2008 Driver Rankings (Finalized)

Here are the Final Driver Rankings for 2008. These rankings relate to top-flight, four-wheel circuit racing series, and do not include motorcycle racing, feeder series, drag racing, or rally racing. I will release a number of other charts through the winter that will incorporate those series as well, but this chart is my primary one and the one I updated each week as the season went on.

In order to be ranked on the main chart, a driver had to run at least half the season. Since NASCAR has tons of guys in this category, I cut it off at the top 35 when I started. Other guys would have made this chart in decent position (A.J. Allmendinger, for instance) but was not in the top 35.

Here's my tentative schedule for future postings:

• Dec. 3: Best of Category
  
• Dec. 4: Full IndyCar, and F1 Charts.
• Dec. 6: NASCAR Charts
  
• Dec. 7: Feeder Series Chart
• Dec. 10: MotoGP, NHRA, and World Rally Championship
• Dec. 14: Overall & Comprehensive Charts (there is a difference, it will be explained then).
• Dec. 17: The only currently running chart, the 08-09 A1GP chart.

The Rankings

Scott Dixon is the #1 Driver on the chart for 2008. With 6 wins and 13 podium finishes in 18 races, it's unsurprising to see him near the top. Helio made for an IndyCar 1-2 thanks to 8 runner-up finishes for the season.

The top 20 is fairly balanced amongst drivers from each of the three series, but the 2nd quarter of the chart is throughly dominated by NASCAR. When inputting the points, it is clear that NASCAR drivers have a difficult time reaching the pinnacle of the chart, but the Chase and almost Chase drivers had really strong stats to make it to the top.

Bringing up the bottom of the list is Force India's Adrian Sutil, who had a major combination of poor qualifying, difficulty finishing races (albeit many were mechanical errors), and failing to score a single bonus point to thank for an 80th place finish. He does have Kimi Raikkonen to blame for preventing him from his shining glory of the '08 season, when he was running 4th late in Monaco when the '07 World Champ clobbered him in the Nouvelle Chicane and knocked Adrian out of the race. Had he finished 4th or even 5th, his season ranking would have been 1.028, enough for 78th place and placing Jaime Camara at the bottom.

A1GP Qualifying @ Sepang

I have enjoyed watching A1GP for a few years. The racing was pretty decent for most of the feature races, and it fills a major void after IndyCar & F1 end their seasons. Having an IndyCar team affiliated with it this year makes it a tad more interesting, although I will miss see the promising Jonathan Summerton in the Team USA car.

Qualifying for A1GP at Sepang was so-so for Team USA, as Marco qualified 12th for the sprint race and 8th for the feature. In the sprint race only the top 8 are scored, so he'll need a great start and a good pitstop to do it. I hope the pitstop rule mixes things up, since the sprint race tends to be very processional with few people trying to do anything that would impact the car in time for the feature.

In other AOWR driver news, Canuck racing for Lebanon Daniel Morad pull a shocking third place for the feature race. His qualifying was otherwise bipolar, with his qualifying time being 18th of 20. Fellow Atlantics Driver David Garza of Mexico did the opposite, qualifying eighth for the sprint and 18th for the feature.

Sprint Race Grid (AOWR Drivers in Bold)

1. Switzerland (Neel Jani)
   
2. France (Loic Duval)
   
3. New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
4. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
   
5. Italy (Edoardo Piscopo)
   
6. Great Britain (Danny Watts)
7. Ireland (Adam Carroll)
   
8. Mexico (David Garza)
9. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
10. India (Narain Karthikeyan)
    
11. South Africa (Adrian Zaugg)
    
12. USA (Marco Andretti)
13. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
14. Australia (John Martin)
15. Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes)
    
16. Monaco (Clivio Piccione)
17. China (Ho Pin Tung)
    
18. Lebanon (Daniel Morad)
    
19. Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto)
    
20. Korea (Jin-Woo Hwang)

Feature Race Grid

1. Ireland (Adam Carroll)
2. Great Britain (Danny Watts)
   
3. Lebanon (Daniel Morad)
4. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
   
5. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
6. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
   
