INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time since 1991, last Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix was run on the city streets of downtown Detroit. It was a back to their roots type of decision that the NTT INDYCAR SERIES pondered two years ago and saw their plans come to full fruition this past weekend.

The first time there ever was a race in the Motor City was actually in 1982 and it was on these same city streets of downtown. That was for a F1 race though. 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.

Detroit being awarded the 2005 Super Bowl helped bring it back.

Roger Penske was on the Super Bowl XL committee and strived to bring an INDYCAR race back to his hometown. In 2007, that worked. Unfortunately, it was short lived. The economy dropping off greatly affected the Detroit area and the businesses around it.

INDYCAR stopped going again in 2009. Penske once again helped it return in 2012.

With knowing that their current contract ended at the end of 2022 though, Penske Corp, was witnessing first-hand how well the inaugural race weekend in Nashville went in 2021 and thought, why not?

Belle Isle had reached its limit on what you could do and what better way to welcome back everyone to Detroit than just that, racing IN Detroit.

“Michael (Montri) and I had the idea following Nashville in 2021 to create something for downtown Detroit, if possible,” said Penske Corp President and Chairman, Bud Denker.

Again, they had basically 22 months at that point to get this not only off the ground, but started in general.

“To think about putting an event downtown within that period of time, for approvals and construction and road repairs and engineering studies, the fact that there are three entities that had to fix the road. Jefferson Avenue is owned by the state of Michigan, Atwater is owned by General Motors, the rest of it is owned by the city. The complexity could take you a year plus. We did it in a matter of months because of the cooperation we had with all these entities, organizations,” Denker continued.

Montri was impressed with the speed and how quickly everything evolved. He was even more impressed at how quickly and receptive the community was by embracing this move back downtown to the city streets.

“The mayor gave it a pretty quick thumbs up, we started immediately talking to the businesses and the neighborhoods, the citizens of Detroit,” he said. “We talked to thousands of them literally in a very short time, four, six weeks.

“What I was amazed by was how excited they all were about us coming back downtown. It was all positive. There was no hesitation, there was no negative. It was just, We’re so excited you guys are coming back downtown.”

Once they got through that planning stage and the green light to move from Belle Isle to the streets of Detroit for 2023, the worry became, how will this proposed layout race? There was excitement, but you have to perform now at this level.

That was even a worry as late as race morning.

On Track Action Far Exceeded Expectations

Coming into Sunday’s 100 lap race, the prospects of what we’d witness wasn’t met with very high expectations. In two practice sessions during the course of the race weekend, we witnessed 11 red flags. It was honestly rare to see a lap turned without someone either spinning, getting into the run off or even crashing.

Denker noticed.

“I was afraid we were going to have more of those frankly based on what we saw in the first practice,” he admitted.

Most were thinking that Sunday’s race would look a lot like the carnage that we’ve seen the last two years on the streets of Nashville. After all, that’s where this race was derived from.

The first two years of the Music City Grand Prix each saw nine cautions in both races. 9 cautions for 33 laps in 2021 and 9 for 36 laps in 2022. 

“I think it’s going to race similar to Nashville,” second place starter, Scott McLaughlin, said on Saturday.

“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 said that this race would be somewhat similar to Nashville and the last man standing is the one who gets the victory.

“Honestly, I agree with all the drivers, or most of the drivers. It’s too tight for INDYCARs,” pole sitter Alex Palou admitted. “It’s too short for INDYCARs. There’s too much traffic. It’s too bumpy.”

In saying that, McLaughlin also said to be careful what you say. He defended his bosses venture back to the downtown Detroit streets.

“We’ll be all right. With the track, there’s been a lot of noise I’ve seen in Twitter, from other drivers and stuff,” he said. “At the end of the day this is a new track, new complex. I think what everyone has done to get this going, like the vibe is awesome. Belle Isle was getting old. We had to do it.

“Yeah, first-year problems. It’s always going to happen. It’s just going to get better from here. The racetrack for the drivers is a blast. We don’t even know how it races yet. Everyone is making conclusions already. They probably just need to relax and wait for tomorrow. I just had to get that in. Sorry.”

He was right.

No crashes in warmup. Just four crashes in the race and only one was for a multi-car crash.

We saw 10 lead changes among seven different drivers and a race that looked nothing like Nashville.

189 on-track passes, 142 were for position, which equaled Long Beach. St. Pete had 170 on-track passes. Detroit had 189. St. Pete had 128 for position, Detroit had 142.

“Pretty good race,” race officials noted.

If you wanted to pass, you could. It was 2 hours of action-packed racing that most felt would be a display of chaos.

343k tuned into the race last year, well over 1-million did this year on NBC. Approx. 20k paid admission to get in and that doesn’t even count the free areas. Belle Isle could fit around 10-15k per day max to where this pretty much doubled that.

“We had more grip than I expected,” said Palou. “The track kept evolving with our sessions and with other series, like Indy NXT and Trans-Am cars. You could see the driving lane — it was black, all full of rubber. That allowed for some more overtaking. I was able to pass some cars that were a lap down or on the back. I was able to pass Will (Power). He was able to pass me, as well. Was able to pass (Alexander) Rossi, as well.

“I thought there was going to be zero passes, honestly, without a crash. So, yeah, it was better than I expected. Obviously we had quite a lot of yellows, but everywhere you go, if there’s a street course, you’re going to have a lot of drama.”

Second place finisher, Will Power never doubted that this would be a success.

“Yeah, I did,” he said if he thought this would be a great race. “I said it coming up the elevator, It’s a pretty good race from the outside. Some pretty big moves in there from people. I can’t imagine what it was like back in the pack. Looked like it was a great race.”

