Can you believe that the NTT IndyCar Series will be on track at St. Pete in just 10 short days? Where has the winter gone?
Yeah, I’m kidding. It’s freezing cold, and it’s been 156 days since the last race. In all honestly, it’s sucked.
But, the off-season is behind us now. The cars are testing in Sebring today, and will be hitting the streets of St. Pete next week. Thankfully.
Before we start with that, let’s take a look back to last year. If you ever followed me on my old blog, 15 Days in May, you would know that I would often give out end-of-season awards. So, in honor of a lot of fresh starts happening — you’ll learn more about that over the next couple of weeks — let’s run them back.
The envelopes please.
Most Valuable Driver
Alex Palou.
That’s kind of an easy one. While he wasn’t as dominant as he was in 2023, where he never finished worse than P8 and clinched the championship before the final weekend, he won twice (plus the exhibition race at Thermal Club) and had seven overall podium finishes.
That was good enough to win his second consecutive title, third series championship in four years, which puts him sixth all-time in terms of series championships. Should he get it done again in 2025, he moves into a tie with Mario Andretti, Sebastien Bourdais and Dario Franchitti for third all time.
Having three championships at 27 is a big deal, but, and I’m saying this with Palou as my favorite driver, it is only going to get harder from here. The competition in this series is crazy, but it’s only going to get better as guys like Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta continue figuring things out and approaching their primes, and Scott McLaughlin turning into the best overall driver in the series.
Speaking of Scotty…
Driver of the Year
Scott McLaughlin.
As a fan of stick-and-ball sports, I feel like these two categories have distinct meanings. It’s like three years ago in Major League Baseball: Aaron Judge was the Most Valuable Player because he had a monster season and led his team into the American League Championship Series.
He was valuable, but Shohei Otahni was the best player in the league thanks to what he did at both the plate and the mound.
So it goes here. To the victors go the spoils.
That’s what’s crazy. McLaughlin finished third in points even after being disqualified from his third-place finish at St. Pete. Add the points he would’ve won to his docket, and he ties Palou in points and wins the championship based on his three overall wins.
He was that close.
I’m calling McLaughlin as my favorite to win the 2025 championship, and here’s why: he’s turned into one of the best all-around drivers in the series.
Last year he won on a natural road course (Alabama) while winning at Iowa and Milwaukee, two short ovals. He won the pole and finished sixth at the Indy 500, by far his best result ever at IMS, and was on the podium at Road America, Mid-Ohio and Gateway, three distinctly different tracks.
He fixed whatever ailed him at Indy, and now the only thing he last left to conquer is street courses, which for the most part outside of St. Pete have been a struggle.
But he’s finished P4, P3 and P3 in the standings the last few years. The next step is coming.
Most Improved Driver(s)
Colton Herta.
Say what?
Yes, he’s good, and he’s been good for a while, but stay with me. Other than the shortened 2020 season and last year, when had he contended for a championship?
That’s the point I’m making. Before finishing P2 in the standings last year, he had gone P10 in 2022-23, and between Andretti Autosport being a dog for a while and some bad luck, he’d had some lean times for someone with his prodigious talent.
Last year it finally came together — for the most part. He won his first-ever oval race at the finale in Nashville, while also winning at Toronto and adding 10 top 5 finishes. The talent was always there, but the consistency wasn’t.
It seems like Herta is starting to understand the “big picture” that it takes to win championships. That’s a big step to winning one.
Craziest Season
Pato O’Ward.
Could it be anyone else? Pato’s season was one where everything went right, or almost did, but everything went wrong, too.
First, the highlights. He won three times and finished second three times, including at Indy where it took an otherworldly pass from Josef Newgarden to beat him.
Then, there are the other 11 races on the schedule, where he never finished better than sixth and finished 15th or worse six times.
Pato has finished in the top 5 in points four of the last five seasons, but the consistency needed to win a championship, especially over the last three years, has been lacking. He’s the most exciting guy out there, and I happily pay money to watch him race, but like Herta, he has to figure out what all it takes to win the Astor Cup.
Don’t worry, he’ll get there.
Black Hat Award
Josef Newgarden.
Outside of maybe Augustin Canapino, has there ever been a faster heel turn than what Newgarden experienced in 2024?
Part of it, of course, was his own undoing. He and his team handled the disqualification at St. Pete in the worst way possible. Maybe he was in an impossible spot, I don’t know, but his constant attempts at washing over what happened made him look really bad, especially given the way McLaughlin handled it, taking responsibility and just moving on.
Then, at Indy, he (and I’m saying this only half-seriously) makes the massive mistake of passing the most popular driver in the series with two turns to go to win for the second straight time.
Along with that, it seems like a rift happened with teammate McLaughlin, he unfollowed everyone on social media in a claim that he needed to be more focused, and has kind of become a bland, more corporate version of himself.
I attest that to realizing that at this point in his life that he is realizing that he could build a legacy in IndyCar that will last long after he has departed this earth, but still…dude, find a happy medium.
Do you even like doing this anymore?
Maybe he doesn’t care about how he is perceived, and to that I say, good for him. But, his downfall over the last couple of years has been crazy to watch.
Race of the Year
Duh.
Of course it’s the Indy 500.
Forget about the finish for a second and think about how it may have been the weirdest day in 500 history. First there was the rain delay, then the race got started at 4:44 p.m. with the mandate that it would be flagged at 8:15.
Thankfully, the race took just two hours, 58 minutes to finish, and even better, there were no bullshit red flags like there were in 2023. In fact, the final 112 miles were run caution-free.
And, after all of that, we got an incredible finish. Relive it if you want, or skip ahead if you don’t.
Almost half of the field was credited with leading a lap, and all of the top 5 finished within 1.5 seconds of each other. That’s what championship-level races are supposed to be like.
Of course, if you were at IMS in April for the eclipse, you might argue the 500 was the second-best thing to happen there in 2024. Seeing that at the greatest racetrack in the world was definitely a highlight of the year for me.
There is a lot to look forward to in 2025, so check back next week when I unleash my predictions on the world.
Your INDYCAR Experience 