Rossi and Daly lead the rookies
After being left with no seat in Formula One, Alexander Rossi headed to Andretti Herta Autosport for the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Although that was a Plan B for Rossi, it led to his biggest victory at the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 which he won on fuel mileage.
Rossi didn’t impress early in the season. It was only before the 500 when he achieved his first top-10 result, a 10th place in the fifth race at the IMS road course. Yet he showed competitive pace alongside his Andretti teammates in the practice for the 500.
The Indy 500 victory was Rossi’s only podium finish of the season, however he had some good results in the second half of the season. Sixth at Iowa Speedway was his best result after the Indy 500. At Pocono he was even leading the race before a crash on pit road with Hélio Castroneves. Rossi finished the season with two good results; an eighth place at Watkins Glen and a fifth place at Sonoma which was his second-best finish of the season. In the final standings Rossi was 11th, just two points behind the top Andretti driver Carlos Muñoz.
Conor Daly was another rookie with impressive performances. Although he often qualified in the rear of the field, the strategies of Dale Coyne Racing put him in the front in multiple occasions. Whenever Daly got into the front, he showed the pace to stay there, like in the caution-interrupted first race of Detroit where Daly achieved his best result with a second place. While Daly was only 18th in the championship and didn’t win a race like Rossi did, his five top-six finishes outnumbered Rossi’s three.
Penske domination hides Chevy vs. Honda parity
2016 was the second season with manufacturer-specific aero kits. After the disparity of 2015, Honda was given exemptions on development restrictions, in order to cut the gap to Chevrolet on road and street courses as well as on short ovals. Despite that, Honda’s two victories in 2016 came from speedways where it had the superior package; Chevy’s only speedway victory was by Will Power at Pocono where he was followed by Mikhail Aleshin in a Honda-powered SPM car.
Although Chevrolet won 14 of the 16 races on its way to a fifth consecutive manufacturer championship, Team Penske may have been a big factor in that feat. Behind three Penske drivers, Josef Newgarden was the only Chevy driver beating the top Honda driver Graham Rahal in the championship. The fifth-placed Rahal even beat the defending champion Scott Dixon in a Ganassi Chevy. Besides, in 10 of the 16 races a Honda-powered car was the best non-Penske car. While the big ovals were Honda’s strength, the short ovals of Phoenix and Iowa were a weakness. Yet on road courses, the Honda-powered cars performed close to non-Penske Chevys.
