Oilpressure

The third edition of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix is now in the books. I think most would agree that the 2023 version was far better than the other two. For one thing, teams were able to pick a strategy instead of reacting to the most recent crash every ten laps or so.

Different teams picked different strategies. Andretti Autosport’s No. 27 team picked the right strategy and Kyle Kirkwood executed it to perfection to earn his second career IndyCar victory and his second win this season – his second as an IndyCar driver, after driving for AJ Foyt last season. Bryan Herta, Kirkwood’s race strategist, deserves a lot of credit for this win also. He chose to stay out when the caution came out on Lap 13, and he nailed it. Others pitted during that caution, thinking there would be a slew of cautions when they could pit again. It didn’t happen.

Kirkwood was also one of the few drivers who chose to start the race on the primary blacks. It turns out, that worked out for Kirkwood too. Instead of pitting during the Lap 13 caution, like many did – Kirkwood stayed out. He did not pit until Lap 30, when he switched to the alternate tires that he kept for only nineteen laps. It seemed through the weekend that the green tires were not a popular choice. Many drivers chose to start on the greens, then got them off fairly quickly – some pitting earlier than Lap Five. By staying out on the blacks, then going to greens – it worked out for Kirkwood.

Things almost worked out for Josef Newgarden, who is now winless after three tries in his hometown race. Newgarden didn’t have the car to win the race, but he was in position to take a huge chunk out of Alex Palou’s points lead. Palou was one of those that chose to pit on Lap 13, banking on several more yellows to come. They didn’t. Palou made his second stop under green, on Lap 45, meaning he would have to get thirty-five laps on that tank of fuel if he was going to make it to the end. He needed a lot of yellow in order to do that.

As the laps of green counted down toward the end of the race, things were looking bleak for Palou. He was in third, one spot ahead of Newgarden; but he seemed destined to pit – likely putting him around fifteenth when he returned. If Newgarden finished third and Palou finished fifteenth – Palou would only lead Newgarden by abut 55 points. Things were shaping up perfectly for Newgarden. And then it all went terribly wrong.

Rookie Linus Lundqvist had been doing well, but on Lap 71, with only nine laps to go, Lundqvist hit the wall in Turn Eleven bringing out the caution that Palou needed to save fuel. Then the aggressive driving in the back on the Lap 75 re-start prolonged the yellow and then eventually brought out the dreaded red flag – virtually assuring Palou would make it to the end of the race. Instead of trailing by around 55 points, Newgarden saw his gap to Palou increase from 80 to 84 points with four races to go. If he goes on to win the championship, Palou should send Lundqvist and extra special gift basket for Christmas.

TV Coverage: While I have not gone back to watch the race broadcast yet, I did go home Friday and Saturday night and watch the replay of Practice One and Qualifying. Plus, I stayed in the media center to watch the abbreviated rain-soaked practice on Saturday morning. Yes, I am a fair-weather fan. I’m too old to stand in the rain to watch rooster-tails go by.

I think I heard Nate Ryan on the broadcast for Saturday morning. I’ve always liked his no-nonsense approach to pit-reporting. The full crew of Kevin Lee, Dave Burns and Dillon Welch really work well together; and I still think Dave Burns is one of the most underrated pit-reporters in racing. Of course, it’s easy to do your job well, when you don’t have Marty Snider hogging the spotlight thinking that he is the star of the broadcast. I’m guessing we will have him on the broadcast next week during the Brickyard weekend. Ugh!

The Dreaded Red-Flag: I saw an old friend from IndyCar that I had not seen in a while, just before the race. She asked me what I thought of the red-flags that were put into use in this year’s Indianapolis 500 (she could already guess). I told her that red-flags should be used for three purposes only – for medical personnel to take care of injured drivers, to fix (a damaged SAFER Barrier or potholes) or clear the track, or for inclement weather. Red flags should never be used to manufacture drama or to alter the outcome of a race. If it finishes under caution – so be it. She said she completely agreed with me, but I have an idea she would be more vague in her opinions if she still worked for IndyCar.

I have an idea many of you will disagree with me on this point.

