2022 R17: Rumble on the Corkscrew

[John]

Bottom post of the previous page:

30 laps left of the season

Palou leads Power, RoGro, Felix and JoNew

[John]

Palou hauling ass with the new engine. 12 to go and leads by 28s.

It's Power's title to lose.

[John]

Will Power's wife has great lungs.

[Vassago]

Well, Power for once avoided major drama during the season and is five laps away...

[John]

Well done, Will!

Palou
joNew
Will
Felix
Lundgaard

[MonteCristo]

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done Will!

Fantastic drive by Jhoeszeph as well.

And Palou driving for a contract ... with ... anyone at this stage.

[Everso Biggyballies]

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done Will!

Fantastic drive by Jhoeszeph as well.

And Palou driving for a contract ... with ... anyone at this stage.

And Herta doing his superlicence chances no good with a season 9= or 10th not adding zero to his SL points.


Anyway the video highlights, results and championship table..

First the highlights reel...:

2022 RACE HIGHLIGHTS // FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF MONTEREY




Results: Race, Laguna Seca

Pos Num Driver C/E/T Race time/Split Pit stops Status Grid pos
1 10 Alex Palou D/H/F 2:03:31.0628 3 Running 11
2 2 Josef Newgarden D/C/F +30.3812 4 Running 25
3 12 Will Power D/C/F +33.8528 3 Running 1
4 7 Felix Rosenqvist D/C/F +35.5322 3 Running 8
5 30 Christian Lundgaard D/H/F +50.8901 3 Running 16
6 3 Scott McLaughlin D/C/F +56.1091 4 Running 7
7 28 Romain Grosjean D/H/F +57.9853 3 Running 4
8 5 Pato O’Ward D/C/F +59.9521 4 Running 5
9 8 Marcus Ericsson D/H/F +1:02.6247 4 Running 9
10 27 Alexander Rossi D/H/F +1:05.3231 4 Running 3
11 26 Colton Herta D/H/F +1:07.6483 4 Running 18
12 9 Scott Dixon D/H/F +1:07.9752 4 Running 13
13 18 David Malukas D/H/F +1 lap 4 Running 6
14 21 Rinus VeeKay D/C/F +1 lap 4 Running 14
15 29 Devlin DeFrancesco D/H/F +1 lap 3 Running 20
16 48 Jimmie Johnson D/H/F +1 lap 5 Running 23
17 60 Simon Pagenaud D/H/F +1 lap 4 Running 10
18 15 Graham Rahal D/H/F +1 lap 4 Running 19
19 06 Helio Castroneves D/H/F +1 lap 4 Running 12
20 45 Jack Harvey D/H/F +1 lap 5 Running 21
21 14 Kyle Kirkwood D/C/F +1 lap 3 Running 17
22 16 Simona De Silvestro D/C/F +1 lap 4 Running 26
23 51 Takuma Sato D/H/F +1 lap 3 Running 22
24 20 Conor Daly D/C/F +2 laps 6 Running 15
25 4 Dalton Kellett D/C/F +2 laps 3 Running 24
26 77 Callum Ilott D/C/F +58 laps 1 Mechanical 2
Race winner: 95 laps

Series points

Pos Driver Pts
1 Will Power 560
2 Josef Newgarden 544
3 Scott Dixon 521
4 Scott McLaughlin 510
5 Alex Palou 510
6 Marcus Ericsson 506
7 Pato O’Ward 480
8 Felix Rosenqvist 393
9 Alexander Rossi 381
10 Colton Herta 381

[MonteCristo]

And Herta doing his superlicence chances no good with a season 9= or 10th not adding zero to his SL points.

10th in the standings is a bit unfair to him.

But 6th-8th would be.

[MonteCristo]

Last year Penske was 2nd, 9th and 14th in the standings.

This year 1st, 2nd, 4th. Crazy.

Also, Power out-Dixoned Dixon. Just one win during the year (even Dixon won two!). But 9 podiums out of 17 races.

[Everso Biggyballies]

What I wasnt aware was Alex Palou revealing that he switched chassis before the Laguna Seca weekend. Certain issues in previous races including high tyre deg brought about the change.

“We knew there was something wrong on the car; so we changed tubs for this last race.

“Yeah, you never know what was going on, but yeah, for sure, I was surprised.

“To be honest, we were strong in the Warm Up [fastest] but I didn’t know if we were that strong, especially on consecutive laps.

[Cheeveer]

After all that, and Ericsson still only 6th in the championship, 3rd in his team...

[Everso Biggyballies]

After all that, and Ericsson still only 6th in the championship, 3rd in his team...

Crazy given he had a nigh on 30 point lead at some stage and at the end of the day Dixon did what he does and seemed to squeak one way or the other to finish races with good points. Palou pipped him at the post by winning the last race and scoring a 30 point advantage at Laguna Seca alone to finish 4 points ahead.

I guess the fact Marcus still finished pretty much within a race win (with bonus points) of the title is a good showing.

Its crazy that the top 6 can finish with a win splitting 1st to 6th. F1 the difference last year between 1st and 6th was 235 points (over 9 wins!)

Just shows how competitive it is in Indycar pretty much through the top 8 -10 guys.

Hopefully next year will be more consistent for Marcus.

[MonteCristo]

Ericsson didn't deserve the title.

He only got close because of the double points on offer at the 500, where everyone ahead of him did poorly to mediocre at best (Power 15th, Newgarden 13th, Dixon 21st, McLaughlin 29th, Palou 9th).

[Everso Biggyballies]

Ericsson didn't deserve the title.

He only got close because of the double points on offer at the 500, where everyone ahead of him did poorly to mediocre at best (Power 15th, Newgarden 13th, Dixon 21st, McLaughlin 29th, Palou 9th).

Dont get me wrong I not suggesting his should have. Yes I would like to see ME do well, as I would RoGro or anyone from F1. I have a bias / favouritism to ex F1, (even ex V8SC) drivers who have a crack at Indycar.

I also do enjoy the closeness of the field in the points tally up.... especially given its 50 points per race + bonus for a standard race.
Im not really a fan of double points races though I can understand why Indy would get double. The same as in V8SC Bathurst gets the same points as 2 or 3 shorter racers of a normal Sprint format weekend.


Imagine what F1 would be like at 50 points per race. The top 6 even would be split by hundreds of points.
(Actually I remember one year (2014?) F1 did have a 50 points for the win season closer in Abu Dhabi)

[MonteCristo]

Imagine what F1 would be like at 50 points per race. The top 6 even would be split by hundreds of points.

Heck, first and second would be split by hundreds of points .

[John]

Between the 2021 Detroit Doubleheader and the 2022 Indy 500 Marcus was the highest scoring driver of all. This year he had a semi implosion of sorts, some due to him and the team not getting it done and some down to rotten luck (Grosjean smashing him out of fifth at Nashville). Maybe it was an extended Indy-hangover or maybe the team just melted under the pressure.

All said and done he ended up where he deserved. When the others raised their game towards the end (or Penske, let's be honest) the CGR cars in general and the 8 in particular sort of just....was.

Palou getting a new engine for the last race and cruising to a 30 second win not included in that statement.