2016 IndyCar season
Verizon IndyCar Series
Season
Races	16
Start date	March 13
End date	September 17
Awards
Drivers' champion	Simon Pagenaud
Manufacturers' Cup	Chevrolet
Rookie of the Year	Alexander Rossi
Indianapolis 500 winner	Alexander Rossi
←  2015 2017 →

Simon Pagenaud (left) won his first Drivers' Championship while Will Power (right) finished second in the championship.

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series was the 21st season of the IndyCar Series and the 105th season of American open wheel racing. It included the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. Scott Dixon entered as the reigning Drivers' Champion, while Chevrolet entered the season as the reigning Manufacturer's Champion. Upon season's end, Simon Pagenaud was crowned Drivers' Champion, while Chevrolet retained the Manufacturer's Championship.

Pagenaud was the first European driver to win IndyCar Series driver's title since British driver Dario Franchitti in 2011 season.

Entries

The following teams, entries, and drivers have been announced to compete in the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season. All teams will use a spec Dallara DW12 chassis with manufacturer aero kits and Firestone tires.

Team	Engine	No.	Driver(s)	Rounds
A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	14	Takuma Sato [1]	All
		35	Alex Tagliani [2]	5–6
		41	Jack Hawksworth [1]	All
Andretti Autosport	Honda	26	Carlos Muñoz [3]	All
		27	Marco Andretti	All
		28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	All
		29	Townsend Bell	6
Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian		98	Alexander Rossi  R  [4]	All
Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	8	Max Chilton  R  [5]	All
		9	Scott Dixon	All
		10	Tony Kanaan	All
		83	Charlie Kimball	All
Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	18	Conor Daly  R  [6]	All
		19	Luca Filippi [7]	1–4, 11
			Gabby Chaves	5–10, 14
			R. C. Enerson  R	12, 15-16
			Pippa Mann	13
		63		6
Dale Coyne / Jonathan Byrd's Racing		88	Bryan Clauson	6
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet	24	Sage Karam [8]	6
Ed Carpenter Racing [9]	Chevrolet	6	J. R. Hildebrand	5–6
		20	Ed Carpenter	2, 6, 10, 13–14
			Spencer Pigot  R	7–9, 11–12, 15–16
		21	Josef Newgarden [9]	All
KVSH Racing	Chevrolet	11	Sébastien Bourdais [10]	All
		25	Stefan Wilson  R	6
Pirtek Team Murray		61	Matthew Brabham  R  [11] [N 1]	5–6
Lazier Burns Racing [12]	Chevrolet	4	Buddy Lazier	6
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	15	Graham Rahal	All
		16	Spencer Pigot  R  [13]	1, 5–6
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	5	James Hinchcliffe	All
		7	Mikhail Aleshin [14]	All
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Marotti Autosport		77	Oriol Servià	6
Team Penske	Chevrolet	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	All
		3	Hélio Castroneves	All
		12	Oriol Servià [15] [16]	1
			Will Power	All [N 2]
		22	Simon Pagenaud	All

