Key IndyCar title contenders couldn't back up qualifying performances

Will Power won the NTT IndyCar Series title last month, wrapping up one of the most wholly consistent seasons in recent series history. Power qualified well and finished better — averaging out to fourth and first best among full-time drivers in those categories, respectively.

Power's ability to convert his good qualifying performances into great finishes was key to his second IndyCar championship. Of the top seven drivers in the championship, Power is one of four that ended with a positive difference between average start position and average finish.

Scott Dixon showed the greatest improvement from qualifying to races in the series, moving from an 11.1 average starting position to a 6.7 average finish — an improvement of 39.6%. His Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson was third best, with a 30.2% increase from 11.6 in qualifying to 8.1 in races.

Their Ganassi teammate Alex Palou earned a small increase from 8.1 to 8.0, but an increase nonetheless. Even including Jimmie Johnson's relative struggles and Tony Kanaan's small sample size, all Ganassi drivers improved from qualifying to race day in 2022.

In fact, of all 13 drivers with at least three starts to show improvement from race start to finish in 2022, all but four were Honda drivers like the Ganassi team. The four Chevrolet drivers? Power, Simona de Silvestro, Tatiana Calderon and Dalton Kellett.

With Calderon and Kellett driving for 2022 statistically worst team A.J. Foyt Racing, it's fair to chalk up their improvements to not having far to fall. De Silvestro had some growing pains on qualifying days driving this era's IndyCar on road and street courses for the first time.

Power, then, is the only top-level Chevy driver who gained spots in races on average.

Arrow McLaren SP's Pato O'Ward posted the worst difference from qualifying to race finishes in 2022. O'Ward's average start of 6.6 and average finish of 10.3 was a season-worst -56.1% change. However, he's in good company. Multiple championship contenders regressed from qualifying to race day.

The bottom five in that category include Power's Team Penske teammates Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden. McLaughlin averaged a 6.9 qualifying result, but fell to an 8.8 average race result — a -27.5% change. Newgarden regressed -24.2%, falling from a 6.6 to an 8.2.

Team Penske was usually the class of the field, earning nine of the season's 17 victories. To say Team Penske can't back up its qualifying performances is probably an overreaction — Penske knows how to win and wins a lot.

However, the points McLaughlin and Newgarden lost from their qualifying positions likely kept the championship from being a Penske 1-2-3. Had Ganassi been able to show the same improvement with a slightly better qualifying position, Power could've faced a much larger threat from Dixon, Ericsson and Palou.

At a manufacturer-wide view, Honda had a better average start and finish than Chevrolet and showed a 4% improvement from qualifying to races despite losing the manufacturer's championship.

How did Chevrolet pull off the feat despite averaging worse qualifying results, race results and posting a -4.79% regression? Honda had fewer wins on the season, losing that battle 6-11.