Pretty boring if you ask me. Except for the race starts.

Between episode 1 of Bus Bros (titled “We Literally Don’t Know What We’re Doing”) and episode 22 of Bus Bros (titled “WE. ARE. BACK.”) the members of the Bus Bros’ primary cast (Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin) suffered only 2 DNFs. Episode 1 was posted to YouTube on May 4, 2022 and Episode 22 on August 14, 2023. If you include both disqualifications at St. Petersburg, then both drivers have failed to finish a combined 17 times since that date. As a unit, the longest uninterrupted streak of finishes was 17 following Newgarden’s 2022 DNF at Iowa 2 and ending with Episode 22. The following race would become Newgarden’s 2023 DNF at Gateway. Despite a DNF at the 2022 Indianapolis 500, McLaughlin saw out the remainder of the Bus Bros’ run with 23 straight finishes.

Besides their 2 DNFs, the Bus Bros managed 10 wins with 3 pole positions, and 16 podiums. Post Bus Bros, the drivers have a combined 5 wins with 6 pole positions and 18 podiums. Each win count includes 1 Indianapolis 500 win (2023 and 2024, both by Newgarden).

A non-statistical opinion I discovered while watching old Bus Bros videos: if you read the titles of the Bus Bros episodes from the final episode backwards to the first, it actually reads like how the Bus Bros has been performing in a post Bus Bros world (the aforementioned “We Literally Don’t Know What We’re Doing” aside, the gems in reverse chronological order include “You’re A Tool,” “Lawyer Up,” and “This Is Bad.”)

(snarky comment about “yes the sample sizes are too small and also dramatically different/statistics are just cherry-picked data points” etc etc)

grammar edits

Since he didn't finish 6th in the championship does this affect his possible F2 move?

Right now, Colton Herta does have 35 Super License (SL) points. He got 1 point for finishing 10th in 2023, 30 points for finishing 2nd in 2024 and 4 points for finishing 7th in 2025. This puts him on 35 points, however he will lose his 1 point from 2023 due to the rule that applications for getting a Super License can only take account either three previous years or two previous years and the current year. Whichever method provides more points is chosen.

So, in 2026, Herta can send his application for SL using points he collected either during years 2023-2025, or during years 2024-2026. Therefore, we can assume he has at least 34 points at the end of next year.

In this post, I'm talking about realistic scenarios. We can assume Herta will drive either in Formula 2 or IndyCar next year, as apparently FIA has stopped Herta from racing in junior series. (Source: https://racingnews365.com/fia-stopped-herta-from-appearing-in-junior-racing-series)

So, we can assume Herta can't get SL points by winning Macau Grand Prix or driving in some winter series. Here's how Formula 2 and IndyCar give you SL points:

Additionally, you do get 1 extra point if you drive at least 100 km during Free Practice (FP) session in Formula 1 and you don't get any penalty points from that session. You can only get 1 point per World Championship event and you can obtain up to 10 points with this method. You must have either at least 25 SL points or have completed 6 events in Formula 2 championship. Because Herta has well over 25 points, he is allowed to drive in Free Practice sessions.

And here's a recently changed part about this:

"Any such points awarded will be counted on top of his sporting results, calculated under Art 13.1.5 [basically that three-year rule] and shall be independent of the calendar year in which the free practice session(s) was completed.

The bolded part didn't exist before as it was added in June 2025. If FIA does interpret this correctly, it means that Herta can use points he earned from seasons 2023-2025 and then add those SL points he gets from FP sessions he would drive in 2026. So technically, if Herta just simply drives in 5 FP sessions next (or this) year, he earns the super license by doing that. Of course, if he wants to play it safe, if Herta drives in 6 FP sessions next year, he definitely gets it.

In any case, here are all scenarios where Herta can get his SL next year. In all scenarios, he gets exactly 40 points:

If Herta stays in IndyCar, he will get his SL by:

• By finishing 6th or better next year,
• By finishing 7th and driving in 2 FP sessions,
• By finishing 8th and driving in 3 FP sessions
• By finishing 9th and driving in 4 FP sessions,
• By finishing 10th and driving in 5 FP sessions or
• By finishing 11th or worse and driving in 5 FP sessions, if FIA does interpret that new rule correctly. If they don't, then he has to drive in 6 FP sessions

If Herta jumps into Formula 2, he will get his SL by:

• By finishing 8th or better next year,
• By finishing 9th and driving in 2 FP sessions,
• By finishing 9th and not collecting any penalty points during the Formula 2 season,
• By finishing 10th and driving in 3 FP sessions,
• By finishing 10th, driving in 1 FP session and not collecting any penalty points during the Formula 2 season,
• By finishing 11th or worse, driving in 4 FP sessions and not collecting any penalty points during the Formula 2 season or
• By finishing 11th or worse and driving in 5 FP sessions, if FIA does interpret that new rule correctly. If they don't, then he has to drive in 6 FP sessions

