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The 2024 XPEL Grand Prix at Road America provided quite the weekend. It started Friday morning with Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) announcing that David Malukas would be filling the seat fulltime, beginning at Laguna Seca in two weeks. That was considered big news until we learned that Agustin Canapino had been given “a leave of absence” from Juncos Hollinger racing (JHR), due to the fallout from the social media death threats to Theo Pourchaire. What was even more curious was that this was announced about thirty minutes before the first practice of the weekend.

Logan Siegel was tabbed to drive the No. 78 for the weekend – sort of a tall order to just jump in a strange car in short notice. Siegel did an admirable job for the weekend, all things considered. He qualified twenty-first and finished twenty-third out of twenty-seven cars that started. On Saturday morning, it was announced that Siegel would not be driving his HMD Motorsports entry in Indy NXT. It did give him the chance to focus strictly on his IndyCar drive, but reading between the lines – you wonder if this paves the way for Siegel to join JHR for the rest of the season. I think there is a lot for us to learn in the coming weeks about what happened with the whole Canapino mess.

On Saturday, rain showed up and created a mess for the morning practice and the first two rounds of qualifying. By the time the Firestone Fast Six rolled around, the sun had come out and teams switched from rain to red tires. Will Power spun and Josef Newgarden had a frightening crash to put then at fifth and sixth in the final round. Surprisingly, rookie Linus Lundqvist ended up on the pole; making for one of the more bizarre qualifying sessions I have seen in person.

Race Morning dawned with clear blue skies and bright sunshine. We drove in to temperatures in the 70s at 9:30 am. It seemed like we were in store for the warmest day of the weekend. We rode around to different viewing spots on the golf cart for the Morning Warm-up, and it was breezy but warm. We ate lunch at the top of the hill overlooking Turns 13 & 14. That’s when I noticed clouds rolling in from the north.

By the time the race started the skies were gray, and the wind had picked up even more. The sweatshirt I had wished I hadn’t worn earlier was feeling pretty good by then.

When we left Nashville on Thursday, the highs were to be in the low 90s. When we arrived here, it was in the low 60s. I got rid of the shorts, and wore a sweatshirt and a windbreaker to the IndyCar Kickoff at Siebkens Resort. I noticed that for those of us that came up from the south were dressed for cold weather, but the locals were wearing shorts and T-Shirts. It was a phenomenon I noticed all weekend.

The gusts from the north persisted all through the race as the temperature dropped. I don’t know if the wind affected any of the drivers, but it would not surprise me a bit.

The race started out resembling last week’s crash fest at Detroit or the first two races on the streets of Nashville. There were three cautions in the first six laps. But after that, things settled down. Once they got to actually racing, it became obvious that all three Penske cars came to race. And that’s how it ended, with Will Power taking the victory after a timely pit stop and perfect work from his crew.

After crashing hard on Saturday, Josef Newgarden rebounded to finish second, 3.2 seconds behind Power. Scott McLaughlin led the most laps (18), while Newgarden led ten. Will Power led nine, meaning that Team Penske led thirty-seven of the fifty-five laps.

Team Penske showed up very prepared after being embarrasses at Detroit. Andretti Global had a good weekend also, placing all three of their cars in the Tip-Ten. I can’t say the same for Arrow McLaren. Pato O’Ward was their only representative in the Top Tem (eighth). Theo Pourchaire finished thirteenth, after qualifying eighteenth. My choice to win, Alexander Rossi, started ninth but finished eighteenth.

But McLaren’s weekend was a walk in the park compared to Chip Ganassi racing. After placing all five cars in the Fast Twelve on Saturday, and two cars in the Top-Three starting spots, including the pole – it all fell apart on Sunday. Kyffen Simpson finished last, pole-sitter Linus Lundqvist and Marcus Armstrong got together in the first turn of the opening lap. They finished twelfth and twenty-sixth respectively. Scott Dixon started tenth and finished twenty-first. The only Ganassi driver to have a good day was Alex Palou, who finished fourth.

It was a well-earned win for Will Power and his crew, and seemed to be a very popular win among the fans present.

An Emotional Win: Will Power came into the media center after his win and it was one of the most genuine and introspective driver press conferences I’ve ever witnessed. He revealed how his wife, Liz, almost died before the start of the 2023 season. He confessed how he was at a personal crossroads. If something were to happen to his wife, he was going to give up racing and raise his son. It was making no sense to him to do something so dangerous, if his wife was in danger of losing her life. He did not want his son to grow up with no parents.

He also admitted that Liz had a setback at Road America last year, and the with his on-track performance and her health weighing on his mind – it was almost too much to handle. He said that Liz and her mother were both crying in Victory Lane. Susan was able to get a photo of Liz while celebrating.

It was really refreshing to hear a seasoned driver open up about things that were so personal. There was none of the usual corporate driver-speak. It was Will Power, unfiltered.

Continual Improvement: Most teams don’t strive to race mid-pack, but AJ Foyt Racing is experiencing something of a renaissance. While they have been decent on ovals, they have historically struggled on road & street courses. Qualifying did not go well for them in the rain on Saturday. Santino Ferrucci qualified nineteenth and Sting Ray Robb qualified twenty-sixth. But both had relatively strong drives on Sunday and Ferrucci finished fifteenth, while Robb finished seventeenth. That’s not close to the podium, but it is a step in the right direction for this team.

Moving Forward: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is another team that did not have a very good qualifying session on Saturday. Christian Lundgaard qualified highest at thirteenth, while Pietro Fittipaldi started twenty-fifth and Graham Rahal qualified twenty-sixth. All three drivers moved up in the race. Lundgaard finished eleventh, Fittipaldi finished sixteenth and Rahal moved all the way from starting twenty-sixth to finishing tenth. If only they could get qualifying down.

Drive of the Day: Normally Graham Rahal would get the nod for drive of the day. He has won it many times before with drives like this. But for this race, I have to give it to Colton Herta. Yes, he started on the front row, but he was indirectly involved in all three cautions and re-started from the back of the field twice. When the checkered flag flew, Herta wound up finishing sixth.

All in All: If there are going to be three cautions in a race, I would prefer to see them spread out, rather than all of them happening over the first six laps. But this ended up being a fascinating race, as the rest of the race was run under green. While it was a battle of the Penskes up front, there was a lot of interesting racing behind them.

I know I am biased, but this is the ninth IndyCar race we have attended at Road America, since the series returned in 2016 – and we absolutely love it up here. We love the area, the people and of course – the track. The fans here are very knowledgeable racing fans. They have a good time, but they do not go to Road America to party. They go for the racing.

We will watch the replay sometime this week. I’m hoping it played out as well on television as it did in person. Sunday morning, it was announced that IndyCar and Road America had reached a new agreement on a multi-year extension, guaranteeing that Road America will be on the schedule for the foreseeable future. We are already looking forward to Year Ten.

I will close with photos that Susan took just before the race on Sunday afternoon.

George Phillips

Please Note: Susan and I aren’t going home from here. Monday, we will hop on a ferry (SS Badger) at Manitowoc and cross Lake Michigan. From there we will drive up to vacation at Glen Arbor, just below the Upper Peninsula right on Lake Michigan. We will return home next weekend.

Therefore, I will not be posting this week or next Monday, since I really don’t care to write while on vacation. This will be my last post here until Wednesday June 19, just before the next race at Laguna Seca. Enjoy the break. I will. – GP

This entry was posted on June 10, 2024 at 4:04 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.