DETROIT, Mich — “Belle Isle I’d say is easier. There is a lot more fast corners in Belle Isle. Here there’s really one, and that is turn two. It really isn’t that fast,” said Pato O’Ward.

The 2021 Belle Isle race winner says that he misses the 2.35-mile street circuit that resides just east to where the NTT INDYCAR SERIES will race this weekend.

It was unveiled back in November 2021, that beginning in 2023, the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix race weekend in the Motor City would be moving away from Belle Isle Park and back into the streets of downtown Detroit. This weekend, we finally meet that move.

Is this a wise move though?

“Like Belle Isle turn one and two, the last corner, those are fricking fast corners to be in a street course, with a lot of bumps. I’m a very big fan of Belle Isle,” O’Ward continued. “I was very sad to see it leave the calendar. “

In the final years of the race on the island in the middle of the Detroit River, Belle Isle delivered. Last year’s race was as good as any of the previous 29.

However, maybe change was also needed too.

I mean the first time there ever was a race in the Motor City was in 1982 and it was on these streets of downtown. That was for a F1 race. That lasted until 1988. In 1989, CART came to town to replace F1 and they raced on the street course in downtown for three years.

A year later, CART moved from downtown to Belle Isle and would remain there through 2001. They didn’t go back in 2002 and wouldn’t again until Roger Penske got involved. Thank the Super Bowl at Ford Field for that.

Penske, was on the Super Bowl XL committee and strived to bring an INDYCAR race back to his hometown in 2007. That worked. Then came the economy drop out which greatly affected the Detroit area.

INDYCAR stopped going again in 2009 but returned in 2012. With the current contract ending at the end of 2022, Penske Corp, who not only run the series but also promotes the race, is wanting a fresh start and that’s to move the race back downtown.

Is this the best move for this race moving forward?

“It’s a different track. It’s a new track. It’s going to be a great event,” said O’Ward. “I mean, I feel like Belle Isle has a lot of very different corners that get the circuit together. Here we’ve got nine corners, one chicane, a lot of very similar kind of first speed corners I’d say, one hairpin, yeah.”

Despite racing on the streets of Detroit before, think of this weekend’s edition as an inaugural event. This is a completely different layout and one that these drivers have no experience on.

It’s 1.645-miles compared to 2.35-miles on the other track. This one has nine turns and much shorter. The track is much slower than Belle Isle because of that which left many wondering, how great of a race will this layout truly put on.

“It kind of is low grip bumpy,” said Kyle Kirkwood. “The car is always doing weird things all the way through the corners.”

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 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).

“It’s definitely a unique track,” said the quickest driver on Friday, 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.”

We saw several red flags during Friday’s practice for which four the top six in points brought one out. We also witnessed 19 local red flags too.

Long Beach winner, Kirkwood (1:03.5140-seconds) was third quickest in his No. 27 Dallara-Honda on Friday 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.”

Felix Rosenqvist says that this track will be a technical one. With being so slow, most turns are low gear turns. A bumpy track, a slow track and one that lack grips will make this difficult to maneuver on Sunday.

“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.”

Turn 1 could be a big problematic area at the start. The tight left hander doesn’t leave much room, if any, for side-by-side action. With 27 cars rolling off in 13 rows of 2 with the final row producing a single car, I don’t know how they’ll come out of the other side all in tact.

“Yeah, I really don’t see a lot of opportunity without it creating carnage,” said Kyle Kirkwood. “Like you can pass into one, you can pass into eight, you might be able to pass into five, but you’re not going to be able to go double file through there. I think the outside guy is going to go into the wall in a few of places that people will try and pass, to be honest.”

The racing surface is one thing. Pit road is another.

Nashville has the bridge, Long Beach has the fountain, Detroit has the split pit lane. The pit lane area is an interesting one here with half the field pitting to the left and the other half to the right. They’ll exit in the same lane though.

That’s why this is going to be a fascinating thing to watch on Sunday, because of the nature of having two-sided pit stops as well as on a track to where passing will be challenging, you’re not going to want to give an inch or a position, so everyone is going to be highly aggressive and not giving up an inch exiting pit road.

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Is Detroit The Best Spot For Race After Indy?

This is one that’s been debated for a while. Does going from Belle Isle to inland to the streets of downtown Detroit in the race after Indy hurt all the momentum gained from the Month of May. I mean, it’s no secret, the biggest peak of the annual INDYCAR season is the Month of May. You get the biggest attended race with the most viewership all month.

The big key is, how can you minimize the drop off going into June? You’re not going to keep all the casual fans. That’s not expected. But, how do you keep some of them around and what’s the percentage that you’d like to retain as new fans moving forward.

That’s why the spot after Indy is so key which is why the question being asked is, is Detroit the best place to go to?

The race after Indy for years has been on network ABC or NBC. Last year, it was on USA. Ratings too a nose dive because of that. Now, it’s back on network NBC.

This year will also mark the 11th time in the last 12 years that Belle Isle and/or Detroit has served as the race after Indy. The only exception was 2020 when Indy was moved to August, Belle Isle left off the schedule and World Wide Technology Raceway as the new venue post Indy.

But, since Belle Isle was brought back in 2012, Detroit has annually served as the race at the Indy 500. Prior to that, it was Texas doing so in a two-year reign with the final year (2011) being two weeks after Indy, before Milwaukee was long as the race in that spot.

Most want Milwaukee back, and there’s rumors of that occurring. So, as the race moves to the downtown streets this year, is this race the best one served after Indy or is it somewhere else?

Penske selfishly would love to keep Detroit in this place on the schedule. It’s a marquee position. Plus, he gets three straight races under his umbrella since he controls the Indianapolis Motor Speedway now too.

But, if he takes the promoter hat off and the series leadership hat on, does he still feel this way or does he visit a new race after Indy?

If you go down the road of a change of venue for the week after Indy, you have to have a better option. What’s the better option to keep the momentum going and force the casual fans to want to tune in or even head to the gates to go to the race?