7. India (Narain Karthikeyan)
8. USA (Marco Andretti)
   
9. France (Loic Duval)
10. China (Ho Pin Tung)
11. Monaco (Clivio Piccione)
    
12. Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes)
13. Australia (John Martin)
    
14. Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto)
15. New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
    
16. Switzerland (Neel Jani)
17. South Africa (Adrian Zaugg)
18. Mexico (David Garza)
    
19. Italy (Edoardo Piscopo)
20. Korea (Jin-Woo Hwang)
    

The new "Power Boost" for one lap rule turned everything on its head for this round. If you screw up on the boosted lap for feature qualifying, you will fall way behind like surprisingly Neel Jani did. He had a bad Q4 lap, and got pushed all the way to 16th! This is the series champion who had won three straight poles at Sepang, including the Sprint race.

NASCAR to Kyle Busch: No Test for You!

The F1 test Kyle Busch was given by Toyota has been cancelled by NASCAR.

Because Kyle finished sixth in the Nationwide series in his abbreviated schedule (including a record-tying ten wins), he is being strong armed to the Nationwide awards banquet, which falls at the same of time as the proposed test for Toyota that is in Japan.

In case you were wondering why a NASCAR driver would get such a deal, it is more of a gesture of appreciate for kicking so much butt early in the season than a trial for a ride.

"I don't get to drive the formula one car anymore," said Busch, who did not contest the entire Nationwide calendar this year.
"I have to go to the Nationwide banquet and accept my sixth place awards instead," he confirmed.
"NASCAR took me away from the formula one car."

While NASCAR thinks it's the greatest thing to ever happen to racing, worldwide F1 is king, in spite of its numerous flaws. It's good PR, and would especially be so if Shrub runs competitive lap times.

This decision is one that might hurt NASCAR's relationship with Toyota. That's one I wouldn't want to disrupt. After all, they are the only manufacturer in the series that isn't in financial shambles at the moment. It may be the only one left in a few years for all we know.

Chinese GP Trouble?

Autosport is reporting that the Chinese Grand Prix may be in jeopardy after 2010. Poor ticket sales and sponsorship uncertainty may force F1 to leave Shanghai for the foreseeable future.

Shifting away from GPs with certain audiences (Canada, France) to places that can give a huge fee but lack racing heritage or a hardcore fanbase has lined Bernie's pockets well. There are plenty of problems with these races though. Anyone watching the newer Grands Prix, especially China, Malaysia and Bahrain can tell the attendance is poor. Whatever novelty existed in their inaugural runs has subsided, and as a result fewer fans come out. Combined this with the fact tickets for F1 races are far out of reach for the average person in many of these countries, hopes of bringing new fans to the track are doubtful. While you could argue the demographics of Brazil are similar, consider that Brazil had three native sons on the grid of its Grand Prix, one of whom nearly become World Champion.

Save the Japanese Grand Prix, most of the Asian GPs exist because the organizers have been willing to dish out the money. They are hanging by a thin cord, and in China it looks ready to snap.

From a racing standpoint, I would not be so sad to see the Chinese GP go. Shanghai is yet another Hermann Tilke track with all the things you've come to expect: flat and a long straight leading into a hairpin. It never seemed like the fans that did come were very enthusiastic. The racing was not special either. In the last two years, the only interesting thing that happened was Lewis Hamilton's crash on pit in last year. On a plus side for F1, it would save money for teams to not have to go to China as well (particularly in '09 when it is not bundled with Japan).

My hope is that it causes Formula One to relook at Canada & the US for races in the future. The organizers actually made money on the events, which of course means they have the opportunity to stick around a very long time. Likewise, the brass need to think long and hard about future Asian races planned in India and Korea.

I don't think it will happen, after all this is Formula One we're talking about. Logic and F1 goes as well together sometimes as Alonso and Hamilton.

TCC's Driver Rankings, 2008 Edition

This is a project I've been working on for several weeks now, and I'm ready to unveil it. I have developed a driver ranking system, where drivers from several different series can be compared to one another through a balanced, statistically based manner.

