In a thrilling 2022 IndyCar season, Will Power was crowned champion for the second time 🏆 But who starred and who struggled? 🤔 ✍️ DavidMalsher puts together his top 10 IndyCar drivers of the year ⬇️
Let’s start with those who didn’t make our top 10. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s midseason revival resulted in Graham Rahal progressing from contending for top 10s to fighting for top fives while rookie Christian Lundgaard was able to earn spots in the Firestone Fast Six and claim a runner-up finish in the IMS road course’s second race.
Another driver worthy of mention in the nearly-but-not-quite category is Lundgaard’s rookie of the year rival David Malukas. After a self-admittedly shaky start for the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports racer, the 2021 Indy Lights runner-up barely stopped impressing and outshone veteran teammate Takuma Sato more often than not. He looks set to be a star.
He was hugely unlucky too. He and O’Ward could have scored an AMSP 1-2 at Mid-Ohio, maybe with Rosenqvist ahead having opted for a different tyre strategy, but both cars failed. A couple of rounds later, Felix had pole in the second IMS road course race, but a dragging brake on raceday left him unable to fend off his rivals and he eventually limped home ninth.
O’Ward’s race to second in the Indy 500 was quite brilliant but he tarnished it by unsubtly laying his defeat at the feet of Chevrolet. Consequently, his mechanical DNFs at Road America and Mid-Ohio didn’t elicit the same sympathy as they might have done. Whatever the reasoning, Portland gave McLaughlin another chance to he cannot be ruffled by a pursuing rival – a talent that will serve him well in the years ahead.Photo by: Phillip Abbott /What a difference a year makes. Palou went from being everyone’s second favourite driver, with an apparently magical ability to avoid trouble and crush his rivals with his consistency, to becoming someone of questionable judgment off-track and no noticeable progress on it.
Yet somehow Palou has landed on his feet; by remaining at Ganassi, he now has a top-rank IndyCar ride and he’s got an F1 test opportunity with McLaren. Given his huge talent, Alex could well make the most of both drives in 2023, but whether on-track success is enough to enable everyone to forgive his off-track imprudence in 2022 is yet to be seen.
It’s been written here before that in 2021 Alex Palou set the template for how to win the IndyCar war, with eight podiums and an average finish of 7.3, but Power took that to the next level this year with nine top-threes and an average finish of 5.9.
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