A Powerful Return to Road America

I'm going to start off by giving an unpopular opinion. I'm not as ravenous about Road America as it seems everyone else is, and this is one IndyCar track I have no desire to visit. Admittedly, it is a beautiful, technical track and I understand why the drivers love it. But it's a long 4-mile track. So if you go, you get to see cars speeding by you and then you wait 2 minutes to see them again. Not my personal preference--I also am not "one with nature" and I hate camping. To me, this race is better watched on TV than in person. With a long track, too, it's easy for a front-running car to just check out and not be challenged. And that's exactly what we saw for the majority of the race on Sunday. The last 7 laps after Conor Daly's crash brought out the yellow made up for what was a fairly unexciting race. Sorry, that's just my two cents and I know I'm in the minority. But as a whole, the race gave us some gritty, tense moments.

Three Stars of the Race

#1 Star: Josef Newgarden

I cannot imagine even lifting a bag of groceries after breaking my clavicle and a bone in my hand, much less driving a full 50-lap race. Newgarden dodged most of the questions about how much pain he was in, but he had to be hurting. What an unbelievable daring drive to race competitively and bring home a top-ten finish Sunday. He gave us some thrilling wheel-to-wheel action with Montoya in those closing laps. After seeing the crash replay from Texas again, I am so thankful that one of IndyCar's most charismatic, energetic personalities is first of all, still with us, and second of all, able to race a mere two weeks later. His car hit the wall cockpit first. I never want to see something like that again. Newgarden deserves respect for his incredible eighth place finish.

#2 Star: Tony Kanaan

TK nearly chased down Will Power on the last two laps, as his red tires proved to be much quicker than Will's blacks. Unfortunately for TK, Power had saved three push-to-passes for the end and was able to pull away. TK also had some good passes and (as usual) strong restarts to finish on the podium for the first time this year.

#3 Star: Will Power

I can't remember the last time I saw and heard so much emotion from Will, but he was clearly ecstatic about this victory. We were even treated to the famous victory leap after he climbed from the car, which I love. Despite missing the first race of the year, Power is a serious threat to Simon Pagenaud for the championship. He's back, and the rest of the field better take notice.

All due respect to Graham Rahal for a podium finish once again at Road America, and to Conor Daly, who was driving for a top-ten result before experiencing some sort of suspension failure.

Three Stories of the Race

#1 Story: Late Caution Leads to Great Late Racing

We can thank Conor Daly for bringing out that late full-course caution, because it bunched up the field and gave us some fantastic close racing for the last few laps, including some back-and-forth passing and a tight chase for the lead. Up to that point, we had seen some passing but not nearly at the level of excitement we witnessed late. At one point, Sage Karam actually tweeted a call for a competition caution to give the race more action. (Apparently there were approximately 130 passes on track so maybe the feeling of inaction was misguided.) Even with this caution though, Power dominated the race and was never really challenged for the lead.

#2 Story: Championship Swing

A disastrous day for Scott Dixon led to a big swing in the championship points. Dixon lost power early in the race and ended up finishing last, which was truly shocking. He lost four spots in the championship, though it could have been worse. Pagenaud's late engine problem also provided some drama and allowed Power to gain some more ground. Helio Castroneves now sits in second place despite not winning a race in two years. Pagenaud's 80-point lead shrunk minimally to 74 points, but any of the three guys behind him have a real chance to catch him.

#3 Story: Crowds Welcome IndyCar Back to Road America

The president of Road America said this was the biggest crowd he's ever seen at his track. Every driver, owner, and team strategist, when interviewed, commented on how great it was to see so many fans and how happy they were to come back to one of North America's greatest road courses. Clearly people have missed seeing IndyCars at Road America and one has to wonder why they went away in the first place and why it took so long to return. IndyCar is also now starting to achieve some date equity on its schedule, with the announcement that they will return to RA on June 25, 2017. St. Pete, Barber, and Long Beach have secure dates in March and April, Detroit will remain (unfortunately) the week after Indy, and Texas will likely maintain its June date--though we'll see what happens with the continuation of the Firestone 600 in August. This is great to see, and even though I may not personally be in love with Road America, I'm happy to see so much support for my favorite motorsport.

