PLYMOUTH, Wisc — For the first time in nearly three decades, the 4.014-mile Road America racing surface was recently repaved this offseason. The thing is, it wasn’t ready however until the first week of May to even be used. So, this track was truly a green one coming into Sunday’s race.

As a result, Road America has been a tough one to figure out thus far. As usual, the repair has caused Road America to become a one groove track and if you get outside of the racing line, you’ve become a passenger. 

“This track’s terrible; when you go off, they do a terrible job here so they need to pick up their game,” Power said. “You go off, you break your back every time; done it a couple of times this weekend so they need a kick in the butt.”

Part of the reason for this weekend’s incidents was with this being qualifying day and the margin between advancing to the next round and not coming down to the slimmest of times, you have to get everything out of your car each lap. That’s why in Saturday morning’s practice and again qualifying this afternoon, you have to push the limits for which is also why we saw so many drivers getting wide in the corners. 

With a new surface, the cars are traveling at a faster rate of speed. Because of that, you’ll be carrying more speed into the entry of corners. If you miss the mark doing so, you better find a way to spin it around before you make contact with the wall or tire barriers.

“It’s just a very strange feeling, at least for me, inside the car,” said Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America (1 p.m. ET, USA, INDYCAR Radio Network) pole sitter, Colton Herta. “I’m sure it’s different team to team and whatnot. For me it’s a very strange feeling at the wheel. I think it shows by how many guys have been kind of trickling off the track, just having weird spins.

“For me, it’s been one of the tougher tracks to get ahold of. It’s almost like there’s very little feedback from the wheel, so you’re seeing guys spin, just don’t really know it’s going to happen, which was the way it was for me a few times.”

Herta spun multiple times on Saturday including in the second round. He did so on purpose he said because he knew he got in too hot in Turn 1 and had to do something.

“Because it’s a lot tougher when you hit something,” said Herta on the spin. “When you just spin, go off, have a spin, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

As far as why, it’s because in last week’s test and all the practice and qualifying thus far, everyone is using the same line and building up rubber in those spots. As a result, there’s no rubber or grip outside the racing line and it’s creating chaos.

“I think obviously the following will be different to what it’s been in the last few years just because offline, the balance, the car just turns upside down if you go offline,” second place starter, Pato O’Ward, said on if he expected chaos for Sunday’s 55 lap race.

“I think that’s obviously going to make passing tricky. It will make guys trying to get a bit of cleaner air on at least half of their wing. There is a penalty to pay for that. It doesn’t seem to pay off yet.

“Yeah, I see it being there’s maybe a lane and a half of, like, very high grip. But you go off of that, and it’s like ice. I think that’s also why there’s just been a lot of excursions. You miss it by just a tad, and it’s like, What happened to the car?

“To extract the lap time, especially now with the new pavement, like there is so much more grip, but it’s only in the line. You have to commit so much into the corners where a lot of the times it kind of bites once you’re already committed. I think that’s why you see a lot of spins, a lot of guys going off, just a lot of random snaps. It makes you feel like there’s unlimited amounts of grip, but there’s obviously limits to everything.”

Herta agreed.

“It’s very treacherous off the line,” he said. “It’s going to make it interesting to see if guys are going to defend into five or if guys are going to try to pass and it’s going to happen.

“We’re braking so late now at all those corners, braking is probably 175 feet before turn feet, 180 to 60 miles an hour. The grip is insane right now that the track is producing.

“But like Pato said, it’s only the line. Once you get half a tire width off of it, you can’t recover it because you’re going so fast.”

In saying that, everyone expected chaos in Detroit and it never materialized. Herta mentioned that the more laps that they run, the more they get used to it as well.

“But, yeah, it’s a feeling that seems to be going away the more and more we run. Obviously the speed is there in the track. They did a great job with the repaving. Super smooth. Obviously the more rubber that goes down, we’re just going quicker and quicker and quicker.”