Andretti Autosport, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Rebounds

Andretti Autosport has been the top team on street courses this season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. While they didn’t win St. Pete, they had 3 of their 4 cars qualify in the Fast 6 and if not for late race contact while going for the lead, Romain Grosjean was likely the winner that day.

In Long Beach, they finally scored the win with pole sitter Kyle Kirkwood being victorious. Romain Grosjean gave them a 1-2 result with Colton Herta giving them 3 of the top 4 finishers.

Now, in an inaugural race, does Andretti’s outright speed on these tracks win outright or does bad luck strike?

They enter on the heels of an abysmal Month of May. That’s the far opposite as they way that they’ve entered it.

They qualified 6-14-15-18- for the GMR Grand Prix and 15-19-21-25 for the Indy 500. They’d finish 9-11-14-17 on the road course and 9-13-28-30. The last two Indy 500’s, they’ve led a combined three laps.

Kirkwood went from ninth in points entering to 12th leaving. Grosjean went from fifth to eighth. Herta remained in 10th while DeFrancesco from 25th to 23rd.

Can they rebound this weekend in a place that no one has been to?

Similar Indy 500 for RLL. They entered with a ton of momentum, but struggled for speed all month on the oval and even saw Graham Rahal get bumped. The other 3 cars qualified 30th, 31st and 33rd.

It halted all momentum gained from the GMR Grand Prix weekend which saw Christian Lundgaard score a pole, Jack Harvey qualify fourth and Graham Rahal in eighth.

However, they’ve been strong on street courses.

Sebring was the turning point last year. Graham Rahal was 4th in Toronto while Christian Lundgaard was 8th. Actually, Rahal had 3 Top-7 finishes on the 5 street courses a year ago while Lundgaard closed out the year on them with a pair of 8th place runs. They started 2023 off with a pair of top 10 finishes in St. Pete too. Rahal was 6th and 12th on street courses this season and this is the site that he last won at in 2017. Lundgaard was 9th and 14th with Harvey 22nd and 13th.

Rahal hasn’t won in his last 95 starts, but the last time was him sweeping the weekend over in Belle Isle. Lundgaard is still 11th in points and Harvey needs a good weekend.

After a strong GMR Grand Prix and a low in the Indy 500, watch out for a rebound on Sunday for both teams.

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Pit Lane

This weekend is a unique one in a sense that you have dual pit lanes. Without much room to have a full 27 car field pit in one area, they’ll be split on two sides with half the field going left to pit lane and the other half to the right. How much of a role will this play?

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Josef Newgarden

The races following the Indianapolis 500 haven’t been kind to the winner of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” especially the doubleheader races that have routinely followed the Indy 500 since 2013.

Since 2011, the Indy 500 winner had an average finish of 10.2 in the doubleheader races that follow Indianapolis (Dan Wheldon didn’t compete in Texas in 2011 and Helio Castroneves in Belle Isle in 2021) and has only finished on the podium twice in that span – Dario Franchitti finished second at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park in 2012, and Will Power finished second in the second race at Belle Isle in 2018.

It’s been 25 years in fact since Arie Luyendyk won the Indianapolis 500 and the race that followed it at Texas Motor Speedway in 1997, and that was just the fifth time a driver had won the “500” and the race that immediately followed it since 1980.

So, what makes it so difficult to go back-to-back?

Part of it is the rigorous schedule you have to go through post Indy win. You have sponsorship activations, media tours, more media tours, photo shoots, talk shows, trips across the country and very minimal downtime.

While you’re doing so, you don’t have time to study up on the next race. You’re basically being pulled in multiple directions with your normal race week routine disrupted.

By time you get into your car on Friday in Detroit for practice, you’re drained and feel distant from the team.

That’s why it’s hard to go back-to-back, especially in going to an inaugural event.

Newgarden has struggled on street courses this season too.

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Turf Wars

Last year, Honda looked like the team to beat in Chevrolet’s backyard. Heading into the race, Chevy may have went 1-2 in Friday’s practice, but Honda took the next 5 spots and 10 of the top 13 in Session 1. On Saturday morning, it was Honda’s turn to go 1-2 and take 4 of the top 5 spots. For qualifying, they put 4 cars in the Fast 6 and have 9 of the top 12 starting spots for the race.

Was this Honda’s race to lose again?

Chevy ended up winning and scored their third win in the last five tries in Detroit. Honda meanwhile is 2-for-2 on street courses in 2023 including taking 5 of the 6 podium spots.

Who wins out in Motor City?

Chevy got revenge on Honda last weekend in Indy in netting their first Indy 500 win since 2019.

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Andretti vs. Ganassi, Ganassi vs. McLaren

These are two separate fight I’m watching this weekend. One is for on track performance. The other for not only on track, but off track as well.

First, the on track portion.

The big teams in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES paddock are strong on these types of tracks (street courses) with Penske winning 7 of those last 18 races on them. Ganassi is next with 5 trips to victory lane while Andretti has 4. Arrow McLaren Racing is the only other team to have won in this span.

Penske won 3 of the 5 street races last year with Ganassi and Scott Dixon taking the other two. Ganassi (Marcus Ericsson) is 1-for-2 this year with being winners in 3 of the last 4 while Andretti won the last time out in Long Beach.

