Beyond the Flag
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2018 IndyCar season in review: The good, the bad and the ugly

By Asher Fair

SONOMA, CA - SEPTEMBER 16: Scott Dixon, driver of the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, celebrates after becoming the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series Champion after the Verizon IndyCar Series Sonoma Grand Prix at Sonoma Raceway on September 16, 2018 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Jonathan Moore/Getty Images)
SONOMA, CA - SEPTEMBER 16: Scott Dixon, driver of the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, celebrates after becoming the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series Champion after the Verizon IndyCar Series Sonoma Grand Prix at Sonoma Raceway on September 16, 2018 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Jonathan Moore/Getty Images) /
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SONOMA, CA – SEPTEMBER 14: Scott Dixon of New Zealand driver of the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
SONOMA, CA – SEPTEMBER 14: Scott Dixon of New Zealand driver of the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

It has already been more than one month since the 2018 IndyCar season ended, but with nearly four months until the 2019 season is scheduled to begin, let’s review the good, the bad and the ugly from 2018.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon won his fifth career IndyCar championship and his third in the last six seasons in the 2018 season to propel him to second place on the all-time championships list behind only seven-time champion A.J. Foyt.

Dixon became the first Honda driver to win the championship since he won his third career championship back in the 2013 season. When he won his fourth career championship in the 2015 season, he drove a Chevrolet-powered car.

Honda drivers, meanwhile, earned 11 victories in the 17-race season, while Chevrolet drivers earned just six. Coming into the 2018 season, a total of 101 races had been contested since Chevrolet re-entered IndyCar in the 2012 season as the second engine manufacturer.

Of those 101 races, Chevrolet drivers won 67 of them while Honda drivers won just 34 of them. From the 2012 season through the 2017 season, the highest amount of victories earned by Honda drivers in a single season was nine (2013), whereas the lowest amount of victories earned by Chevrolet drivers was 10 (2013, 2015 and 2017).

When it was all said and done, the 2018 season ended up being one that few could have predicted. Let’s look back at the good, the bad and the ugly with the season in the books.