Ultra-competitive IndyCar season closing in on winners mark
Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon are also among the nine winners this season. Castroneves, who leads Dixon by 31 points entering the Aug. 25 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, was also a winner in 2000 and 2001, in which there were a record 11 different winners, while Dixon was a race winner as a 20-year-old rookie during the 2001 CART season.
"It was a shock," said Dixon, who at 20 years, 9 months, 14 days was then the youngest winner in Indy car history (a record which was eclipsed by 19-year-old Marco Andretti at Sonoma in 2006 and later broken by Graham Rahal in 2008). "We had set goals of maybe winning a race later on in the season."
There have been seven different winners in the eight IZOD IndyCar Series races on the 2.385-mile, 12-turn Sonoma Raceway, and a 10th different winner this season is plausible.
Yet to score a race victory this season are Will Power – a two-time Sonoma winner and runner-up to Team Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe in 2012; Dario Franchitti (31 career wins), who has three podium finishes in the past four races; and Ed Carpenter, the 2012 Auto Club Speedway race winner.
"You really don't know who's going to win any race; it's a mystery every weekend and you really have to be on top of your game to make sure you score maximum points. It's a lot of fun and typical INDYCAR," said reigning IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has recorded two victories and is third in the standings.
DIFFERENT WINNERS THIS SEASON AND IN THE RECORD YEARS:
2013 SEASON
| DRIVER | CIRCUIT | WIN NUMBER |
| James Hinchcliffe | St. Petersburg | 1 |
| Ryan Hunter-Reay | Barber | 10 |
| Takuma Sato | Long Beach | 1 |
| Tony Kanaan | Indianapolis | 16 |
| Mike Conway | Belle Isle | 2 |
| Simon Pagenaud | Belle Isle | 1 |
| Helio Castroneves | Texas | 28 |
| Scott Dixon | Pocono | 32 |
| Charlie Kimball | Mid-Ohio | 1 |
2001 SEASON
| DRIVER | CIRCUIT | WIN NUMBER |
| Cristiano da Matta | Monterrey (Mexico) | 2 |
| Helio Castroneves | Long Beach | 4 |
| Scott Dixon | Nazareth | 1 |
| Kenny Brack | Twin Ring Motegi | 5 |
| Max Papis | Portland | 2 |
| Dario Franchitti | Cleveland | 7 |
| Michael Andretti | Toronto | 41 |
| Patrick Carpentier | Michigan | 1 |
| Bruno Junqueira | Road America | 1 |
| Roberto Moreno | Vancouver | 2 |
| Gil de Ferran | Rockingham (England) | 6 |
2000 SEASON
| DRIVER | CIRCUIT | WIN NUMBER |
| Max Papis | Homestead | 1 |
| Paul Tracy | Long Beach | 16 |
| Adrian Fernandez | Rio de Janerio | 6 |
| Michael Andretti | Twin Ring Motegi | 39 |
| Gil de Ferran | Nazareth | 4 |
| Juan Pablo Montoya | Milwaukee | 9 |
| Helio Castroneves | Detroit | 1 |
| Roberto Moreno | Cleveland | 1 |
| Cristiano da Matta | Chicago | 1 |
| Jimmy Vasser | Houston | 9 |
| Christian Fittipaldi | California | 2 |