The Reign of Rain

I attended both days of this weekend's rain-delayed Texas race, and I was one of the last to leave the track on Sunday. I have so many thoughts about what took place, I don't even know where to start. I found myself very reflective today given the events of the weekend--not just at this track, but across the country.

The three stars of the weekend were, in no particular order, Dallara, the SAFER barrier, and the Holmatro safety team. These three things combined to likely save Josef Newgarden's life. When Newgarden and Conor Daly's crash happened, I was watching some cars in Turn 1. Truthfully, the race was pretty exciting up to that point, with lots of side-by-side action, passing, and obvious tire fall-off. I marveled at the skill displayed by the drivers to control their cars as they raced neck-and-neck with their fellow competitors at over 200 mph. In particular, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Daly, and Tony Kanaan caught my attention because they were able to pass a number of cars.

Then, on lap 43, my boyfriend frantically tapped me on the arm to call my attention to the crash. He saw it all unfold. At first all I saw was Daly, though I didn't pinpoint that it was his car right away. I thought, well that looks bad but not terrible. Then I noticed a car sliding toward our section on its side. I knew right away it was Newgarden (that bright green was unmistakable even in daylight) and when I saw the shape his car was in as it came to a stop right in front of us, I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand. I feared the worst. I thought, NO! Not Josef, please! He is one of the most likable, charismatic personalities in IndyCar and we need him. I noticed him moving around a little but I still wasn't able to relax. Every time an accident like this happens, I get this knot in my stomach that won't go away. I didn't see the accident in real time but I knew it was bad.

I watched with bated breath as the Holmatro safety crew attended to Newgarden. They blocked my view of the cockpit so I had no idea if he was alive, hurt, or if this was another James Hinchcliffe-at-Indy-type of accident where they'd need to be extra careful in extracting him from the car. Eventually I saw him stand but he almost immediately collapsed. This scared me because I thought it might be due to a head injury. I later learned from watching the replay of the race that he was just in immense pain as the safety team touched his shoulders. The ambulance pulled up and Newgarden was taken off on a stretcher, where he thankfully waved to the crowd. Yet I still didn't feel calm until official word on his status was given.

The replays showed that Daly clearly made a rookie mistake, as he admitted. On old tires, he seemed unable to fully manage them and spun out of control directly in the path of Newgarden. Newgarden's car flipped and went cockpit-first into the SAFER barrier where miraculously it managed to miss his helmet. Thank God it was not worse, and Newgarden "only" suffered a broken clavicle and right hand/wrist injuries. He will be out for awhile but at least he is still with us. Thank goodness for modern technology and safety improvements in these cars and at these tracks.

The parade of caution laps continued as crews worked to repair the broken SAFER barrier and clean up debris. I had heard rain was possible so I understood they were trying to get the race halfway completed to be official, though I still think they should have red flagged it. Sure enough, raindrops began to fall on lap 72 and the race was halted. Shortly thereafter, as we all congregated on the concourse, we experienced another downpour similar to Saturday. I knew right away there was no chance the race would be completed Sunday, but I hung around to see when it would be rescheduled.

During the second downpour, as we were one of only about 20 fans still remaining, a gentleman in a Texas Motor Speedway shirt and a hat that read "IRL Supervisor" came up to us. He asked us, "So what have you heard?" Um, what? He must have thought we were official race personnel since we were wearing race shirts, though I guess the cooler full of refreshments didn't tip him off that we were just fans. We told him that an official announcement was to be made at 5pm CST--which I learned from Twitter. He didn't know that, nor did he know that several drivers needed to catch a flight to LeMans for another race. And he's an IRL supervisor? So here's a guy in official TMS attire who had no idea what was going on. When Graham Rahal told the TV audience that we should be given regular updates, he was right. Not only were fans not given regular updates, apparently neither were the workers.

