IndyCar's Parity On Display This Season
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Parity? There's parity in IndyCar?
Although drivers from Andretti and Penske are tied for the IndyCar Series points lead, it's the small teams that are currently dominating the competition. Last weekend in Belle Isle was almost surreal as Mike Conway led the way for Dale Coyne Racing, which put two cars on the podium Saturday, and then team owner Sam Schmidt scored his first career IndyCar victory Sunday behind Simon Pagenaud. The strong showing from the little guys came on the heels of Tony Kanaan's victory in the Indianapolis 500, the first official win for KV Racing Technology and the second time in three years a small team has won "The Greatest Spectacle In Racing." Bryan Herta Autosport won the race in 2011 with Dan Wheldon.
The win was huge for KV Racing: It led to primary sponsorship from Sunoco, in association with the Dreamworks animated movie "Turbo," for the four remaining unsold races on Kanaan's car. Filling the inventory means the team can complete the season without financial stress. All told, there have been six different winners in seven IndyCar races this season and none of them drive for mighty Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske. Although Andretti Autosport has three wins, two of them belong to James Hinchcliffe, who scored his first career victory in the season-opener at St. Pete and passed Takuma Sato in the final turn at Brazil last month for his second win.
And Sato? Why, he gave AJ Foyt Racing its first win since 2002 when he won at Long Beach in April. What's up is now down in IndyCar, which heads to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend for a Saturday night race where road-and-street course ace Justin Wilson is the defending winner.
"We never know who is going to be on top each weekend," said Pagenaud, who scored his first IndyCar win Sunday to take Schmidt, the winningest team owner in Indy Lights, to Victory Lane in the big league.
"It's great to see what IndyCar has been able to provide, a product that's helping every team to be able to be competitive," Pagenaud said. "There's a lot of smart people in every team right now. It's about who's going to be the smartest every weekend. But it's certainly very, very competitive, very difficult to pick a winner every race."
What's most impressive about this surge from the small teams is that they are doing it with smaller budgets and fewer personnel at a time when the IndyCar schedule is pushing everyone to their limits. The Indianapolis 500 is a grueling event in itself that begins days after the cars are shipped back from Brazil. There was no rest at all before the teams moved on to Detroit for the first doubleheader in series history, and now it's off to Texas.
"I've now been away from my home for four weeks straight. I'm living it every day with the crew," Schmidt said after Detroit. "The 48-hour turnaround after Indy, literally 48 hours they left our shop for moving (to Detroit). We're all pushing the same direction. Nobody had their heads down. They knew what they had to do and they got it done. Kudos to the drivers for keeping the cars in one piece. That made life easier. But the next three or four weeks is not going to be easy."
Nobody knows how long this streak will last, and it's implausible to think Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Will Power and Helio Castroneves will be kept out of Victory Lane much longer. But the start of the season has been entertaining and healthy for IndyCar.
By Jenna Fryer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
