This weekend, IndyCar returns to California at the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma for the season finale of the Verizon IndyCar series. Two drivers go into the weekend with their eyes on winning the season championship. Simon Pagenaud has a 43 point lead over Will Power in the championship standings. They aren't just championship rivals but also teammates, which will present challenges for a team that doesn’t do “team-orders.” With double points at stake on Sunday, anything can happen, as it did last year when Scott Dixon overcame a 47-point deficit to win the title at Sonoma. As fate would have it, Sonoma Raceway has become a King maker of sorts, as Laguna Seca had been in years past, when it hosted the CART season finale. Pagenaud needs a top four finish to ensure that the championship is his. That doesn't make him a shoe-in, but the cushion isn't insignificant either.

The Man:

We sat down with Pagenaud over lunch to discuss his thoughts on the upcoming race and other things car related. Our initial assessment is a good one! Pagenaud doesn’t just strap in to a 200mph race car and walk away. He is a true "car guy" with a collection of classic BMWs, a ’68 Mustang Fastback, a Lotus Elise and an Audi R8. He even has the original car he learned to race in, a Peugeot 205GTI. His latest addition to his collection is a BMW 2002tii that he was going to pick up in Oakland after our lunch. He has a true appreciation of vintage cars and even ponders the future of modern cars as the reliance on technology and electronic gadgetry limits their ability to become vintage. What happens when the computer goes wrong? As he said, “The cars are not meant to age anymore, you won't be able to keep a BMW 328 or 335 in 40 years.” He went to describe his love of the simplicity of classic cars without complex electronics where an 80mph top speed, like in his Peugeot, feels like 200mph and that texting and driving in a vintage car is a one and done scenario as you likely to die if not focused 100% on driving.

Pagenaud on track at the 2015 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma

The Ethic:

Often, people that don’t know racing assume that a driver shows up to a track, hops in the car, drives and then leaves to return to a life of leisure. Nothing could be further from the reality as modern racing drivers are athletes that push the limits of their physical body. Pagenaud gave us a run down of his typical day during the racing season and it's not for the weak or the undisciplined. He works out for almost three hours a day with a personal trainer doing a variety of exercises and endurance training to allow his body to cope with the effects of a two and half hour race where a driver must sustain 180bpm heart rate over the course of the race, not to mention the potential for dehydration at hot races. Pagenaud views the physical preparation involved in racing as an advantage and that extra pain and effort in the gym could give him a strategic advantage during the race. But more than that, he appreciates how much better the human body must be every season as the ever increasing car performance demands more endurance from the driver.

The Future:

Open wheel racing, both IndyCar and Formula 1, are both examining the potential implementation of cockpit protection systems due to dangerous and sometimes fatal incidents that have occurred over the last several seasons. One of the last unsolved safety problems in open wheel racing (where racing is safer than ever before) is the potential injury to a driver's head and neck as drivers are still exposed to mayhem from the neck up. Pagenaud has a unique background as an open wheel racer who spent many years racing sports cars with open and closed cockpits. He is also a walking testament to modern race car safety when you remember that the guy you are having lunch with walked away from a 200mph crash at Pocono earlier this year.

Pagenaud on implementation of a head protection system:

“I would like to see some kind of protection at some point. We might not know the technology yet but it must be possible to find away to get a driver out of a car safely and quickly.”

Demonstrating his thoughtful approach to his sport he concluded with thoughts on the oft-repeated idea that bad luck happens and that safety can't mitigate random disaster,

“Does life revolve around bad luck? Not if you can do something better. We have the technology, we can do so much these days, we can go forward and IndyCar is willing to do that”

The Takeaway:

Should Pagenaud claim the title on Sunday, the Verizon IndyCar Series will be well represented by a focused racer and true car guy. As we have expanded our racing coverage, we've come to appreciate that the sport of auto racing is more important than any one driver or team. The single most important thing is that all of the drivers finish the race in good health and in one piece. That being said, we hope that any race winner, or series champion in this case, embodies all of the qualities of a champion. From where we stand, Pagenaud is the measure of the sport, and is deserving of all of the attention and accolades that come with fending off a field of some of the best oval and road course drivers in the world.