The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series finished with Simon Pagenaud leading a Team Penske 1-2-3 in the standings. Team Penske, celebrating its 50th anniversary, won 10 of the 16 races, yet missed the prize in the biggest race of the year. The rookie of the year Alexander Rossi sensationally won the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 for Andretti Herta Autosport.
Pagenaud dominates early season
Team Penske’s 50th anniversary got a perfect start in the season-opener at St. Petersburg. The four-car team claimed the first two rows in the qualifying. While the pole sitter Will Power missed the race due to an inner ear infection, Juan Pablo Montoya led Simon Pagenaud in a 1-2 Penske victory.
While the defending champion Scott Dixon won at Phoenix for Chip Ganassi Racing, Pagenaud claimed the points lead with a second-place finish. The Frenchman extended his championship lead by winning the following three races of Long Beach, Barber, and the Indianapolis road course, the last being Penske’s second 1-2 of the season with Hélio Castroneves finishing second.
Rookie Rossi returns Honda to Indy 500 victory lane
If there was any failure in Team Penske’s season, it must be the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 where Will Power finished in 10th place as the top Penske driver. While the Chevrolet-powered teams like Penske had had the better package for the early season’s races on road courses and the short oval of Phoenix, the Honda-powered teams could match and even outperform the Chevys with the speedway kit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports claimed Honda’s first season pole in the Indy 500 qualifying, a year after his serious accident at IMS. However, the leading Honda team in the race was Andretti Autosport.
Even after Ryan Hunter-Reay and Townsend Bell had a pit road incident that dropped them from the victory contention, Andretti had Carlos Muñoz racing against the Chevys of Josef Newgarden and Tony Kanaan in the front. Yet it was a fourth Andretti driver that eventually won the race.
As the race restarted with 34 laps to go, drivers could either save fuel to make it to the finish or bank on a caution to save fuel. While the frontrunners were not saving fuel, the rookie Alexander Rossi who restarted in ninth place was having a fuel-saving run in his Andretti Herta Autosport machine. As the caution never came out, it all came down to if Rossi has saved enough fuel. Crossing the finish line on fumes, Rossi won the 100th Indy 500 by 4.5 seconds to his teammate Muñoz.
Power joins title battle with strong summer
A week after the 500, the series returned to a street course and Chevy returned to victory lane at Detroit. In the first race of the doubleheader, Sébastien Bourdais achieved KVSH Racing’s only season victory while the second race saw Penske’s Will Power winning his first race in over a year, followed by his teammate Pagenaud.
The victory at Detroit started a great run for Power. With a victory at Road America, a second place to Ed Carpenter Racing’s Josef Newgarden at Iowa Speedway, and a victory at streets of Toronto, Power was only 47 points behind Pagenaud while the gap had been 137 points at its biggest after the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Pagenaud achieved an important victory at Mid-Ohio where he led Power in Penske’s fifth 1-2 of the season. Yet in the following race at Pocono, Pagenaud crashed out of the race and Power reduced the gap to 22 points with Team Penske’s only oval victory of the season.
Pagenaud stops Power’s charge in final races
Despite Power’s great form during the summer, Pagenaud was able to outperform him in the last three races of the season. The continuation of the suspended Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway saw probably the greatest finish of the 2016 season, featuring also the championship leader Pagenaud.
James Hinchcliffe was leading the Firestone 600 when it was red-flagged in June. In August he dominated the race until its last laps. Following a caution period, the race finished with an eight-lap shootout where Hinchcliffe, Graham Rahal, and Tony Kanaan were battling wheel-to-wheel for the victory, followed by Pagenaud just behind.
Hinchcliffe was leading the race until the final lap when Graham Rahal made the race-winning pass on him into Turn 3, scoring Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s only season victory. The victory was the second season victory for Honda, and like Rossi’s Indy 500 victory, it came with the speedway kit.
The defending champion Scott Dixon achieved his second season victory as he dominated the Verizon IndyCar Series’ return to Watkins Glen. The title contenders Pagenaud and Power fell from the podium contention after a caution period ruined their strategies.
Power’s title chances suffered a major setback at the Glen as he had contact with Charlie Kimball and crashed out of the race. With a seventh place, Pagenaud extended the lead over Power to 43 points, and Dixon and Castroneves lost their slim mathematical title chances.
The season finale at Sonoma was dominated by Team Penske in a way reminiscent of the season opener at St. Petersburg. Pagenaud lead the team’s top-four lockout in the qualifying while his title rival qualified in fourth place. In the race, Pagenaud was pulling away while Power had made it to second place when a gearbox issue ended his title challenge shortly before the halfway mark.
Pagenaud went on to win the race ahead of Graham Rahal while Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya finished his difficult season with a third place, promoting him into eighth place in the championship. Hélio Castroneves finished the race in seventh place, enough to finish third in the championship by two points to Josef Newgarden.
Newgarden and Rahal top non-Penske drivers, difficult season for Dixon
Josef Newgarden was the top non-Penske driver of 2016, finishing in fourth place, just two points behind the third-placed Hélio Castroneves.
Newgarden achieved his first podium of 2016 in the season’s fourth round at Barber. In the Indy 500, he was the top Chevy qualifier in second place. In the race he was in victory contention in the closing laps, yet couldn’t save fuel enough and was forced to stop like everybody but the race winner Alexander Rossi. Newgarden finished the 500 in third place as the top Chevy driver behind the Andretti Hondas of Rossi and Carlos Muñoz.
Newgarden had a heavy crash in the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway in June, suffering a broken right shoulder and hand. Despite the fractures, he was able to make a comeback two weeks later at Road America without missing a race. Two weeks after that he achieved the only season victory for Ed Carpenter Racing as he dominated the Iowa Corn 300. Newgarden achieved one more podium finish as he finished second at Watkins Glen.
Graham Rahal was the top Honda driver of the season, finishing in fifth place. He achieved his first season podium at Barber after tight racing for victory against Simon Pagenaud. Despite damage from the battle, he was able to bring his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda home in second place.
Rahal’s second podium of the season came two months later at Road America. In August at Texas Motor Speedway, Rahal achieved his only season victory with a last-lap pass on James Hinchcliffe. In the season finale at Sonoma Rahal finished his season with one more podium as he finished in second place.
The four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon had a disappointing season as he tried to defend the title. The start of the season was promising as he won the second round at Phoenix, followed by a second place at Long Beach.
However, Dixon made his next appearance on podium only in July as he finished third at Iowa Speedway. He was dominating the following race at Toronto before a caution period ruined his strategy and he finished in eighth place.
After crashes at Mid-Ohio and Texas, even a flag-to-flag victory at Watkins Glen wasn’t enough for Dixon to stay in the title contention in the final race. A 17th place at Sonoma dropped him from third into sixth place in the standings, his worst Verizon IndyCar Series finish since 2005.
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.