When we last left the IndyCar series, Dario Franchitti was accepting the series championship from IRL Interim President Jack Arute right before Dario took both the ICS title and his mad driving skills to tin top racing. Little did Mr Judd know that had he remained in the IRL his win total would jump from 8 to 18 without turning another lap, placing him near the record for most wins of any active driver.
The reason is due to fact that as part of the absomergification the IRL "will purchase various non-tangible assets, such as intellectual property and historic records", which means all of those Champ Car accomplishments are now somehow affiliated with the Indy Racing League.
So as a public service My Name Is IRL has painstakingly poured through the (ahem) voluminous records, realizing that Sam Hornish Jr's IndyCar series record of 19 wins is suddenly very much in jeopardy. Here are the adjusted career stats now including both IndyCar and Champ CART races.
18 wins:
Helio Castroneves (176 starts)
13 wins:
Tony Kanaan (174 starts)
Dan Wheldon (80 starts)
11 wins:
Scott Dixon (118 starts)
8 wins:
Bruno Junquiera (105 starts)
4 wins:
Justin Wilson (55 starts)
3 wins:
Buddy Rice (81 starts)
2 wins:
Ryan Hunter-Reay (49 starts)
Will Power (30 starts)
1 win:
Marco Andretti (31 starts)
Oriol Servia (125 starts)
Winless:
Ryan Briscoe (21 starts)
Ed Carpenter (65 starts)
AJ Foyt IV (65 starts)
Darren Manning (60 starts)
Vitor Meira (76 starts)
Hideki Mutoh (1 starts)
Danica Patrick (47 starts)
Graham Rahal (14 starts)
Marty Roth (9 starts)
Startless:
Enrique Bernoldi
Jay Howard
Mario Moreas
Franck Perera
Ernesto Viso
For what it's worth, should Paul Tracy get a ride he's in possession of 31 Champ CART wins, which would far and away make him the IRL's active leader in victories. And I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
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6 hours ago
My memory is horrible. Were any of the Homestead entrants around before the split? As far as I can tell, no, although PT would fall into this group.
Yeah, other than Michael Andretti or Jimmy Vasser doing a one-off, I don't think any of the current IndyCar drivers (or potential drivers) was around pre-split, other than PT. Tracy is the only one that could be called an active driver from the pre-split years.
Oh, and speaking of one-offs, Vasser was on Wind Tunnel last night, and after being prodded into it by Robin Miller, he admitted he'll be in a car for Long Beach. He said Indy in the future was always an interesting idea, but definitely not this year. He did hint that at Long Beach, they were trying to get a few "special guest" drivers, like him, to do the race. So what do you think, does Michael skip Motegi, and let Kim Green handle it, to be in a car at Long Beach? I think bringing back a few such drivers, like Vasser, Andretti, Tracy, Villeneuve, Unser Jr, and Luyendyk would be a real hoot, and would draw a TON of fan interest.
Okay, that sounds like a killer idea. Sort of an All-Star send off. Would love to see it, but alas I will not be holding my breath, like I did for the Hawaii race (http://tinyurl.com/2mnq9t).