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If the word “chaos” had been a drinking game, while watching the Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit, there would’ve been few people left that were still coherent enough to watch the end. Ironically, that was the best part. Scott Dixon avoided enough chaos to make it to the front on fuel strategy, then held off a teammate, a former teammate and overcame a lapped car on his way to his fifty-eighth career victory and assuming the points lead. It was not a bad day for a driver, who quietly qualified in the fifth starting spot and was not really considered a factor – until he was. Sooner or later, we are going to learn to never give up on Scott Dixon.

In between Dixon starting fifth and taking the checkered flag, there was so much going on it was hard to keep up with. By Lap 73, there had been 47 laps of caution, representing almost 65% of the race to that point. The only thing that saved this race from being considered a complete disaster on a lot of fronts was the last twenty-seven laps. They ran caution-free and contained some very good and clean racing, behind Scott Dixon.

It all started on the opening lap, as there was a seven-car pileup in Turn Three involving Theo Pourchaire, spinning Will Power around and collecting six other cars including Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi. It was a sign of things to come. On Lap 16, Santino Ferrucci got in the back of Helio Castroneves and Helio collected Kyffin Simpson.

You get the idea how the day went. All in all there were eight full-course cautions for forty-seven laps involving twenty-two cars – some more than once. There were also twelve penalties handed down by Race Control – four of them going to Will Power.

It was not a day for the NTT IndyCar Series to shine, for the track, the drivers or Race Control. If I had been a casual fan who was drawn in to watching this race after such a stellar Indianapolis 500, I would probably wait until next May to tune in again. This is why I have always felt that the Indianapolis 500 should always be followed by another oval.

But it was a day for Scott Dixon to shine, he showed us again that we are witnessing one of the greatest ever to turn a wheel in an Indy car. If, by chance, he wins nine more races before he’s done – I don’t know that I’m ready to call him the greatest ever. Just like if Helio wins his fifth 500, I’m not ready to give him the crown for the Indianapolis 500. But it might be hard not to.

TV Coverage: I watched every minute while NBC was on the air this weekend. On Friday, Leigh Diffey almost seemed to be in a fog. He was forgetting names on the air and seemed to be a step or two behind. Maybe he was still in an Indianapolis 500 hangover, like the rest of us. By Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race, he certainly seemed back on his game.

The only gaffe I noticed during Sunday’s telecast was that when Josef Newgarden had a refueling issue in the pits, I noticed live that he was having an extremely slow stop. While the camera was on Newgarden throughout the entire stop, no one seemed to catch it. It was several minutes later when the booth acknowledged that “apparently” Newgarden had had a problem. Otherwise, I thought NBC had a good weekend. Now, when are we going to learn about the new TV contract?

The National Anthems: Normally, at sporting events where both the Canadian and US National Anthems are played – they have two singers, to perform one of them each. I am not a si8nger or a musician, but I understand both pieces are incredibly hard to sing. On Sunday, Detroit singer Jasmine Terrell performed them both. I thought she did an excellent job. To make it better, she did not do much improvisation on either. She pretty much played it straight on both of them. Well done!

The Hangover Continues: Leigh Diffey wasn’t the only one who seemed to be suffering from an Indianapolis 500 hangover. Josef Newgarden had a horrible day Sunday that kept getting worse as the day wore on. Although he qualified third, that was as good as it got. He had the aforementioned refueling issue on one stop, then he ran over hire tire gun and hit some of his crewmembers and even a Rahal Letterman Lanigan crewmember. If things weren’t going bad enough, he got caught up in a Turn Three incident on Lap 70. Newgarden fell from seventh in points to tenth, and eighty-eight points behind new points-leader Scott Dixon.

Spoiling the Party: For the second year in a row, Honda spoiled the party for Chevrolet, the title sponsor of the Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit – now held in the shadows of GM Corporate Headquarters. This year was an even tougher pill to swallow for the bow-tie brand, as the Top-Four finishers were all Hondas. To make matters even worse, the only car to have an engine failure was powered by a Chevy. Christian Rasmussen’s Chevy blew up in spectacular fashion on Lap 24 for all the world to see. It was not quite the party Chevy had hoped for, especially after dominating the Indianapolis 500 just one week earlier; winning the pole, the race and having three of the Top-Four cars – while three Hondas blew up. It’s amazing how quickly fortunes can turn, from one manufacturer to the other.

Bad Day for Race Control: It’s true there were 47 laps of caution for eight incidents. But there did not need to be near as many laps under the yellow as there were on Sunday. It started raining while the track was under caution for Scott McLaughlin’s crash in Turn One on Lap 33. But by Lap 39, James Hinchcliffe wondered aloud on the air, why Race Control had not gone back to green. It was later announced that they were having an issue getting cars sorted. Isn’t that what transponders are for?

Just when they did finally go green on Lap 41, there was the usual dustup in Turn Three. This time it was Will Power and Rinus VeeKay. For the life of me, it looked to me like VeeKay came across the front-end of Power. The guys in the booth saw it that way too, but Race Control penalized Power for Avoidable Contact. Power was later overheard on his radio sarcastically thanking Max (Papis) in Race Control for looking after his buddies, while f***ing over everyone else.

Officiating any sport at any level is a thankless job, and probably no one has any concept of how hard it is, but I felt like Sunday was one of the worst days for the trio of former drivers in Race Control.

The Elephant in the Room: Common sense tells me not to even bring this topic up, but I’ve already had several people e-mail me and ask my opinion on the subject. I suppose ignoring it completely would be sticking my head in the sand, so here it goes…

When I was watching practice Saturday morning and saw the on-track skirmish between Santino Ferrucci and Kyle Kirkwood (and Colton Herta), along with the ensuing shoving match – I found it mildly comical. Neither looked like they were going to actually exchange blows, but at least they both had the guts to confront each other with their helmets off.

