This is it. After 16 races, 14 tracks and over 3,200 miles of racing, the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series championship comes down to one last ride.
Five drivers remain eligible for the Astor Cup with one race remaining: the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, held over 95 laps of the historic 11-turn, 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca just outside Monterey, California.
Laguna Seca returns as the site of the season finale after pandemic concerns bumped the streets of Long Beach to the deciding role in 2021. California’s most famous permanent road course is no stranger to holding the title decider: it was the CART finale from 1983 to 1996, and in that role gave us arguably the most spectacular moment in American open-wheel road racing, Alex Zanardi’s last-second move on Bryan Herta in the Corkscrew that has come to be known simply as “The Pass.”
25 years later, it’s simply called “The Pass.”
Check out Alex Zanardi’s move on Bryan Herta in the Corkscrew to win at @WeatherTechRcwy Laguna Seca. #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/jGGoGASTsI
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 16, 2021
Who To Watch:
Hoping to finish one spot better than his father did 26 years ago, Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta is already having one heck of a week. On top of serious buzz linking the 22-year-old Californian to an AlphaTauri Formula 1 seat in 2023, Herta is the only driver to win at Laguna Seca since it returned to the IndyCar schedule in 2019, and enters the weekend the obvious favorite for the race win.
Unfortunately, he can finish no better than eighth in the championship standings after a year plagued by inconsistencies, and at any point the FIA could decide to deny him a Super License, crushing his F1 dreams for the time being. Still, the smart money is on Herta this weekend.
With a 20-point advantage over (joint) second place, Team Penske’s Will Power is likewise a strong pick to earn his second IndyCar title. However, no Penske driver finished better than seventh in this race last year, and while the Penske squad recovered from last year’s poor Portland showing to dominate that race this year, they will have to do so without the benefit of a mid-season test at the track. Josef Newgarden, ranked second, is in a similar boat.
Only one more race to go.
This is the 17th consecutive season the championship will be decided at the season finale.#INDYCAR // #DEFYEVERYTHING pic.twitter.com/MHk8aMGfTz
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) September 5,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…