The winners and losers in IndyCar 2021 – Mid-season review

By:

David Malsher-Lopez

Jun 18, 2021, 3:07 PM

At the halfway point in the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season, we've had seven winners in eight races, spread between five teams – none of them Team Penske. In this unusual season, even by IndyCar standards, who’s excelling and who’s dragging their heels? David Malsher-Lopez reports.

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Patricio O'Ward leads the IndyCar points standings after becoming the first double winner of the season with a late charge to victory on the streets of Detroit last weekend.

The Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet driver is one of four drivers who have made their first trips to victory lane this year – Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda twins Alex Palou (at Barber) and Marcus Ericsson (at Detroit) and Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet's Rinus VeeKay (the Indianapolis Grand Prix) also making triumphant breakthroughs – while Helio Castroneves' record-equalling fourth Indianapolis 500 victory on his only appearance of the season to date with Meyer Shank Racing came four years after his previous series win at Iowa in 2017.

David Malsher-Lopez

David Malsher-Lopez is Motorsport.com’s U.S. editor, covering the NTT IndyCar Series and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Since completing journalism college in 1994, he has worked for Autosport, TRMG, Motor Sport, Autosport (again) and Racer, before joining Motorsport.com in 2015… where he has found himself enjoying a third spell writing for Autosport. Over the course of those 27 years, he has served as a journalist, sub-editor, features editor, deputy editor and editor. In 2015, he also wrote Will Power’s biography. David lives with his wife Sophia in California and when not writing about racing, he will be found reading about planes and classic cars, attending airshows, listening to a wide variety of music or watching cop shows from the ’70s. He intends to one day own a grand piano, an Airedale terrier and a vintage Pontiac. He doesn’t do Facebook and doesn’t understand Instagram but can be found @DavidMalsher on Twitter.