Third place finisher, Felix Rosenqvist agreed.

“Yeah, that was an awesome race,” he said. “I have to say, I was really impressed what GM and Chevy have done to make this happen. There was some criticism to start the weekend, but it all played out really nicely. I have to say it was a fun racetrack, it raced really well.

“That long straightaway, we picked a low downforce option and we were able to pass on cars at the end of the straight. Yeah, it was awesome. I thought it wasn’t going to be a lot of passing, but it raced super well. Big thanks to GM and Chevy.

“I think the track really came alive during the race. It seems like this track, every session the track goes more slippery. As you do more laps it gets grippier and grippier, more than other street courses.

“I thought during the race it really came alive. It was cool. The steering was heavy, you’re carrying a lot of speed. Even on full tanks, we were doing like qualifying lap times.

“This is cool, you’re doing some good corner speeds. You have to be so focused. Bouncing between the walls, it’s insane how much effort goes into it mentally to do a hundred laps out there, especially when you have to race other guys around you.

“I think it was a cool challenge and awesome show for everyone.”

Power says that he thinks next year if they resurface the second half of the straight you would have more passing. Denker and track officials agreed and even during the race, already had the mindset on how can we make this even better.

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No Significant Changes To Date/Track/Distance

Three things that won’t change is the race distance, the track layout itself and the race date. All are the way that they are by design.

 “I think the long green flag stretches there for a while were good quality racing. I don’t think it was because people were dialing back their fuel situation,” they said. “I didn’t hear a lot of saving on fuel. Didn’t hear a lot of people coasting.

“I saw a lot of guys using their push to passes up early to keep position. I don’t like fuel saving races. No one does, right? First lap of some races, you dial it back. I did not want that.

“We talked about should we go 110 laps, 100 laps, 90 laps. The fact is, you got a track that was doing 63- to 64-second laps. That’s good for the fans because the fans got to see the cars a hundred times, versus Belle Isle, 70 times.

“No reason to change it next year, I don’t think.”

The date is one that some wonder if they should move around. The first race after Indy is always a big one. It’s why Milwaukee always worked. Could Detroit?

“Here is the reason why we have to have it in Michigan, that date,” said Denker. “Michigan schools close this coming week, this week. Our schools close this week, guess where people go? North, am I right? They head north. Those sponsor chalets, if I had the race next weekend, they would be empty. They wouldn’t get the guests there that they wanted.

“Labor Day, we had the first two races in Belle Isle Labor Day. Couldn’t get people to be here because they were all up north. That weekend is mostly determined by us because of getting our sponsors to have here people here locally still here before they head up north next week. That’s the biggest reason.”

What about some redesigning work? Some wondered about a redesign in some areas.

That won’t happen. Denker elaborated on why.

“Based upon the fact you have less than a 1.7-mile track, a straightaway that’s seven-eighths of a mile. All the characteristics of the criteria,” he said. “You can’t disrupt business. In the middle of our racetrack, you have an international crossing. Find me a place in the world with that. You have a world headquarters of General Motors. You’re not going to find that.

“You have to continue commerce. We didn’t disrupt any businesses. No businesses were closed down because of our event. Think about that in a city like Detroit.

“We are where we are because once you go anywhere east, then you’re in a neighborhood. You guys drove through the neighborhoods to get here. We can’t go anywhere west because of the tunnel. We can’t go anywhere north because then you’re in business.

“Yeah, we have what we have. At one time we were going to go all the way down Atwater and turn on Brevard. Too much of a square. Our issue was finding a pit lane. The original pit lane was around Atwater Street, but we couldn’t fit it in there, so we did the dual pit lane.

“Yeah, we are where we are.”

One idea was going through the tunnel, going down to the riverfront a while longer. However, logically, they couldn’t do it. They couldn’t find a place after the tunnel to have the cars go back the other way through the tunnel.”

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“I think we changed a lot of perceptions of our city”

The big thing with an event that was deemed as successful as this one was that it put Detroit on a world stage.

“The other thing was we had to put on a good show for the city and state,” Denker said. “Anybody that was downtown this weekend saw three things: a clean city, a safe city and a very beautiful city. This riverfront is just amazing.

“I think we changed a lot of perceptions for our city. 200 countries watching this place potentially. Put on a great show. This guy here and his team of 15 people put the ideas together for what happened today. I couldn’t be more proud of Michael and his entire team.”

The big thing of moving from Belle Isle to Detroit is the fact that you bring more exposure and revenue to the city itself. Belle Isle was kind of just cornered in its own little area.

“The fact of the matter is most of the people that come to our race are within a four-county area. Just like Indianapolis, one state for them,” Denker said of the advantage of being downtown.

“I think the fact is Belle Isle you came down, you parked in the same parking deck where the sponsors parked that had been there for 13 years, get in a bus, come back, get in their car, they go home.

“Here you had to park somewhere. You had to come downtown. Took the people mover, Q line, all these different places and you came downtown. That was the difference for us.

“Belle Isle in my mind, 50 miles away from Detroit in some respects because we didn’t see the benefit the city would get. We saw the benefit this time because of how busy it was. You saw it. You were staying here at a hotel somewhere and saw it.

“I was very happy about that. We’ll do another economic study. The one we did before, the economic study, was done before we announced this free idea.”

It was $77 million vs. $58-million to Belle Isle.

“Those things, you got to dig into those things to see how much of it is real. We’ve all seen these studies before. But we know we made a big impact on the city? Why? Because the hotels were all filled up. They weren’t filled up when Belle Isle was there.”