I was not one of the upset, outraged fans who demanded that the race be held despite treacherous conditions, though there were quite a few of those. As Newgarden's crash demonstrated, we need to take safety seriously. You do not want cars hitting a puddle or wet spot and hitting the wall at over 200 mph. But I got all of my updates from social media. I knew they were trying to dry the track and that it was taking awhile due to the humidity, but I don't think the majority of the fans in attendance were aware of this fact. And of course all the armchair critics come out and say IndyCar should have run the race, or it should have been rescheduled to Monday, blah blah blah. Rahal had a valid point, and many of these criticisms could have been avoided with specific updates. Unfortunately this turned into a defensive grudge match between him and Eddie Gossage, who later appeared on Big Hoss TV to say he had no idea the race was going green or what was happening with the track drying. I don't know who to believe here. I do know that if you're the track president, you should know what is happening at your track. And you should shoulder some of the responsibility for that. Eddie does a lot of good things for the fans and for IndyCar, but I feel he also throws them under the bus more than he should, which seems unprofessional. Case in point: his claim that drivers like "old asphalt" so that's why TMS hasn't been repaved, or his comment that the extra piece of the logo sticking out on the SAFER barrier was just foam and posed no risk whatsoever. Kudos to the fans who replied, "tell that to the Columbia space shuttle astronauts," who perished because a piece of foam hit the shuttle.

Sadly, this will leave a black eye on IndyCar--and probably TMS too, though neither party had any control over the weather. Some fans blame TMS for not communicating with fans enough, for not offering a viable solution (like a refund), and for not having a good enough drainage system. Some fans blame IndyCar because they think IndyCar and IndyCar alone made the decision not to race on Saturday. They also blamed IndyCar for not having Air Titans, even though Gossage and others said with the humidity they would not have helped. (Admittedly, I had no idea what a "weeper" was until this weekend, so at least I learned something new!) While it was great that Newgarden, Hinchcliffe, Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Carlos Munoz and others went into the stands late Saturday to take selfies and sign autographs with fans, this was merely a clever PR move. I believe everyone knew at that point that the race would be called, and this was IndyCar's last-ditch effort to save face and show how fan-friendly and approachable their drivers are. Not a bad move, and I don't disagree that the drivers are awesome, but it was still a publicity stunt. (By the way, it was quite noticeable that no one from Team Penske or Ganassi went into the stands.)

The bottom line is that no matter what decision TMS and IndyCar made, it would not please everyone. More rain was forecast for Monday, and the attendance would have been abysmal. I wouldn't even have been able to attend, unless it was a night race. The teams have a pre-scheduled test at Road America on Wednesday. Next weekend Mikhail Aleshin, Sebastien Bourdais, and Scott Dixon were all scheduled to race the 24 Hours of LeMans. So what do you do? As a communications teacher this dilemma fascinated me. I think the decision to finish the race in August was the most amenable solution. Yes, some say we should restart the race from the beginning but really that would not be fair. Perhaps the race should be extended by a few laps, but we can pick up where we left off. This still will completely change the complexion of the race and give us an unpredictable finish, especially since it will be run at night again. It will be hot as hell in August but I'll be there. And I hope we don't see another incident like we saw Sunday.

Dual in Detroit

In between a thousand commercials and some woefully unenthusiastic commentating, two IndyCar races were held this past weekend. Detroit is not my favorite track, and I think it's a poor event to showcase IndyCars after the Indy 500, but this event was pleasantly entertaining. Let's recap.

Three Stars of the Race(s)

#1 Star: Will Power

After more than a year without a win, Power finally returned to Victory Lane on Sunday. He earned it with a perfect pass on Pagenaud and he held off his hard-charging teammate on the closing lap. Power's result is even more impressive considering his DNF on Saturday and his nullified would-be track-record qualifying lap because race control deemed him guilty of blocking. Now we are only left to wonder how much of a championship contender he would be had he raced at St. Pete. I'm still not counting him out yet.

#2 Star: Sebastien Bourdais

Bourdais' team called a winning strategy, timing his pit stops perfectly. Bourdais needed a perfect drive, too, and he nailed the win with a strong out-lap that put him ahead of Pagenaud. A few fortunate yellows fell KV Racing's way, and Bourdais found himself in victory lane at Detroit for the second year in a row. Race sponsor Chevrolet had to be grinning from ear to ear after seeing two of their cars atop the podium this weekend.

