Oilpressure

In year’s past, many prominent members of the IndyCar media referred to the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix as a sh**show. Some of the criticism was much-deserved. When the previous two races featured an average of 8.5 cautions per race, the event becomes an easy target. But from what I saw from the pits today, the 2023 version of this event wasn’t a sh**show – it was a heck of a show!

I was worried when the start of the race was waved off. That technically meant there was another caution in the books for this even before they even started racing. But when we crossed the ten-lap mark, I was encouraged. Then I looked up and saw the disabled car of David Malukas on Lap 13, but from what I could tell from the pits with no sound – his rear wing simply broke, and it did not seem to be contact related.

Then the unthinkable happened for this event. Fifty-seven consecutive laps of green-flag racing were run. Cars actually had a chance to spread out around the track. Teams that had counted on multiple caution periods were left scrambling. What some had called an untraceable track, was suddenly producing some pretty good racing. From where I was standing watching the monitors, I saw many passes for position. I noticed Josef Newgarden moving up early and often from his ninth-place starting position.

Marcus Ericsson moved up further than any other driver on the day, moving all the way up from starting twentieth to finishing seventh. I don’t think he made up all those positions in the pits. This track offered many places to pass today.

This track (and event) has been much-maligned in the past, sometimes by me. But now that the IndyCar drivers seem to have finally figured out how to drive, with the majority of the layout is moving across the Cumberland River – I am sort of sorry to see it change. The new layout has been met with very mixed reviews, and I fear that we may be looking at a couple of years of another sh**show, until they figure it out.

There were two late-race cautions in the final ten laps to muddle things up, the last of which turned into a dreaded red-flag, which I am always bitterly opposed to. Scott McLaughlin had some very terse words for the series in the post-race press-conference, regarding the rules for re-starts and the re-start zone. He used the term “amateurish” more than once, before stopping himself saying he had probably said too much and gotten himself in trouble.

McLaughlin and championship leader Alex Palou were sitting beside each other in the press conference. The difference in their appearance was stunning, as Palou had worn the cool suit and McLaughlin (and all the Penske drivers) opted not to. McLaughlin said that was probably a bad call, remarking how fresh Palou looked and how spent he was. He wasn’t lying. Palou looked as if he was about to go race, not that he had just finished running one.

Race winner Kyle Kirkwood came in as they were leaving. He was gracious in deflecting all of the credit to his team for such a winning strategy. He actually agreed with McLaughlin’s assessment on the re-start zones.

Kirkwood was very excited to earn his second IndyCar win, but he admitted that it was not as exciting as his first at Long Beach earlier this season. He said nothing will ever replace your first IndyCar win.

That is going to do it for me today. Normally when I leave this event, we are well into darkness. With the early start, I am getting away by 3:00 pm local time. I will go home and write my Random Thoughts for tomorrow – but don’t be surprised if it is slightly abbreviated. The heat today was tough and I’m tired. But please check back tomorrow.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on August 6, 2023 at 3:05 pm 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.