Notes

• Bryan Clauson ran the Indianapolis 500 for the 3rd and final time for Jonathan Byrd's Racing. Clauson would attempt to race in more than 200 races in 2016 among IndyCar, sprint cars and midgets but would tragically fall short of that because on August 6, 2016, Clauson was involved in a midget car crash at Belleville High Banks Speedway in Belleville, Kansas, and died the following night. ^[17]
• Ryan Hunter-Reay, Carlos Muñoz and Marco Andretti signed with Andretti Autosport for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The team confirmed Townsend Bell for the Indianapolis 500. ^[18]
• Carpenter Fisher Hartman Racing became Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2016 season. ^[19] Both Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter remained with the team, with only Newgarden running the full schedule. The team confirmed J. R. Hildebrand for the GP of Indy and the Indianapolis 500. ^[20] ECR would add Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot to drive the No. 20 for the road/street courses beginning at Detroit. ^[21]
• Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing ran only one car full-time in 2016 with Graham Rahal, but ran Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot in three races (St. Petersburg, GP of Indy, and Indianapolis 500). ^[22]
• Team Penske returned with the same four drivers as the 2015 season.
• Chip Ganassi Racing retained Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball, but neither Sage Karam nor Sebastián Saavedra returned to the team. The team later confirmed former Manor Marussia driver Max Chilton, who drove a partial Indy Lights schedule in 2015, as their fourth driver.
• Schmidt Peterson Motorsports confirmed the return of James Hinchcliffe to the team. Mikhail Aleshin returned to the team for the full season, replacing James Jakes. Oriol Servià drove the team's third entry in the Indianapolis 500 with support from Marotti Racing. ^[23]
• PIRTEK Team Murray confirmed that the team would race the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500 with driver Matthew Brabham. The team had support from KVSH Racing. ^[11]
• KVSH Racing confirmed the return of Sébastien Bourdais with the team. Stefano Coletti did not return for the team. Stefan Wilson drove the No. 25 for the Indianapolis 500. ^[24]
• Dale Coyne Racing confirmed that Conor Daly and Luca Filippi would run the full season. Pippa Mann returned to the team for the Indianapolis 500. The team confirmed Gabby Chaves for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500.
• A. J. Foyt Enterprises confirmed the return of Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth to the team. The team confirmed Alex Tagliani for the Grand Prix of Indy and the Indianapolis 500.
• Dreyer & Reinbold Racing reunited with Sage Karam for the Indianapolis 500.
• Lazier Partners Racing confirmed the return of Buddy Lazier to the Indianapolis 500.
• On February 18, Bryan Herta Autosport confirmed their alliance with fellow Honda team Andretti Autosport. The team was run out of Andretti's shop in Indianapolis. ^[25] Separately, due to a sponsor default, the team was unable to retain 2014 Indy Lights Champion Gabby Chaves. ^[26] The team would confirm former Caterham and Manor Racing driver Alexander Rossi to drive the No. 98 for the season. ^[4]
• IndyCar announced on February 24, 2016, the hiring of three race stewards; former drivers Arie Luyendyk and Max Papis and longtime motorsports executive Dan Davis.
• On May 15, 2016, information was revealed that Charlie Kimball would be using car number 42 instead of his usual 83 for the Indianapolis 500. This came as a promotion by Novo Nordisk and Chip Ganassi Racing that also involved Kyle Larson and Ganassi's NASCAR team. The official announcement came May 16, 2016
• On June 12, 2016, Josef Newgarden suffered a fractured clavicle and wrist in an accident during the Firestone 600. Ed Carpenter Racing announced the following day that J. R. Hildebrand would fill in for Newgarden until he recovered from his injuries. ^[27] However, Newgarden recovered enough from his injuries that he was able to compete in the following race at Road America.
• On July 21, 2016, Dale Coyne Racing announced that R. C. Enerson would make his IndyCar debut driving for the team at Mid-Ohio. ^[28] The team later signed Enerson to drive the final two races of the season. ^[29]

Schedule

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule was announced on October 27, 2015. ^[30] All rounds were held in the United States, except the Toronto round.

Rd.	Date	Race Name	Track	City
1	March 13	Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg	R  Streets of St. Petersburg	St. Petersburg, Florida
2	April 2	Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix	O  Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona
3	April 17	42nd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	R  Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California
4	April 24	Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama	R  Barber Motorsports Park	Birmingham, Alabama
5	May 14	Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis	R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course	Speedway, Indiana
6	May 29	100th Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade	O  Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana
7	June 4	Chevrolet Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans	R  The Raceway at Belle Isle Park	Detroit, Michigan
8	June 5
9	June 26	Kohler Grand Prix	R  Road America [31]	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
10	July 10	Iowa Corn 300	O  Iowa Speedway	Newton, Iowa
11	July 17	Honda Indy Toronto	R  Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario
12	July 31	Honda Indy 200	R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio
13	August 22*	ABC Supply 500	O  Pocono Raceway	Long Pond, Pennsylvania
14*	June 12/August 27* [32]	Firestone 600	O  Texas Motor Speedway	Fort Worth, Texas
15	September 4	Grand Prix at The Glen	R  Watkins Glen International	Watkins Glen, New York
16	September 18	GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma	R  Sonoma Raceway	Sonoma, California