#3 Star: Conor Daly

Daly earned his first IndyCar podium on Saturday, finishing second and never putting a wheel wrong. He followed up Race 1 with a sixth-place result in Race 2, an especially strong finish considering he started 21st. Daly seems to be gaining momentum as the year goes along, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him in Victory Lane before the year is over. We have one heck of a rookie-of-the-year competition between him and Alexander Rossi.

Three Stories of the Race(s)

#1 Story: Strategery

It was like watching a chess match seeing all the different strategies for both races. Carlos Munoz got it going by being the only one to start Race 1 on black tires, and this strategy worked okay. Some drivers, including Bourdais, pitted extremely early in Race 1 to change from reds to blacks, and this strategy definitely paid off. Sunday's race saw different pit stops again, and for a fleeting moment when he took the lead I wondered if Alexander Rossi could pull off another amazing fuel-saving stint. Some drivers wondered if fans could follow all these different strategies, and I can say that yes, since I was following on Timing & Scoring, it was easy to see when everyone would pit and who could make it to the end. If you were attending the race, however, you might have been confused. Lesson learned for me as I attend Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, where we'll probably see even more different strategies playing out. I like the different strategies; it keeps the race unpredictable and challenging. And it was nice not to see a fuel-mileage race this weekend--both Bourdais and Power went flat-out until the end. The fastest car did indeed win.

#2 Story: Qualifying Penalties

Several drivers were doomed by penalties assessed in qualifying, though I have to say I don't think it affected the outcome terribly. Daly was perhaps most upset, as he felt he would have qualified in the top six had his top lap not been taken away when he spun out during Sunday's qualifying session. We also saw some drama with teammates Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay furious at each other. Marco felt RHR impeded his fast lap, but RHR was perhaps also impeded by Bourdais ahead of him. I'm sure they hugged it out and all was fine. Considering Power nearly set a new track record with his qualifying effort on Sunday, it didn't really matter that he started eighth. He had the fastest car on Sunday, and again, the fastest car won.

#3 Story: Podium Parity

For awhile, especially on Saturday, it looked like we were watching reruns of the Simon Pagenaud Show. Pagenaud dominated the early part of both races, and I found myself thinking, ho-hum, another Pagenaud victory. Then cautions and different strategies threw all of that out the window. Pagenaud still has a stranglehold on the championship lead, and it will be very difficult for anyone to catch him. But it was great to see four different teams and six different drivers on the podium over the weekend, including two Hondas: Bourdais, Daly, and Montoya on Saturday, and Power, Pagenaud, and Hunter-Reay on Saturday. Team Penske still set the pace for the weekend, but the other teams are showing they can compete. This is one of the many exciting things about IndyCar right now: anyone can win on any given weekend.

Now, the series shifts back to ovals with a stop in Texas. This track has been the source of much analysis and criticism over the past few years. I always love attending, and I'm hoping the teams figured out an aero package that will give us some close racing. If not, maybe it will comedown to strategy or fuel mileage again. Can't wait to watch!

One Hundred Five Hundreds

History has now seen 100 runnings of the Indianapolis 500, and perhaps none bigger or more hyped than Sunday's race. So let's get to it.

Three Stars of the Race

#1 Star: Alexander Rossi

The rookie from California pulled off an improbable victory by managing fuel better than anyone else--even Scott Dixon. The win was, to be honest, shocking. I think my mouth was literally hanging open when he crossed the bricks. Yes I had picked him for my fantasy IndyCar lineup, but I don't think anyone considered him a threat to drink milk at the end of the race. He qualified well and had led at one other point in the race, so we should not have been so surprised. This was only Rossi's second oval track ever and his first Indy 500, so that led to the shock. Most IndyCar fans knew his story, and now the rest of the world does too: Rossi is a reserve driver for Manor Racing in Formula One, tossed to the side after an Indonesian ride buyer paid millions of dollars to secure a seat. Rossi still has dreams of racing in Formula One, but this victory had to taste especially sweet and I'm glad Bryan Herta and Michael Andretti gave him a chance. I hope he sticks around for awhile, though I do wonder how the other drivers felt about his win. Are they happy for him, or is there a twinge of bitterness? I could understand why there might be. 

