he'd have gotten some yellow. A good run by TK, even if he thought it could have been a winner with a strategical tweak or two.

- Speaking of Kanaan, three of the four Ganassi cars wound up with Race Score World Championship points. Briscoe and Dixon both netted Race Scores of over 60 to go along with TK's 54.53. Could this season's littlest sister among the Big Three begin to turn things around similarly to last year?

- Big ups to Carlos Munoz, who just flat shows up at the big ovals. Check these numbers out: 2013 Indy 500 - 62.05; 2014 Indy 500 - 61.24; 2014 Pocono 500 - 57.88. He did crash out at Fontana in 2013, but that was in a substitute role.

- Finally, a good result for Josef Newgarden. I will say no more for fear of putting on the jinx.

Hall of Averages

I'll have more to say about all these things after Mid-Ohio, when the series gets a week to breathe, but for now, presented without comment, the average Race Scores for full-timers (I'm counting Hawksworth), then part-timers, and finally the Race Score World Championship table:

Full-Timers

Driver	Average Score
Power	63.5
Castroneves	52.26
Pagenaud	48.97
Hunter-Reay	47.13
Montoya	44.27
Kanaan	42.79
Dixon	41.3
Briscoe	39.38
Wilson	38.26
Kimball	38.06
Andretti	38.04
Munoz	35.59
Hawksworth	34.04
Aleshin	33.36
Bourdais	33.27
Huertas	30.98
Hinchcliffe	28.83
Saavedra	25.92
Rahal	25.51
Newgarden	22.91
Sato	19.93

Part-Timers

Driver	Average Score	Races
Karam	65.51	1
Hildebrand	48.16	1
Tagliani	45.08	1
Villeneuve	43.73	1
Carpenter	42.63	3
Davison	41.47	1
Servia	40.23	4
Bell	31.26	1
Conway	28.23	8
Plowman	25.36	2
Filippi	15.83	2
Mann	14.76	1
Montagny	12.75	1
Lazier	4.15	1

RSWC Table

Driver	Points	Difference
Castroneves	51	--
Power	45	-6
Hunter-Reay	41	-10
Montoya	35	-16
Pagenaud	31	-20
Dixon	28	-23
Kimball	23	-28
Munoz	21	-30
Aleshin	16	-35
Wilson	15	-36
Hawksworth	15	-36
Andretti	14	-37
Hinchcliffe	14	-37
Huertas	12	-39
Conway	10	-41
Carpenter	10	-41
Bourdais	10	-41
Kanaan	10	-41
Rahal	8	-43
Briscoe	8	-43
Karam	5	-46
Newgarden	5	-46
Saavedra	3	-48
Servia	2	-49
Sato	1	-50
Busch	1	-50

2014 Iowa Preview

Now, moving on to the second portion of our mega-post: briefly previewing the Iowa Corn Indy 300. I have found Iowa races to be some of my very favorite ovals, and last year's race produced something really special. Here it is:

Finish	Driver	Qualy	Grid	Laps Led	Completed	ARS
1	Hinchcliffe	3	2	226	250	98.57
2	Hunter-Reay	14	12	0	250	69.82
3	Kanaan	8	5	0	250	60.75
4	Carpenter	6	4	18	250	59.69
5	Rahal	9	6	1	250	59.20
6	Pagenaud	11	8	0	250	58.39
7	Servia	10	7	0	250	52.79
8	Castroneves	1	11	0	250	44.37
9	Andretti	4	3	0	250	42.27
10	Viso	19	16	0	250	50.06
11	Wilson	13	10	5	249	40.21
12	Kimball	17	14	0	249	35.80
13	Vautier	15	13	0	248	32.69
14	Bourdais	22	19	0	248	33.96
15	Newgarden	16	22	0	248	27.60
16	Dixon	5	15	0	247	23.86
17	Power	2	1	0	247	9.19
18	Jakes	21	24	0	247	23.78
19	Saavedra	20	18	0	247	13.63
20	Franchitti	24	21	0	246	18.78
21	de Silvestro	23	20	0	243	9.35
22	Beatriz	18	23	0	183	8.66
23	Sato	7	17	0	162	2.61
24	Tagliani	12	9	0	139	0.07

- Look at that performance from Hinchcliffe: 98.57 is IMPRESSIVE stuff. Couldn't he use a performance like that again?