Some of the factors I look at in the rankings:

• Wins
• Second Place finishes
• Third Place finishes
• Finishes in quarter of the field
• Finishes in top half of the field
• Poles
• Front row starts
• Top quarter qualifying
• Top half qualifying
• Fastest Laps
• Leading laps
• Most Laps Led
• Most Positions Gained from start to finish

With these, I average everything based on the number of races each driver ran. There are examples of drivers who ran significantly less races during a season finishing much higher up in rankings (notably, Mark Martin in NASCAR). For qualifying stats, they are averaged against the number of qualifying sessions each driver ran. I did this separate from racing a few weeks in after NASCAR had three weeks in a row with rained out qualifying. Why should I award bonus points to drivers who get handed poles? This also made a heck of a lot of sense when I applied it to a few development series, GP2 and Indy Lights notably, that ran two-race weekends in which one race was determined by the other's finish. Again, finishing eighth in a GP2 race doesn't merit free pole points.

This listing is only the top 15 drivers among three series: Formula One, IndyCar, and NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Top 15

1. Scott Dixon, IndyCar - 28.035

The Iceman cometh at the top of the chart for 2008. Finishing in the top 3 in 13 of 18 races and six poles helped the Kiwi finish in #1.

2. Helio Castroneves, IndyCar - 25.715

The IndyCar Series runner-up is also runner-up here. Although it took him a long time to win some races, Helio had eight second place finishes on the season.

3. Lewis Hamilton, Formula One - 24.722

Hamilton will have to console with just being World Champion, as more parity in F1 held him to third. Like in real life, Hamilton was barely the top F1 guy in these rankings.

4. Felipe Massa, Formula One - 24.306

Massa was barely #2 among Formula One drivers. In fact, going into the Brazilian Grand Prix he was actually ahead of Lewis in the rankings, thanks to more fast laps.

5. Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR - 22.071

While doing the ratings, I've noticed it is very difficult for a NASCAR driver to ascend to the same heights as F1 & IndyCar guys. Jimmie's season has been very solid though and is deserving of a top 5 finish.

6. Kimi Raikkonen, Formula One - 21.444
7. Carl Edwards, NASCAR - 19.863
8. Ryan Briscoe, IndyCar - 19.701
9. Kyle Busch, NASCAR - 19.591
10. Tony Kanaan, IndyCar - 19.181
11. Robert Kubica, Formula One - 16.833
12. Heikki Kovalainen, Formula One - 16.806
13. Dan Wheldon, IndyCar - 16.736
14. Jeff Gordon, NASCAR - 16.063
15. Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR - 15.769

With one race left in the NASCAR season, their drivers are still provisional. I'll be doing a more comprehensive listing soon, after the Homestead race. I also have rankings for feeder series, NHRA, and WRC as part of the need something to do in the offseason activities.

Au revoir, Australia

After a single, contractually obligated showing at Surfers Paradise, the IndyCar Series isn't coming back. While it is a nice street course and a good crowd to boot, I'm not sad to see it go. The direction the IndyCar Series needs to be moving in is a series that is North American based - most of the races in the US with a few in Canada and maybe one in Mexico.

In an economy like the one we're in right now to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on one race seems rather stupid. Motegi survives because the IRL's engine supplier foots the bill, whereas organizers only issued part of the bill for Surfers. My guess would be that only Indy is as expensive for the teams as Australia. But the big difference between these two events is that winning an Indy 500 has a lot of clout. Even non-racing fans know of the 500, and if a general sports fan sees one IndyCar race a year it's probably this one. I hazard to think no sponsor gives two hoots if you won Surfers, but tell them you're a 500 champ and it might be a different story.

One thing though to the IndyCar organizers: find another event or negotiate with ISC to move up Homestead now. While ending a season abroad is a bad scenario, having a four week layoff between the penultimate and final race is just as horrible.

