Out of every storyline that the current roster in the NTT IndyCar Series has, I think the ‘biggest’ one has to be in how deep the roster is.
Of the 26 drivers on tour for a full-time season, about 18 of them – give or take – could be predicted as a top 10 finisher in every race that isn’t the Indianapolis 500.
This is how season’s can end early, and I think we saw a few examples of it today.
The most glaring?
Alexander Rossi, even after leading 10 laps during the race, finished 20th.
“Yeah,” Rossi told IndyCar after the race. “Nothing really went our way. I think our pace was good when we had clean air. I think we had an aggressive strategy. It could have worked. We had some issues in pit lane. We couldn’t get tires on or off. Starting off the year with a 20th isn’t great, so we’ll put this behind us and move on.”
For a driver that is pressured to have a big season in regards to his future in the sport, Rossi surely didn’t want or expect what happened at St. Pete.
Everything, obviously, is somewhat fixable during the first part of the season. A win in the Indy 500 changes things for some teams – Rossi being one of them. That is a testament to his talent at that track.
For others, however, Sunday was an even bigger step in the wrong direction.
Pato O’Ward finished outside of the top 10 in P12. Jack Harvey was behind him while each of his Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammates were ahead.
Two-time champion Josef Newgarden came home 16th.
“Tough weekend on the 2 car,” Newgarden said in a Penske video following the race. “I ended up 16th. It just didn’t pan out our way. We tried a different strategy than most, but it just didn’t seem like the racing gods were shining our way… I think our goal is just to continue to build, get better throughout, and I can’t wait for the next (race) at Texas now.”
For these guys, in a season that includes just 16 more races, this is going to be something they come back to.
The roster in the series is far too deep for poor results. While some are in better spots than others, Texas just got a whole lot bigger for these teams.
Look for the intensity to dial up there, and with three weeks to think about what happened on Sunday, it could get massively interesting on Sunday, March 20.
