2022 IndyCar season finale: How to watch, stream preview, TV info for the Firestone Grand Prix

After 16 races, 2,173 laps and countless yellow flags and bruised egos to live up to the highlights of standing on the top step of the podium, the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series concludes at 95 laps at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, California. Will Power heads into the weekend with a 20-point lead over his closest challengers, Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon. Behind them are Dixon’s CGR teammate Marcus Ericsson and third Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin.

Power only needs to finish third or better to win the Astor Challenge Cup for the second time in his career, but comes to a track where he finished 26th last year. Not that any of the last five at Laguna in 2021 would have produced a great result. Ericsson was sixth, Newgarden seventh, McLaughlin 12th and Dixon 13th as Colton Herta won the race from pole for the second year in a row.

Still, Power’s lack of success over the past year combined with the fact that Team Penske completed their final test of the season at Portland International Raceway (which obviously worked out pretty well for them), while Chip Ganassi Racing decided to stay in Testing Laguna Seca certainly seems to have the garage door open for someone to pass on the power for the crown – especially with so many other riders in the field of 25 who need to impress to either keep their current seat or find another in 2023 .

How to watch the IndyCar Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey

• Date: Sunday September 11th
• Location: 3.602 kilometers (2.238 miles), street course with 11 turns; WeatherTech Racetrack; Laguna Seca; Salinas, California
• Time: 3 p.m. ET
• TV: ABC
• Electricity: fuboTV (try for free)

What to expect

Laguna Seca, home of the famous “Corkscrew”, is the classic North American street course. Originally built around a dry lake in 1957, there are now two water retention ponds at the lowest elevation on the route, which has a 300-foot (91-meter) elevation change.

Evolving from the original Pebble Beach Road Races (1950-56), which were considered unsafe as competition speeds steadily increased, Laguna Seca is classified as an FIA Grade 2 circuit and has hosted a variety of series and races, including Formula 5000, IMSA, Can-Am, American Le Mans Series, CART, Superbike and MotoGP to name a few.

Known as the ‘Corkscrew’, the 8 and 8A corner complex is one of motorsport’s most challenging, offering a blind approach to the entrance at the top of a hill before winding down the back of the hill in an 18m drop to your left -right, then a short slide to Rainey’s Curve (named after motorcycling champion Wayne Rainey) at Turn 9, another short straight to a right-hander at Turn 10, and your stomach usually catches up with you at some point by the time you reach the final hairpin at Turn 11, which takes you to the start/finish line.

However, Laguna is not just about the “corkscrew”. Hairpin 2, known as the “Andretti hairpin”, is a difficult and technical corner thanks to a double apex, which also presents an opportunity for overtaking.

Another thing to note is that pit lane allocation is based on the previous race’s starting grid, an important factor for a pit lane that is among the smallest of the series on the calendar.

So McLaughlin, the pole sitter at Portland, will have an unhindered return to the track in the pits right at the pit lane exit.