Now THAT'S a season.

As Indycar seasons go, that was one of the absolute best in recent history and as good as any I can remember. The finale was all anyone could ask for (save for maybe Will Power and Penske).

Seriously people, how could one have any beef at all with the ON-track product this year?   

Lists and bullet-points are to my thought process as Salt and Vinegar kettle chips (or perhaps a fine Belgian White Wheat ale) are to my taste buds (can't not partake in them) so any doubters may want to try to fairly consider the following items of 2012;

• the aggregate depth of talent for the entire field, 
• the aggregate competitiveness of teams throughout the field, 
• the aggregate competitiveness of equipment through the field (Lotus motors being the only real glaring exception),
• the quality of racing provided by the new equipment, rules, and officiating,
• the variety of venues to test driver versatility, 

It's hard to quickly come up with another season that beats the one just finished.  Given the current auto-racing and economic climates, what more can we fans really and truly ask for?  Before a critic can list the requisite (and typically relatively minor) bitch-du-jour, consider these stats:

The 15 Races (5 ovals, 10 road/streets) of the 2012 season yielded:

• 8 different winners
• 5 different winning team owners
• 5 different teams in the Top 10 of points
• a first-year team owner in winner's circle
• a Championship hanging in the balance until the completion of the final lap of the final race
• a record-setting number of passes for the lead in the Indy 500 
• an Indy 500 win in the balance among 17 leader-lap drivers going into the final lap

Feel free to do some requisite research by purchasing the combined Indycar records book.  I've already looked up three sample seasons from the Golden Era of CART/PPG Champions (1983, 1987, 1991, not including any USAC Championship Points listing). 

Here's the tale of the tape:

1983 - 13 races (7o, 6 r/s), 7 winners, 7 winning teams, 8 teams in Top 10.

          (can you imagine the uproar if we had just 13 races today?!)

1987 - 15 races (5o, 10 r/s), 7 winners, 6 winning teams, 9 teams in Top 10.

1991 - 17 races (5o, 12r/s), 7 winners, 5 winning teams, 6 teams in Top 10.

When you consider the ratio of different winning teams vs. number of teams scoring championship points for those years, 2012 had the highest (5:15, 1:3) weighed against 1983 (6:24), 1987 (5:23), 1991 (5:19), one could argue that 2012 had more evenly spread competition than during the heyday of the CART years. 

I know, I know... figures lie and liars figure, but I think it's safe to say there is reasonable evidence to support the feeling I've had these last several months that 2012 was as good as any season we've seen.

If anyone still has any doubts about the greatness of the 2012 season, I encourage them to spend some time early in this off-season, go back into the records, and get a more clear picture of the schedule and competition in those golden days. They just might find that today isn't as bad as they think... if they care enough to get an accurate picture that is.

If you haven't yet bought the combined records book, you may use the terrific and free resources of ChampCarStats.com or even search Wikipedia for solid CART/Indycar info.

This off-season might seem unusually long coming off the great race and season finish we had in Fontana. Increase your INI (Indycar Nerdery Index) and check out some history while we wait for 2013..

..should the Mayan apocalypse theory fail us, anyway.