If you read my Detroit Preview on Friday, you know that I said I may have nothing up here for Monday, due to out-of-town guests coming to visit Sunday afternoon before going to dinner Sunday night. Well, the race ended a couple of hours before they were due, so I jotted a few thoughts together.
The Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit was very enjoyable and entertaining to watch. I hate to use a Will Buxton word, but it created a lot of chaos. But in the end, it was points leader Alex Palou extending his points lead over the rest of the field; which won’t set well with those with Palou -fatigue. Kyle Kirkwood drove a good race to finish second. Had he not gotten caught by an ill-timed yellow, he may have pulled off the win. Kirkwood passed David Malukas for second in points. He now trails Palou by 62 points. It’s not insurmountable, but if Kirkwood or anyone else harbor any desires to unseat the four-time champion – something needs to change or Palou will be crowned for the fifth time in a six-year span.
As far as Detroit goes, this may have been my favorite Detroit race ever – and that covers a lot of years. On Laps 32-33, I saw some of the best racing I’ve seen anywhere in a four-way battle between Alex Palou, Will Power, Christian Lundgaard and Scott McLaughlin – just before they pitted on separate laps. There was very tight racing throughout the day, and passing where you wouldn’t expect.
Alexander Rossi had one of the most interesting days of anyone. He hot the wall before the race even started, but maintained control and drove through the pain of his injured foot and hand. He was in position for a podium finish before entering a closed pit and incurring a drive-through penalty. Later in the race, he was handed a stop-and-hold penalty for avoidable contact with Romain Grosjean. Rossi ended up finishing seventeenth, not reflective at all on how well he drove.
I’ve had some fairly unkind things to say about Louis Foster in the past few weeks, and most were justified. But give credit where it is due. He banged his way to a seventh-place finish, in probably his best drive of the season. His teammate, Mick Schumacher, was headed to a decent finish before tangling with David Malukas in Turn Three. Schumacher finished twenty-first, and Malukas eighteenth. But the boss of Schumacher and Foster had another great day on a non-oval. Graham Rahal finished on the podium, even after getting turned around by Kyffin Simpson.
I do have one question…on the caution that flew on Lap 66 for Ferrucci and Rinus VeeKay, why did it take four laps before the pits opened? There was nothing to cleanup and the cars were cleared after the first lap. Wha was the point for riding around behind the pace car for three more laps before allowing the cars to pit?
As far as TV goes, my only comment is a new term I heard from Will Buxton this weekend, and I heard it two or three times during Practice and Qualifying, but I’m not sure I actually heard it in the race. He kept saying “dropping the anchors” or “hitting the anchors” for a driver using their brakes. Once was stupid enough, but multiple times in a weekend was annoying.
The race was filled with drivers banging into each other like a NASCAR race. The most egregious happened between Will Power and his former teammate Scott McLaughlin, who essentially shoved Power into the wall with so much force that both of his front-wheels went airborne. Power got back into him on the next lap (I think) and the result ended up being that both cars eventually had to drop out. That exchange was symbolic of the entire day at Detroit. I wouldn’t want that every week, but it was a nice changeup between ovals on the schedule.
That’s going to do it for me today. Our company will be here soon, and I have a few things to do before their arrival. I may or may not post something I the week, but I will definitely be back here on Friday with my scintillating Gateway Preview.
George Phillips
