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Tag: IndyCar 2023

  • Three Big Stories: Gateway (IndyCar)

    Three Big Stories: Gateway (IndyCar)

    MADISON, Ill. — And then there were two.

    Scott Dixon reminded everyone that we live in his world. Josef Newgarden’s championship hopes hit the wall. Moreover, how did two tire compounds affect today’s race?

    So without further adieu, here are Three Big Stories from World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

    We all live in Scott Dixon’s world

    MADISON, Ill. – AUGUST 27: Pato O’Ward (L), Scott Dixon (C) and David Malukas (R) spray each other with champagne in victory lane, after the NTT IndyCar Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Aug. 27, 2023, in Madison, Illinois. Photo: Simon Scoggins/SpeedwayMedia.com

    “Scott Dixon decided to do a Dixon, today,” Pato O’Ward said, in the deadline room.

    “How does he do it?” Dave Furst, IndyCar vice-president of competition and communication, jokingly asked O’Ward.

    “Well, he just does it,” O’Ward said. “He’s just Scott Dixon, you know? I feel like that’s what he’s best known for.”

    Dixon stretched his stint on Firestone red tires to 60 laps, when everyone else ran roughly 40. A timely caution let him pit for sticker blacks and exit pit road with the race lead.

    Now he needed to hold off the field AND save fuel.

    “I think probably the hardest part was the restart where we were leading, having to get a pretty high fuel number,” Dixon said. “We weren’t getting it. We were a ways off.

    “But I knew we could kind of stress that kind of second through fifth pack, get them into a pretty vulnerable situation. I knew once we caught the back markers we’d be able to save and get beyond the fuel mileage that we needed to. It actually worked out perfectly. We were able to go further and beyond where we needed to.”

    Dixon entered Indianapolis, two weeks ago, winless on the 2023 season. Naturally, everyone asked if he’d win, period.

    Fast-forward 15 days, the six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion not only has two wins, but he’s reeling in Alex Palou’s once insurmountable points lead.

    Now it’s still his teammate’s title to lose, but Dixon won’t make it easy.

    Though in the end, Chip Ganassi wins.

    “I think what is special is going into the last two races, it can only be a Ganassi driver, which is very cool,” he said. “I know that makes Chip very proud, and the hundred-plus employees that work at that place, as well.”

    In the meantime, Dixon celebrates back-to-back wins by downing cans of Stag with Marshall Pruett.

    Josef Newgarden’s title hopes hit the wall

    One picture says it all.

    Newgarden, with the slimmest of hopes, needed everything to go right to catch Palou and win his third IndyCar championship. And for much of the first half, it did.

    He led 98 laps and even when he fell behind Dixon and his pit strategy, he was in contention.

    Then he hit a wall, literally.

    He turned the wheel like there was no tomorrow, but to no avail.

    His chance at sweeping all six oval races vanished.

    As did his slim chance at the title.

    Effect of different tire compounds

    MADISON, Ill. – AUGUST 26: Firestone red tires sit stacked in the garage during the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Aug. 26, 2023, in Madison, Illinois. Photo: Tucker White/SpeedwayMedia.com

    Sunday marked the first time IndyCar used different tire compounds for an oval race.

    And the result?

    Well, it varied from driver to driver.

    Case in point, the race winner:

    “The tire was kind of interesting,” Dixon said. “It actually had a good amount of deg.”

    The guy who finished second:

    “It brought in some pretty horrendous marbles onto the racetrack, which made the second lane almost impossible to use,” O’Ward said.

    Both agreed, however, it needs more falloff.

    “I think having an alternate tire, you really kind of want it to – I know Firestone doesn’t want to do it because that’s the product they produce, they produce very good tires – but I think for falloff like we see at Iowa where you go from an 18-second lap all the way to 22s, 23s, you have good cars coming and going, people able to make changes throughout the race,” Dixon said. “I think that’s what they need to bring back here, a little bit more aggressive for next time.”

    Now while both series use different tire makers, these sentiments echo similar statements NASCAR Cup Series drivers made in June at Gateway. Denny Hamlin noted drivers could run 50+ laps on the same Goodyear tires and not experience significant dropoff.

    So whether it’s a matter of Firestone and Goodyear bringing harder tires or the track surface, that’s for a more engineer-minded person to decipher.

    As for the future of INDYCAR, O’Ward likes the idea of different compounds for ovals.

    “I just think if they want good racing, we can’t be in single file,” he said. “Then even the lappers can be racing with the leaders.”

