Leaders Circle spots, career milestones to track for IndyCar at Nashville

While Will Power, Alex Palou, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing compete for a shot at hoisting the Astor Cup, 25 other cars will be zooming around in their midst – many with other sizable things riding on their performance in IndyCar ’s 2024 season-finale.

Though Rookie of the Year honors (congrats Linus Lundqvist) and the manufacturer championship (hat tip, Chevrolet and Ilmor) have been wrapped up with 206 laps left in the season, there’s a lot more to watch during Sunday afternoon’s race at Nashville Superspeedway (3:30 p.m. ET green flag on NBC) .

From what has become largely a five-team fight for IndyCar’s last four Leaders Circle spots – which each pay roughly $1 million for teams in 2025 – to a series of accolades in reach for Santino Ferrucci and AJ Foyt Racing and drivers still looking for the first oval wins, here’s what to keep an eye on during the 2024 IndyCar finale.

A tense battle at the back for $1 million

Outside the championship, this season-long battle at the back of the grid has been as pivotal as anything teams compete for across an entire IndyCar season. IndyCar’s Leaders Circle program is an annually evolving list of 22 entries, derived from the top 2 points-scoring entries from the previous season among those eligible (this year, meaning Ganassi’s Nos. 8, 9 and 10 entries and the other 22 on the grid). From that pool of 25, the top 22 will each receive just over $1 million in earnings directly from the series next season.

IndyCar points picture: Series championship points standings after Milwaukee Race 2

For weeks now, the first 18 of those spots have been locked-in, but entering the final race of the year, those final four spots are still up-for-grabs, with entries ranked 19th-23rd separated by just 15 points. Barring a colossal upset from Dale Coyne Racing – the owner of the 24th- and 25th-ranked cars at the moment – only one of those aforementioned cars will be on the outside looking in come the checkered flag.

Here’s where those bottom entries currently sit:

19. Juncos Hollinger Racing No. 78: 189 points

20. Meyer Shank Racing No. 66: 187 points

21. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 30: 177 points

22. AJ Foyt Racing No. 41: 175 points

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23. Ed Carpenter Racing No. 20: 174 points

24. Dale Coyne Racing No. 160: 160 points

25. Dale Coyne Racing No. 18: 137 points

Past 10th-place, which receives 20 points, IndyCar’s point system awards one point fewer to each successive position down the finishing order, down to five points for 25th. Cars finishing 26th and 27th also receive five points. But even with that in mind, positions 21st-23rd are separated by just three points, meaning every spot will count for these seven cars on Sunday.

Foyt, Ferrucci on the rise

Ever since he logged four top-10 finishes over his first six starts of the year in AJ Foyt Racing’s No. 14, 2024 has felt like a hallmark season for Ferrucci. And to the surprise of many, the roll hasn’t stopped. What last year was a team and driver that shined on the IMS oval but did little elsewhere, has become a tandem among the best of IndyCar’s midfield .

'This isn't my end goal': Santino Ferrucci eyeing new Foyt deal, even more success in 2025

With solid performances at Nashville, here’s what the driver and team could have within their grasp:

∎ Following a pair of 4th-place finishes across the doubleheader at The Milwaukee Mile, a top 5 for the No. 14 Chevy would give Foyt three straight for the first time since a stretch that spanned the 2001-02 IRL seasons.

∎ A top 10 would mark the 11th for Ferrucci this season, which would be a team record.

∎ A fact Alexander Rossi bluntly mentioned on his podcast last week he sorely hopes to keep at bay, Ferrucci is within 11 points of Rossi in the points. Should the Foyt driver finish enough places ahead of Rossi on Sunday to overtake the Arrow McLaren driver in the championship, a 9th-place points finish would mark the team’s best since 2002, when Airton Dare matched it.