Then when Ferrucci said something about “…he and his little boyfriend teammate” (referring to Kirkwood and Herta), I laughed out loud. I thought it was a funny remark and not once did it cross my mind that it was offensive to anyone, except for the intended targets of Kirkwood and Herta. I certainly did not consider the remark to be homophobic.

After qualifying, I went and ran errands. When I got home, I grabbed my iPad to scroll through social media. That’s when I learned there was outrage for the homophobic “boyfriend” comments and Ferrucci had been forced to apologize.

As you can imagine, the apology did no good. Ferrucci was getting crucified on social media.

I’m sure I will be labeled as old, out of touch and insensitive (hopefully not a homophobe); but give me a break! These were comments made at the heat of the moment by a driver who is very passionate. There are some drivers in the paddock that need a little more passion. To me this was no big deal at all.

I was not outraged, but then again – I am not gay. So I ran the scenario by two of my gay friends. Granted, this is a very unscientific survey of two, but I respect both of their opinions on things like this. Neither of them are racing fans. One is male and a longtime friend from college that is about my age. He has been openly-gay since the early 80s, but is not what would be considered “in your face” by today’s standards. The other is a female co-worker in her early 40s. Some might consider her militant about her sexuality. I’m not sure about that, but there have been many things on local and national levels that she has certainly taken issue with.

I e-mailed both of them Saturday, with articles regarding the incident, as well as video clips of the comments. Their reactions were almost identical – they were appalled! But they weren’t appalled at the comments. They were appalled that people were outraged by Ferrucci’s comments. They did not feel the comment was homophobic, and both felt that the outrage was from the usual crowd that gets outraged and offended by everything they hear. Both of my friends felt that most of those expressing outrage, were not even a part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

If you want to take things to the extremes that the outraged crowd has, I could have found it offensive to the mentally ill, when Herta called Ferrucci a head case. I also could have been offended by Romain Grosjean, when he stomped down to Ferrucci’s pit and threatened Larry Foyt; telling him “next time, I’m going to put your driver into the wall”. That can be interpreted as a physical threat of violence.

I could have taken offense to these comments, but I didn’t. Then again, my daughter has Down Syndrome and I have absolutely no problem with the word “retarded”, even though some of the self-righteous insist that I should. I think Kyle Kirkwood gave the best reaction, when he just openly laughed while leaving the Foyt pit.

Some have argued how terrible it was that Ferrucci said that comment on the first day of Pride Month. To me, that’s a shallow argument. I read that as it’s OK to say something like that eleven months out of the year, but not in Pride Month. That reeks of insincerity and symbolism over substance.

Did I laugh out loud when Ferrucci uttered the boyfriend remark? Yes, because it sounded funny at the time. Did I think it was smart of Ferrucci to say that? No. Do I support what Ferrucci said, if I thought there were malicious intentions behind it? Absolutely not! But people have tempers. They say things in the heat of the moment, most of the time without thinking. I’ve done it, and if you’re being truthful with yourself – so have you.

Somewhere along the way, we have lost our sense of humor. For decades, fans have been saying we need a few villains in IndyCar. Now that we have one, he is branded as reprehensible and unworthy of even being a driver in the series. You can’t have it both ways. Villains are not loveable characters. If you don’t like Santino Ferrucci, then cheer when another driver passes him on the race track. Boo him at driver introductions; but don’t insist he be banned from the series, as some on social media have insisted – just because you don’t like his words. End of rant.

Bad Day for Palou: When Josef Newgarden was spun around in Turn Three, bringing out the last caution of the day; he collected Alex Palou, who was the points leader coming into the weekend. Up until Sunday, Palou’s worst finish this season was fifth at both Barber and the Indianapolis 500. He was probably headed for another Top-Five finish when he was collected by Newgarden. Palou finished sixteenth – his worst finish in over two years.

While it was a tough break for Palou, and one he had nothing to do with – I’m sure most of the other drivers were thrilled. With his win at the Sonsio Grand Prix, and no finish worse than fifth’ Palou was positioned for another mid-summer beatdown, like we had last summer. Now that he has been proven human, maybe other drivers feel like they have a chance for the championship.

Drive of the Day: Sometimes I debate with myself on who deserves this coveted award. It’s not always clear-cut. Sometimes there are several outstanding candidates, while other times no one stands out. This week I found the job pretty easy.

If there was any going back and forth on my part, it involved Alexander Rossi going from sixteenth to fifth. But he is an Indianapolis 500 winner and he is highly compensated for driving an Arrow McLaren car.

That’s why I picked who I did. Yes, he is driving one of the five Ganassi cars in the field; but he is still learning his craft while the team is coaching along two rookies. Marcus Armstrong scored his first career podium on Sunday, and he did so by coming from the nineteenth starting position. In my opinion, that qualifies him for the Drive of the Day.

All in All: It was a spicy weekend on and off the track, with a lot of cars crashing into each other and tempers flaring. That’s what you get with the narrow confines and a lot of concrete barriers. I guess you need those every now and then, but Monday’s race rivaled the first two street races in Nashville for being disjointed and frustrating. Nashville finally had a good race in 2023, so maybe Detroit can have a much cleaner race next year.

But this week, the series moves on to one of my favorite tracks on the schedule – Road America. There are no concrete walls there. If you’ve been following this site for a while, you now how excited I am for this trip. Susan and I will be leaving early Thursday morning, to head north to the land of great racing, great food and great beer.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on June 3, 2024 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.