  • Newgarden steals Indy 500 victory

    Newgarden steals Indy 500 victory

    INDIANAPOLIS — Josef Newgarden walked into the DEX Imaging Media Center at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, talking about stocks.

    No, I didn’t make that up.

    “I am into finance,” he said. “I think it’s a great career path. It’s probably something I would be doing if I wasn’t driving cars. It’s kind of as simple as that. I won’t bore everybody, but I love that world. I think it’s super fun.”

    As Newgarden says this, the video screens both in the deadline room and around the track play a highlight package of his Indianapolis 500 victory.

    With one lap to go, Newgarden overtook Marcus Ericsson on the backstretch, using the same move Ericsson used to win in 2022.

    And Newgarden knew exactly how he wanted to celebrate.

    Go up in the stands.

    INDIANAPOLIS – MAY 28: Josef Newgarden, driver of the #2 Shell Chevrolet, celebrates with the fans in the stands, after winning the NTT IndyCar Series Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 28, 2023, in Indianapolis. Photo: Karl Zemlin/Penske Entertainment

    He parked his car on the yard of bricks, exited his Team Penske Chevrolet and hopped through a crossover gate to celebrate with the fans.

    “Yeah, I knew exactly where the gap was,” he said. “I’d been over there many, many years. I’ve seen that photo, whole spot, and really it’s just like an access point that you can crawl under. It looks like it’s closed but there’s a way to get through. I knew exactly where I was going at the end of this race.”

    He wanted to go higher up, but thought better of it. So he hugged a couple of people and crawled back through the gap.

    “But it was really cool,” he said. “You just can’t beat the Hoosier hospitality, the energy that people bring here. It is second to none when it comes to a sporting event.”

    Meanwhile, his crew channels Helio Castroneves and hangs from the catch fence.

    Visibly crying as his crew wheeled his car to victory lane, he climbed out and followed through the traditional victory lane celebrations, from the wreath to drinking the milk.

    “The milk, I felt good about it,” he said. “It tasted so good. I love milk. I drink a lot of milk. So for me, the Indy 500 is kind of the greatest thing ever. Other people might not like to get milk after. That’s the choice I would have made, too. I love Louis Meyer. I love that he threw that up as a tradition. I’m a big milk guy.”

    Compare this to his 2016 post-race interview, after he finished third. He was dejected, frustrated, and in despair.

    Now, the newest Indianapolis 500 champion talked about how fascinated he is with finances.

    FULL DISCLOSURE: I asked him what fascinates him about finances.

    When Newgarden’s press conference wrapped up, he put the wreath back on and turned his focus to the rest of the season. As well as getting Roger Penske his 20th Indy 500 victory, next season.

    “I put my hand on his shoulder in Victory Lane and said, ‘Now we got to get 20,’” he said. “He was the first one to go, ‘Absolutely.’ He didn’t even take a breath. He was ahead of me in the thought process, as you know.

    “He’s eyes forward. It will be important. We need to come back. There’s still areas we can be better, so we’ll go and analyze after this weekend and see where we can improve. But we’ll come back ready to fight and get No. 20 for him.”

  • Graham Rahal: ‘It’s certainly very very different’

    Graham Rahal: ‘It’s certainly very very different’

    INDIANAPOLIS — Graham Rahal entered the North Chataeu Pavillion at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He sat at the interview table in the back of the room and kicked out his feet until the toes of his shoes poked out of the cloth.

    Virtually every reporter gathered around and craned their necks to hear every word he’d say. And why wouldn’t they? After all, just four days earlier, teammate Jack Harvey bumped him out of the Indianapolis 500.

    But then Rahal received a call.

    “I will say that there was a part of me that thought it wasn’t right, and that I was just going to accept that I wasn’t racing and I was going to move forward and move into kind of a different phase and my mental process and the way the rest of my week was going to be,” he said.

    One day after Harvey bumped out Rahal, Stefan Wilson pounded the wall in Turn 1 and injured his back. And Rahal was the first choice of Dreyer and Reinbold Racing team owner, Dennie Reinbold.

    Instead of watching at home, Rahal finds himself in a “very very different” situation.

    Those differences range from a different manufacturer to the fit of gloves.

    “Obviously, the engine is different,” he said. “The brakes feel different, like the way the button, everything feels different. The way the end, the buttons feel, too, thumbs to the gloves is different. There’s a lot that goes into that.”

