Pit Cycles
With such a narrow track and one true passing zone on it, it’s going to make Sunday’s race very much one that rewards track position. However, with that said, that’s going to make pit cycles interesting too.
Doing the undercut is a move that a lot may try. You also avoid the “danger zone” by doing so and if you luck out and get a caution while trying this strategy, you’re set to flip the field.
However, sometimes the overcut works too if you’re minimizing the tire fall off over the course of that said run.
I think the alternate tires are going to fall off over the course of a stint, so doing an overcut while on the greens may not be a wise move. But, doing so on primaries could be open so long as you start the plan early on in the run to save your tires for a longer stint.
That’s why pit cycles and if cautions fly during them are something I’ll be keeping my eye on.
Pit Road
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.
I think we could see some road clogging crashes at pit exit.
Carnage
Detroit is being compared to Nashville and unfortunately, that’s not a good thing. In the young two year history of the Music City Grand Prix, both races featured nine cautions in both instances. 9 cautions for 33 laps in 2021 and 9 for 36 laps in 2022.
Second place starter, Scott McLaughlin, says that he expects Sunday’s race to look similar to that of Nashville.
“I think it’s going to race similar to Nashville,” he says.
“Everyone says we crash a lot in Nashville. I think it’s going to race very well. It’s just going to be up to us with the etiquette of the drivers to leave it up to us and figure it out along the way.”
Championship rival, Pato O’Ward agreed.
“I think it’ll be about survival,” O’Ward said. “Is it going to be as crazy as Nashville, I don’t know. Does it have the potential to be as crazy as Nashville? Absolutely.”
Scott Dixon says that this race will be somewhat similar to Nashville and the last man standing is the one who gets the victory.
St. Pete this year did too.
5 cautions for 26 laps that saw two cars get airborne and a visual of a junkyard that was shown at one point of the race.
So far, we have seen a lot of attrition here too this weekend.
11 red flags flew over the course of the pair of practice sessions so far with many drivers either finding the run off area or the concrete walls.
See, street course racing in INDYCAR has become the superspeedway type of carnage for the series as that style of racing is for NASCAR.
This track is narrow. This track is bumpy. This track has little grip levels. This track is small. This series is competitive. Mix together and you get what could be an expensive race for these teams.
“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 car is always doing weird things all the way through the corners.”
Pato O’Ward calls this track unique and a work in progress.
“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,” he notes.
“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.
“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.”
His teammate, Felix Rosenqvist, says that with this track being so slow, it’s less aero and more about mechanical grip instead.
“It’s very mechanical grip track. 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 this track is probably the most important in terms of damping. That’s pretty much the biggest tool we have to work with mechanical grip. Yeah, we don’t have, I don’t think I’ve even talked about aero today with my engineer, front wing, anything like that, because there’s only one corner where you really feel it.
“It’s a different challenge. I think these cars, they have quite a lot of downforce. Normally there’s a lot of emphasis on making the things efficient with downforce and drag and such things. But here it’s just like the more mechanical grip the better. It’s kind of back to go-kart days in that sense.”
With one part of the track being a .9-mile straightaway, and this track being 1.7-miles in general, you get a lot of low speed 90-degree turns for the rest of it.
That’s why Sunday’s race could be chaos.
Andretti’s Fight Back To The Front
Romain Grosjean starts third. He has the pace to remain there. However, his other three teammates are all coming from midpack.
Kyle Kirkwood was third fastest in both practices and had a pole contending No. 27 Dallara-Honda, however he found the concrete wall in Q2 leaving him with a 12th place starting spot.
Colton Herta also found the wall in Q1 and starts 24th. The young American crashed in this morning’s practice too.
Devlin DeFrancesco had the hardest crash of the weekend also in the morning practice and rebounded to qualify 17th.
The thing is, there’s no reason to freak out yet if you’re them. 7 of the last 13 street races were won by a spot outside the Fast 6 including 6 of the last 11 from a starting spot of 14th or worse.
They’re not out of the game just yet.
Andretti Autosport has been the top team on street courses this season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES too. 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.
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 on Sunday?
Penske vs. Ganassi
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.
Combined, they make up 12 of the top 13 spots in the starting lineup. However, who can win among them though on Sunday?
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.
Penske put all three cars in the top 7 of the starting lineup while Ganassi has all three of theirs in the top 6.
That’s 6 of the top 7 starting spots belonging to these teams and doing so after going 1-2 last Sunday in Indy. They’ve also won 5 of the 6 races this year and 39 of the 52 (75%) of the races with the Aeroscreen.
The thing is, 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.
Now, Penske may have joined the fray.
This is a massive race for Chevrolet with it taking place literally on their global headquarters’ doorstep.
“Look, it’s an important race for Chevy. World headquarters,” he said of the importance of this race being in Chevy’s backyard. “I’ve always said it, I always put more pressure on myself than anyone could put on me. It’s not just Chevy, it’s Roger Penske. Home race. A lot of partners here this weekend. I’m sponsored by a very big company that has a massive presence here, Gallagher, with Detroit Tigers. It’s a big town for them.”
Can Penske (Chevy) top Ganassi (Honda) for the win?
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