DETROIT, Mich — Inaugural races are always wildcards, but ones on a street courses, well buckle up. Street circuits in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES have become messy events. The first two races that the series has run on the downtown streets in Nashville has seen nine cautions in each.
With the 1.7-mile track in Detroit being arguably as narrow, if not narrower, than the one in Nashville, plus being the first time that these drivers have seen this track, we can expect chaos in Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix (3 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Friday’s practice session proved just that.
The fastest driver of the day brought out the final red flag of the session. It was that kind of day.
“It’s definitely a unique track,” said the quickest driver, Pato O’Ward. “I think it has a lot of characteristics from all the other street courses that we go to in terms of, like, pavements, certain type of corners.
“A work in progress. Probably not a lot of space to work with. I know everybody is doing their best. It’s a challenging track, I can tell you that.”
The session was delayed 10 minutes at the start due to a cleanup from the Indy NXT practice prior as well as a power surge in the monitors. Then, once we got green for the first time since 1992 on the downtown Detroit streets, it only took 16 minutes before the first red flag to fall for Agustin Canapino in Turn 1.
Nine minutes later, Graham Rahal needed assistance in Turn 3. 15 minutes after that, Marcus Ericsson stalled in the Turn 1 runoff. Five minutes later, it was Scott McLaughlin’s turn in Turn 1. Seven minutes later, it was Alex Palou stopping in the Turn 3 runoff.
We’d go green for the next 15 minutes before Pato O’Ward brought out the red flag late for going off course in Turn 8.
That’s first, second, third and sixth in points bringing out red flags but several other cars either spinning or going into the runoffs too.
In that messy session, Colton Herta led a majority of it at 1:04.3840-seconds in his No. 26 Dallara-Honda. He did so on the primary tires. However, with about 10 minutes remaining in the session, most drivers elected to try out the green side walled alternate tires.
O’Ward (1:03.0773-seconds) shot to the top of the speed chart on his first lap on them and the rest followed suit with this lap being P1 on the day. O’Ward, had three straight Top-5 finishes in the final three Belle Isle races in Detroit including a win in 2021. He has also been fast on street courses in 2023 as well. The Arrow McLaren Racing driver qualified third in St. Pete and sixth in Long Beach.
“Yeah, we rolled off strong. I think there’s a lot of first times, first time here, first time with the double pit lane. I think that’s going to be interesting in the race with the blend line where it is. I think the pit exit is going to be something to look out for in both qualifying, like impeding. I don’t know if they’re going to mark it as impeding but it definitely gets you out of place if someone is sent there while you’re on a flyer.”
Scott Dixon was P2 (1:03.1759-seconds) in his No. 9 Dallara-Honda. He set that lap inside of two minutes remaining in the session. Dixon qualified ninth in St. Pete and fifth in Long Beach.
Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood (1:03.5140-seconds) was third in his No. 27 Dallara-Honda while points leader, Alex Palou (1:03.6388-seconds) was fourth in his No. 10 Dallara-Honda.
“I mean, it was honestly less carnage than I expected,” Kirkwood said. “I think a lot of people went off in the runoffs, but no one actually hit the wall, I don’t think, which actually surprised me. Hats off to them for keeping it clean, including myself.
“No, it was pretty good. It was quite a bit less grip than I think everyone expected. Maybe a little bit more bumpy down into turn three than everyone expected. But overall they did a good job between the two manufacturers. I’m sure everyone had pretty much the same we were able to base everything off of. We felt pretty close to maximum right away.
“I think usually we’re a little better on street courses. I feel like we made improvements this year. We can do better.
“But it’s okay to start. I think everyone had a good session, everyone learned stuff. We were reasonably quick. Yeah, we’ll roll into tomorrow with that in mind, obviously tune on it.”
A pair of Arrow McLaren Racing drivers in Felix Rosenqvist (1:03.6929-seconds) and Alexander Rossi (1:03.7277-seconds) rounded out the top six.
“It’s very mechanical grip track,” said Rosenqvist. “Pretty much every corner is first gear except for the one leading onto the back straight. You’re just kind of, like Kyle said, the car is always doing something weird. It’s dancing around, bouncing around, and at the same time you’re trying to keep it off the wall. It’s busy from the driver’s standpoint. It’s very busy. It’s probably going to catch people out in the race I think.
“I think it will be really interesting to see going into the hairpin ’cause I was never really close to another car. But to try to make a pass, like how that’s going to work with a bump there and braking. It’s going to be for sure entertaining.
“Yeah, new challenge. I think the goal is to roll out and see how it is, try to make it good. As Pato said, we rolled off pretty strong. We’re definitely in the window.”
Rossi got inside the top five in the final five minutes with a time of 1:03.3630-seconds before it was taken away after the session concluded. Rossi was runner-up in Belle Isle a year ago and has said that he’s hopeful to get inside of the 5th or 6th rows in qualifying. He started 12th in St. Pete and 11th in Long Beach. 4 of his 6 starts have been between 10th-12th.
McLaren Taking The Fight to Ganassi/Andretti
The session was messy, but McLaren had 3 of the top 6 speeds overall. Pato O’Ward was a mistake away in Q2 at Long Beach in April from a potential pole. He was also an engine misfire away from a win in St. Pete.
McLaren had all three drivers in the top five in the GMR Grand Prix last month including two on the podium. Alexander Rossi enters having scored a third place run in that GMR Grand Prix and top five in last week’s Indy 500.
I think they can snag a win on Sunday if they continue this showing the rest of the weekend.
Ganassi/Andretti Still Strong Though
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.
On Friday, Ganassi went 2-4-11-14 and Andretti 3-8-17-23.
That’s four of the top eight between these teams and if you count McLaren’s three, that’s 7 of the top 8.
Penske…Off?
With 7 of the top 8 speeds belonging to Gansssi, Andretti and McLaren, that left Penske next up in the pecking order. However, they weren’t too far off. Will Power (1:03.7439-seconds) was 7th. Scott McLaughlin (1:03.9518-seconds) was 10th. Josef Newgarden (1:04.4376-seconds) was 15th putting all three Penske’s in the top 15 and right behind those four.
They have some speed to gain, but not much.
Where’s Grosjean?
With Andretti being so good on these tracks now, it was shocking to see Grosjean last among the four drivers in 23rd. He was on the pole in St. Pete and third in Long Beach. He should have won that season opener in St. Pete and runner-up in Long Beach.
That’s why to see him where he was, well it was frankly puzzling.
Did the Month of May lose his momentum?
Grosjean came into the month fifth in points after a pair of runner-up finishes in the two races prior. However, starting spots of 18th and 19th and finishes of 11th and 30th pushed him down to eighth in points and a loss of all that positive momentum.
Now, after Friday, I wonder if he can stop the spiral.
Foyt/ECR’s Momentum Lost?
Speaking of momentum loss, did a street course halt Ed Carpenter Racing’s and AJ Foyt Racing’s? Coming into the Indy 500, they had no laps led and some bad results. Rinus VeeKay entered the Indy 500 18th in points. He finished 21st, 11th, 26th, 16th and 13th respectively. Conor Daly was 24th. He finished 14th, 20th, 23rd, 25th and 19th himself.
Then, AJ Foyt Racing saw both cars make the Shootout while both ECR cars finished the ‘500 in the top 10.
Benjamin Pedersen became the second fastest rookie qualifier ever and was name Rookie of the Year honors. Santino Ferrucci finished a close third.
Conor Daly and Rinus VeeKay finished 8th and 10th respectively.
On Friday in Detroit though, ECR was P20-P22 in practice and Foyt P25-P27. It seems like that momentum has been lost too.
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