The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Season is set to kick-off with the Firestone Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, Florida on March 13th. This year, fans will get treated to a five-week extended season that features three new races at Phoenix, Road America, and Boston.
IndyCar’s 16-race season has seen its popularity rise in the recent years. Television and attendance is up 33 percent over the last two campaigns. ABC and NBCSN will once again cover the open-wheel racing season in 2016. ABC will televise five races, including the historic Indianapolis 500. NBCSN will return for its eighth season and host the 11 other races.
“Overall, the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule is another key step forward in IndyCar’s strategic vision,” said Mark Miles CEO of Hulman & Company the parent of IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “We’re confident that the momentum that IndyCar has experienced in fan engagement over the past two seasons will continue as a result of the tireless efforts of our event promoters and our improved scheduling on ABC and NBCSN.”
The Verizon IndyCar Racing Series boasts some of the most diverse tracks of any racing league. In 2016, it will consist of five permanent road courses, six open street circuits, and five high-speed ovals. Let’s not forget the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29. The Indianapolis 500 is the single highest attended, one day sporting event on the planet.
2015 Verizon IndyCar Series Champion Scott Dixon will once again look to fend off Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya and Will Power. Dixon seems to find himself in the mix year in and year out, so I don’t see why the 2016 season will be any different. The cagey veteran racing for Chip Gnassi Racing should find himself in contention for his fifth IndyCar Series Championship.
It was a disasterous team effort that cost Juan Pablo Montoya a title in the last race of the season in Sonoma, California. Montoya and Penske Racing will look to capitalize on their dominating performances throughout the 2015 campaign and close the deal well before seasons end. Team Penske is hoping that 2016 will bring more cohesion to a group that showed plenty of speed in the new Chevrolet racing packages. Montoya and Power finished second and third in points respectively.
The re-emergence of Graham Rahal should bring plenty of promise to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2016. Rahal won the most exciting race of the year at Auto Club Speedway in the MAVTV 500. For the entirety of the race, the open-wheeled rocket ships went bumper to bumper and side by side at speeds eclipsing 200 miles per hour. NASCAR drivers such as Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr., were raving about the toe to toe racing which brought in thousands of new viewers that day. Rahal had two runner-ups at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama and in the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He finished the season in standings in fourth.
Helio Castroneves finished the season by rounding out the top five. The Penske Racing speedster led his # 3 Shell V Chevrolet to four pole positions during the season. The Brazilian born Castroneves averaged fourth on the starting grid for the 2015 season and raced near the front on a consistent basis. The three-time Indy 500 winner did not find the checkered flag in 2015. It was only the second time in 16 Verizon IndyCar seasons that Castroneves wouldn’t find himself in Victory Lane. His best finish was second at Long Beach, Milwaukee.
Josef Newgarden came into his own in 2015 and expects even more of himself in the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series camapign. The new sheriff in charge for Ed Carpenter Racing will look to build on a season that saw the young budding star capture two road/street course victories at Barber Motorsports Park in April and again in June at the Honda Indy Toronto in Canada. He had nine top 10 finishes and collected one pole. Newgarden finished the season in an impressive 7th in the standings.
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