Oilpressure

Do you remember when the NTT IndyCar Series race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was a bit of a snoozer? It appears those days are gone. I wouldn’t say that yesterday’s race was a racing clinic, but it was a lot more entertaining than some of the races I’ve seen there over the years.

One group that did put on a clinic was Chip Ganassi Racing and the team of Alex Palou. About halfway through the race, it appeared they had bungled pit strategy and tire strategy. But Barry Wanser and Alex Palou had the last laugh…from Victory Lane of all places. Not only did Alex Palou pick up his eleventh career win, he reassumed the points lead from Will Power.

It was certainly not a clean race. It wasn’t on the scale of the most recent race at Detroit or the first two Nashville street races, But there were five cautions during the race, accounting for fourteen laps run under the yellow. Many of these weren’t simply for stalled cars – there were heavy crashes. Fortunately no one came away injured, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Graham Rahal ends up with some sort of hand injury after he collided unavoidably with the out-of-control car of Kyffin Simpson on Lap 87.

There were also a lot of spins and cars flying through and over The Corkscrew and through signs on the side of the track that did not bring out the caution. Sometimes a delayed caution benefited some more than others, but that’s another discussion for another day.

But as the race drew to a close, I felt very entertained – and I guess that’s what it is all about. However, unlike some races – I had a pretty good idea who was going to win when the race was about two-thirds complete. That’s how good Palou is. You knew that somehow he and his crew had persevered. Not only did Palou win the race, he collected maximum points for winning the pole, winning the race and leading the most laps. It was not a bad weekend on a track he has dominated over the past four seasons. Four podiums that include two wins, is what I would call a mastery for Palou at Laguna Seca.

TV Coverage: As the NASCAR rain delay at New Hampshire dragged on, NBC/USA relegated the start of the IndyCar coverage to Peacock only. After the race started. It was announced that the race was about to be joined over on CNBC. It happens, but you can’t help but wonder if IndyCar might have been given a little more priority, had they been able to retain the contract.

It was already planned, but Leigh Diffey’s absence from the booth (to cover Olympic Track & Field Trials) could not have worked out any better for Kevin Lee. With his status up in the air for next season, he was able to put together a live audition for FOX. While many have tabbed Adam Alexander as the IndyCar voice for FOX next season, it dawned on me in yesterday’s telecast that not only should Kevin Lee be considered for pit-reporter – why not as lead booth announcer? I thought he did a superb job in that role yesterday, and has in the past when given the chance.

You know who else I am very impressed with? Georgia Henneberry. She has moved up rather quickly with NBC, and for good reason – she is outstanding. She is very knowledgeable about racing, and loves the sport. She is also very pleasant on the air. I’ve never met her personally, but I hear from friends I know that work with her that she is just as pleasant off the air. Add her to my list of those I want to see migrate over to FOX next season. That list now includes Lee, Henneberry, James Hinchcliffe and Russ Thompson.

Bad Penske Weekend: What a difference two weeks makes. When the series packed up and left Road America two weeks ago, Team Penske had two out of three cars in the Firestone Fast Six, they had a 1-2-3 finish, with Will Power winning the race and taking the lead in the points standings. This past weekend, they had no cars in the Fast Six, and only one of their cars (Scott McLaughlin) advance to Round Two in qualifying.

It didn’t get much better in the race results either. After a rough start, Will Power managed to claw his way back to a seventh-place finish, after starting fifteenth. McLaughlin collided with Power late in the race and was issued a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact. After starting seventh, McLaughlin finished twenty-first.

Josef Newgarden was all over the place, He qualified fourteenth, and finished nineteenth. In that time; he spun early, made his way up to second under a caution, led for five laps late in the race, spun shortly after a restart and then spun again with a couple of laps to go – allowing most of the field to get by. Power moved to second in points, while McLaughlin and Newgarden slid to eighth and ninth respectively.

Impressive Debuts: If you simply looked at the box score without knowing anything, the results of Nolan Siegel finishing twelfth and David Malukas finishing sixteenth would not catch your eye. But knowing they are both young drivers making their debuts with the their respective teams – I came away pretty impressed with both.

