IndyCar Drivers In Autosport's Top 50

Britain’s Autosport magazine has started the New Year (or ended the old year) with a list of the Top 50 drivers in the world. As you can guess the list is comprised of mostly Formula One drivers, but there are a few gentlemen here who race more than one weekend a year on the North American continent.

1. Fernando Alonso
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Sebastien Loeb
4. Kimi Raikkonen
5. Jenson Button

Now, if I was to ask you who was the best driver in the IRL you would probably have a 5-way argument of Hornish, Castroneves, Wheldon, Dixon and Kanaan. That list includes the last four series champions and perennial runner-up who has two wins and a second place at Indy. Autosport was kind enough to give the nod to all of them, although the Iceman was the highest ranked at #13.

13. Scott Dixon
16. Dan Wheldon
19. Sam Hornish Jr
30. Tony Kanaan
32. Helio Castroneves

Bully for Chip Ganassi, who not only employs #13 and #16, but also #22 Juan Pablo Montoya. Also, one other surprise Indycar driver was #34: Marco Andretti! What? I mean, he’s very, very good but I think this is ranking may be involving a heavy dose of potential.

For you Champ Car afficianados, there were only three drivers from the parade series.

17. Sebastien Bourdais
24. AJ Allmendinger
26. Justin Wilson

And for the NASCAR fans out there, the Brits even showed a little love – although it was very little.

29. Jimmie Johnson
35. Tony Stewart
42. Matt Kenseth

These lists are always kinda silly and made for discussion purposes, but it is what it is. I will say that considering all the current to-do about Hornish leaving for NASCAR and Wheldon or Marco going to F1, I wouldn’t be surprised if Dixon was the next IRL driver to make the jump. This list isn’t perfect, but it would appear that Dixon is given top credit because of his near dominance of the few road courses in the IndyCar series. Adding two more road courses in 2007 at Mid-Ohio and Belle Isle, possibly having a third in Biloxi and another in Daytona in 2008 make the Iceman’s future Indycar series championship hopes that much brighter.