    He asked questions about input to the car but felt it wasn’t his place to push the issue. He feels he’s here to “fill out a big void for the weekend.”

    Moreover, for one race, he transitions from helping his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammates to racing against them. He is, however, excited for the opportunity.

    “I know they’ve had very strong cars. But the mentality is different. My job is turned from maybe a team leader to a guy that wants to go win this thing again. Not that it ever went away, but clearly, I have a chance now that I didn’t, Monday afternoon.”

    If Sunday’s his day, the final practice Friday didn’t reflect it. He clocked in 30th, over half a second back of Takuma Sato.

  • Palou drives away from field at Indy

    Palou drives away from field at Indy

    INDIANAPOLIS — With eight laps to go, it was Alex Palou’s race to lose.

    The 2021 NTT IndyCar Series champion led 52 of the 85 laps to win the GMR Indy Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

    “We knew we had a fast car honestly since practice, since we were all off the trailers,” he said. “The car was really, really good. I was comfortable. We missed a little bit on pole, yesterday, but we knew we had a fast car.”

    It’s his fifth career IndyCar victory and first since the season-finale at Laguna Seca in 2022.

    “Yeah, every win is special, honestly,” he said. “We’ve been close here. We had little bit of bad luck. I know in ’21 we had a failure when we were going for the fight for the win at the end. It was the first race that everything came perfectly, the strategy, the tires, the speed of the car, myself obviously.

    “Super proud. It’s a special place. You can feel that in the car just with the fans that we had already since practice one. There’s something about this place obviously. Even if it’s not the big one, it’s still special.

    “So super proud of the first win of the season, first win with the American Legion, as well, and first win at the IMS. Couldn’t be better.”

    Pato O’Ward had fresh red tires, but couldn’t overcome a 10-second gap before he reached his tires’ crossover lap and finished runner-up, 16 seconds behind.

    “Super stoked for the team,” he said. “We put three cars in the top-five. Fricking hard to do in this series with how competitive it is. Just stoked for everybody in the organization, for our 5 crew.

    “We made our strategy really work, right? I just think today Palou and Ganassi were very, very strong, so we couldn’t quite get them there in the end.

    “Historically this hasn’t been the best of tracks for us. So this is awesome to see just the massive step forward we’ve taken here in race pace. Super happy to see that.

    “Rolling with some great momentum into our Super Bowl.”

    Alexander Rossi rounded out the podium, after he overtook Christian Lundgaard into Turn 7 with 10 to go.

    “Like Pato said, to get three cars in the top-five is near on impossible these days,” he said. “Arrow McLaren has done a phenomenal job all year. You can’t talk about how challenging it is to add a car in the off-season. They’ve done it with relative apparent ease. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes.

    “Really proud to get the first podium for the team, the first one as part of Team Chevy. It was a good day. We’ve had a really strong pace on Sundays, we just haven’t gotten the results that we feel like we deserve. We’re missing a little bit on Saturdays.

    “The pieces are coming together. I’ve got an awesome team, awesome teammates around me.”

    Pole sitter Christian Lundgaard and Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top-five.

    Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Marcus Ericsson, Colton Herta and Graham Rahal rounded out the top-10.

    Race summary

    INDIANAPOLIS – MAY 13: Alex Palou races Felix Rosenqvist, during the NTT IndyCar Series GMR Indy Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 13, 2023, in Indianapolis. Photo: Simon Scoggins/SpeedwayMedia.com

    Lundgaard led the field to green at 3:46 p.m. ET. He and Palou touched in Turn 1, but Palou overtook him in Turn 13 to lead the first lap.

    “We knew starting on the alternates we needed to go hard and try and get the lead as fast as possible,” Palou said. “I think the alternates had two, three laps that they were a lot better. Afterwards, you kind of got stuck behind.

    “I tried in Turn 1. He went really aggressive. It was right, it was perfect what he did, but yeah, I wanted it to be something easier (smiling). We were able to get it on the last corner. That was good.”

    Rahal contacted someone also, and dropped through the field. On Lap 7, Will Power drove Kyle Kirkwood wide into Turn 1. Entering Turn 2, Kirkwood turned him. IndyCar gave him an avoidable contact penalty and he dropped seven spots, behind Power.

    By Lap 15, Palou hit the crossover point on his red tires and Lundgaard cut the gap by over a second in three laps. Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 18. Lundgaard stayed out for two laps, before changing over to reds on Lap 20. Palou cycled ahead, but Lundgaard ran him down and overtook him down Hulman Boulevard on Lap 24.

