Oilpressure

Those of us that watched the Hy-Vee Weekend at Iowa from afar got a real treat this weekend. Friday night after work, I treated myself to watching the replay of a long practice session from Iowa Speedway. Not much of significance happened, mind you, but there is something therapeutic about watching race cars on an oval after a long week at work. Josef Newgarden led that one and only practice session of the weekend, but that was certainly no surprise.

In fact, about the only unpredictable thing that happened all weekend was qualifying. First it started almost two hours late due to a rain delay. When I turned on my Peacock machine on my television just as qualifying was scheduled to begin, instead of the bright blue Iowa skies I had seen on Friday night, I was greeted with images of a downpour. Leigh Diffey said to keep the feed on as they stepped away, but I knew it would be a while. I did some yard work instead.

When qualifying finally got underway, it wasn’t Newgarden at the top of the starting grid for both races, but his Team Penske teammate, Will Power. Penske’s Scott McLaughlin joined Power on the outside of the front row for both races, while Newgarden qualified third for Race One and a mere mortal-like seventh for Race Two.

It didn’t matter. Newgarden dominated both races and won them both, giving him three wins out of his last four Iowa starts. In the process, he gave me one of my few correct predictions, and the first time I’ve ever predicted both races of a double-header – if I want to be totally selfish in looking at the weekend.

Saturday’s Race One was a good race, but Sunday’s race had a lot more intrigue – mostly due to having three cautions as compared to one on Saturday. In Race One, Newgarden didn’t take the lead until Lap 121, when he passed Will Power. Except for pit stop shuffles, Newgarden lad the whole way after that and won by more than three seconds over McLaughlin. Only five cars were on the lead lap at the finish; Newgarden, McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Marcus Ericsson and Power.

In Race Two on Sunday, it only took Newgarden thirty-one laps to go from starting seventh to passing Power for the lead. Again, Newgarden never looked back. But unlike Saturday, Newgarden had to sweat it out near the end. As Felix Rosenqvist was just behind Newgarden on a late-race re-start. But Will Power helped his teammate out as he sort of forced Rosenqvist up into the marbles with two laps to go. Newgarden went on to win Race Two by less than a second over Power.

TV Coverage: I understand that NBC can do nothing about the timing of yellows. It was unfortunate that just as they were cutting away to a set of commercials on Sunday, I thought I saw a car brush the wall. By the time they had the side-by-side commercial box on the screen, they had the yellow displayed. I saw on social media where everyone was squawking because they didn’t immediately go back to the race.

I don’t fault NBC at all for sticking with the commercials. that’s what pays the bills. It was not a crash that took out several drivers. Agustine Canapino was the car that brushed the wall going to break. As we could see in side-by-side, he continued to race (albeit down fourteen laps at the finish). What did we miss by them staying with commercials? Nothing but track sweepers and cars going around behind the pace car, while they waited for the pits to open.

What I do fault NBC for is having a commercial window that misses pit stops. When they cut away for a planned commercial break on Lap 150, they missed the pit stops of most of the field – including the leaders. This window was probably decided on in a production meeting, but things change. When a caution came out on Lap 87, that changed everyone’s pit window after they pitted around Lap 93. It didn’t take a finely-tuned race strategist to know that everyone would be returning to the pits around Lap 150. When the pit window changes during the race, can the network not be fluid enough to change the commercial window on the fly? They are able to go to commercials with little notice in other sports, why not racing?

Otherwise it was a solid weekend for all of the on-air faces. It was especially nice seeing Nate Ryan doing some post race interviews. He is very underrated in my opinion. I did find Townsend Bell’s new nickname for Newgarden, The King of Corn, grew a little more tiresome each time he said it.

Grid Penalty: Just before the rain-delayed qualifying on Saturday morning, IndyCar announced a nine-position grid penalty for Race One for Jack Harvey, for his role in the first lap crash at Toronto last weekend. Townsend Bell was absolutely livid in his criticism for IndyCar’s decision, and I agree with him. The Toronto incident was several cars coming together at the wrong time. I’m not sure you can really pin it on anyone. As AJ Foyt is known to say, “It was just one of them racin’ thangs”.

