Rivalries
This has been a great season to being a documentary. We’ve seen plenty of on track fireworks displayed thus far. Between Scott McLaughlin vs. Romain Grosjean (3 parts), Grosjean vs. Will Power, Power vs. Scott Dixon, Power vs. Road America, Pato O’Ward vs. Dixon and O’Ward vs. Marcus Ericsson, the 2023 season has had plenty to talk about.
McLaughlin and Grosjean are friends off the track. On the track, the respect is mutual as well. However, three times this season already they’ve had some intense on track battles. The first coming in the season opener on the streets of St. Pete. McLaughlin exited the pits for the final time on Lap 71. Grosjean was charging hard to catch him and get by for the lead as he had already pit for his final time.
The two met in the middle and with Grosjean looking for the lead on McLaughlin, neither gave an inch and both collided with 29 laps-to-go effectively ending their chances on the spot.
The second battle came after the final stop in Barber a month later for which McLaughlin went hard on Grosjean for the top spot. Both were on opposite pit strategies and both were 1-2 coming to the final stint.
Luckily this time, crises was averted but it has sparked a new rivalry.
In Detroit, McLaughlin blamed Grosjean for running into him on track and could have potentially ended his day.
O’Ward vs. Dixon sparked in Long Beach with the two clashing on track. They disagreed on the blame. Dixon felt O’Ward’s maneuver was never going to work. O’Ward feels like it did and called Dixon, a “baby,” in the process.
A month later, O’Ward had a run-in with Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate of Ericsson with eight laps remaining in the Indy 500. O’Ward felt Ericsson squeezed him and said the next time he’s in that situation, Ericsson is coming with him into the wall.
Then you have the lately spat in Road America to where Will Power was pissed at everyone.
Power used both hands to show his displeasure with Scott Dixon following a frightening practice crash on qualifying morning. He later lambasted Dixon after failing to make it out of the first round of qualifying that afternoon. Dixon was just the tip of the iceberg in Power’s rough day in Road America.
“Just pissed for what (Scott) Dixon did this morning. It’s ruined our weekend,” Power said after qualifying a disappointing 22nd.
Power’s No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet for Team Penske was rebuilt between the two sessions, but due to just a brief break between them, they just didn’t have enough time to dial the car in the way that it needed to be to advance out of the first round.
“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.”
Then, he took issue with Romain Grosjean.
Just prior to he and Dixon tangling in Turn 12, Power was riding behind Grosjean on track. Grosjean, moved to his right to block Power who had a run on him entering Canada Corner.
“And Grosjean is a piece of crap,” he proclaimed. “He needs a punch in the face.”
Rahal Misses The ‘500….But Gets Back In
Graham Rahal knew the night before Bump Day that it was likely he or good friend Jack Harvey going home for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500. He figured Christian Lundgaard’s car would be good enough to solidly get in, and he did. Sting Ray Robb had pace and like Rahal thought, he did.
Harvey didn’t. Rahal was just a tad bit better. For much of the final 40 or so minutes, it was a quiet track while Harvey’s crew made some adjustments to get in back in. The first attempt was to cool the engine down. The second attempt wasn’t good enough. Without much time to do anything other than change tires again, Harvey went back out as the gun sounded.
Harvey on his final lap, was just a tad quick enough to bump his way in and pushing Rahal out. It was a massive storyline.
30 years after his dad, Bobby Rahal, was bumped out of the 1993 Indy 500 field, Graham Rahal was in 2023 as well.
.007 mph. That’s all the difference was between Rahal being in the field of next Sunday’s 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 and not.
Rahal was resigned to the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be in the field. Then came Monday. While working the pits for Lundgaard, Harvey and Katherine Legge to be of an assistance, Legge ran over Stefan Wilson during the race practice taking both into the Turn 1 SAFER barrier. Unfortunately for Wilson, he was injured.
Rahal was tabbed as his replacement and Honda obliged to let Rahal race a Chevrolet.
Newgarden Goes Into The Stands Following Indy Win
For Josef Newgarden, his victory in the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 was a long time coming. It was one that almost seemed like it would never come. As the years clocked by, another winless Month of May would ensue.
For the next American hero, the one thing missing was an Indy 500 win.
“I’ll be honest, it’s annoying,” Newgarden said of showing up every year and answering questions about not winning this race. “It’s been terrible. It is mentally draining to be here for three weeks and just to know that you really only have one opportunity, and it comes down to today, and that’s the day you’ve got to be perfect and great and everything has got to work out.
“So you spend all this time and effort, and it’s really just a mental grind to work through that. The more you’ve been here, the more it’s not worked out, the more that grind really starts to gnaw at you.
“I don’t necessarily subscribe to the fact that if you don’t win the 500 your career is a failure, but I think a lot of people really view this race and this championship with that lens, that the 500 stands alone, and that if you’re not able to capture one, then the career really is a failure in a lot of ways.
“It’s impossible to not recognize that or to absorb that from people when you’re here, and I just didn’t know if circumstance would ever work out where it would really come to be where we could win the race.