    Meanwhile, Rahal inherited the lead, thanks to multiple stops from his Lap 1 hit. By Lap 30, however, Lundgaard chewed half a second a lap into his lead, and Rahal pitted from the lead on Lap 31.

    Lundgaard’s reds hit their crossover lap on Lap 37. After that, Palou on blacks ate into his lead and overtook him into Turn 1 for the lead on Lap 42. Before he crossed the start/finish line, Lundgaard pitted from second for used reds. Meanwhile, Palou followed suit on Lap 43, but took sticker blacks.

    Lundgaard pitted from third on Lap 60 for sticker blacks. Palou responded a lap later, but took used blacks. He cycled out ahead of Lundgaard, on new blacks, and O’Ward, on fresh reds.

    This set up the run to the finish.

    What else happened

    Entering Turn 7 on Lap 2, Romain Grosjean clipped David Malukas, who spun into Sting Ray Robb.

    That was the only caution of the race.

    Nuts and bolts

    The race lasted one hour, 47 minutes and 57 seconds, at an average speed of 115.234 mph. There were 12 lead changes among eight different drivers, and one caution for three laps.

    Palou kicks off the Month of May with a six-point lead over O’Ward.

  • Why IndyCar and IMS continue Indy 500 blackout

    Why IndyCar and IMS continue Indy 500 blackout

    INDIANAPOLIS — It’s that time of year, again. The IndyCar teams leave their shops on Main Street and pull into the racing capital of the world for the centerpiece of the NTT IndyCar Series calendar, the Indianapolis 500. Penske Entertainment Corp. president and CEO, Mark Miles, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway track president, Doug Boles, kicked off the Month of May at the Brickyard, Saturday, by unveiling an environmental initiative to make the 2023 edition “the most sustainable on record.”

    For all that IndyCar and IMS changed for 2023, however, one tradition lingers: The Indy 500 local blackout.

    Why the blackout?

    INDIANAPOLIS – MAY 13: (l to r) Mark Miles, Doug Boles and Glenn Johnson speak to the media during the NTT IndyCar Series GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 13, 2023, in Indianapolis. Photo: Tucker White/SpeedwayMedia.com

    While the rest of the United States sees the Indianapolis 500 live, the NBC affiliate blacks it out for its namesake city and airs it later that day, in primetime, to incentivize locals to pack the grandstands. This practice started in 1986 and continues to this day, except for 2016 (sellout for 100th Indy 500), 2020 and 2021 (COVID restrictions). Meanwhile, NASCAR doesn’t blackout races for the local markets. Not even for its crown jewel race, the Daytona 500.

    So why does IndyCar and IMS continue this tradition? It’s a question Miles has had many times over many years.

    “We have to get people here as they have been here in growing numbers for many, many years,” he said. “We’re really clear-minded about the fact that for us, attendance is first, and this spectacle emanates from the vibe here on race day with 300,000 plus people here. I think that’s unique.”

    Unlike NASCAR, where tracks get 65% of its $6.6 billion TV deal, IndyCar doesn’t make those numbers public. How much IndyCar and the track rely on ticket sales, vs. the league’s TV deal, is unknown. And that doesn’t include how much the teams and drivers get from the TV deal the league signed in 2021.

    So there might be a financial rationale to continue the practice.

    “We think this is a unique event,” he said. “With all due respect, and I mean with complete respect to our friends at NASCAR, at Indianapolis for the 500, we sell as many tickets in the 500 hours after this race, renewals, as they have at the Daytona 500 in total by the time they run the race. And that is in no way meant to be — like I said, we have complete respect for them. It is meant to emphasize how important attendance is to us, to the success of this event.”

    Of course, NASCAR doesn’t disclose how many tickets its tracks, Speedway Motorsports Inc., Indianapolis, Pocono Raceway or World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway sold, unless it’s a sellout. So I can’t verify the veracity of Miles’ statement on ticket renewals, compared to Daytona.

    Bottom line

    At the end of the day, IndyCar and IMS see a financial incentive to continue the local media blackout. Unlike NASCAR, however, IndyCar hasn’t struggled to pack the stands for its events.

    “We also, I think, have demonstrated over the last few years that when getting people here is not an issue,” Miles said, “either because it’s COVID and we can’t bring anybody here, or because the number of people that could come were limited and we were definitely going to have that total here, then we do open it up. We like the idea that people can take it in, whether it’s linear or streaming.

    “But for now, that’s our rationale, and it’s important to us.”