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.