Did this penalty fit the crime? Hardly. Jack Harvey ended up starting twenty-sixth in Race One after qualifying seventeenth. He ultimately finished eighteenth. In the grand scheme of things, this punishment had no bearing on the championship and had very little significance on Harvey’s already dismal season. My question is…why?

The Crowd: First of all, kudos to Hy-Vee for all of the work, promotion and money they poured into another successful weekend at Iowa. They are quickly becoming IndyCar’s best friend, and I hope fans realize how they are helping our sport.

That being said; when I mentioned that those of us who watched from afar had a real treat this weekend, I was wondering about those that were in attendance. I’m not talking about the corporate hack that was the guest of a sponsor and spent the weekend being wined and dined in air-conditioned comfort in one of the many suites, without paying a dime. No, I’m talking about people that paid their hard-earned cash, at sometimes double what they paid last year to attend.

I realize I’m in the vast minority, but if I want to go to a concert – I’ll go to a concert. When I want to go to a race, I want it to be all about racing. There have been many top acts perform at the Music City Grand Prix in the two years of its existence. I’ve never even had the desire to attend a single minute. In fact, I’ve walked right by the main stage with their top draw performing and never paid a bit of attention. I’m in race mode at the track, and concert mode at a concert. I don’t enjoy mixing the two.

Will the concert goers really become converted IndyCar fans? I am not a fan of soccer, whatsoever. Nashville now has an MLS team called Nashville SC (that’s creative). If Glenn Frey suddenly came back to life and The Eagles were to play after a Nashville SC game in their prime – I would suffer through the soccer game just to see them. I highly doubt I would say “Wow, what an exciting game soccer is!”.

While I may be in the minority, I don’t think I’m completely alone in my thinking. I wonder how many fans that went last year did not attend this year simply because they didn’t want to pay the exorbitant price increase versus last year. Apparently quite a few because I saw way more empty seats this past weekend than I did last year. I am too lazy to go back and find video of last year’s Hy-Vee weekend, but I remember enough to know it was a substantially bigger crowd than this year.

No one has asked me, but what I would do is cut the musical acts from four down to two – one each day. I would have Saturday’s concert after Race One, and then Sunday’s concert before Race Two. By the time Race Two is over, most of your crowd is probably ready to head for home after a long weekend. By cutting out half of your non-racing entertainment, you can lower the cost per ticket substantially. I have an idea that many fans either couldn’t afford the price hike, or they didn’t want to subsidize all of the A-listers they had no interest in seeing.

Commercial Irony: Graham Rahal had a new sponsor this weekend – Blue Compass RVs. I think they only bought one commercial spot for each race, but I could be wrong on that. I found it very ironic that while the Blue Compass spot was running during Race One, you could see Rahal’s Blue Compass Honda slapping the Turn Four wall and coming to a rest in the infield along the front stretch. What timing!

The Loose Tire: On Lap 157 of Race Two, a very scary situation took place that could have been catastrophic. Dale Coyne Racing’s Sting Ray Robb had just pitted, but the left-rear tire-changer failed to get the lug nut on the car. Unfortunately, the car was released anyway. Fortunately, the rookie driver had enough wherewithal to know that something wasn’t right, so he pulled down onto the apron leading into Turn Three to try and make it back to the pits. The wheel came off and became a rolling hazard for drivers to try and miss at speed. After a couple of very close calls, everyone got past the tire without incident. Robb made it safely around back to the pits on three wheels. Race Control disqualified the car for creating an avoidable mechanical hazard.

Several things went wrong here. First of all, the left-rear tire-changer was at fault for not getting the lug nut on, but that is not uncommon. Just this week, IndyCar announced a more secure lug nit in the wake of the Kyle Kirkwood incident in the Indianapolis 500, where his tire came loose and sailed over the catch-fence. That had a lucky ending as well, because the only casualty was a parked car belonging to a catering server in the Turn Two Suites. She ended up with a new car out of it and was happy.

