INDIANAPOLIS -- The Verizon IndyCar Series started the 2015 season with a crash and continued with a splash, but then strung together two clean races, including a 90-lapper at Barber Motorsports Park that was a thriller from start to finish.

From the ridiculous -- a washed-out weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park -- to the sublime of what many fans called an instant classic just two weeks later in Alabama, IndyCar has managed to hit every point on the spectrum this year.

Now that the four-race prelude to the month of May at Indianapolis has quickly passed, let's look at some of the series' hits and misses to date:

Hit: Aero kits. "Designed by committee and built to a price" is rarely a good idea in racing. But a plan -- conceived nearly five years ago by then-CEO Randy Bernard and a hand-picked group of experts -- that allowed outside manufacturers to extensively develop the basic Dallara IR-12 chassis with unique aerodynamic components has worked well so far.

OK, "sold for a price" is more accurate than "built to a price," as Chevrolet and Honda have invested millions in developing the new components but are required to sell them at a loss in an effort to keep team costs under control. Yet both manufacturers have expressed delight about the value of being able to visually differentiate their cars on the track and be associated with a full-car role, rather than just as engine suppliers.

While the semi-enclosed rear wheels and the outlandish decks of spoilers have polarized opinions, the cars look more modern and appear racier on the track. And drivers report that the cars are more enjoyable to drive. The speedway and oval track version of the Chevrolet and Honda aero kits will be shown publicly for the first time this week prior to a May 3 shakedown test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

James Hinchcliffe won at NOLA Motorsports Park, but the rain dominated the race weekend. AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman

Miss: The NOLA Motorsports Park weekend. Much of the blame can go to Mother Nature, because it's difficult for any event to succeed in constant rainstorms. But the IndyCar Series probably shouldn't have been at NOLA Motorsports Park in the first place -- at least, not until the venue is finished.

"Putnam Park with nicer garages" is perhaps too harsh of an assessment, but it was difficult to get excited about the prospect of standing in a soggy swamp for an Indy car race when classic road racing venues such as Road America and Cleveland are seemingly being ignored by series management.

NOLA isn't a bad track, and an earlier race date and a finished facility could make it a solid addition to the IndyCar lineup. A dry weekend wouldn't hurt, either.

Hit: The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. After the flying debris and yellow flags that marred the opener at St. Petersburg, and the spinning cars and yellow flags that marred NOLA, IndyCar got a much-needed clean race at Long Beach. A week later at Barber Motorsports Park, things got even better. On a track that sets a standard for visual presentation that IndyCar should demand everywhere it races, the drivers staged a highly professional and entertaining contest that saw rising America star Josef Newgarden score an accomplished first victory.

Honda struggled early with its new aero package on road courses, but is hoping its new oval package will produce stronger results. AP Photo/Butch Dill

Team Penske dominated qualifying, but pole winner Helio Castroneves lost the lead with a bad first pit stop and later lost a potential top-five finish when he had to make a late stop for fuel. Newgarden had jumped from fifth to second with a superb start and controlled the race after that, but the action behind him was frenetic. The star of the show was Graham Rahal, who used fresh tires to carve his Honda through the field to finish second.

In short, it was the kind of race at the kind of place that IndyCar needs every week.

Miss: TV ratings. Barber may have been a fantastic race, but according to A.C. Nielsen data, only about 300,000 viewers tuned in to watch the race on NBC Sports Network. Television ratings continue to be a major issue for the IndyCar Series. Higher ratings drive sponsorship value, and with IndyCar struggling to improve those numbers, teams continue to find it difficult to sell sponsorships despite a generally improved U.S. economy.

The season opener at St. Petersburg on ABC garnered the best rating of the season at 0.6, while each of the other races on NBCSN earned ratings of 0.3 or lower. The next four races, including the Indianapolis 500, will be broadcast on ABC.

IndyCar Series CEO Mark Miles says that improving television ratings is his No. 1 priority, and the series and its television partners may need to re-examine the recent trend of starting races later in the afternoon instead of the traditional 1 p.m. ET.

Hit: Josef Newgarden. It took Newgarden 55 tries to win an IndyCar race, and that's probably only because he has basically been ignored by the likes of Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi and Michael Andretti. Given a chance by Sarah Fisher, Newgarden made the most of it, posting several notable runs the past three years despite being somewhat limited by running for a small team against the sport's giants.

With the merger of Fisher's team with Ed Carpenter's, Newgarden has the resources he needed to break through. He will also benefit from having a teammate for the first time in his career, and it will be interesting to see if any of the major teams finally show some interest in this talented and personable young American.

Series points leader Juan Pablo Montoya has been one of the success stories of the 2015 season. AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

Miss: The Honda aero kit. The first four races showed that over one lap, the Chevrolet-bodied Dallara is faster than the Honda-bodied Dallara. But there are signs that Honda is not as far off as it looks on paper.

At Barber, where tire management was critical on a hot, sunny day, the Honda cars held a noticeable advantage, allowing Rahal and Ryan Hunter-Reay to score their best finishes of the season. Honda has also publicly stated that it made sacrifices in its road course aero program to benefit the racing oval car that will debut at Indianapolis. With an Indy 500 win as the holy grail, Honda's focus on that goal could still pay off. Conversely, if Chevrolet's speedway car is as dominant as its road course car appears to be, it could be a long summer for the drivers and engineers at Honda Performance Development.

Hit: Juan Pablo Montoya. If Newgarden represents the IndyCar Series' wave of new talent, Montoya is showing that the old guys can still get the job done. Montoya beat Penske teammate and defending series champion Will Power in a straight fight to win the season opener at St. Petersburg, and carries the championship lead into May at Indianapolis. He is looking a lot like the Indy car driver he was back in 1999, before he departed to Formula 1 and NASCAR.