Points they are a changin’

Even with the calamitous outcomes for two of the five drivers in the championship scrum, WWTR didn’t exactly make or ruin the odds for O’Ward, Palou, Newgarden, Dixon, or Ericsson.

A maximum of 162 points can be earned over the last three races, so with Colton Herta holding sixth in the standings with a deficit of 111 points to O’Ward, there’s no real reason to focus on anyone other than those in the top five.

P1: Pato O’Ward (-21 to Palou before WWTR, +10 after, rose one spot)

P2: Alex Palou (+21 points before, -10 after, fell one spot)

P3: Josef Newgarden (-55 points before, closed significantly to -22, rose one spot)

P4: Scott Dixon (-34 points before, increased to -43, fell one spot)

P5: Marcus Ericsson (-62 points before, closed nominally to -60)

Time to shine

When was the last time Chip Ganassi Racing led an event on raw speed with Alex Palou or Scott Dixon? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Marcus Ericsson was quick in Nashville on his way to victory, but we haven’t seen race-winning pace from CGR’s now former championship leader or the six-time title winner in far too long.

And if you’re a fan of Palou or Dixon, that’s a concern as we venture into the last three races where, without the benefit of a comfy lead to manage, there’s no solace to be found in racking up seconds, thirds and fourths. At least for Palou, there hasn’t been a genuine need to win for a long while; with the lead in the standings, desperation has never entered the conversation. Could that change if O’Ward and Newgarden maintain their recent form?

As I wrote after the Indy road course and Palou’s blown engine, he’s mentally tough and spiritually calm, which helps after a night like he had at WWTR, but the people keeping track of the points really don’t care how he deals with adversity. They’ll only care if he earns more points than O’Ward from Portland through Long Beach, and since he’s playing from behind, embracing a higher level of risk – something he’s all but avoided during the 13 opening races – might become a necessity.

An unhappy end to Palou’s trip to WWTR leaves the Spaniard needing to weigh the possibility of taking on a more high-risk, high-reward approach to the final races of the season. Motorsport Images

AMSP and CGR tested at Portland and Laguna Seca — CGR twice in Monterey — so there’s an interesting dynamic to consider there. O’Ward’s been raving about how well the Portland test went, and that should worry the other championship contenders.

It’s not like CGR has held a few tenths of a second in reserve with its top drivers, but all they have to offer in the speed department will be required if they want to reel in O’Ward. Conservatism has no place among the warring engineering groups. It’s game on between AMSP, CGR, and Team Penske, and may the best team win

These aren’t the droids you’re looking for

The only explanation that makes sense is that Rinus VeeKay is a Jedi. With that mind trick he tried to play after taking out Scott Dixon and Alex Palou — and having the balls to paint himself as being blameless in the incident — it’s the only conclusion I’m left to draw.

Kidding aside, he’s young, and wickedly talented, and those items are always in high demand. But if he wants to have a long and successful career in IndyCar, refusing to own up for a big mistake is one way to lose the trust of his rivals and make life unnecessarily hard both on and off the track.

He’s pointed to drivers ahead of him for ‘checking up’ as the root cause of the CGR double whammy. But he was so far behind Ryan Hunter-Reay and Scott Dixon on that restart, there’s no plausible way to say he was the victim of an accordion effect triggered by those two. In fact, he was far enough away from Dixon that he locked his brakes and ran into Palou, who was in the outer lane!

What actually happened? He went too hard into Turn 1 on a restart and bad things occurred. Rather simple, really. It wasn’t intentional, he’s not a bad guy, or a bad driver, and it’s VeeKay’s prerogative, of course, to believe whatever he wants and hold firm to claims about checking up. If it helps to assign blame elsewhere, that’s his right. That right could also come with a cost.

By raising his hand and claiming ownership of the title-altering crash he caused, the affected parties will happily move on. Without that ownership, though, he raises serious concerns within the paddock as to whether he lives in the same universe, and once the better teams and drivers start viewing a member of their group as being delusional, things can get uncomfortable.

Sometimes when the paddock feels the need to police errant behavior, doors close harder and later into corners, lapped cars put up bigger fights, and phone calls placed to bigger teams about vacancies aren’t returned. It’s been that way forever, and certainly isn’t unique or specific to the Dutch prodigy. Without going into details, just know that VeeKay’s don’t-blame-me reaction to what happened on lap 64 — not the accident itself — is what’s become an issue among his peers.

WWTR aside, VeeKay needs a reset more than any other driver in the field during the weeks leading up to Portland. He was running as high as fifth in the championship after the first race at Detroit, and since then, with the cycling crash and missed race to consider, plus four consecutive finishes of 16th, 24th, 24th, and 21st, he’s slid to 11th in the standings.

Counter to the slide, over the first seven races, he had a win, a second, and six visits inside the top 10. We know what an on-form VeeKay looks like. Count me among those hoping for that version of the soon-to-be 21-year-old to appear – with nothing but mended fences – once Portland arrives.

The Golden Bowling Ball Award

After reading the last segment, is there any question as to who won the award no driver wants to win?