Oilpressure

The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR) at Gateway takes place this weekend. This is normally where I would say that Susan and I are on our way there. However, this event has been shifted from a Saturday night race to Sunday afternoon. Ovals became two-day events years ago, so I am actually working today and we will drive to Gateway tomorrow morning.

When the schedule came out last fall, showing that this would be a day race, I was not happy. Over time, we have seen IndyCar night races become a thing of the past. To me, nothing looks as good as an IndyCar race under the lights. Unless a car has a dreaded matte finish, race car liveries really seem to visually pop during night races. Texas, Iowa and Gateway have all been night races in the past; but now they are run in the daytime. That’s not a trend I am a fan of.

However, this year it may work out for the best. If this were a Saturday night race this year, practice and qualifying would take place today – when the projected high temperature is to be 102°. That is not heat index or wind chill, or anything else to make it sound dramatic. That is the actually air-temperature. Combine that with the humidity that comes from being on the Mississippi River and you have almost unbearable conditions. That just goes for spectators. Imagine what it would be like for drivers and crew-members.

Fortunately, there will be no track activity today. That starts tomorrow morning, when the forecast is much more favorable. Saturday’s high is only 90°. That’s not exactly pleasant, but is more in-line with what you would expect in St. Louis in late August. A cold-front passes through, bringing a chance for storms on Saturday afternoon. What it also brings is a near-perfect day on Sunday for the race. Low-humidity and clear skies are being called for, for Sunday. The low will be 66° and the high will be 82°. You could not ask for better conditions for a day race in August. These conditions were brought to you by IndyCar Weatherman, the best in the business. You can follow him on Twitter at @IndyCar_Wxman.

Besides being a Sunday afternoon race, there is another big change for this event this weekend. For the first time ever, alternate tires will be used at an oval race. When I first heard about this, I was skeptical. But after I heard Kevin Lee explain it on Trackside the other night – it made sense. This is to improve the racing at Gateway, which can become somewhat processional during long stints. Essentially, the tire that Firestone provides for World Wide Technology Raceway is too good. It doesn’t really fall off much at all between fuel runs. An alternate tire that falls off a little quicker might improve passing for some cars during long runs.

There are currently no plans to introduce alternate tires at any other oval. This is to be unique to World Wide Technology Raceway only.

I was looking forward to seeing all sorts of strategies unfold, but then I learned that all cars will start on the primary tires – so that limits some of the strategies. Still, this is at least a three-stop race. With two sets of alternate tires to be used in the race only, it should make things more interesting.

My good friend Mike Silver (The Pit Window) referred to this race as the Josef Newgarden Invitational, and for good reason. Newgarden has won the last three IndyCar races at Gateway and four since the series returned in 2017. The only current driver to have more than two wins at WWTR is Helio Castroneves, who won races there in 2002 & 2003.

This race started out as a CART race from 1997 through 2000, before it became an IRL/IndyCar event in 2001. Poor attendance brought about its demise and it was not resumed until 2017, when Newgarden displayed his mastery of this track, at the expense of his then-teammate Simon Pagenaud. Other recent winners of this event have been Will Power (2018), Takuma Sato (2019) and Scott Dixon (first half of a 2020 double-header.

Since this event resumed in 2017, attendance has not been a problem. The track and Bommarito have created a model that other oval tracks should follow. I was skeptical how running the race on Sunday afternoon would affect attendance, but ticket sales are reportedly ahead of last year’s race.

Newgarden will need to recreate his magic at WWTR one more time, if he wants to keep his slim championship hopes alive. Newgarden is third in points. He trails Scott Dixon by four points, but trails Alex Palou by a whopping 105 points. Newgarden needs to win Sunday for the fourth consecutive time at WWTR, while hoping that Palou finds trouble early in the race and finishes last. The chances of both of those things happening are not great. Palou’s worst finish of the season is an eighth place finish at St. Petersburg and the first race at Iowa. Other than those two outliers, Palou has had four wins and mostly Top-Fives. That’s why he has such a huge lead.

Last year’s race was where I became a fan of David Malukas. He started thirteenth, but finished a strong second and was closing in on Newgarden when the race ended. His enthusiasm in the post-race press-conference was contagious. He didn’t try to act cool or like this was no big deal. He acted like a kid at Christmas, which I found very refreshing. There was no doubt how much that performance meant to him.

Unfortunately, his Dale Coyne Racing team is not as strong this year as it was then, and Malukas is a lame duck. He has made it clear he will not be returning to Coyne for next year. Who knows? We may learn of his 2024 destination this weekend.

As for the race itself, the World Wide Technology Raceway is located in Madison, Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis. The oval is a 1.25 mile egg-shaped oval with 11° banking between Turns One & Two, and 9° banking between Turns Three and Four. The race distance is 260 laps, totaling 325 miles. Since IndyCar returned in 2017, Team Penske has won five of the races, Chip Ganassi Racing won one (Scott Dixon) and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing won one (Takuma Sato).

History says that more than likely a Penske car will win. But I don’t think it will be Newgarden. He has won all of the oval races so far this season with Gateway remaining. Something tells me he won’t win this one. I think Scott McLaughlin is primed to win his second race of the season, to go along with his win at Barber – which seems like a lifetime ago.

Practice One will be Saturday morning at 10:00 am CDT (Local time). It will last one hour and will be shown on Peacock. Susan and I will probably miss some or all of it. I seriously doubt I can get Susan out the door in time to make practice after driving almost five hours. But unless we encounter a massive unexpected delay, we will be there long before Qualifying at 1:00 pm CDT Saturday, also shown on Peacock. At 4:00 pm CDT the final practice will run until 5:45 pm CDT. Included in that will be two groups running the high-line practice, intended to “rubber-in” the track. It will also be shown on Peacock.

Sunday’s race broadcast on Big-NBC begins at 2:30 pm CDT. Don’t be late, because the command to fire engines will be at 2:31 pm CDT and the green flag will wave at 2:36 pm CDT. So there will essentially be no pre-race show.

This is the final race that Susan and I will attend in person. We will be posting periodically throughout the two-day race weekend. Please begin checking back here late Saturday morning. You can also follow us on Twitter for updates, photos and videos. You can follow me at @Oilpressureblog and Susan ay @MrsOilpressure. It should be a fun race weekend.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on August 25, 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.