In Tour de France terms, the “group of five” is threatening to break away from the Verizon IndyCar Series peloton.
The quintet consists of Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Two Penske drivers in Newgarden and Power. Andretti Autosport teammates in Rossi and Hunter-Reay.
A four-time series champion in points leader Scott Dixon, and one-time titlists in Newgarden, the current defender, Power and Hunter-Reay.
Saturday’s Firestone Fast Six at the Honda Indy Toronto was the series leaderboard in microcosm, with the third Team Penske driver, Simon Pagenaud – who is ninth in driver points – the interloper in the final round of Verizon P1 Award qualifying. Just 32 points separate Dixon and second-place Newgarden entering the race (3 p.m. ET Sunday, NBCSN and Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network), after Newgarden won the pole position.
The gap is just 53 points to fifth-place Power before the continental shelf of realistic title hopes plunges with six races left.
These five figure to watch and assess, motivate and annoy each other every session and every lap until the double-points season finale, the Grand Prix of Sonoma on Sept. 16. And that figures to be entertaining.
And tense. After a qualifying session that flickered between wet, moist and drying conditions, Dixon deemed himself “pissed,” Rossi “disappointed,” Hunter-Reay in “another zip code” at times and Power dissecting a mistake that marred his bid.
Newgarden, understandably, was more chipper about a No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet that “came alive” in practice and qualifying, but understands how short-lived that can prove when everyone begins chasing him around the 1.786-mile temporary street course on Sunday.
“I think Scott is going to be attacking, everyone is going to be attacking behind us,” Newgarden said, “so we've got to attack the whole race, and if we keep it clean, then we should be just fine.”
Everything seemed fine last week, until it didn’t. As Dixon experienced multiple problems in a 12th-place finish at the Iowa Corn 300, what appeared a highly likely victory by Newgarden morphed into a fourth-place finish when he pitted under a late caution for tires and the race finished under yellow. Power finished sixth, Rossi ninth and Hunter-Reay 19th.
“Yeah, it definitely helps,” Dixon said of his pursuers’ collective missed chance. “We had so many issues with the race. We started really loose. Then we had the gearbox issue where it would get stuck in gear for three or four laps and then it would cool off and I could start shifting again. And then we had the (front) tires (put) on the wrong side of the car.
“It was just one of those races where everything was going to happen and it did, and fortunate for ourselves, a lot of the competitors, at least that are pointing in the championship, had a bit of a rough day, too.”
Power, Rossi and Hunter-Reay are no supporting cast. Since winning his first series race as a rookie in the Indianapolis 500 two years ago, Rossi, the only driver in this group without a victory at one of the final venues on the 2018 schedule, has methodically developed into a weekly threat. He won at Long Beach in April, turned a 32nd-place qualifying effort into a fourth-place finish in the Indianapolis 500, was third in the first doubleheader race at Belle Isle and led 46 of 70 laps in the second before locking brakes and sliding off the lead late, ceding a win to Hunter-Reay.
As for the 2012 series champion, Hunter-Reay has finished fifth or better eight times this season, but has been damaged by disaster finishes at Long Beach, the INDYCAR Grand Prix and Iowa amid a litany of technical problems.
Power, tied with Dixon with two wins this season, is racing with house money after winning the Indianapolis 500 for the first time. A second championship would further gild his ever-golden legacy, but this year, with a team that covets Borg-Warner trophies – all 17 of them – is already minted.
But Newgarden’s last-lap pilfering of the Toronto pole from Dixon – who had seemingly engendered a sense of dread in the paddock after leading practice on Friday – was more evidence that he not only has a flare for dramatics, but may be more Dixon-proof than many of his peers. Newgarden, the series wins leader with three, was clearly distressed by the amount of points he lost among the rows of corn last week, but seems well over it now.
And it was Dixon he kept off the champion’s podium at Sonoma last September, even though Dixon – whose reputation for finishing the deal late – entered the finale just three points behind. Granted, Newgarden is doing the chasing this time and has much work left, but the defending Toronto winner seems game for the endeavor.
They all appear to be playing the long game right now.
“There's always a lot on the line,” Dixon said. “I think the competition right now, as I continue to say, is extremely tough. So if you give a little, it's hard to get it back.”