Coincidentally, they are both connected. Siegel was driving the car that was originally intended for Malukas. I don’t know which one I was more impressed with; Siegel jumping in the car for only his third IndyCar start after a surprise signing earlier in the week, or Malukas who had not raced since the season finale at Laguna Seca last season. After his mountain bike injury sidelined him, the No. 6 has had three different drivers in it – and none of them were name Malukas. I am looking forward to following the progress of both of these young drivers for the rest of the season.

Wild Ride: After a stellar qualifying session on Saturday that saw Christian Lundgaard put his car in the Firestone Fast Six; Sunday was a day to forget. It seemed that every time I looked up Lundgaard was flying through and over The Corkscrew. He ended up being penalized for doing a Zanardi-like move late in the race, that say his Hy-Vee Honda go airborne as he tried to find a new way through. For good measure, he took out a sign on the side of the track to mark braking points. That sign stayed on his front wing until he made a pity stop many laps later. Lundgaard did well to finish fifteenth, after such a wild ride.

Drive of the Day: It occurred to me during qualifying that Marcus Ericsson had been mostly invisible throughout the weekend. He was unnoticed during both practice sessions and qualified a forgettable eighteenth, as he didn’t come close to getting out of the first round. I noticed him for the wrong reasons on Sunday, going off-track and falling back. But by the end of the race he had fought his way to a Top-Ten finish. His first season at Andretti has not gone particularly well. Hopefully, he can turn things around in the second half of the season. His turnaround has already begun, by earning the Oilpressure.com Drive of the Day.

All in All: To be honest, I entered the weekend with relatively low expectations. I based that on some of the previous IndyCar races I’ve seen from the historic venue at Monterey, but also the chaotic race we saw last year. Yesterday’s race had some chaos, but nothing to rival that of the race there last fall.

Instead, this race had some surprises that kept things interesting, but it also featured some decent passing opportunities. I mean, how often have we seen four-wide heading into The Corkscrew? In the end, we had a very entertaining race that predictable winner who earned and deserved his win. From a fan’s perspective – I just hope this isn’t the start of another Palou stranglehold on the championship. I really want things to be undecided when the series gets to Nashville in September.

George Phillips

The NTT IndyCar Series makes its way to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend. Since Laguna Seca made its way back on the IndyCar schedule in 2019 for the first time since 2004, it has served as the season finale. That was also the case throughout the 80s and early 90s, before Fontana replaced it as the season finale in 1997, when Laguna Seca became the penultimate race of the season. After that, Laguna started bouncing around the schedule, until it was moved to June for the 2002 season. After 2004, it was gone.

Is history is repeating itself? After serving as the season finale in September since 2019 (minus the 2020 season, when it was cancelled for COVID); Laguna Seca has been moved to June 23. Next year, it moves to July 27. I’m not sure what the reasoning is, but date equity was not a factor in the decision-making process.

Even though we have known since August that his year’s season finale has been moved to Nashville, it’s hard for me to get it out of my head that Laguna Seca will not be where we crown our next champion.

Most everyone will cite Alex Zanardi’s pass of Bryan Herta in The Corkscrew in 1996, as their most memorable moment from Laguna Seca. I would tend to agree, but I have others. I remember a young Paul Tracy in 1991, spinning his Mobil 1 sponsored Penske-Chevy to where his left-rear was off of the track, but could not touch the ground and his wheel was spinning helplessly. That was one day after Michael Andretti passed Rick Mears in the final turn in the old Marlboro Challenge, after a Mears hiccup.

It’s a challenging track without a lot of passing zones. Of course, The Corkscrew is one of the more famous turns, or set of turns, in all of motorsports.

This year’s race holds a lot more intrigue than last year’s race did. If you recall, the championship had already been clinched by Alex Palou the week before at Portland. Scott Dixon won the race at Laguna Seca, which was mostly for bragging rights.

This year, there is a lot more on the line. Alex Palou is not running away with the championship like he did last year. In fact, he is not even leading the championship. Palou trails Will Power by five points, while leading teammate Scott Dixon by six points. This championship battle is really shaping up to be a good one, between those three for now. Pato O’Ward trails Dixon by forty-one points, and Power by fifty-two. He has some catching up to do before he’s truly in the conversation.

But there is a lot of racing to go, and it starts this weekend at the eleven-turn, 2.238-mile track near Monterey, CA, about two hours south of San Francisco. The track is made more challenging due to the fact there is a three-hundred foot change in elevation from the highest to lowest points on the track.