On a good front for Surfers Paradise organizers, they've hooked up with A1GP. With a five year contract with the series, it is a good fit. A1GP has an international focus in its venue, but has had such a fluctuating schedule that it does not have a signature race. With Surfers there is a great opportunity to be that race.

FIA = F***ing Idiots in Automobiles

This whole issue with the standardized engines in Formula One has gotten utterly ridiculous. Yesterday, golden children Ferrari said that if the FIA continues on the path to one, standardized engine, they might leave the series. The FIA's response, "it's not our job to cut costs, it's the teams."

This says to me that the powers that be in Formula One have no clue of how to actually run it. Leaving it up to teams is simply leaving thing status quo, where cutting costs is a game of chicken. It needs a regulatory body to make those changes.

Is a standard engine the right route though? It would kill one of the key distinctions F1 has over the large majority of other racing series: the distinctiveness of it's cars. Re-permitting customer cars is a better option, perhaps with a proviso that no one can own more than one team to prevent some teams from using one as the test subject. Limiting testing would be another way, since that is expensive as well. But to kill the one thing that makes F1 "superior" to most of the rest of the racing world? Madness.

In this cost cutting world, it would also behoove the Bernie & Max Circus to reconsider the global expansion initiative that has become ever present this past decade. Sure as sugar making all these trips to the Middle East and the Pacific Rim aren't cheap, while less costly options just whither away. Certainly trips to Brno, Imola, or the new track in the Algarve would costs millions less in transport than the races in Bahrain or Malaysia. Unfortunately, venue selection has been more focused on how much money Bernie Ecclestone makes from an event than other factors, such as enjoyable racing.

The problem is that these ideas seem to be falling on deaf ears. It may come to a manufacturer exodus that ultimately changes the sport for the better, but being a fan of American Open Wheel that road should be avoided if possible.

A case for new points

ESPN's John Oreovicz just published an article showing how the IndyCar title would have been impacted by different points systems (read it here). I've been doing a lot of thinking about the points system we currently see in IndyCars, and I can't say I'm 100% happy with it.


The case for a different points system:

• It seems kind of silly to reward individuals simply for showing up to races. Since there's only one race a year where the league has to send people home for having too many cars, there is no pressing need to score the bottom of the field like in NASCAR.
• The current points system is hard to follow. A hardcore like me may have memorized the 50-40-32-30-28-26-24-22-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12 to 24th and 10 to 33rd, I hazarded to think someone who casually watches the races can tell you how the points work. I bet though if you asked a casual F1 fan what the points are they can tell you. That's because it's easy to understand.
• Little incentive to push lower than 12th place or so. Let's say, for example, you're on a team like Conquest. You're not likely to finish near the front of the field anytime soon on an oval. More likely, you're in about 15th. What reason do you have to push ahead to 14th? One...measly...point. When the champion is scoring over 500 in a season, the drive for a point is far from lacking.
• Something for the backmarkers to push for. This is kind of point 3B., but watch a series with a finite number of points scorers. While the battle up front may be nonexistent in many F1 races, the battle for 7th or 8th is often pretty exciting. That because everybody fighting in that area of the grid, the Williams, Red Bulls, Toro Rossos, and Toyotas all want to score points. A few measly points can mean a lot of money for both drivers and constructors at the end of the year. Having some great battles towards the middle of the pack might give the broadcasters a reason to shine a light on some of those teams the frequent there: the Conquests, Coynes, and Dreyer & Reinbolds, which in turn may make them more lucrative to sponsors who would otherwise say no since they are never on TV except when they crash.
  

What do I propose the Indy Racing League should do? Bring back the old CART system of 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. It combines all the elements that the points system should have. It rewards the top drivers at a particular race. While the F1 system is too small for the size of the IndyCar fields, this would give anywhere from 40-50% of the field points for the race. If you award points to any more drivers, you run into the problem of seeing people earning points despite crashing out of races - this year's Richmond race has only 12 finishers.

If you apply this system to the 2008 season, 28 drivers (including every regular team) scored points during the year. The only regular drivers who failed to score a point were Marty Roth, Milka Duno, and Jaime Camara. Two out of three of those names probably shouldn't be in the field anyway, so few fans would moan about their lack of points.