The red-flag reared its ugly head again in Nashville, yesterday. I couldn’t help but wonder why they chose to keep it stashed away at Iowa in Race Two, a couple of weeks ago. That’s even worse. If you are going to use it to preserve a green-flag finish, then be consistent when doing that. Fans don’t like to see Race Control picking and choosing when to implement this dreaded policy and when not to.

The Rear Wing: One thing I am very curious about when I watch the replay, is what happened to the rear-wing of David Malukas? He had a very strong weekend, getting into the Firestone Fast Six, and starting fifth. He had been on a roll since he announced he would not be returning to Dale Coyne Racing for next season. When I looked up on the monitor across the track and saw his disabled vehicle, I had assumed he hit the wall. The replay shown ate the track, which is not the NBC feed, showed the rear wing basically collapsing. No one seemed to mention a word about it after then.

The Weather: The weather this weekend was pretty miserable. It was either pouring down rain, or when the rain stopped – the whole place turned into a steamy sauna. Even after the sunny qualifying session we had on Saturday night, I drove home in one of those electrical storms with the constant flicker of lightning. By the time I got home Saturday night, it was pouring again. What made this even more frustrating is that none of this was predicted. A small shower on Friday morning was the only significant rain predicted for the weekend. Worst of all, the long-range forecast on Monday was calling for cooler temperatures all through the weekend, with highs in the low 80s.

The thing is, this is fairly typical weather in the south for late July or early August. Probably my favorite part of moving this race to be the mid-September season-finale in 2024, is that this sweltering rainy season has mostly moved out by then. It can still be warm, but it is not unusual to have our first cold-snap by then either.

If you had any questions about the heat, all you had to do was look at the drivers who chose not to wear cool suits, when they got out of their cars. Scott McLaughlin looked like he was about to keel over.

Drive of the Day: Normally, I debate with myself on this item. There are sometimes three to four drivers who are worthy. Some may look at Sting Ray Robb moving up seven positions from twenty-fourth to seventeenth, but he made up many of those spots by passing those involved in the last caution that brought out the red-flag. While it was a decent finish for a rookie driver having a rough season to this point, it is certainly not worthy of Drive of the Day.

Graham Rahal is usually under consideration, but he had a rough weekend. He started fifteenth and finished fifteenth in a fairly forgettable outing. Ryan Hunter-Reay moved up nine spots, but again – he benefited by passing those involved in the last caution.

In my opinion, only one driver was ever under consideration for Drive of the Day – the 2021 winner of this event, Marcus Ericsson. He overcame a very poor qualifying session and moved up thirteen spots from twentieth to seventh, without the benefit of timely yellows.

All in All: Just as they announced there will be a new layout for next year’s race; this current layout produced, by far, its best race in its three race history. There are many theories as to why that is, but Kyle Kirkwood said after the race that he thinks drivers finally decided that patience would be rewarded on that circuit. From where I was, I found the race to be quite enjoyable – much more so than the two crash-fests we suffered through the past two years.

Despite the rain and the heat, I thought the crowd was good. It probably wasn’t up to the first year level, but the Saturday fans suffered through the morning and early afternoon rain, and stayed for qualifying which was delayed by three and a half hours. When qualifying finally started, the stands looked full. And these weren’t suite people who had a place to go to stay dry. No, these people took cover wherever they could.

I think Kyle Kirkwood’s win at Nashville will be a popular victory – not just in Nashville, but across all of IndyCar. He is obviously talented, and he is becoming more comfortable in the spotlight. I felt he came across as slightly wooden or robotic in TV interviews, but he really let his guard down in the post-race press-conference yesterday. I saw a side of him with a humorous personality that I had not seen before. He is now well on his way to becoming IndyCar’s next star.

Thanks to those who followed along with us over the weekend. Susan was only onsite on Friday, and she was not feeling well when I got home Saturday night. But she watched the race yesterday and seemed to be feeling better when I got home afterward. I’ll be taking her to a doctor’s appointment at 3:00 pm on Monday. Hopefully they can pinpoint this latest setback and get her healed up. She really wants to go to the Brickyard weekend this weekend. Hopefully, she can.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on August 7, 2023 at 4:02 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.