IndyCar Series season is approaching the finish. The next two weekends will define the champion of the prestigious racing series. Before the final stages of the IndyCar series Sergey Bednaruk the commentator of Viasat Sport TV channel estimates the chances of participants and analyzes the results of Mikhail Aleshin ina this season.
This year IndyCar season will finish sooner than ever — the final stage, 500-mile in Fontana track will be held in the last weekend of the summer. And this Sunday, the IndyCar event will happen in in Sonoma.
After the race on the oldest track in the world — «Milwaukee Mile» (competitions are held there since 1903) — six pilots are challenging to win the championship. Australian Will Power, which celebrated the third victory in Milwaukee and increased his lead in the overall standings is on top of the list. Now Team Penske driver is 39 points higher than his main rival — and a partner in the famous team of Captain Roger — Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who won only one race during this championship. However, the championship has still 154 «points» to including double points, which will be awarded after the final 500-mile race. So the struggle between the two Penske drivers is in progress — by the way, neither one nor the other has not yet won the IndyCar championship.
However, Simon Pagenaud Team SPM from France do not lose hope to intervene in the dispute between the two leaders, but the winner of two stages has 92 points less than Power. The fourth line belongs to the best American racer — Ryan Hunter-Reay. Despite three victories in 2014, including the legendary Indy 500 race, the season for the Michael Andretti team driver is passing with difficulties — in Milwaukee he was unable to get to the finish due to technical reasons. Now the 2012 champion has 108 points less than the leader of the championship.
Mathematical chance to become the champion is available for Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya from Penske who returned this year to formulas racing and for last year's champion New Zealander Scott Dixon from Ganassi team. Both had one win this season — Monty won at Pocono oval and the Dixie won in Mid-Ohio road track, breaking forward from the last position. But with a gap of 114 and 130 points, respectively, their chances for the champion title look very misty.
In parallel with the battle for the championship, there is a battle for the best newcomer of the season, which in the IndyCar traditionally has official status. Colombian Carlos Munoz leads newcomer standings and his main rival is Mikhail Aleshin — the first pilot from Russia in more than a century history of «IndyCar» racing. The 2012 Renault World Series champion brilliantly spends his debut season in one of the most challenging and competitive racing championships in the world.
Aleshin, who occupies 15th place in the overall standings, quickly adapted to the specific details of the American racing series, powerful machines and various types of tracks, including ovals, which caussed the greatest concern before the season. In Milwaukee the SMP Racing program driver proved his class once again — he finished in the top ten the fifth time in the season, becoming the eighth and the best among the newcomers. There is also the first podium in Mikhail’s background — Aleshin finished second in the city track in Houston. Of course there were retirements, but the main thing is that everything is in order with the speed.
Mikhail is performing now at the level of his more experienced Sam Schmidt team-mate Simon Pagenaud, who is very interesting for many IndyCar teams. American experts are fond of Mikhail’s success and they already dubbed him «the Mad Russian» — also was called the American racer with Serbian roots Bill Vukovich, who in the 50’s became the IndyCar champion twice. It’s necessary to show good performance during remaining two races — and the debut season can be considered more than successful.
Last IndyCar races in 2014 in a live show at Viasat Sport: 14th stage in Sonoma, see the August 24 00:30 Moscow time, and the final in Fontana — August 31 at 05:30 Moscow time.
