Oilpressure

Well, that was different. From our walk to our seats, I was reminded of 1992. It was a cold and cloudy day, although not as cold as that day. I also don’t think that day was delayed by rain, although those skies were threatening. After a roughly 40-minute delay, the engines were fired. But like in 1992, a driver took himself out at the before the green flag.

In 1992, Roberto Guerrero blipped his throttle and his cold tires got away from him as he spun and damaged his car bad enough to end his day before it got started. Today at the the beginning of the pace lap, Scott McLaughlin let his throttle get away from him and it took him straight into the wall, ending his day before it got started. Scott Dixon also experienced a brake fire just as McLaughlin was climbing out of his car dejectedly.

That was the sign it was going to be a weird day. Marco Andretti’s day ended after one turn. Rinus VeeKay spun going into the pits and damaged his car beyond repair. NASCAR ace Kyle Larson got an early start to Charlotte as he lolst it in Turn Two and took out Kyffin Simpson in the process. Sting Ray Robb crashed just ahead of them in a separate incident. Then on the restart from that caution period, Christian Rasmussen tagged the Turn Four wall, but was able to save it. Still, it brought out another caution.

All of that was before Lap 106 and there was a total of 44 laps run under caution at that point. A crazy race was getting very sloppy.

After that caution, the race ran caution-free up until the last lap, when Nolen Siegel crashed in Turn Two as Alex Palou was about to cross the yard of bricks to take the checkered flag.

For the longest time, the race seemed narrowed down to five drivers, Conor Daly, David Malukas, Palou, Santino Ferrucci and Pato O’Ward. Daly was leading the pack, but began dropping like a stone as he had worn out his tires. Then it appeared to be a two-way battle between Malukas and Palou. Suddenly Marcus Ericsson was not only in the mix, but by Lap 170 – he was leading. But Alex Palou passed Ericsson with thirteen laps to go. You knew it was over by then. It was.

Ericsson tried, but could not mount a serious threat. Palou won under the yellow caused by Siegel’s crash.

Fortunately, there did not seem to be any serious injuries with all of the crashes – except for some bruised egos.

It was a rough day for Team Penske. Besides McLaughlin’s gaffe before the start, Josef Newgarden made a spirited drive from the back row and ran as high as eighth or ninth. But a mechanical gremlin ended his day on Lap 135. Will Power was never a factor, but he was the only Penske car to be running at the end.

It was a very odd race, as drivers seemed to have trouble finding a rhythm. Once they did in the second half of the race, things became somewhat static. No driver could distance themselves from the pack, but no one could catch them either. The entire race had a very odd feel, at least from our seats in Stand A.

I am going to wrap this up here. We are going to go meet my brothers for an early dinner at Dawson’s, then head back to our hotel for some well-deserved sleep.

I will have a Random Thoughts post up here tomorrow (Mon May 26), but it will be delayed and not posted before dawn as they normally are. I plan to wake up and write it in the morning, before we drive back to Nashville. Please check back sometime Monday.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on May 25, 2025 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Indianapolis 500. 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.