I was never a fan of the IndyCar races that ran at Sonoma from 2005 to 2018. We actually attended the final race at Sonoma in 2018. As usual, we liked the track better once we got there and saw it in person, but I still think it was a boring track to watch a race on television.

Conversely, I’ve always liked the races at Laguna Seca, even though they offer about the same amount of passing as Sonoma. Maybe it’s The Corkscrew, maybe it’s the elevation changes, but I’ve always liked it better than Sonoma. I’ve never been to Laguna Seca in person, but I’ve heard Sonoma has a lot more amenities than Laguna Seca. That’s why you should always visit as many tracks in person as possible, in order to get a true feel for the track.

Please note – this week’s race is on USA Network, and not Big NBC. I’m not wild about the fact that this is going to be a late Sunday afternoon race – even in the Central Time Zone, where I live. Race coverage begins Sunday afternoon (evening?) at 6:00 pm EDT, and the green flag will be somewhere around 6:30 pm EDT. Be aware that the broadcast could start earlier (or later) depending on NASCAR programming beforehand. Of course, I’m being completely selfish about the start time. When writing up a recap to drop in early Monday morning, it makes for a late night for those of us that are unpaid media.

Practice follows a more traditional schedule (for a west coast race). Friday’s practice gets underway at 5:00 pm EDT, and will be shown live on Peacock. Practice Two will begin at 1:00 pm EDT on Saturday, with Qualifying set to start at 5:15 pm EDT – both on Peacock. The (morning?) warm-up will take place at 3:00 pm EDT, before the race broadcast begins at 6:00 pm EDT.

Once again, when I predict a winner – it usually means that driver will find the wall. I picked Will Power to win the Indianapolis 500, and he had a hard crash in that race. At Road America, I picked Alexander Rossi to win. He finished eighteenth, after starting ninth. Over the better part of sixteen seasons doing this, I would guess that I have picked the race winner less than ten times – probably closer to seven or eight. That’s an average of less than once every two years. I think I could spread drivers names across the floor and Maley (my yellow lab) would have a higher pick percentage than me.

So whose race will I curse this weekend? Well, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Bryan Herta won this race twice, in 1998 and 1999. His son, Colton, won it twice in 2019 and 2021. This is the year that Colton breaks the tie with his father and gets his third win at Laguna Seca, also earning his first race win in over two years. We’ll see.

George Phillips

After posting about the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America last Monday, I took off for a week so that we could enjoy our vacation in Northern Michigan. I really enjoyed the time away, but I’m not sure I could’ve picked a busier time in the IndyCar world to take off. So much has happened since last Monday (including yesterday’s unexpected termination of Theo Pourchaire from Arrow McLaren), that I will have to limit this to only two topics that are fairly old news now. Others will have to wait until next week for me to comment on.

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The 2024 XPEL Grand Prix at Road America provided quite the weekend. It started Friday morning with Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) announcing that David Malukas would be filling the seat fulltime, beginning at Laguna Seca in two weeks. That was considered big news until we learned that Agustin Canapino had been given “a leave of absence” from Juncos Hollinger racing (JHR), due to the fallout from the social media death threats to Theo Pourchaire. What was even more curious was that this was announced about thirty minutes before the first practice of the weekend.

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Another race weekend at Road America is now in the books. It had beautiful weather at times, and dreary rain at others. But the crowds never seem to lose their spirits. There was a first-time Indy NXT winner, when Jamie Chadwick took her first checkered flag. There was a first-time IndyCar pole winner in Linus Lundqvist.

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By Susan Phillips

Since it was raining yesterday and nothing was really happening, I decided to review my past posts about Road America. I realized I still love it here as much as ever—even with the rain. I’m not sure how many times it has rained in the nine years we have been coming here, but I’m sure it has. I still lose track of time here—I never know what day it is. I do manage to remember race day because of the buzzing undercurrent of competition.

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It’s Race Day! Good morning from a sunny, and quite pleasant Road America. It was supposed to reach 70° today, but it was already there when we drove in this morning. It will get cloudy later in the day, but no rain is expected. The weather story today will be wind. There will be a stiff wind from the northwest, with gusts up to 25 knots, according to IndyCar Weatherman on Twitter. If you don’t follow him, you should (@IndyCar_Wxman).

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