Oilpressure

Yesterday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America had a little bit of everything. There was drama, strategy, outstanding driving, bone-headed moves by drivers and teams along with a helping of good old-fashioned speed. Alex Palou is on another planet right now. He has won three of the past four races. The one he didn’t win was Indianapolis, and he fought back from adversity almost halfway through the race and still finished fourth.

After his sustained heavy damage in a Saturday morning practice crash, Palou still managed to qualify third on the grid. From there, he drove a masterful race with excellent pit work and strategy from his team. If he continues to produce results like this, the championship may be over in August.

The race itself was not a thing of beauty, but it wasn’t expected to be. The new pavement got a lot of attention this past weekend and rightfully so. While it looked good to see black pavement where almost white pavement had been, not all drivers were excited about it – especially as the weekend went on.

As a side note – can anyone tell me why all pavement in Wisconsin is practically white? I initially thought it was a result of all the salt used in the tough Wisconsin winters, but I seriously doubt that the track at Road America has ever been salted. Every highway and road anywhere close to Road America looks the same – a bleached white. I’ve asked a lot of people and no one can give me an answer to this.

As good as Palou drove, he was on the receiving end of one of the best moves of the race, when Josef Newgarden put a move on the Spaniard about a third of the way through the race. It wasn’t for the lead, but it was very impressive nonetheless.

Of course, there was drama heading into Sunday’s race. Will Power didn’t start the fracas on Saturday when Scott Dixon drifted into Power’s path in the Saturday morning practice, but he certainly kept the drama going well past qualifying. I don’t have a problem with it because (a) he was justified and (b) it was good theater. I don’t like contrived or manufactured drama just for the TV cameras, but this was real and genuine. It had the potential to grow old, but it ran its natural course and certainly had a lot of people talking.

As for bone-headed moves, I won’t name names, but you all saw some of the hi-jinks that went on in the race and throughout the weekend. Draw your own conclusions.

TV Coverage: I have not seen any of the race replay and have seen very little of any of the Peacock broadcasts of the weekend. But I always like the Media Center at Road America, or more specifically our seats. Susan and I sit right next to the door leading to the TV booth. If we are in the Media Center during a practice session, It’s interesting to look over and see the booth guys in action as we hear their voices from the telecast shown in the Media Center. Believe me, they are very animated.

Not so Fast: Like many people, I got sucked into the feel-good story of how well the Foyt team had done in practice and qualifying. I’ll admit I pull for that team. Not only have I been a lifelong fan of AJ Foyt, but I really like Santino Ferrucci. I like his demeanor, off-track and on. I am beginning to have an appreciation of Benjamin Pedersen as well. It does my heart good to see one car in Coyote Orange and the other one in livery resembling the Copenhagen car of the late eighties and early nineties.

The Euphoria from their good qualifying efforts (tenth and eleventh) did not carry over to the race. Ferrucci dropped from eleventh to sixteenth, while Pedersen started tenth and fell all the way to twenty-first. Apparently engineer Michael Cannon still has some work to do.

On top of Their Game: While it’s certainly no surprise, Chip Ganassi Racing was on top of their game this weekend – much like they have been for most of this season. They had three cars qualify in the Top-Ten (Palou, Marcus Ericsson and Marcus Armstrong) and three cars to finish in the Top-Ten (Palou, Scott Dixon and Ericsson). It’s not a coincidence that Ganassi drivers sit first, second and fifth in the championship standings.

Good Sport: I’ve said before that Susan could carry on a conversation with a tree. She thinks nothing of striking up a conversation with a total stranger, which I rarely do. We were on the grid just before the race, as I was identifying drivers she could shoot pictures of. Out of nowhere, Susan spotted Iris – the newlywed wife of Marcus Ericsson. Susan started chatting it up with her, and I just kept on walking. I can usually sense when people don’t really want to talk, but Susan has never quite mastered that skill. It can sometimes be painful to watch. I remember when she started up a conversation with Beccy Hunter-Reay at St. Petersburg one year. It did not go well. I feared the same might happen this time.

I turned around and saw they were still talking. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I noticed Iris was talking as much as Susan. Just for fun, I decided to take a photo of the two of them talking away.

To my surprise, not only did they have a conversation, but Susan suggested Iris “model” the latest product from Huski, Ericsson’s sponsor – and she agreed. Susan said she was not only a good sport, but she was extremely nice, friendly and approachable as they ended up talking what seemed like ten minutes. That’s good to know. That description does not apply to all driver’s wives or girlfriends.

