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Now, that was more like it! On a track that can sometimes produce a dud, and following two consecutive snoozers to start the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season; the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach produced a race that IndyCar fans will be talking about all week – and for the right reasons.

Out of the fifty-seven IndyCar wins that Scott Dixon has produced since winning his first in 2001, few will be as dramatic or memorable as the one he pulled off yesterday. Critics took to social media early to laugh at IndyCar fans who were celebrating a fuel-mileage race, but it didn’t take long for the Legions of the Miserable to be shouted down and to go away.

If anyone else had been running up front with twenty laps to go and needing to hit an impossible fuel number; I’d say they were either going to run out of fuel or back off and settle for fifth-place points. But with it being Scott Dixon up there, I figured all bets are off. If yesterday taught us anything, it is to never, ever count out Scott Dixon.

The TV crew was speaking in terms of “when” and not “if” Josef Newgarden was going to pass Dixon, To them, it was a foregone conclusion. I mentioned to my wife, Susan, at the time that they are making a mistake to assume that Dixon is not going to win.

Early on, it looked like a race of two pit-strategies and there was no clear answer as to which one would work. Will Power was on the same strategy with Dixon, but he finished sixth and almost sixteen seconds behind Dixon.

As things settled in, there was not a ton of action. There was only one caution, when Christian Rasmussen had a hard hit coming out of Turn Four on Lap 15, and collected innocent bystander Jack Harvey in the process. Harvey’s Dale Coyne crew was able to get the car back out, but he finished two laps down in twenty-fifth. Rasmussen was out and finished dead-last, From there on, it was green all the way.

Like anyone, I prefer a race that comes down to who has the fastest car; but in IndyCar racing – that’s not always the case. There are so many variables in play, and pit-strategy is one of them. The thing about a race with different strategies going on is – past the halfway point; most people have no idea who is going to win. I certainly didn’t.

At St. Petersburg, it was clear early on, that Josef Newgarden would be the likely winner, unless something whacky happened. It was the same at Thermal, when Alex Palou put a beatdown on the field. At Long Beach – that was not the case at all. With Dixon leading on Lap 65, I think more people were ruling him out, than considering him a contender. As each lap clicked off, with Dixon staying out in front, what was firs considered impossible, started looking more and more attainable.

The doubters say that Colton Herta gave Dixon that win. I don’t think you can put that late-race contact between Herta and Newgarden all on Herta. Newgarden surely thought that IndyCar should review the incident, but as Townsend Bell pointed out – if you disqualify every driver that runs into the back of another car, you will end up disqualifying half the field at Long Beach. I agreed with the no-call.

Was it unfortunate? Yes. The timing was awful, especially for Newgarden. But as even Newgarden pointed out, it was not certain he was going to catch Dixon. He had plenty of tries and could not pull it off. In the post-race interview, Newgarden admitted he was down to one last attempt to pass, before Herta punted him from behind on Lap 76 – nine laps to go. I think Newgarden was correct that he would not have caught Dixon. He was practically out of push-to-pass at the time of the incident. Herta had no fuel concerns and more push-to-pass, and he couldn’t pass Dixon either.

There are those that scoff at the idea that this was an exciting race, because it involved saving fuel and not going as fast as one possible could. But when the last twenty laps keeps the audience in suspense on who is going to win – that’s what I call a good race. I’m sorry for them. It must be a really miserable existence to find fault with everything about a sport you claim to be a fan of.

Scott Dixon needed this race, but so did IndyCar. Two races in and it is Penske vs Ganassi, Newgarden vs Dixon, Chevy vs Honda. This is what the series needed after a very lackluster start in March, followed by several weeks of inactivity. Racing season is finally here!

TV Coverage: I thought NBC had a solid weekend. They treated this race like it was the big event it was. It wasn’t perfect, but there were no obvious gaffes that I took note of. I did hear James Hinchcliffe say something incorrect on Saturday, that I kept waiting for him to correct and he never did.

It was a minor thing, but he said that pit selection at each race is based on where a driver currently sits in the championship. That’s not true – it is where the driver qualified at the previous race of that type. For instance, Josef Newgarden’s pit position at Gateway last year, was based on what he did at the most recent oval (Iowa). The Indianapolis 500 is the exception to that. Pit selection is based on where a driver qualifies for the 500. Pit position is never based on championship points. It’s a minor thing, but it was incorrect.

Other than that, I thought NBC had a strong outing. I thought they poured it on a little thick, when it came to their gushing over Théo Pourchaire, but other than that, I thought they had a good weekend. They gave us a long pre-race show and an extra long post-race show. I’ll be curious to see how the ratings look, with it being on USA Network.

Missing Queen: In 1971 I went on board the RMS Queen Mary, shortly after it opened as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach. I have always enjoyed the many TV shots over several decades, of race cars speeding down Shoreline Drive, with the Queen Mary sitting majestically in the background. This past weekend, I watched every single minute of coverage on Peacock and USA Network. I hardly saw a single shot of the Queen Mary. Once, they were showing a shot of a Carnival Cruise ship, and you just happened to see the stern of the Queen Mary in the background.

During the race coverage, the 90 year-old ship made its way into the shot of the flyover. Then there were a couple of gratuitous shots that almost seemed to happen by accident. In years past, there have been extended shots of the grand old ship with mentions of what a glorious scene it is to have that floating piece of history as a backdrop.

