Oilpressure

For the second year in a row, the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America will have a rookie leading the NTT IndyCar Series field to the green flag. In 2024, Linus Lundqvist won the pole here for Chip Ganassi Racing; but under screwy circumstances during rainy conditions. It was a pole, but to put it bluntly – it was a fluke.

Today, rookie Louis Foster won the pole on pure speed. In the Firestone Fast Six, he beat the likes of Alex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood, the only drivers to have won races this year. Also included in that group were race winners Christian Lundgaard, Scott McLaughlin and his boss, Graham Rahal.

Thursday night, the famous Siebkens Resort in Elkhart Lake hosted a race-weekend kickoff party. There, FOX announcer Will Buxton shaved Foster’s overly thick mustache, raising $1,000 for the Racing for Kids charity. In the post-qualifying press-conference, he fought off claims that shaving it made him more aerodynamic. But he did concede that if he wins tomorrow he will never grow a mustache again.

It was an interesting qualifying session, aside from the fact that a rookie won the pole. In Group A during Round One, Scott Dixon seemed to safely advance to Round Two. But Devlin DeFrancesco, who only posted the eleventh quickest time, was incensed that Dixon presumably blocked him – as if that was what kept him from advancing. Upon further review, Dixon was moved to the back of the field for Group One, and Josef Newgarden inherited the final transfer spot.

Many big names in usually fast cars will be starting further back than usual. Josef Newgarden will start tenth, while Pato O’Ward will start eleventh. Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta and Santino Ferrucci will all start between twelfth and eighteenth. Alexander Rossi will start twenty-fourth and Scott Dixon will start twenty-fifth. Normally the winner of this race comes from up front, but this could get interesting. One to watch could be David Malukas. He just missed out on the Firestone Fast Six and will start seventh. But the silver lining is that he has an extra set of red alternate tires for tomorrow.

While we rode around to different vantage points during this morning’s practice, we watched all of qualifying from Turn Five. Susan was able to stay in the shade on the golf cart; while I stood against the rail, just alongside where the cars are entering Turn Five before climbing the hill toward the Corvette Bridge.

It was there that I stumbled across an interesting observation. All of the usual front-runners, i.e. the faster cars, had brightly glowing front brake rotors as they entered the turn. The usual back-markers had rotors that did not glow. Obviously they were either not going fast enough initially to cause them to glow, or they simply not braking hard enough – or both. I can assure you, each car that made it through to the Firestone Fast Six had hot-glowing rotors on each lap during qualifying, all day long. Those that historically make up the back of the grid each week had cool rotors all day. Was that the separating factor that made the difference between starting fifth and twenty-fifth? Probably not, but it fascinated me as I continued to notice the front-runners brakes.

One thing that was buzzing through the media center today was that there was more clarification on the new car and engine package that has now been pushed back to debut in 2028. IndyCar and IMS President Doug Boles informed team-owners that the new chassis will be built by Dallara, and will be about 85-100 pounds lighter than the current car. It was also revealed that the engine will be a 2.4 Liter V6 twin-turbocharged engine, up from the current 2.2 L. The new engine will continue as a hybrid, with the promise of more horsepeower gain, longer deployment time and improved performance. I’m assuming that also means fewer vague hybrid issues.

Good for Doug Boles for addressing the issue head-on, after it was announced earlier this month that it had been pushed back for another year.

A couple of people have texted me today, asking about the heat. Well, it’s a thing – but it’s nothing that we aren’t used to, coming from Nashville. However, I’m not telling that to the many that passed out onsite and needed medical attention. I talked to several people today that are from the area. They were beside themselves that the temps soared so high on race-weekend. The heat did have one effect on us – it got to Susan while we were in the pits this morning. Consequently, she got very few pics because she had to go sit on the golf cart and rest.

I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. The heat could play into things, whether it affects the tires, or fatigues the drivers. With so many young drivers up front, and so many experienced drivers behind them – things could get really interesting. I’m not sure if this is going to be considered a race for red or black tires; but the fact that Graham Rahal chose to stay on blacks throughout the Firestone Fast Six, tells me that he would prefer to save a set of reds rather than improve his starting position beyond P6.

Tomorrow’s morning warm-up begins at 10:00 EDT and will be shown of FS1. Tomorrow’s race broadcast on Big FOX will begin at 1:30 pm EDT (12:30 local time). I’m not feeling confident in my pick of Pato O’Ward to win. He has been fairly quiet all weekend. Christian Lundgaard has had the fast hand as far as Arrow McLaren goes this weekend. But sometimes, that’s what happens. But after watching qualifying – don’t be surprised if it’s another victory for Alex Palou. He has yet to win in June, and that is probably not settling well with him.

We will be here before the morning warm-up, and will have a quick post here. Then I will have a wrap-up after the race. Susan is currently working on a post that I am hoping she has done before we go to dinner. Tonight we are going to our usual Saturday night place up here – PJ Campbell’s at the Depot in nearby Plymouth. In fact, it is so nearby that the track’s physical address is actually Plymouth instead of Elkhart Lake. Our reservations are for 7:00, but had I realized how early in the day qualifying was going to take place – I would have made them earlier.

One quick note on The Depot; years ago the Weglarz family (a father and adult son, who are hard-core racing fans) read about our routine up here and decided to try it. They saw us at our Friday night spot, Majerle’s Black River Grill in Sheboygan, and introduced themselves to us. Then we saw them again the next night at PJ Campbell’s at the Depot the next night. I’m not sure how long ago that was, but we now see them there every single year. I saw them this morning and they assured me they will be there again tonight. It’s amazing how we have met so many racing friends through this site.

Susan just finished her articl. I will load it up and schedule it to drop in around 6:30 local time. Be sure and check it out, as well as the pictures she took today. Please check back here tomorrow.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on June 21, 2025 at 5:21 pm 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.