#2 Star: Tony Kanaan

TK is always a serious contender on the famed oval, and boy was it exciting to watch him charge through the field. After starting 18th, he quickly moved up to 7th and eventually led 19 laps before finally finishing fourth. Had Rossi run out of fuel, we may have seen an old-fashioned shootout between TK, Josef Newgarden, and Carlos Muñoz.

#3 Star: James Hinchcliffe

This was a difficult choice, because there were so many good stories and stars at this 500. I nearly awarded this to Ryan Hunter-Reay for leading the most laps and for giving us quite a show with Hinch and Townsend Bell, but Bell unfortunately doomed his day. I really do think RHR would have won this race had Bell not wrecked him on pit lane. He clearly had the car to do it. But Hinch was a star for giving us the feel-good story of the month: landing on the pole a year after the same track nearly took his life. His qualifying run and subsequent battles at the lead of the race brought to you by Kleenex.

Three Stories of the Race

#1 Story: Fuel Mileage

Some fans lamented the fuel-mileage win, and that Rossi's final lap was a "slow" 179 mph. But let's not forget that Rossi also turned the fastest lap of the race at more than 225 mph (in fact, he was the only driver to hit 225) and nearly landed in the Fast Nine before a late bump. Whether we like to admit it or not, it takes a skilled driver to manage fuel and stretch it as long as Rossi did. The fuel-mileage strategy gave us an unexpected champion and still kept us in suspense on the final lap because I had no idea if he would make it. Personally, I loved this race and was not disappointed at all by the ending. And as an American, I love seeing an American winner. To be honest, I feel for Carlos Muñoz and I know how heartbroken he must be, but his winning would have been a boring story. Now, however, when he wins the Indy 500, he has a more compelling story: twice a bridesmaid in the biggest race in the world who this year felt a little betrayed by his team. Rossi's team simply managed the race better--and perhaps Muñoz or Newgarden should have taken a chance and tried to make it to the end. Would Muñoz have felt better if he'd run out of gas with one or two laps to go, as opposed to having victory snatched from him by his teammate? Food for thought.

#2 Story: Attendance

As you might expect, the 100th running had quite a bit of hype. And the crowds bought into that hype, showing up in droves on Carb Day and in a complete sellout on race day. More than 350,000 people attended the race, and it lived up to the hype. The history, the Pearl Harbor survivors, the singing, the flyover, the 11 rows of three that give me goosebumps each year...all reminded us why this is truly the greatest spectacle in racing. We can only hope that these fans will return next year. And maybe a few new IndyCar fans were born on Sunday.

#3 Story: The Return of Honda

Honda has said all along that it put all its eggs in the Indy 500 basket, and it showed. The pole winner, the champion, and the runner-up all drove Hondas. They looked like the class of the field, and actually made Team Penske look human. Clearly they spent a great deal of research and development on this race and were rewarded handsomely. Can they sustain it for the rest of the year, though? We shall see.

Up and down the grid, we can find so many stories worth sharing from this year's Indy 500. Stories of redemption, ambition, and patriotism. Stefan Wilson, fulfilling his dream while honoring his late brother stands out to me as one of the most touching stories. I also love the parallels between Herta winning the 100th anniversary AND the 100th running with car #98. Maybe Dan Wheldon did help push Rossi's car on that final lap, who knows? 

This race also featured some heartbreak, such as Helio's drive for four coming up short after JR Hildebrand clipped his rear wheel pod and several top contenders taken out by questionable "spotting" on pit lane. As Rick Mears said in the pre-race interview, sometimes to win you need a little luck. But you also need a great deal of skill and stamina, and thank you to the 33 drivers and teams who put on one hell of a show for us all on Sunday afternoon.