“I just said — especially after ’19, where I did have an opportunity to win the race and we fell short, I said, if I’m ever in a position again to win this race, I’m not coming back with a top-5 result. I just don’t care what happens. You come here to win the race, and we’re going to do that.”
Two series championships and 26 wins. The only thing missing to keeping Newgarden from becoming that next breakout mainstream star was Indy success.
In 12 prior starts, he had just three top five finishes. None of which were truly ones to where he was a legitimate threat to win.
However, being a Team Penske driver, eventually it was going to come, right?
He was eighth in 2018, fourth in 2019 and fifth in 2020.
The problem is, after Will Power won in 2018 and Simon Pagenaud in 2019, Penske’s Indy success faltered. They had been passed up by not only Ed Carpenter Racing here, but Arrow McLaren Racing too.
Newgarden finished 12th from a 21st starting spot in 2021. He was only 13th after starting 14th last year. It wasn’t just him that was off. So were his teammates.
Power started 22nd and finished 14th in 2020, started 32nd and finished 30th in 2021 and 11th to 15th last year. Two total laps led.
Scott McLaughlin’s two starts saw him qualify 17th and 26th and finish 20th and 29th. Zero laps led. .
When Pagenaud was with the team in 2020 and 2021, he qualified 25th and 26th respectively and finished 22nd and third. 17 total laps led.
Coming into this year though. This was supposed to be different. No more failures here. Roger Penske got the keys to this place in 2020 and they’ve led 19 laps since. This could stay that way another year, right?
After a decent week of practice, qualifying went awry.
Power qualified 12th. McLaughlin was in 14th and Newgarden 17th. Nothing appeared to be changing. With all four McLaren’s up front and Rinus VeeKay scoring his fourth straight top four starting spot, Penske’s looked to be slumping.
Heck, even AJ Foyt Racing had both cars starting in front of the three Penske’s on Sunday.
If Newgarden was ever going to win. This had to be the year. Sam Hanks and Tony Kanaan each won in their 12th Indy 500 starts. No one else has gone winless longer before taking a trip to victory lane.
Penske now though, I’d say has figured it out. It was a day that you could pass here if you had a good car. Penske’s said all along they had good race cars and boy did they ever. With great fuel mileage, Power and Newgarden were both in the top 10 after the initial stint. After the second stint, they were knocking on the door of a top five.
In the second half, there they were. Newgarden was in the top five and going to be a force from this point forward.
He was aggressive at the right times and gave Penske his 19th Indy 500 win but most importantly, his first. This is a massive win for INDYCAR. This is what they needed. They have been waiting for someone like Newgarden to win this race and now they got him.
“Obviously I’ve never had the honor of winning this race. I was in awe of sitting next to my boss Roger Penske and realizing this is his 19th. So it was very special,” says Newgarden.
“To win this race is indescribable. I think being at this event is indescribable. Someone has to come and see it and be a part of it to understand what it is really all about, and I’ve always wanted the honor to win this race because I wanted to go in the crowd if it was ever possible because I know what the energy is like here in Indianapolis.
“So to me, it was an unbelievable finish to be able to be here with the team and do that.
“I’m a little out of words. I apologize that I’m running out of steam here. It’s been a lot.”
Newgarden stopped his car on the front stretch, hopped out and ran under the fence and into the stands to celebrate with the fans. It’s something that he had planned for years and was finally able to do so.
It’s a moment that will be discussed for decades to come.
Airborne Cars
That’s something that’s never good. We witnessed two in the season opener on the streets of St. Pete. A first lap crash saw the track blocked but rookie Benjamin Pedersen didn’t get the memo of that and came barreling into the fray. He t-boned Devlin DeFrancesco for which saw DeFrancesco’s No. 29 Dallara-Honda raised airborne. Later on in the race, Jack Harvey found the tire barriers and Kyle Kirkwood had no where to go but over the top launching his car as well.
Then, at Indy, Kirkwood hit Felix Rosenqvist after the Swede got into the Turn 1 wall and was skating out of control at the south end of the track. Kirkwood again, had no where to go and his left rear tire hit Rosenqvist’s right front. That launched Kirkwood upside down and his tire over the catch fencing.
Luckily, the tire hit a car in the parking lot and didn’t get into the stands.
A week later, Kirkwood was ran over by Callum Ilott at the start of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix which sent Ilott’s car airborne.
We saw Will Power and Scott Dixon have a frightening crash in Road America, then Simon Pagenaud barrel rolling in practice at Mid-Ohio and a day later Marcus Ericsson going over the top of Felix Rosenqvist at the start.
Fortunately, no injures were suffered in any of these incidents.
Race Endings
Between Romain Grosjean vs Scott McLaughlin with 29 to go at St. Pete to Pato O’Ward engine backfiring with three to go to Texas with O’Ward vs Josef Newgarden to Barber of Grosjean vs McLaughlin Part II to the dramatic final laps of the Indy 500 to Colton Herta’s pit debacle at Road America, we’ve been treated to some wild endings this season so far.
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