I also like the CART system as a way of paying homage to American Open Wheel Racing. It's a way to put the split behind and race again like we did back before it happened.

My Favorite 5 IndyCar races of 2008

Since every race that really counts has been long over, I'm taking a nice look back at what went on in the 2008 IndyCar season. It was definitely a year that tried to push the American Open Wheel sport forward, if for nothing else but unification.

Of the seventeen races this season, these five are the ones that struck me as the most intriguing and exciting. I will not be taking historical significance into account, so don't expect to see Danica's win at Motegi here - the shock of the last three laps is all the was interesting there.

5. Richmond



Was this race a crashfest? A war of attrition? Absolutely. Every once and a while I like seeing these kinds of races to shake things up. The ultimate shakeup though came when Jaime Camara, pitiful at every other start of the season, pushed to the front and took the lead with during a caution. But then, he kept it. Despite having Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti on his tail, he held onto the lead and battled up front in a Conquest. When Camara crashed on lap 217, it was a devastating blow. I only felt so bad when seeing a car all crashed up at Indy when it happened to Sarah Fisher. It's rather unfortunate for Jaime that he was unable to show this kind of form at any other race that season, but it made for some interesting racing.

4. Milwaukee



The Milwaukee Mile was the first race when the gap seemed to close between IRL teams and ex-Champ Car ones. The low banked nature of the Mile gave us the first really great run by an ex-Champ Car guy - Graham Rahal, starting second. While a second year AOWR driver, he acted like a rookie in meeting his race's end by not being patient enough while lapping Darren Manning battling for position.

The day began with the next-gen front row of Marco and Graham, but it was a guy starting 11th who took the cake. Ryan Briscoe's job looked to be in jeopardy, being 18th after Indy in a Penske. This race probably saved his career, and his drive was a strong one. His car looked good coming through the field all the way to the front. He even got a little bit of luck from the racing gods, narrowly avoiding the Marco-Ed-Vitor crash.

3. Texas



While what passed for coverage from the "Worldwide Leader" was horrendous, it failed to diminish what was a good Texas race. There was a lot of nice side-by-side action (and not just because Briscoe was holding up the high line) that I've come to expect at Texas Motor Speedway. The finish was unfortunately muted due to the Marco-RHR crash near the end that cost them each a wonderful finish, causing the race to end under yellow. Still, being under the lights at Texas is one of the best things IndyCars have to offer.

2. Chicagoland



The last two races at Chicagoland have produced classic finishes. Both times, Scott Dixon failed to win, although this time he had just enough to win the war for the championship. It had all the elements of a great IRL race: tight packs, side by side racing (even if the result of team blocking), and a guy coming from the back of the pack. Helio drove a hell of a race, and pulled out a great pass right at the finish. I knew from first glance he had one, no matter what the transponder said.

1. Watkins Glen



It may have looked like this countdown would be without a right turner, but the fact is that IndyCar doesn't go to that many of great quality. While the Glen may be passed its prime as much as Mid-Ohio is, it still managed to put on a show. This is a rare race of the season that is defined by an accident. Maybe you could say that about Homestead (TK would have won if not for Viso's crash), but certainly Scott Dixon plowing into the rear end of Ryan Briscoe's car altered this race. It took out the big timers, leaving two guys looking for win #1: In one car, Darren Manning, many years in IndyCar and driving for a drought ridden AJ Foyt team. The other, Ryan Hunter-Reay, twice a winner in Champ Cars but has not gotten there in the IRL. Manning got to the front thanks to going off sequence (which they did at just about every road/street race they didn't qualify well for), while RHR qualified third. With nine laps remaining, Hunter-Reay set up a nice pass on Manning going into turn 1 to take the lead. He milked out the advantage to win.

It was great to see Rahal Letterman back in the winner's circle again. The series has been so dominated by Ganassi, Penske, and Andretti Green that any win outside that group is more than welcomed.