- Andretti and Kanaan have both been good at Iowa in the past. I wonder how they'll perform this weekend. Practice times seem to indicate that they've got a shot.

- Finally, Graham Rahal keeps making it hard for me to quit him. He had a good performance in Iowa last year, and his practice times have been good so far. We'll see after qualifications...

Stay Tuned

As always, be sure to follow me @ScoringIndy on Twitter for blog updates and (generally) terrible race predictions. Should be an exciting weekend! Enjoy the racing!

-- Guido

Let's Get Triangular -- Pocono Preview

Hello Internet! It's Guido here with a Scoring Indy race weekend preview! This weekend is the Pocono IndyCar 500, the second jewel in American Open-Wheel Racing's Triple Crown. I, personally, am THRILLED (not engaging much on Twitter will do that for you...) So, let's get down to it:


Pocono 2013

Finish	Driver	Qualifying	Grid	Led	Completed	ARS
1	Dixon	7	17	38	160	83.70
2	Kimball	13	12	4	160	74.10
3	Franchitti	18	20	0	160	75.28
4	Power	4	4	15	160	61.03
5	Newgarden	16	15	0	160	62.20
6	Pagenaud	9	8	0	160	55.93
7	Wilson	20	22	0	160	61.61
8	Castroneves	6	6	0	160	47.46
9	Carpenter	15	14	0	160	49.57
10	Andretti	1	1	88	160	56.65
11	de Silvestro	10	9	0	160	34.91
12	Jakes	14	13	0	160	36.24
13	Kanaan	5	5	15	160	34.46
14	Briscoe	23	19	0	159	39.82
15	Mann	19	21	0	159	32.62
16	Bourdais	12	11	0	159	23.02
17	Tagliani	24	24	0	158	29.43
18	Rahal	17	16	0	158	17.51
19	Vautier	11	10	0	158	7.27
20	Hunter-Reay	2	2	0	121	2.08
21	Viso	22	23	0	104	11.16
22	Sato	8	7	0	61	7.24
23	Saavedra	21	18	0	2	2.75
24	Hinchcliffe	3	3	0	0	1.39

Observations

- Honda was the power plant to have in the 2013 Pocono 400, and this race also led to the Ganassi-fueled Scott Dixon freight train that barreled its way to a series title in 2013.

- Last year's Pocono race was also a hard-luck-fest (as much of the 2013 Triple Crown was) for Marco Andretti. He burned a TON of fuel running out front for over half the race, and just got shuffled back to far to bring it home.

- Finally, this was probably the best run from Pippa Mann in a DW12. I mention it mostly because I am a fan of her radio work, and I like to acknowledge her in-car competence.

Projections

These are more fun than year-old observations. Here's what we might project forward to this year from last:

- I think that this race has the potential to get infinitely more interesting going from 400 to 500 miles. I have not seen a bad 500-miler with this chassis setup. Indy 2012 - Phenominal. Fontana 2012 - Compelling. Indy 2013 - Ridiculous passing. Fontana 2013 - Marathon. Indy 2014 - Amazing. I see no reason why Pocono 2014 can't follow suit.

- Juan Pablo Montoya is starting to round into Open-Wheel form. He has more experience at Pocono than any other driver in the field (albeit in a Cup car). He looked good at Indy. He looked good in Houston. I fully expect him to contend.

- As bummed as I am that Sage Karam won't be running his background race, I'm looking at another local to make noise. It has to work out for Marco Andretti eventually, right?

- Finally, an actual projection. Will Power sowed the seeds of his Fontana win in the Pocono Mountains last year. He was a contender even with sub-optimal equipment (and how often do you say that about a Penske...) in 2013, and I don't expect his equipment to be sub-optimal this time..

Stay Tuned

Well, that ought to get the juices flowing for this weekend's race. Be sure to follow me @ScoringIndy on Twitter for blog updates and race predictions. As always, ENJOY THE RACING. I'll see you later with predictions and scores.

-- Guido