Counting down the top five best IndyCar races of 2024

The checkered flag is waving on 2024, and what was an exciting season for the IndyCar series. This year saw the first back-to-back Indy 500 champion crowned since Helio Castroneves accomplished the feat back in 2002. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou also nabbed his own back-to-back victory — taking home the Astor Cup as the season champ for a second year in a row. The North American premier open-wheel series also put its new hybrid units through their paces, The Milwaukee Mile made its return to the calendar in a doubleheader weekend, and to close the season out, the Nashville race stepped away from its downtown venue to conclude at the Superspeedway.

Because it was such an eventful year, picking the top five races of the season came down to several factors: the quality of racing, the finish, a standout performance, passing, and then just some flat-out good ol’ intensity. With that in mind, let’s dive into it.

5. Mid-Ohio

The unprecedented debut of the hybrid had a lot of attention going into the Mid-Ohio race weekend, but it was the fight for the win that kept everyone’s attention through to the checkered flag.

But that’s not how things started. The green flag waved and the race looked to be headed for a snooze fest courtesy of polesitter Alex Palou opening up a lead of roughly 8s. But Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward began to reel in the Chip Ganassi driver, inching closer with every lap before a crescendo on lap 56 of 80, when Palou stumbled out of the pits, which was all O’Ward needed to perform an outside pass and take the lead when the two met in Turn 1.

O’Ward didn’t take the lead and run though, and Palou continued his pursuit to recapture the first spot. The two caught up to back markers in the final laps, which allowed Palou a chance to close. The Mexican absorbed the pressure, sliding out of the final corner and across the finish line by just 0.4993s ahead of Palou in a character-building win.

4. Milwaukee 2

Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske Chevrolet

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

This spot could have been held for either race of the doubleheader weekend in IndyCar’s return to The Milwaukee Mile. What put the nightcap edition over the opening race was, simply put, how wild it was from the pace laps all the way through to the finish.

Palou’s grip on the championship lead appeared to loosen when an electrical issue left him unable to take the green flag. The Spaniard sat behind the wall for the opening 29 laps, before he was able to return to the track and move up the running order while chaos struck other competitors, including Will Power, who spun on a late restart and lost out on maximizing the points dent.

A restart with just 12 laps to go set up a furious finish, with Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin fending off a charging Dixon to claim his second oval victory and third of the season by just 0.4558s. The race featured 13 lead changes among seven drivers, with 177 of the 763 total passes being for position.

3. Long Beach

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Jake Galstad

Finally, a weekend to note where Dixon wasn’t the one on a late charge. One look at the stat sheet to see six lead changes among eight drivers on the historic 1.668-mile temporary street circuit might undersell why Long Beach even belongs on this list. Allow me to educate you on what was a masterclass drive of strategy, fuel saving, and defending as Dixon, a six-time series champion, pulled off one the best performances of his career.

An early caution on lap 15 allowed Dixon to pit two laps later — a decision that race leader Power also opted for. For comparison, others were also on a two-stop strategy, but made their respective first stops of the race between laps 29-32 of the 85-lap race. The extended run was one that only Dixon was able to manage though, as Power faded late in an effort to save fuel and finished sixth.

Dixon fought to defend the top spot, slowing in the corners and charging off to keep Herta behind. It took every ounce of fuel — and some fumes — for Dixon to expertly manage a magical 34-lap stint en route to claiming his 57th victory.

2. Nashville

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Checkered Flag

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Yes, the championship finale was a bit anticlimactic. Power’s odd seatbelt malfunction forced the champion contender to pit just 12 laps into the race — pretty much handing Palou his second consecutive title. However, for all the bizarre hoopla that existed in the race transitioning from Nashville’s downtown streets to its superspeedway, it still managed to be a pretty damn good show.

It would be the unpredictability (and self-admitted pessimism by me) of a long-awaited return to the oval and unique multi-choice tire combinations that turned this one into a pleasant surprise. The 206-lap contest was only interrupted by three cautions, with a plethora of back-and-forth throughout the field that resulted in 653 total passes (237 for position).

At one point, it looked like Kirkwood was going to win, then David Malukas in a Meyer Shank Racing Honda, then O’Ward. The final laps saw both O’Ward and Herta in a tussle for the top spot as the two split through lapped traffic. In the end, it was Herta putting an exclamation point on his resurgent season, capturing his first oval win and surging up to second in the championship standings after Power’s ill-timed seat belt issue.

#5: Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, #2: Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

1. Indianapolis 500

Mother Nature put an early (literal) damper on the day, but once the field of 33 rolled off the grid there was nothing but fireworks on display. The month-long buzz surrounded 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, making his Indy 500 debut in a joint effort with Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports — and even through some learning issues, he was as fast as advertised.

If the 48 lead changes among 16 different competitors wasn’t enough, there were 596 passes for position throughout the field. Nothing, though, could prepare anyone for one of the greatest finishes in a race over a century as Josef Newgarden and O’Ward sparred over the last handful of laps. O’Ward pushed by the Tennessee native with five laps to go, only for Newgarden to return the favor the following lap.

Instead of immediately firing back, O’Ward stalked Newgarden before pushing by with an outside pass along the front straightaway as the two took the white flag. O’Ward led the pair into Turn 1 and then tried to break any tow Newgarden could get coming off Turn 2, but the Penske pilot opted to hold his line and not scrub any speed — closing in on O’Ward.

Newgarden managed to get alongside his rival and made a daring outside pass into Turn 3, closing down to the inside lane with momentum as he propelled by the young Mexican, who then lost all air on his front wing which cause the car to get pushed up — nearly missing the wall.

Newgarden went on to win, becoming the first to go back-to-back in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” since Castroneves in 2001-02.

Honorable mentions: Toronto and Gateway

The Streets of Toronto provided the best remedy for Colton Herta to snap a 40-race winless streak that dated back to 2022. Although he led 81 of 85 laps from pole, the closing stages saw Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood close the gap and put into protecting the team’s 1-2 finish from the charging Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Scott Dixon. Herta ended up only 0.3469s ahead of Kirkwood, with Dixon 0.9680s behind.

And Gateway certainly had a little bit of everything. While there were 21 lead changes among 11 drivers and 676 passes on the night. There were also plenty of clashes with six cautions that made up 49 of the 260 laps. The lasting memory that left a sour taste for many followed a controversial late restart by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, ultimately leading to a massive crash that collected several drivers, including his teammate Power, who provided a one-finger salute in return. Newgarden went on to win the race.