Salvaging a rollercoaster 2024 for Newgarden

A win for Josef Newgarden, IndyCar’s oval master who won at World Wide Technology Raceway last month and who qualified 1st and 2nd at The Mile last weekend, only for disaster to strike twice, would move the Team Penske driver into solo 10th place on the series career wins list. He’s tied with fellow Penske legend Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy.

Another win would also put 9th place (Al Unser Jr., 34 wins) and 8th place (Bobby Unser, 35 wins) squarely in reach for 2025 for the two-time champ and two-time 500 winner.

Milestone wins on the line

Several drivers are looking for their first IndyCar win: Ferrucci, Ganassi’s Marcus Armstrong and Linus Lundqvist and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean and Conor Daly.

A victory on the D-shaped oval 40 minutes outside Nashville would also represent the first oval win for Palou, Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard, Felix Rosenqvist and Rinus VeeKay.

Power, Dixon eyeing keeping streaks intact

Not only is it something that would position Power well for his finale battle with Palou , as well as earn a crucial point for the weekend, a pole for the Team Penske veteran would carry additional significance. On the road to amassing 70 career poles, Power has captured at least one pole in each of the last 15 years, but he’s yet to snag one in 2024.

Eight times this year – in half of the 16 races run – Power has started in the first two rows (4th or better), and in four of those instances, Power qualified 2nd. Missing out Sunday would mark his first season without a pole since 2008 and his second full-time season without one. A winless season a year ago snapped Power’s streak of 16 years with at least one victory.

'Can only blame himself': Palou on Power's spin, wacky Milwaukee race with title lead on the line

One of Power’s contemporaries, six-time champ Scott Dixon, has a streak on the line, too. The Ganassi veteran sits 5th in the championship, 19 points back of 4th-place Colton Herta with as many as 54 points up for grabs. Should Dixon fail to make up that ground to the Andretti Global driver (and also not catch Scott McLaughlin, who’s 32 points ahead in 3rd-place), Dixon would finish outside the top 4 in the championship for just the second time in 19 seasons.

Over that stretch, Dixon has captured five of his six IndyCar titles, finished runner-up three times and taken 3rd in the championship six times.

Herta, McLaughlin chasing career bests

Should they shine Sunday, Herta and McLaughlin have outside shots of moving up in the championship to as high as 2nd-place. They sit 4th and 3rd, respectively, at the moment, with gaps to 2nd-place Power currently 30 and 17 points, respectively.

Both drivers have finished no higher than 3rd in the championship during, with Herta’s personal best coming in 2020 and McLaughlin’s a year ago. Catching Power and finishing behind Palou would mark personal bests.

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Palou, Ganassi could be in a class of their own

For Palou and Power, a championship would be the third, a mark only five other drivers have topped in the history of American open-wheel racing. But there’s additional historic significance on the line for the Ganassi driver, including:

∎ Becoming the first back-to-back series champ in IndyCar since Dario Franchitti, now the driver coach for CGR, strung together three consecutive titles from 2009-11. It’s only happened three other times this century: Sebastien Bourdais’ four-peat in Champ Car (2004-07), Sam Hornish Jr. in the IRL (2001-02) and Gil de Ferran doing the same in CART (2000-01).

∎ Among those drivers who’ve won at least three American open-wheel championships, only Bourdais did so as quickly early in a career. Palou’s would come in his fifth IndyCar season, while Bourdais did so in four, though you could certainly argue that with Bourdais doing so during The Split in Champ Car − and with IndyCar’s fields presently as deep as ever − Palou’s accomplishment is marginally more impressive.

∎ With a top-9 finish, Palou would ensure a championship. Finishing 5th or better at Nashville would be the Spaniard’s 14th such finish this year, the most in a single season since Castroneves recorded 15 in 2008.

∎ We talk about IndyCar being a two-team, top-heavy sport over the last 15 years or so, but when it comes to championships, Chip Ganassi Racing has had no equal. A title for Palou would give his team 11 in the last 17 seasons; Team Penske has grabbed five and Andretti Global just one.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Leaders Circle spots, career milestones to track for IndyCar at Nashville