Evaluating The Verizon IndyCar Series' Winless Drivers

Twelve of IndyCar’s full-time drivers are winless going into Sunday’s season finale at Sonoma. Who’s most desperate for a win, and who could get it?

Sunday won’t just be the IndyCar season finale, but it’ll be a significant day for a number of winless drivers as the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma will be their last chance to put a victory in their column for 2016.

With the dominance of Team Penske’s championship contenders Simon Pagenaud and Will Power, many of IndyCar’s full-time competitors haven’t seen the top step of the podium this year. Pagenaud and Power have combined for eight of the season’s 15 wins, leaving two for Scott Dixon and five for five other drivers.

Even if someone new wins at Sonoma, Penske will have closed nine of 16 events in 2016, thanks to Juan Pablo Montoya‘s season-opening victory at St. Petersburg.

Given that dominance IndyCar fans would be forgiven for expecting a repeat winner at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday. But which of the winless drivers might be able to shake things up? And who really needs a win to make a statement at the end of their season?

These are the currently winless full-time drivers in IndyCar, listed in order of their current position in the championship points standings:

(Ed Carpenter, currently 25th, is excepted from this list as he will not be competing at the Grand Prix of Sonoma.)

Looking at this list, the drivers fall into a couple of different categories. There are a handful of them that get somewhat of a free pass, because they should have had wins but had things out of their control that took those opportunities away. That includes Ryan Hunter-Reay, who turned into IndyCar’s version of Martin Truex Jr. this season with all his bad luck, and Mikhail Aleshin after his pit lane screw-up at Mid-Ohio. It doesn’t look good that they don’t have wins, but it’s clear that they’ve done everything they could to get one.

There’s a second group of drivers who weren’t necessarily expected to contend for wins, and those would be the rookies Conor Daly and Max Chilton. Not to take anything away from either driver but you can excuse their lack of victories because it’s their first year (sort of the “it’s my first day” excuse for racing drivers).

That leaves eight people that are probably looking worried going into Sonoma: Castroneves, Kanaan, Munoz, Kimball, Hinchcliffe, Andretti, Sato and Hawksworth.

Five of them – Castroneves, Kanaan, Munoz, Sato and Hawksworth – are in contract years, which bumps them right to the top of our list. You can throw in Andretti, too, because while he has a plan for 2017 he’s been winless for years.

Of those six the one who has the best chance at busting into the win column on Sunday is Tony Kanaan. He won at Sonoma back in 2005, and he’s been driving the wheels off the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet all season long. His drive at Texas proved Kanaan has more than still got it, and he just needs some opportunity to fall his way.

Castroneves and Andretti have also won at Sonoma in 2008 and 2006, respectively. But Helio may have his teammates to worry about; yes, the title will go to Penske regardless but that doesn’t mean anyone would be happy if he accidentally dumped Power or Pagenaud and changed the outcome of the championship. (Remember what happened between Power and Montoya last year at Sonoma?)

The two Andretti teammates are probably the most desperate, given how much their team has struggled all season long. A win would mean a lot to the entire organization. Munoz has oodles of talent but has openly admitted he’s struggling with sponsorship, and a victory would certainly help that case, while Marco is well aware of how long people have been expecting him to get back to Victory Lane. At what point does patience run out?

All these drivers are out of the IndyCar championship, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot left to race for on Sunday. There are drivers in contract years looking to add one more line to their resumes, and winless drivers looking to score that one last victory to close out the season. No matter who you root for, everyone has something on the line at Sonoma.

The 2016 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma takes place Sunday, Sept. 18 at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, CA. The race will also be televised at 3:30 p.m. PT/6:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.