2018 Straight Talk IndyCar Series season

2018 Indycar World Championship season

The **2018 Straight Talk IndyCar Series season** was the 19th season of the Indycar World Championship, and the 106th season of American open wheel racing. The premier event of the season was the 106th Indianapolis 500, which saw a record tying 42 cars attempt to qualify for the race. The season was managed and organized by Citadel Promotions, and featured a 24 race schedule, four races more than the 2017 season.

The Indycar World Driver's Championship was decided in the final race of the season, at Fontana, where Cristine Espinoza was crowned as World Champion. Eiffel Tower Racing was crowned as World Team's Champion, winning on tiebreaker after the French-based team scored 977 points to draw equal with Cherokee GP. Eiffel Tower Racing scored four wins, to Cherokee GP's three wins to take the first tiebreaker. Honda won the Engine Cup for 2018. Kunimitsu Kinoshita won the 106th Indianapolis 500, her third win of the event, and second in a row after winning in 2015, and 2017.

## Background

The 2018 season is a season many pundits reflect on with mixed feelings and opinions. Coming at the height of Citadel Promotion's control over the series, the competition had ballooned with entries, with Citadel having shut down the Atlantic Championship a couple years prior. The series had attracted the involvement of new engine suppliers, with Ford joining in for 2018, battling alongside Alpine-Renault, Chevrolet, and Honda. Ford had attracted a list of teams to pivot to their platform, including long-time GM stalwart, Highlight Racing, as well as Starion Motorsports, Enigma Racing, Rainbow Road Racing, among others. However, the Cosworth-built unit was quickly found to not meet the 700 brake horsepower demands like its competitors, with Ford-powered drivers quickly being outgunned and usually knocked out in qualifying. Ford would pull all of its support by the midway point of the season, with Ford-backed teams forced to halt its activities after the races in Toronto.

The season began marred by tragedy. For the third year in a row, an exhibition race was held to kick off the season, in a similar vein to the NAMRA Cup Series. Sponsored by Monster Energy, the exhibition followed a format similar to the NAMRA Cup Series All-Star Race. Drivers who'd won the World Championship, or a race in the previous season were locked into the Shootout, while rookies, and other drivers not locked into the Shootout had to contest the Showdown. During the Showdown, a crash involving E.C. Gadget, and Simona Leroux, two rookies to the series, occurred. Gadget's car was hooked to the left by Leroux, where it became airborne and after flipping down the backstretch, landed in the catch fencing in turn 3. Gadget was killed instantly in the crash, while Leroux sustained leg injuries after her car speared the inside wall. Leroux would miss the first three races of the season. The rest of the event was cancelled, and the Shootout would not return beyond 2018.

Teams also struggled under the increased pressure. Equipment had become more expensive with 42 cars attempting the entire first half of the season. The cost of tires had doubled, and E85 ethanol fees had also risen due to the exponential demand not seen in the series before. The dramatically increased car count also resulted in more accidents requiring costly repairs or complete replacements of chassis. The skyrocketing costs, attached to it as well the fe to just enter the series, sent teams into administration or bankrupcy. QTR Racing, the remnants of Swift Autosport after it departed the series at the end of 2017, were ill-prepared, and went bankrupt after 14 races. Scuderia Rabia Furiosa, despite pulling decent results and sponsorship, was forced to leave the series after four years, the costs too much for them to continue on. Team Kate Upton would find itself needing to use the money it earned in the NAMRA Cup Series to cover the costs to compete in the series, even after it had cut its fleet in half.

The volatility, negatives all told, produced one of the closest championship battles in the history of the World Championship, with the entire top 10 mathematically capable of winning the championship in the final race. Sakura Ishibashi, the favorite, and championship leader, retired from the race early, and would drop to 5th in points by the time the race ended. Ishibashi had excelled at the other Royal Crown events at Pocono, Michigan, and Indy, but was collected in a lap 1 crash. Cristine Espinoza, after last winning a World Championship in 2007, would take her fourth World Driver's Championship by a mere two points over her career-long rival, Stephanie Porter-Kelley. Had Porter-Kelley finished 9th, instead of 10th, the points would have been tied, and Porter-Kelley would have won on tiebreaker by wins, having scored two, to Espinoza's one win.

## 2018 Teams and Drivers

The following drivers contested at least one round of the 2018 season. Rookies are denoted by **(R)**.

## See Also

* 2019 Straight Talk IndyCar Series, the following season of Indycar World Championship racing.