Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves (photo from USA Today/Gannett)
The Izod Indycar Driver’s Championship comes down to the last race of the year once again. Tonight’s MAVTV sponsored 500-miler from the 2 mile D-oval in Fontana, California will determine whether Scott Dixon can hang on for his third Indycar Championship or Helio Castroneves can recover from late season woes to claim his first. Despite the fact that Chip Ganassi’s Dixon has won four races this season to Penske driver Castroneves’ one, a mere 25 points separates them. And the Penske cars’ Chevy engines seem to have the flat out speed this weekend with a 1st-2nd-3rd lockout in Qualifying (Power, Castroneves*, Allmendinger), as well as the comfort level at Fontana having tested there frequently. But the Honda-powered Ganassi cars might have the advantage on gas mileage even with Dixon starting 7th*, so look for a very interesting strategic race to unfold so long as both contenders can avoid crashing out early on this notoriously slippery and windy circuit.
As you might have noticed with that Qualy result, Penske has added a third car to help their Brazilian ace try to win, with hot shoe A.J. Allmendinger joining Aussie Will Power and hoping to recreate his superb Indy 500 run. Power, too, has been excellent in the latter part of the season and he will be hoping to erase memories of last year’s early race wipe out at Fontana, which led to yet another heartbreaking fumble of the championship and gifted it to American Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Andretti’s Hunter-Reay will not be a repeat champ, of course, as he has been plagued by reliability issues and bad luck all season long and is mired in 6th in the points.
Whereas Castroneves has extra allies in this final race, Dixon will have to overcome the significant loss of his longtime teammate Dario Franchitti as his wingman. The 4-time champ is out with back and ankle fractures after a horror crash in the second race at Houston two weeks ago catapulted him into the catch fencing. Former Barracuda driver Alex Tagliani will try to do his best to replace the irreplaceable Scotsman.
Castroneves also had a weekend to forget in Houston, if nothing so frightening as what happened to Franchitti. The Brazilian was plagued by gearbox issues in both races, which enabled Dixon to leapfrog him in the points when the Kiwi won the first race on Saturday and placed second to Power on Sunday. It’s a sure thing that Helio will have as many good luck charms as he can fit in the tight cockpit of his super safe Dellara DW12 chassis to ward off reliability issues so that he can take the fight to Dixon for all the marbles.
Race coverage from Fontana begins at 8 Eastern and here in the States it will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network.
May the best driver and team win!
*Note that due to 10-grid spot penalties for engine changes, the actual starting positions were Castroneves at 12th and Dixon at 17th.