At over a thousand feet long, the RMS Queen Mary is hard to miss. NBC had to go out of their way to avoid getting something that massive out of their camera shots. You don’t keep something that big out of view unless you’re trying to.

I am normally not a conspiracy theorist, but did race organizers, IndyCar or NBC approach current management of the giant ship regarding sponsorship or advertising, and got turned down? I remember a short period when FOX first started broadcasting NASCAR, and if a sponsor chose not to advertise on FOX, their car was shown with no sponsorship in their graphics of the starting lineup. That came across as overly petty with fans, and was soon rectified within a few weeks.

Was the omission of any visuals of the Queen Mary simply an oversight and the result of bad camera placement, or is there a reason that such a large landmark never made it onto our screens?

A Frequent Occurrence: Felix Rosenqvist started on the pole for yesterday’s race. This was Rosenqvist’s sixth career IndyCar pole, and first-ever pole for Meyer Shank Racing (MSR). This early season has been a resurrection of Rosenqvist’s IndyCar career, but it is also a huge rebound for MSR after a disastrous season in 2023.

I like Rosenqvist and hope that his resurgence continues, But I saw something yesterday that we have seen way too much from the Swedish driver. He allowed Will Power to get him at the start going into Turn One. There’s nothing wrong with that, Power has gotten a lot of people at the start on his way to forty-one career victories. The problem was that a lot of other drivers did too.

I can’t count how many times I have seen Felix Rosenqvist squander front-row starting spots, since he joined the series in 2019. He doesn’t just get passed by one or two cars – he tends to drop like a stone. By the time the race came back from the first commercial break, Rosenqvist was in sixth-place. He finished ninth. In the season-opener at St. Petersburg, Rosenqvist started on the front row and finished seventh. Granted he’s not tearing up equipment, but he will be hard-pressed to improve on that one career victory he earned at Road America in 2020.

Scripted Response? When a driver fails to perform as expected during qualifying, it’s always interesting to see what they say as to the reason they got such poor results. Will Power has always been good for an honest and unfiltered response – especially for a Penske driver, which tend to be more buttoned-up than other team drivers. Alexander Rossi has also been known for providing more candid answers than most.

During and after qualifying, I witnessed no less than three interviews of drivers who had very disappointing results in qualifying: Arrow McLaren drivers Rossi and Pato O’Ward, who qualified thirteenth and fourteenth respectively; and defending pole winner and race winner Kyle Kirkwood, who qualified a disappointing tenth.

All carried a frustrating look of disappointment on their collective faces, yet when all three were asked what the problem was – they all gave mostly identical answers. “The car was great! The team really gave me a good car. [Insert Honda or Chevy here] really gave us a lot of power. We should be fine in the race.”

None of them said anything negative, yet we fans at home were all left to wonder “So what happened? Why were you so slow?”.

Have the drivers now been coached to never say a negative word about the tires, the engine, or their team or even themselves? O’Ward was asked if he was surprised he failed to advance out of Q1, after being the fastest car in Friday’s practice. His face suggested he was perplexed, but his words gave us the same sanitized message. We didn’t even get the old excuse that a slower car messed up their lap.

I long for the days, when AJ Foyt gave a blistering interview with Gary Gerould as he climbed out of the car at Nazareth in 1991 – after Jeff Andretti incurred the Texan’s wrath.

Drive of the Day: First of all, an honorable mention goes out to Romain Grosjean, who very quietly came away with a ninth-place finish after starting sixteenth. He is now on a team with a very small budget, and not a ton of experience. He had a good weekend at St. Petersburg until a mechanical issue in the race ruined his day. A ninth-place finish coming from sixteenth should be considered a success for this team in the early going with a new driver. But that is not the Drive of the Day.

More times than not, I give this nod of approval to a driver, besides the race winner. That will not be the case this week. Scott Dixon started eighth and methodically worked his way up front and stayed there, against all odds. I’ve followed this sport for several decades, and yesterday’s win by Dixon was one of the more impressive wins I’ve seen. Aside from the big trophy and the points that go with it, Scott Dixon is this week’s recipient of the Oilpressure.com Drive of the Day. That should certainly make Emma happy.

All in All: After the start that saw Will Power take control until he pitted on Lap 17, it became obvious that there were going to be different strategies at play. While that doesn’t always mean there will be a pass for the lead on every lap, it can usually guarantee a very interesting finish. That is exactly what happened on Sunday. In the process, Scott Dixon earned his fifty-seventh IndyCar win, putting him within ten wins of AJ Foyt’s total of sixty-seven, which was a record many considered untouchable.

I consider myself lucky that I got to see AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti in their prime. They are arguably two of the greatest drivers to ever turn a wheel in any series. I hope everyone stops to appreciate that we are currently seeing greatness before our very eyes, so long as Scott Dixon continues to drive. Sometimes, we don’t realize how great a driver’s career was until they retire. Appreciate this while it is still in front of us.

This race was well-timed. If it had been another dud similar to what we saw in March, it would be hard to think that Barber would be much different. Now I think that Barber has the potential to be a very exciting race – just what the series needs as the Month of May approaches.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on April 22, 2024 at 4:05 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.