Team: Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports
Driver: Simon Pagenaud
Car No.: 77
Engine: Honda
Chief Mechanic: Don Oldenburg
Engineer: Ben Bretzman
2012 Driver’s Championship Finish: 5th

Pruett Says: No more grace period for Pagenaud. He's proven he can be a consistent runner in the top 5, and now has the teammate, additional technical support and track familiarity to join the ranks of multiple race winners. I've hailed him as one of the best for years, and that belief hasn't changed, but it's time for Simon to graduate to that hunter/killer class of driver that takes no prisoners. Nice guys might not finish last, but they rarely finish first on a regular basis.

Miller Says: One car teams with pseudo rookies aren't supposed to challenge for wins, get on the podium four times and finish fifth in the points. But the Friendly Frog is one of the best racers in the IndyCar paddock and he and Ben Bretzman have their eyes on bigger things in 2013. No reason they can't reach them.

What Pagenaud Says Needs Improving This Year: “Obviously, Indy, I need to improve. I wasn't great at it. So it’s quite a bit to improve there. I think there's always improvement that could be made to be more about the surrounding, working on the peripheral vision. Just what could be improved every year. What could be improved is to work on your personal best. Try to raise the bar and just extract the best out of yourself every time. And as we talk about last year I extracted the best out of myself in one race. One stint, but then I need to be able to do it for the three stints and for every race. So there's a lot to extract. So it's being in that kind of a mode; it's a lot of work on myself.”

Team: Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
Driver: Tristan Vautier
Car No.: 55
Engine: Honda
Chief Mechanic: Ryan Negron
Engineer: Allan McDonald
2012 Driver’s Championship Finish: Rookie

Pruett Says: Vautier is the smartest, most self-critical and analytic rookie I’ve seen in quite a while. The 2012 Firestone Indy Lights champion has scorched the pre-season testing trail, but was humbled during Spring Training. And how did he respond? He was happy it happened as it created a learning opportunity… That’s the exact demeanor you’d want from IndyCar’s lone rookie in 2013.

His impressive speed, if we’re to be honest, has also had a lot to do with the team’s re-acquisition of engineer/technical director Allan McDonald.

The man known as “Squirrel” was easily the biggest off-season move within the paddock—driver or engineer—and will have Vautier looking like a 10-year veteran before the season’s over.

He’ll still make some mistakes and knock a few corners off—that’s part of the learning curve—but the kid already looks like he’s capable of challenging teammate and fellow Frenchman Simon Pagenaud on outright pace. How he fares once qualifying is over and it’s time to go racing is the biggest question mark right now.

Miller Says: Impressive in testing and has a savvy countryman and engineer Allan McDonald to feed off of as a rookie. Lots of upside.

Team: Target Chip Ganassi Racing
Driver: Scott Dixon
Car No.: 9
Engine: Honda
Chief Mechanic: Ricky Davis
Engineer: Eric Bretzman
2012 Driver’s Championship Finish: 3rd, 2 wins

Pruett Says: The greatest natural talent in at least a generation of Indy car drivers. While Will Power has to work himself into a lather to produce record-shattering laps, Dixie does it with remarkable ease. How then, I continually ask myself, does he only have two IndyCar championships? He doesn’t make many mistakes, is always in the mix when the green flag waves and is legitimately feared by Power—the driver who everybody else fears…

I don’t believe in luck, good or bad, but Dixie is easily the biggest magnet for misfortune among IndyCar drivers.

There’s not a lot more to say. He should be a 5-time champion by now.

If Honda’s engines are a match for Chevy, Dixon might not have to dig as deep to produce feats of heroism behind the steering wheel, and if he has the engine reliability that was missing last year, there should be nothing stopping him from winning his third title.

But with that cartoon anvil always waiting to land on him, I’m never confident to say it will happen. Bizarre.

Miller Says: It's hard to lead 300 more laps than the champion and only win twice but Dixie did it with some terrible luck and one big mistake at Texas. He's still Power's toughest competition and he's overdue for another championship (he gets one every five years) so all things point to the Kiwi as the favorite in 2013.

What Dixon Says Needs Improving This Year: “Qualifying on the short ovals. For some reason, Iowa and Milwaukee we struggled a bit, but yet we had good racing. So qualifying in a few places we look back at it and know we have to square a few things away there. You can only work on the things you can control.”

Driver: Dario Franchitti
Car No.: 10
Engine: Honda
Chief Mechanic: Kevin O'Donnell
Engineer: Chris Simmons
2012 Driver’s Championship Finish: 7th, 1 win

Pruett Says: Coming off a forgettable year, except for his third win at the Indy 500, look for Franchitti to put 2012 behind him and enter the new season with renewed vigor. Some will say last year was the first big sign that he’s on the decline, but the more reasonable view on what took place with the 4-time series champion is that he just had a bad year. Along with his teammate, the No. 10 car had its fair share of engine issues which ended any hopes of defending his title by mid-season.

He won’t let changes in his personal life impact his driving, and as one of the elite preparers in the paddock, I expect Franchitti to start the season off strong and head to the finale in October with a chance at earning his fifth title.

Miller Says: Never seemed very comfortable with the new car and, save Indianapolis, the results showed it most of the time. But he's a proud, old Scot and don't ever count him out. He'll be a factor in the championship and a good bet to join A.J., Big Al and Rick come May.