AR1 Ranks the Top-10 IndyCar drivers of 2018

Alexander Rossi is the 2018 IndyCar Driver of the Year
Alexander Rossi is the 2018 IndyCar Driver of the Year

The talent level on the 2018 IndyCar grid in 2018 was the highest since the CART IndyCar days, which is unlikely to be surpassed as long as ride-buyers make up the lower 1/3 of the IndyCar grid. However, Week-in and week-out it was hard to predict who would come out victorious, such is the quality of the current crop of drivers and teams in the top 2/3rds of the grid.

While some publications do a subjective ranking of drivers for the year, AutoRacing1.com removed all subjectivity, and based our ranking on pure performance.

All points are awarded based on where you finished in rank for a particular category. For example if two drivers were tied for the most wins, they both received a rank of 1st. Zero points were awarded if your rank was worse than 10th.

Winning at Pocono
Winning at Pocono

We looked at 9 categories of performance, not just your season ending points rank. We don't hand out Driver Of The Year Awards lightly, and we certainly do not want a journalist's opinion to have any bearing on the outcome. It must be based on driver performance in all 9 categories.

In our analysis it is not just about how many points you collected for the year. That is one of the nine categories. But points alone can be based on some luck.

How dominant was a driver in laps led, wins, poles, top-10 and top-5 finishes? How many races did the driver finish, or was he a crasher. We look at all the categories that matter in a drivers overall performance.

Based on this non-subjective analysis, Alexander Rossi, driving the #27 Andretti Autosport NAPA Honda, is AutoRacing1.com's 2018 IndyCar Driver of the Year and Josef Newgarden moves up to 2nd overall. The points champion, Scott Dixon, was the 3rd best IndyCar driver of 2018.

Congratulations Alexander!

2018 IndyCar Driver of the Year Analysis

Best Driver
of 2018
Driver Name Laps
Completed
Race
Wins
Poles Races
Led
Laps
Led
Top-10
Finishes
Top-5
Finishes
Running
at Finish
Points Total
Rank
Points
1 Alexander Rossi 1st 1st 2nd 1st 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st 2nd 85
2 Josef Newgarden 3rd 1st 1st 1st 1st 2nd 6th 1st 5th 78
3 Scott Dixon 2nd 1st 9th 6th 4th 1st 1st 1st 1st 73
4 Will Power 10th 1st 1st 1st 3rd 6th 4th 16th 3rd 59
5 Ryan Hunter-Reay 11th 5th 4th 4th 6th 6th 2nd 11th 4th 46
6 Simon Pagenaud 5th 7th 5th 9th 11th 2nd 9th 5th 6th 40
7 Sebastien Bourdais 14th 6th 4th 6th 7th 10th 7th 8th 7th 33
7 Tie Robert Wickens 20th 7th 4th 5th 5th 8th 5th 20th 10th 33
9 Graham Rahal 9th 7th 5th 8th 12th 5th 11th 11th 8th 24
9 Tie James Hinchcliffe 15th 6th 5th 10th 9th 9th 7th 8th 10th 24
10 Marco Andretti 7th 7th 5th 16th 16th 10th 12th 5th 9th 23

How Points were awarded based on your rank

Rank Points
1st 10
2nd 9
3rd 8
4th 7
5th 6
6th 5
7th 4
8th 3
9th 2
10th 1
11th 0
12th 0
13th 0
14th 0
15th 0
16th 0
17th 0
18th 0
19th 0
20th 0

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