By alley - Aug 20, 2015, 1:20 PM ET

IndyCar: Pocono aero could influence championship battle

Chevy drivers hold eight of the top-10 positions in the standings, with Team Penske's Juan Montoya sitting atop the pile with a slim nine-point lead over Graham Rahal. As Honda's best (and only reasonable) shot at earning the drivers' crown, Rahal is a fighting second in the championship, and he's being chased by some of the best pilots in the series.

Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Sebastien Bourdais are all within striking distance, and have Chevy engines and aero kits to use in their pursuit of Rahal along with Montoya – and with IndyCar's new-for-2015 aero kits holding a major influence on the competitiveness of each manufacturer, some race engineers believe Pocono could favor one brand more than the other.

IndyCar's aero specification for Pocono is, in basic terms, the same that was used at Fontana with minor variances. On the surface, the applying the Fontana aero spec to Pocono would appear to be the perfect package – it produced close racing for Chevy and Honda, and generated 500 miles of action that was often thrilling and terrifying (BELOW).

With the Fontana aero spec being carried over to Pocono – a track with long straights between its three corners – the general consensus among IndyCar engineers is Chevy teams could hold the a similar kind of edge that allowed the Bowtie to dominate this year's Indy 500.

At Fontana, the long corners favored the Honda teams and their higher-downforce speedway aero kits, and with the Chevy teams making use of the exceptional straight-line speed and efficiency offered by their speedway aero kits, parity was established.

Pocono's unique tri-oval layout and its imposing straights will see IndyCar teams running at a downforce level split somewhere between the 2000 pounds used for the Indy 500 and the 2400 pounds at Fontana, according to KVSH Racing engineer Olivier Boisson. And as we've seen on big ovals this year, the lower the downforce and the longer the straights, the faster the Chevys go.

"I think Pocono downforce is going to be right in the middle of where we were at Indy and Fontana," said the Frenchman (LEFT, Marshall Pruett photo), who looks after Bourdais' No. 11 Chevy. "At Indy, the Chevys seemed to have an advantage in efficiency. When we got to Fontana, the Hondas seemed to have an advantage because they could use their extra downforce. We will be lower, for sure, at Pocono, so it might be close for them, but I don't know if they can match the Chevy's [aero] efficiency."

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' engineer Allen McDonald and his driver Ryan Briscoe came close to winning Fontana in their Honda-powered No. 5 car, and he's hoping opportunity emerges at Pocono.

"Optimistically, I think qualifying will be close to Fontana in that it will favor the Chevys, but I hope the Hondas can race competitively," said the championship-winning Englishman (RIGHT, with Briscoe). "At Indy, it was a good example on the straights where they were more efficient than us – even in race trim – and made use of their straight-line speed, and we're going to a track that's closer to Indy than Fontana, so it won't be easy."

As Honda teams found at Fontana, McDonald says Pocono's corners hold the key to keeping up with the Chevys.

"The one area we can hold out hope is Turn 1 at Pocono where people will be trying to go flat through there in the race, and if you have more downforce and you're able to run close to flat through there, you can carry most of that through the rest of the lap," McDonald explained. "We're clearly hoping we have a race more like Fontana in terms of the balanced way both manufacturers were able to run. But if it ends up being like Indy, it's going to be a long old day."

If Pocono ends up being another rout by Chevy, Rahal and the rest of the Honda drivers could head into the season finale at Sonoma with a sizeable points deficit to overcome. We won't have that answer until Sunday afternoon, and Boisson believes no matter how Chevy-vs-Honda battle plays out, we should see a fair amount of passing during 200 laps of racing at the 2.5-mile facility.

"Everybody puts on all of the little aero pieces to make more downforce when you think tire degradation will be bad, and when you do this, and all of the pieces made a big wake and it's hard to follow and make a pass," he said. "I don't think tire degradation will be as bad at Pocono, so we might not see as many of the little pieces, and the more trimmed you are, the better the racing. Even if we see some separation between the manufacturers, I think the passing could be very good."