By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
Detroit, Mich. — Alex Palou is the driver the field is chasing, and with five wins in six races, drivers are trying to close the gap on the dominant series leader. Palou has a 112-point lead on Arrow McLaren teammates Pato O’Ward (194 points) and Christian Lundgaard (181), who are in a tight race for second place, with Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian third at 165. All of them are seeking their first race wins of the season.
With that… let’s drop the green flag…
The Early laps (1-35) see Herta reaffirm the lead with Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard, and Alex Palou in his mirror. David Malukas falls from second to fifth. Drivers are starting to pit to get off of the soft tires. Herta is trying to make it on his soft tires to lap 20, to make the DGP a two pit stop race. Herta’s tires have worn out by lap 12, and he pits. Your new race leader is Scott McLaughlin. With the field undergoing green flag pit stops, this exposes McLaughlin, who has softs around his frame and when a caution is thrown, he is stuck on the track.
Nolan Siegel hits the wall on lap 18 after he was clipped by Herta. The course remains open until Devlin DeFrancesco loses a tire and the yellow flag is thrown. Christian Rassmussun, Graham Rahal, and Louis Foster have yet to cycle through the field and are your 1-2-3.
Middle Grand Prix Laps (35-70)
It’s Rassmussen, Foster, and Marcus Ericsson 1-2-3. Drivers like Dixon running on the hard tires is trying to stretch out their usage to lap 40 before shedding for the soft and uneven reds for a short time, before going back to a set of hard tires to finish the race. Several drivers are attempting this strategy. Twenty-three of the 27 drivers are on the lead lap. Foster goes to the front on lap 37. It’s his first led laps this season. Dixon pits on lap 39, one lap longer than teammate Kyffin Simpson, who is deploying the same strategy.
On lap 40, it’s Kirkwood, Will Power, and Herta 1-2-3. With Palou and Dixon pitting for the second time by lap 50, everyone will need three pit stops to finish the race. As drivers cycle through, it’s Felix Rosenqvist, Will Power, and Herta. The drivers continue grinding laps with the top three remaining the same. Alex Palous is lurking in fourth place. Lap 68 draws a caution as Callum Ilott loses a tire and goes into the wall. Drivers who pitted just five laps before the caution will cycle to the lead including Santino Ferrucci who takes the green flag.
Closing laps
Ferrucci, Simpson, and Marcus Armstrong are now due to racing luck, 1-2-3. Seconds later, Palou crashes into the barrier after a nudge by Malukas and it draws a caution. Palou is ruled DNF and this will be his first non podium finish of the season. Kirkwood and Simpson come together and Kirkwood’s wing is damaged. Kirkwood goes around Ferrucci but for how long? Felix Rosenqvist goes into a tire barrier with 17 to go. Louis Foster is collected with him. The suspension failed on Foster’s machine and both drivers are out of their race. Foster led his first laps of the season. The race is stopped for a red flag as track personnel repair the barrier.
With 11 to go, Kirkwood out duals Power around turn one. Ferrucci goes around Power with ten to go for second. Kirkwood leads Ferrucci by 3.765 seconds. Herta goes around Power for third. For the day, Ferrucci improves 19 positions. Kirkwood leads Ferrucci by 3.2+ seconds with under three laps to go. It’s Kirkwood’s race to lose. No changes in positions among the final five. Kirkwood, Ferrucci, and Herta go one-two-three. Seven races down, ten to go. Only Kirkwood and Palou have victories this season.
The Checkered Flag
Not sure how a driver wins a race with seven pitstops by 3.5+seconds, but Kirkwood showed the field he was the boss. He pulls away late and he did not win because Palou was out of the race. Kirkwood stands on his own merits for this race. “For some reason, the wing was damaged, but it wasn’t really causing that much of an issue,” Kirkwood said. “This AWS Honda was on rails all weekend long. There were some challenges out there, that’s for sure. We had to pass our way back through a handful of times, and it was definitely not a walk in the park, especially with that front-wing damage at the end. We did lose a little bit of performance, but the car actually felt fine.”
“Epic pit stops. Epic strategy. We were definitely the fastest.”
Podium Finishers
Santino Ferrucci – Listening to the broadcast while watching, the announcers all said that they noticed the difference this year from last year, there was more drama. This year you absolutely settled in, you were dialed in and focused. Do you think that’s made a huge difference in your driving this year and your finish today?
SANTINO FERRUCCI: Yeah, honestly, I feel very settled inside the team at AJ Foyt Racing. Also, dealing with a lot of stressful months, having a good sports psychologist on my side the past couple of — well, I’d say almost the last year now has been a big help for me and just trying to stay calm in situations like that and honestly more enjoy it. It’s really cool. We’re very fortunate to do what we do and to be out there. So yeah, it was a lot of fun. “
Colton Herta -You said earlier the track was difficult; what do you mean was difficult? Was it a grip situation or was it different than the days before?
COLTON HERTA: I think it’s just brutal with the bumps. It’s just a difficult track to get right, to not hit anything on its own, and then when you add 26 other cars out there, it makes it even more difficult.
How they Finished
Points Leaders – Before Detroit and After Detroit
Tale of the Tape
Factiods that may interest only me
Scott Dixon’s last victory in the NTT Series was at the DGP. He has the second most victories in Indy Car history trailing only AJ Foyt.
There are 225 manhole covers that drivers can run over on any one lap at the DGP. According to race director Bud Denker, Long Beach has only seven.
Roy J. Akers is an Indy Car journalist for www.skyviewsports.net