The Crowd: After seeing the size of the Friday crowd, it was fairly obvious that Sunday’s crowd was going to be big. I think I mentioned here that they could possibly see a record crowd for this race. It turns out, I was right. After the race, I overheard that some race officials say that Sunday’s crowd was at least 10% more than their previous best. I believe it.

Every section of the track we went to on Sunday had some of the biggest crowds we’ve ever seen. We usually watch a good portion of the race from the Turn Five area. Not only do they have large stands and a big video board, but there is a large are where we can usually pull our golf cart up and sit on the cart and watch the race, or stand up on the back for an elevated perch. We couldn’t even get the golf cart in, because there was no room. We finally moved up the hill next to the Corvette Bridge between Turns Five and Six, overlooking Turn Five. You can get an idea of the size of the crowd from these photos.

The thing I’ve always noticed about the crowd at Road America – these are real race fans. Yes they like to drink a few beers and have a good time, but these folks know their racing. They are not there for the party, they are there for the racing. Susan remarked on Saturday that with allof the people and as much beer is consumed on site, we’ve never seen anyone drunk and obnoxious at Road America. It is a very well-behaved crowd. The same was true yesterday, despite the fact that the crowd size had increased significantly. As I keep saying – the secret is out on Road America.

The Right Direction: Although Jack Harvey extended a yellow by stuffing his car into the Turn Fourteen tire barrier, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR) team took a nice step in the right direction. After a disastrous Indianapolis 500 and not much improvement at Detroit, The RLLR cars showed signed of life this weekend.

Christian Lundgaard barely missed the Firestone Fast Six, in a car that resembled Danica Patrick’s GoDaddy car. He qualified seventh and finished seventh yesterday. Graham Rahal qualified fourteenth and finished eleventh. Rahal wasn’t flashy or spectacular, and did not draw a lot of attention. Based on the events of the past month – that’s a good thing.

The Championship: Alex Palou now has the luxury of being able to take a weekend off and still maintain the points lead by a large margin. Winning three out of four races will do that for you. Marcus Ericsson trails Palou by a whopping seventy-four points.

I’m not ready to hand Palou his second Astor Challenge Trophy in the past three seasons, but unless he runs into a string of bad luck – Alex Palou is going to be hard to beat. Right now, I still consider the championship to be a real possibility among five drivers – Palou, Ericsson, Newgarden, Pato O’Ward and Dixon. Scott McLaughlin is in sixth place in points, but is 125 points behind Palou. I don’t see McLaughlin making much of a dent in Palou’s lead.

Drive of the Day: There are many candidates for the Drive of the Day. Kyle Kirkwood spun on the opening lap and rejoined the field in last place. He fought all day and finished ninth. Ryan Hunter-Reay started dead-last in his debut with Ed carpenter racing. He moved up from twenty-seventh to finish seventeenth. While that is noteworthy, it’s not what I consider the Drive of the Day.

That honor belongs to Scott Dixon. He had to go to a backup car for qualifying, after his skirmish with Will Power in the morning practice and ended up qualifying only twenty-third. Through good strategy and precision pit work, Dixon ended up in fourth place, salvaging what had the potential to be a disastrous weekend. He also earned the Oilpressure.com Drive of the Day.

All in All: It’s hard to imagine letting a dud of a race spoil a weekend at Road America. But if you’re sitting at home watching, you probably don’t care much about all the things about Road America that everyone loves. You just want to see a good race. While yesterday’s race was far from a dud, it may have been sloppier than some wanted to see.

Personally, I would have found yesterday’s race entertaining even if I had been watching from my couch in Nashville. Combine that with all that goes on at Road America on a race weekend – you have a very entertaining way to spend a weekend.

I will close with some photos that Susan took yesterday while on the grid before the race. Thanks to everyone that followed us all through the weekend. It was another great weekend at America’s National Park of Speed – Road America.

George Phillips

Please Note: As you can probably imagine, I’m tired. We are driving back to Nashville today and I go back to work tomorrow. With the NTT IndyCar Series off this weekend, I am going to take some time off also. There will be no post on Wed June 21, Fri June 23 or Monday June 26. Call this my mid-season break. I will return on Wed June 28. Please come back then. – GP

This entry was posted on June 19, 2023 at 4:03 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.