 O  Oval/Speedway
 R  Road/Street course

Schedule changes and notes

• The Grand Prix of Boston was announced in late May 2015. The race was scheduled to be run on Labor Day Weekend on September 4, 2016. The proposed street circuit was based in the Boston Seaport District. On April 29, 2016, Boston newspapers reported that the race had been canceled. ^[33]
• Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was run on March 11–13. ^[34]
• Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was also rumored to start the 2016 season with a race in February, but did not materialize. ^[35]
• IndyCar did not return to NOLA Motorsports Park, Auto Club Speedway, and the Milwaukee Mile in 2016 following financial difficulties exposed shortly after the 2015 running of the former event. ^[35]
• Toronto returned to its original July date as a single race weekend.
• Road America's return to an open-wheel calendar was announced on August 8, 2015. The race was run on June 26, 2016. ^[36]
• IndyCar returned to Phoenix International Raceway for the first time since 2005. ^[37]
• IndyCar officials explored the possibility of returning to Gateway Motorsports Park; a deal was eventually reached for the track to return for the 2017 season.
• Texas Motor Speedway confirmed that the Verizon IndyCar Series would run on June 11, 2016. ^[38] However, the race was postponed to the following afternoon due to persistent rain. It was further halted after 71 laps due to more rain and the rest of the race was postponed until August 27. The 248 lap race resumed starting at lap 72. This would lead to updates for the track regarding drainage and repaving in time for 2017's events. ^[32]
• IndyCar returned to Pocono Raceway on August 21. ^[39]
• In an interview with Mark Miles, Iowa Speedway was said to be set for July 10. ^[30]
• In a November 2 press release, IndyCar announced a two-day promoter test at Phoenix International Raceway, scheduled for February 26–27, in preparation for the series’ return to the 1-mile oval. ^[40] The Phoenix promoter test in February was the only one not in conjunction with a typical race weekend schedule. The other promoter test days were: March 11 at St. Petersburg, April 22 at Barber Motorsports Park, May 12 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, June 24 at Road America, July 29 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and September 16 at Sonoma Raceway.
• IndyCar CEO Mark Miles said in an interview that IndyCar was working on replacing the Boston race on Labor Day and specifically stated that Gateway Motorsports Park and Watkins Glen International were being considered as replacement venues. ^[41] On May 13, 2016, IndyCar announced that Watkins Glen would replace Boston. ^[42]

Results

Round	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Race Winner			Report
					Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	St. Petersburg	Will Power	Josef Newgarden	Simon Pagenaud	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report
2	Phoenix	Hélio Castroneves	Tony Kanaan	Scott Dixon	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	Report
3	Long Beach	Hélio Castroneves	Charlie Kimball	Hélio Castroneves	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report
4	Birmingham	Simon Pagenaud	Scott Dixon	Simon Pagenaud	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report
5	Indianapolis GP	Simon Pagenaud	Alexander Rossi	Simon Pagenaud	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report
6	Indianapolis 500	James Hinchcliffe	Alexander Rossi	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Herta Autosport	Honda	Report
7	Detroit 1	Simon Pagenaud	Scott Dixon	Simon Pagenaud	Sébastien Bourdais	KVSH Racing	Chevrolet	Report
8	Detroit 2	Simon Pagenaud	Josef Newgarden	Simon Pagenaud	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet
9	Road America	Will Power	Max Chilton	Will Power	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report
10	Iowa	Simon Pagenaud	Josef Newgarden	Josef Newgarden	Josef Newgarden	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	Report
11	Toronto	Scott Dixon	Hélio Castroneves	Scott Dixon	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report
12	Mid-Ohio	Simon Pagenaud	Will Power	Mikhail Aleshin	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report
13	Pocono	Mikhail Aleshin	Will Power	Mikhail Aleshin	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report
14	Texas	Carlos Muñoz	Scott Dixon	James Hinchcliffe	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	Report
15	Watkins Glen	Scott Dixon	Tony Kanaan	Scott Dixon	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	Report
16	Sonoma	Simon Pagenaud	Tony Kanaan	Simon Pagenaud	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	Report

Points standings

• Ties are broken by number of wins, followed by number of 2nds, 3rds, etc., then by number of pole positions, followed by number of times qualified 2nd, etc.

