IndyCar title hopefuls will hit the gas in final three races
To feel comfortable heading into the Verizon IndyCar Series finale at the end of the month, Helio Castroneves says he needs a 75-point lead. With three races remaining and trailing by four points, he acknowledges the goal is hopelessly ambitious.
But the guy who's right behind him in the standings agrees with Castroneves' math.
"It can be a huge swing in that last race, so I agree with Helio that you would have to have a nearly insurmountable lead to feel comfortable going into the last race," Ryan Hunter-Reay told Paste BN Sports. "I just know that we need to go out and get some top results in the last three races. In my eyes, there's still time to make up 65 points."
Castroneves' Team Penske teammate, Will Power, holds a four-point lead heading into Sunday's ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at The Milwaukee Mile, which kicks off a frantic three-race run to the end of the 2014 season. The series moves to Sonoma Raceway on Aug. 24.
So how could a driver make up that much of a deficit that fast? The season finale — the MAVTV 500 on Aug. 30 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. — offers twice the usual points: 100 for the winner instead of the usual 50.
So even a 75-point lead heading into the last race might not be enough.
"You don't have an opportunity to play it safe now," Castroneves told Paste BN Sports. "All of us have to continue to push, but at the same time we have to stay out of trouble. We all have to (drive) aggressive but clean. That's my mentality at this point. We all have the same goal, and that's to win the last three races."
Power, who finished second in the championship in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and was fourth last year, said the change in the points structure — drivers also were rewarded double points this year in the Indianapolis 500 and at a 500-mile race in July at Pocono Raceway — hasn't altered his strategy.
"I don't think it changes the approach," he said. "It just makes it a pretty open race. There could be four or more people with a chance to win the championship by the time we get to Fontana. That could be a good thing, and it could be a bad thing."
Following Power, Castroneves and Hunter-Reay in the standings heading to Milwaukee are Simon Pagenaud (one point behind Hunter-Reay in fourth), Juan Pablo Montoya (37 points behind Pagenaud in fifth) and defending series titlist Scott Dixon, who won the most recent race Aug. 3 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and is seven points behind Montoya in sixth.
Power has the best record during the last five years at the three remaining venues, but Hunter-Reay has won the last two races at Milwaukee and hopes a win this weekend will propel him into position to strike in the final two races.
"It's been a great track for us, and it's one of my favorites," Hunter-Reay said. "But it can bite you quickly. When you get it right, it rewards you, but it's going to be a fight to the end. I don't expect to go in there and set the pace and lead from start to finish. It's a tough track."
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