2021 Driver Championship - Full 2021 driver standings

1. Alex Palou 549 pts (3 wins)
2. Josef Newgarden 511 pts (2 wins)
3. Pato O'Ward 487 pts (2 wins)
4. Scott Dixon 481 pts (1 win)
5. Colton Herta 455 pts (3 wins)
6. Marcus Ericsson 435 pts (2 wins)
7. Graham Rahal 389 pts (0 wins)
8. Simon Pagenaud 383 pts (0 wins)
9. Will Power 357 pts (1 win)
10. Alexander Rossi 332 pts (0 wins)
11. Takuma Sato 324 pts (0 wins)
12. Rinus VeeKay 308 pts (1 win)

Helio Castroneves is the only other race winner (Indy 500), but only ran a partial schedule of seven races. This year he is racing the full schedule for the first time since 2017.

2022 Rookies

This year has a large group of genuine rookies. (Last year the "rookies" were 7-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, 3-time V8 Supercar champion Scott Mclaughlin, and 10-year F1 veteran Romain Grosjean.)

Kyle Kirkwood - Last year finished P1 in Indy Lights
David Malukas - Last year finished P2 in Indy Lights
Devlin DeFrancesco - Last year finished P6 in Indy Lights
Callum Ilott - Last year entered three IndyCar races and a few GT races, and was an F1 test/reserve driver for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. In 2020 he finished P2 in the F2 championship.
Christian Lundgaard - Last year entered one IndyCar race (P4 in qualy, P12 in race), and finished P12 in the F2 championship. Won two F2 races in 2020 and finished P7 in the championship.
Tatiana Calderón - Last couple of years entered a few races in Super Formula (Japan) and WEC LMP2, and was a test driver for Alfa Romeo F1 team. Also experienced in F2 and F3/GP3, but no good results at the F3 level or higher.

Driver Shuffle

Jimmie Johnson only ran road/street courses in the #48 car for Chip Ganassi last year, with Tony Kanaan running the oval races. This year Jimmie is running the full schedule, pushing Kanaan out, but Kanaan will still race at the Indy 500.

Conor Daly ran only road/street courses in the #20 car for Ed Carpenter last year, with Carpenter running the oval races. This year Daly is running the full schedule, with Carpenter only running the Indy 500 (as of now).

Romain Grosjean moved from Dale Coyne to Andretti.

Jack Harvey moved from Meyer Shank Racing to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Simon Pagenaud was dropped by Penske (who downsized from four cars to three), and joined Meyer Shank Racing.

Hélio Castroneves ran a partial seven-race schedule for Meyer Shank Racing last year, including winning his 4th Indy 500 at 46 years old, but is running the full schedule this year for the first time since 2017.

Takuma Sato was dropped by Rahal Letterman Lanigan and joined Dale Coyne. From Andretti and Rahal (where he won five races, including an Indy 500 for each team), 45 year old Sato is dropping down to lesser teams now and is unlikely to win a third Indy 500.

Sébastien Bourdais was dropped by AJ Foyt and is no longer an IndyCar driver.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe were dropped by Andretti. Hunter-Reay is racing sports cars but wants to get back into IndyCar. Hinchcliffe is now in the broadcast booth.

Max Chilton is out of IndyCar because Carlin Racing is not racing this year.

Ed Jones was dropped from Dale Coyne when the Vasser-Sullivan partnership with Dale Coyne dissolved, and is no longer in IndyCar.

This post was edited on 2/25/22 at 6:00 pm

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Posted by TouchedTheAxeIn82

near the Apple spaceship

Member since Nov 2012

5673 posts

Posted on 2/25/22 at 4:15 pm to TouchedTheAxeIn82

2022 Rule Changes

There are numerous minor adjustments to the rulebook:

https://racer.com/2022/02/24/indycar-rule-changes-of-interest-for-2022/

Highlights:

Race Control now has the ability to disable a lapped driver's push-to-pass button to prevent him from fighting off the leaders of the race trying to get by. They won't interfere with drivers trying to stay on the lead lap or trying to unlap themselves, but if they are already a lap down and in danger of going more than a lap down, they won't be allowed to screw up the race of cars on the lead lap.

In a bit of a shocking change, pit crews are no longer able to push a car exiting the pit box! This seems ridiculous. I've never seen an incident or near-incident caused by pushing the car as it launches from the box. I actually think it's safer to reduce of the chance of stalls, as that can interfere with the rhythm of cars entering and exiting the tight pit boxes.

This post was edited on 2/26/22 at 5:00 am

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Posted by Twenty 49