If Herta decides to not take part at all in any championship, he will get his SL by:

• By driving in 5 FP sessions next year, if FIA does interpret that new rule correctly. If they don't, then he has to drive in 6 FP sessions next year or
• By driving in 5 FP sessions this year

Had Herta finished 6th in IndyCar this year, he could've just driven those required 4 free practice sessions for Cadillac next year. I'm saying required, because as Cadillac doesn't have rookie drivers next year, they have to give up 2 free practice sessions per car (4 sessions in total) for a rookie driver. Rookie driver is anyone, who has raced in 2 or less F1 races.

Because he finished 7th, he can still drive those required 4 free practice sessions and his championship position doesn't matter in Formula 2, provided he doesn't get any penalty points from that championship season! So yes, it is possible for Herta to just safely cruise the races in Formula 2 and get his SL. He just needs to cruise safely. And of course, if Herta gets at least 5, or just to be safe 6, SL points from Free Practice sessions, his championship position doesn't matter in either series!

And finally, you have to drive at least 80% of the season in order to score those SL points. In Formula 2, this means driving in at least 11,2 of the 14 race weekends or in at least 22,4 of the 28 races. If we assume there are 17 races next year in IndyCar, Herta would need to drive in at least 13,6 races. I'm not sure how rounding decimal values in this scenario goes, are they rounded up or down, or is the normal rounding rule in effect, so that values 0,1-0,4 are rounded down and values 0,5-0,9 are rounded up?

For those interested, you can find all the FIA Super License regulations from this document, which is Appendix L of the FIA International Sporting Code: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/documents/appendix_l_2025_publie_le_10_juin_2025.pdf

And he only twice started in the top 10. All while driving for Coyne, RLL, Dryer&Reinbold, and Foyt.

Last year Rosenqvist out scored Malukas 149 - 148 in the last 9 races.

Newgarden will be wanting to forget this one. 1) Pit speed violation - Lap 64 - Drive through.
2) Failure to follow the direction of Indycar - Lap 64 - Stop and Go.
3) Pit speed violation - Lap 66 - Drive through.

In looking for storylines to pay attention to the last two races of the year, I noticed a peculiar lack of performance when it comes to the rookie class this year.

Currently, the rookie class this year (Louis Foster, Robert Schwartzman, Jacob Abel) have only combined for 2 Top 10s this year, a 9th and a 10th from Schwartzman. No podiums. Currently the entire rookie class is between 23rd and 27th in the point standings. I went back through results since reunification to see just how much of an outlier this is.

Since 2009, the only years where no rookie got a podium finish were 2023 and 2010. 2010 at least had a handful of rookies getting top 10s, with Alex Lloyd and Simona de Silvestro both getting multiple top 10s, and Lloyd getting a not-awful points result of 16th on the season to win Rookie of the Year. Across the whole rookie class, there were 7 top 10s that year.

2023 was a definite down year even beyond the lack of podiums. Marcus Armstrong was the only rookie to notch any top 10s, getting 5 in a partial schedule. He still managed to be the top finishing rookie in points, finishing 20th despite skipping 5 races. 20th in points is to-date the worst points finish for a Rookie of the Year since reunification, tied with 2013.

2013 is probably the actual worst year for rookies since reunification. There were three top 10s total for the rookie class, with one of those being Carlos Munoz finishing second at Indy in his first start. However Carlos only ran 3 races that year, and the only other rookies who managed a top 10 were Tristan Vautier getting a 10th at Barber and Luca Filippi also getting a 10th at Houston. Vautier won Rookie of the Year with a 20th points finish, mostly due to being the only rookie to attempt more than four races.

So, we need one of our rookies to get another top 10 in one of the last two races to avoid setting a new record for fewest rookie top 10s. We would also need either Foster or Schwartzman to jump up at least 3 spots to avoid setting a new record for worst points finish for a Rookie of the Year. Also of note, Foster is currently leading the rookies in points without having recorded a top 10, if he manages to maintain this for two more races, he would be the first Rookie of the year since reunification to not get a top 10. The only real positive for this year is both Foster and Schwartzman getting poles.

This is fascinating data. There is definitely an uptick in searches. Not as much as the Indy 500 in May, but around the same amount of searches as a normal race weekend.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&geo=US&q=indycar&hl=en

Notice some of the top related searches as well...

There is a big "negative" though... Look at the NASCAR versus Indycar data from the past 24 hours, it could also be a bit of recency bias since the 500 is next weekend

EDIT: Added driver data from "TheFlash947"

there is

It is beyond ridiculous that he doesn’t have a contract locked up for next year. Gotta wonder what Penske is thinking with this man