Honda is 2-for-2 on street courses this season with taking 5 of the 6 podiums too. It went Ganassi-McLaren-Ganassi in St. Pete and Andretti-Andretti-Ganassi in Long Beach.

This has shifted to an Andretti vs. Ganassi street fight.

In Long Beach, the two organizations swept the entire top five of the finishing order and had 6 of the top 8 finishers in general. 6 of the top 7 starters belonged to the Ganassi and Andretti camps too. 3 for each team.

Speaking of street fights, that’s basically what this Ganassi and McLaren rivalry is coming down to. Chip Ganassi Racing and Arrow McLaren Racing are in an intense no holes barred on track battle for NTT INDYCAR SERIES supremacy.

They sit 1-2-3 in points and have five of the top seven overall entering the seventh of 17 races this season.

You have a budding rivalry between Scott Dixon (Ganassi) vs Pato O’Ward (McLaren) and O’Ward (McLaren) vs. Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi).

Dixon and O’Ward’s spat began on the streets of Long Beach. Dixon felt O’Ward’s move was overzealous. He was appalled race control did nothing about it. O’Ward felt like he did nothing wrong and called Dixon a baby in the aftermath.

Dixon says that the gloves are now off.

Three races later, on the grandest stage, O’Ward crashed with eight laps remaining in the Indianapolis 500 while trying to pass Ericsson for second.

“I just think I was a little too nice there,” O’Ward said. “I just feel so bummed for the team, we had very fast race cars.

“There were seven laps to go and I was going for it I was way too nice.

“I’ll make sure that he comes with me next time. I got on to the apron to give him room and I got squeezed, and yeah, I won’t forget that one.”

Ericsson hasn’t responded.

With Ericsson second in points, O’Ward in third and Dixon fifth, buckle up. They’re bound to come together soon.

Ericsson has a top 10 finish in every race run this season. O’Ward has three runner-up’s. Dixon has a top 10 in all but one race himself.

It’s not just them feuding either. So are their bosses.

Last year, Zak Brown and McLaren shocked the world in announcing that they had signed Alex Palou for the 2023 season. That came shortly after Chip Ganassi Racing announced that they had exercised their option to retain the same driver, Palou, for their team for the 2023 season.

A lengthy battle in litigation resulted in Palou coming back to Ganassi for one more year before the expected moved to McLaren in 2024.

One under the radar move in this whole process was McLaren taking Ganassi’s sponsor, NTT DATA with them too.

Now, it appears that McLaren could be courting another Ganassi driver – Marcus Ericsson.

“First, I don’t think people steal things. I think people lose things,” Zak Brown said during a Friday news conference from Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week.

“Marcus has done an outstanding job. I’ve known him from Formula 1 for some time. He’s very humble. He’s done an awesome job. He’s won the Indy 500; led the championship for some time. He would definitely be in the consideration if we decided to do a fourth car.”

Brown called Ericsson the likely top free agent so he was a little surprised with how strong things were commercially within Ganassi and reading the quote that they don’t have the confidence to sign him out right.

“I think he’s probably the top free agent, so I’m a little surprised, given how strong things are commercially that, reading the quotes, that his current team doesn’t have the commercial confidence that they can sell the Indy 500 winner and championship contender and sign him up,” Brown continued. “I understand they probably have a little bit of time so I’m sure they’re working at it, but I wouldn’t let him go if he was driving for me, and I would have the commercial confidence that I could get the sponsorship. But that’s not my issue. So, if he does become a free agent and we run a fourth car, he would definitely be heavily under consideration.”

McLaren just ran a fourth Indy only car this past May. We already know that they’ll do so next year again for Kyle Larson. However, if they decide to add a fourth full-time car to the mix, does Ganassi allow Ericsson to get away?

McLaren would snag him.

“Yeah, I want him to stay. Yeah, I’m working hard to do it,” Chip Ganassi said of Marcus Ericsson during the Fast Friday press conference.

So what’s the hold up? Ganassi says the same thing as everything else.

“I’m not a big guy to be talking about our deals or our contracts or anything, but Marcus has a big future in the sport, and I want it to be on this team, sure, “he says. “Yeah, we just need to finalize some sponsorship, and away we go.”

He says they’re close despite Ericsson saying the ball is in Ganassi’s court. So we’ll see.

Ericsson wants to finally be a pay driver and not one who’s required to bring funding. With an Indy 500 win and being second in the championship again this year, he feels like he’s earned that right. It’s all about feeling wanted and right now, you get the sense that Ericsson doesn’t feel “wanted” by Ganassi.

Ericsson drove for the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports camp in 2019, so could he in theory make a return? Sounds like it.

Can Ganassi stand to lose Palou (2021 champion and current points leader) and Ericsson (defending Indy 500 champion and 3rd in points) in the same free agent cycle?

Brown has signed Tony Kanaan (Ganassi last year), NTT (sponsor with Ganassi) and Kyle Larson (former Ganassi drivers in NASCAR) already. Does Palou and Ericsson both join that list next?

Ganassi got ahold of Tayor Kiel to bring him over from McLaren to their camp.

I have a feeling this is about to explode soon.