Driver standings

• One championship point is awarded to each driver who leads at least one race lap. Two additional championship points are awarded to the driver who leads most laps during a race.
• At all races except the Indy 500, the number 1 qualifier earns one point.
• Entrant-initiated engine change-outs before the engines reach their required distance run will result in the loss of ten points.

Pos Driver STP PHX LBH ALA IGP INDY DET ROA IOW TOR MDO POC TEX WGI SNM Pts 1 Simon Pagenaud 2* 2 1 1* 1* 198 13* 2* 13 4 9 1 18 4 7 1* 659 2 Will Power Wth 3 7 4 19 106 20 1 1* 2 1 2 1 8 20 20 532 3 Hélio Castroneves 4 11 3* 7 2 119 5 14 5 13 2 15 19 5 3 7 504 4 Josef Newgarden 22 6 10 3 21 32 14 4 8 1* 22 10 4 22 2 6 502 5 Graham Rahal 16 5 15 2 4 1426 4 11 3 16 13 4 11 1 21 2 484 6 Scott Dixon 7 1* 2 10 7 813 19 5 22 3 8* 22 6 19 1* 17 477 7 Tony Kanaan 9 4 6 8 25 418 9 7 2 7 4 12 9 3 19 13 461 8 Juan Pablo Montoya 1 9 4 5 8 3317 3 20 7 20 20 11 8 9 13 3 433 9 Charlie Kimball 10 12 11 9 5 516 8 16 6 10 11 8 15 6 6 9 433 10 Carlos Muñoz 8 22 12 14 12 25 6 15 10 12 17 3 7 7 11 15 432 11 Alexander Rossi  RY  12 14 20 15 10 111 10 12 15 6 16 14 20 11 8 5 430 12 Ryan Hunter-Reay 3 10 18 11 9 24*3 7 3 4 22 12 18 3 13 14 4 428 13 James Hinchcliffe 19 18 8 6 3 71 18 21 14 9 3 5 10 2* 18 12 416 14 Sébastien Bourdais 21 8 9 16 24 919 1 8 18 8 7 20 5 10 5 10 404 15 Mikhail Aleshin 5 17 16 17 13 277 15 17 16 5 6 17* 2* 16 22 11 347 16 Marco Andretti 15 13 19 12 15 1314 16 9 12 14 10 13 12 12 12 8 339 17 Takuma Sato 6 15 5 13 18 2612 11 10 17 11 5 9 22 20 17 14 320 18 Conor Daly  R  13 16 13 20 6 2924 2 6 21 21 15 6 16 21 4 21 313 19 Max Chilton  R  17 7 14 21 14 1522 21 22 20 19 18 16 13 15 10 16 267 20 Jack Hawksworth 11 19 21 19 20 1631 22 19 11 15 21 21 14 17 16 18 229 21 Spencer Pigot  R  14 11 2529 17 18 9 19 7 15 22 165 22 Gabby Chaves 17 2021 12 13 19 17 14 121 23 J. R. Hildebrand 22 615 84 24 Oriol Servià 18 1210 72 25 Ed Carpenter 21 3120 18 21 18 67 26 Luca Filippi 20 20 17 18 14 61 27 Townsend Bell 214 55 28 R. C. Enerson  R  19 9 19 55 29 Pippa Mann 1825 17 46 30 Matthew Brabham  R  16 2226 37 31 Alex Tagliani 23 1733 35 32 Sage Karam 3223 22 33 Bryan Clauson 2328 21 34 Stefan Wilson  R  2830 14 35 Buddy Lazier 3032 12 Pos Driver STP PHX LBH ALA IGP INDY DET ROA IOW TOR MDO POC TEX WGI SNM Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th–10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did Not Start (DNS) Race abandoned (C) Blank Did not participate In-line notation Bold Pole position (1 point; except Indy) Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps (2 points) DNS Any driver who qualifies but does not start (DNS), earns half the points had they taken part. 1–33 Indy 500 qualifying results, with points as follows: 42 points for 1st 40 points for 2nd and so on down to 1 point for 33rd. c Qualifying canceled no bonus point awarded  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

Entrant standings

• Based on the entrant, used for oval qualifications order, and starting grids when qualifying is cancelled.
• Only full-time entrants, and at-large part-time entrants shown.