KATHERINE LEGGE: Ryan Hunter-Reay

I think Ryan Hunter-Reay for showing mental strength and determination and his never-give-up attitude has made him win the championship. A lot of drivers would have lost it under that pressure; he didn't and I think he has the respect of a lot of people.

JR HILDEBRAND: Ryan Hunter-Reay

I have a hard time not picking Ryan Hunter-Reay. There were very few weekends that I felt like he underachieved. I'm not sure there was ever a race or ever a weekend where I legitimately thought that he was the fastest guy on the racetrack, but there's a lot of weekends that he ended up being the best guy on the racetrack because he was able to keep it together and pick up the pieces and finish strong.

For sure, on road courses you’d say Will Power, undeniably, he was the best guy, but he ended up having such a massive kind of... I had the feeling by the end of the year that he was starting to trip himself out on the oval stuff. There's no way I don't think you can sit there and say he was the best guy, was the driver of the year. Maybe he didn't really deserve to win it if he’d got that kind of attitude about it. Do you know I mean?

I think weekend to weekend, Dixon is the guy that you're trying to beat, but the guy went through 20 engines or whatever through the year, so he just wasn't a factor at the end of the day. If you were asking me who do I think is, from my perspective, is the favorite in 2013, Scott Dixon, hands down.

But this year, I think you look at how Ryan Hunter-Reay won the championship and it's hard to pick anybody else.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Scott Dixon

Predictable, but the boy done good.

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO: Ryan Hunter-Reay

Ryan Hunter-Reay. I think what he did the whole year was pretty incredible. Even I think towards the end after Sonoma we were thinking there was no chance that he could win the championship but then he really pulled everything together to achieve that. And I think that was very remarkable.

SCOTT DIXON: Ryan Hunter-Reay

You know, I think Will Power should have won the championship. And I say that, but there are people that say that he always chokes. But I think in some instances I think it’s the team, maybe. If you look at the last race and you’ve got (Penske Racing president Tim) Cindric on the radio yelling, “Will, it’s time to go, time to go,” I think you understand that there was 400 miles still to go and they were racing with the guy that they needed to stay near, not beat. Will, he's a quick (MF), man.

I think [Alex] Tagliani doesn't get as much credit as he probably should from a small team. A guy that's been around for a while. He always comes out of the blue in qualifying; it's quite bizarre. And [Sebastien] Bourdais has been running partial races but we all know he's a phenomenal driver. Those, for me, were the stars. To extend that, some people would say [Simon] Pagenaud deserves it for being a rookie, but that's like calling me a rookie…

I think when you look at [Ryan] Hunter-Reay, I think they’re the driver/team combination of the year.

They had bad qualifying efforts sometimes and some of the strategies that they pulled out were real gutsy stuff. I did like the guts that they had at Baltimore. Especially after being all but out of the championship.

I think Ryan is a great driver but I don't think he was at the level this year as what Will was. It's quite funny when you talk about Will; he's the one out of the bunch of us pushing hard for low downforce at all these big ovals and that's where he had most of his issues. If it was high downforce and we just rolled around flat, I think he would've won the championship by a mile because those are the places he just killed his chances. If he can get more confident on the ovals, and he needs to work a little bit more on that, he'll be looking strong as ever.

EJ VISO: Simon Pagenaud

Simon Pagenaud. I don't want to say I'm surprised because I always respected him and liked him, but I think that guy did an amazing job. Why? Because he was a relative rookie. He was running with a small team, one car team in plenty of the races, in terms of the racetrack, I think he is a very complete driver. I think he has done an amazing job this year.

WILL POWER: Ryan Hunter-Reay

I think Scott Dixon was bloody good. He just had bad luck. You know, for sure, he would have been right there at the end. There are those that would say Ryan Hunter-Reay. Just bloody executing.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Scott Dixon

Scott Dixon. I feel strong about it, and especially this year, I think he did a great job. I think he is probably one of the guys that had the worst luck. It's hard to do that; Hunter Ray had an absolute horrid part of the year where he experienced a lot of bad luck and he still won the championship. But I would put Scott Dixon as my candidate as probably the best all-around during the year. That's what I would say. I think he's really a strong driver, I think he’d probably be an excellent teammate. I mean, that's without working with him at all. He just seems like he's got a very good understanding of the sport, especially in IndyCar racing. He definitely had his fair share of things go wrong over the years. And it's things that people don't notice. He always seems to be under the radar, in my opinion. But the guy that's under the radar is probably one of the strongest ones that people don't recognize all the time.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Ryan Hunter-Reay

Well, I mean, if you look at an IndyCar driver on the road/street/short oval/ superspeedway, I think we had that year. That was 2012 for us, and I think our team deserves it. And I'm not one to toot my own horn but I stepped up to the plate when I needed to, so I would hope it would be us.

But If [Will] Power puts that form together that he has on road and streets and he puts that on ovals, we’re all going to need to redouble our efforts.

ED CARPENTER: Ryan Hunter-Reay

I mean, it's hard not to go with Ryan just because he did what he needed to do to win the championship. In all phases he got hot and especially at Baltimore to get the result of what they had to have there to be in the hunt. It's hard not to go with him. I mean, the field is pretty deep. Simon Pagenaud had a really good year, but I couldn’t say he was the driver of the year. Will Power did what people probably expected him to do. Ultimately, not winning the championship but he was there and just didn't quite get it done. Josef Newgarden showed a lot of promise. But it's hard to not go with Ryan.