Welcome to my first IndyCar blog!

This will be a site for IndyCar news, predictions, analysis and opinion. My name is Zach Dwyer and I’m a senior journalism student at UW-River Falls. I’ve followed IndyCar for the past couple of seasons and thought it was finally time to put together my love of the sport and passion for writing.

I remember always watching the Indy 500 growing up and can vaguely remember wins from Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti years ago. My interest in the sport really picked up again in 2015 after I started to follow Formula 1 closely. The Iowa Corn 300 from 2015 especially stands out, as I remember Ryan Hunter-Reay battling Josef Newgarden to the flag for a tight victory. Newgarden drove a stunning black and yellow car for CFH Racing that instantly caught my attention. I always have enjoyed having a “guy” to root for in whatever sport I’m watching, so I spent most of the race trying to choose who to support. I’ve never been one to pick a front-runner, so Newgarden seemed like the perfect choice from the new merger of Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. While he didn’t win that day, little did I know there would be many more victories to come.

I paid a bit more attention to the series as the 2016 season began, following the dominance of Simon Pagenaud in the opening races. However, IndyCar gave me one of the most exciting moments in my racing fandom during the Indy 500. Alexander Rossi’s amazing drive from the back of the field to hold on for a heart-pounding victory to coast over the line on no fuel was the type of moment that will live on in the Brickyard’s history. The fact that it was the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500 will only add to the legend as the years go on. I had watched as the American finally made his way to Formula 1 before not having the money to secure a car worthy of his talents. This made it even more rewarding to see him win one of the biggest races in the world in his first race on an oval.

I followed the rest of the 2016 season when I could, taking note of the scary crash when Newgarden’s car was crushed against he wall after Conor Daly spun into him at Texas Motor Speedway. In past decades this crash may have been enough to take his life, but Newgarden bounced back from a broken clavicle and hand to lead 282 of the 300 laps in Iowa only a month later. This solidified his spot as my favorite driver in the series and was the A-list performance that helped him move from being the young star at small-budget Ed Carpenter Racing to the new kid at the dominant Penske team.

By the beginning of the 2017 season I was all-in on the series, blocking out time to watch every race I could. Takuma Sato capped off another thrilling Indy 500, and Fernando Alonso made headlines for months by choosing to skip a Formula 1 race to compete in the Indy 500. However, the story of the year was Newgarden’s quest for a title in his first year at Penske. A dissapointing month of May at Indy gave me doubts after a win at Barber Motorsports Park in April (his favorite track) pushed him into the championship race.

My dad, brother and I were able to attend our first IndyCar race at the beautiful Road America course in Elkhart Lake, Wis. later in June. While we didn’t get tickets for the actual race, attending qualifying day on Saturday was something I’ll never forget. Being able to walk up to the cars and drivers in the paddock is an aspect of Road America that makes it a fan-favorite on the IndyCar calendar. Newgarden started a streak of five out of six top-2 finishes the following day, propelling him to the championship lead after picking up wins at Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Gateway. His frisky move on teammate Pagenaud to take the lead at Gateway was the defining moment in his quest to win his first IndyCar championship.

He made a huge error by spinning out leaving the pit lane at the following race to set up a tense season finale, the double-points race at Sonoma. However, Newgarden masterfully responded with only his second pole position of his career and cruised to a second-place finish to win the title by 13 points.

The 2018 season didn’t see the same success for Newgarden, winning two of the first four races before struggling down the stretch. He did manage to capture four poles, double the amount in his first six seasons combined. Penske-teammate and former champion Will Power won both races at Indianapolis in May, creating a less dramatic victory than the previous two seasons as he finally won his first Indy 500. His face getting out of the car showed how much it means to win at the Brickyard.

Power also claimed his 54th pole of his career in September at Portland, moving him to second all-time behind only Mario Andretti at 67. Scott Dixon ended up winning the title by a whopping 57 points over Rossi, although Rossi showed the pace and guts to have a serious shot at the title in 2019. Dixon’s fifth title puts him in second place all-time, only trailing the great A.J. Foyt with seven titles. His place as one of the greats in IndyCar is all but solidified, but will he be the first repeat champ since Franchitti did it from 2009-2011? Will Rossi pick up his first title, or will one of the Penske trio of Newgarden, Power or Pagenaud claim their second title? Stay tuned to Push2Pass for an exciting 2019 Indycar season.