That outcome could have been so much worse, and so could Sunday’s. I am wondering if the new, more secure lug nut is harder to get on than the older one. Twenty-seven other cars pitted several times over the weekend without any problems that I’m aware of, so I’m assuming the new lug nut is not the issue.

Replay shows that the tire-changer did try to signal that he did not successfully complete his task. But like a punt-returner in football signaling for a fair catch – the signal needs to be clear and obvious. That goes to the person who gave the signal for Robb to launch. It is his responsibility to survey all wheel changers (and fueler) in an instant, to determine if a safe release can be accomplished. Although the signal wasn’t obvious, the person deciding to release the car apparently was not paying attention to the crew servicing the car. About the only person who did right on the team was Sting Ray Robb.

And what about Race Control? Why did they wait until all nearby cars had cleared the hazard before throwing he yellow? We all saw it unfolding live on our screens. They usually see an incident and throw the yellow before we even know what has happened. It seemed like an eternity went by, with Conor Daly and Alexander Rossi among others coming dangerously close to punting that tire. Would it have gone into the stands, those temporary suites or into the path of another car? We’ll never know.

I was present in the stands at the IRL race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1999, when three spectators were fatally injured by an errant tire flying into the stands. The rest of us were all sent home in somber silence after the race was cancelled, but three people never went home again. I know firsthand what can happen when a tire makes its way over the fence. Everyone, and I mean everyone, got lucky on Sunday that nothing catastrophic happened with the loose tire. I hope this serves as a wakeup call to all involved the value of clear communication.

The Winner’s Interview: Most of the time, when an IndyCar race winner takes off his helmet – they reveal a smile beaming from ear to ear. On Saturday after winning Race One, Josef Newgarden revealed a menacing scowl that resembled that of someone whose dog had just died. He muttered something about drivers not getting out of his way. It doesn’t matter what it was, unless his dog actually did die. People don’t want to hear someone who just won his third race of the season, including the Indianapolis 500, gripe and complain about how they were wronged on the race track. Newgarden had just won in dominating fashion. I don’t think he got any sympathy or made any new fans with his demeanor on Saturday. You just won a race. Enjoy it! Fortunately, Newgarden was all smiles on Sunday after winning Race Two.

Drive of the Weekend: Several drivers had decent drives in one race, but not the other. But in a double-header weekend, you have to look at a driver’s body of work throughout the entire weekend. Alex Palou had a fantastic drive on Sunday, to move up from starting twelfth to finish third. But on Saturday he actually finished lower than he started.

Romain Grosjean did the same thing. He started twentieth on Sunday, yet finished twelfth. However, Saturday he started eight and finished eleventh. That’s not Drive of the Weekend material.

Other than Josef Newgarden, who won both races – few drivers moved up significantly in both races. One did – Callum Ilott. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver started twenty-third on Saturday and finished fifteenth. He followed that performance by finishing fourteenth on Sunday after starting twenty-fourth. Neither of those finishes are going to vault him up into the championship hunt, but to make up eighteen positions over two days to finish mid-pack in both races – that’s good enough for Drive of the Weekend.

All in All: I thoroughly enjoyed the entire weekend I spent watching the Hy-Vee Weekend at Iowa on Peacock and NBC. From Friday’s practice, Saturday morning’s rain-delayed qualifying to both races – I found both races very entertaining, even though the outcome was predictable. I was reminded just how enjoyable ovals are to watch.

Both of these races struck the perfect balance. Even though there weren’t many changes for the lead, the races were far from Follow the Leader. I was never bored at any time. At the other end of the spectrum, I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief when it was over – like I did with some of the races at Texas in the early-to-mid-2000s, when I felt like we dodged a bullet when no one was seriously injured. Except for the loose tire, I always felt like these drivers were in control and were displaying their full driving skills. It was the perfect way of sending us into an off-weekend. It left us wanting more.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on July 24, 2023 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.